Navigating Space Exploration – Monroe Evening News

Monroe High graduate enjoys working as SpaceX engineer.

Not too many people go to work and have a 14-story-tall rocket sitting outside the front door. Blair Gagnon sees this every day at his office in Los Angeles.

An avionics systems integration engineer, he has been employed with SpaceX, a California-based company specializing in aerospace technology, for the past 3 years.

A 2009 graduate of Monroe High School, he works on the SpaceX capsules used to supply the International Space Station atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The capsule flights, called Dragon, are spacecraft flown on critical resupply missions to the space station.

Mr. Gagnon is responsible for ensuring all Dragon avionics subsystems are adequately tested and functioning prior to flight.

Even after long days of tests, the 26-year-old graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) likes what hes doing.

Its very challenging, but one of the most interesting things you can do, he told The Monroe News last week. Some days I spend 12 hours at work. But at the end of the day, you look at the rocket and its super interesting its what gets me up every day.

The space station is home to one Frenchman, two Americans and three Russians. The 18th and latest SpaceX capsule returned to Earth March 19 with a full load of science samples from the space station. Astronauts had set it free from the station just 5 hours earlier.

The Dragon flew to the station more than a month ago from the same Florida launch pad used for NASAs Apollo moon missions. It took more than 5,000 pounds of supplies and brought back just as much in completed experiments and used equipment, according to the Associated Press.

He got a full ride to MIT, where he earned a degree in mechanical and electrical enginering.

SpaceX hired him right away and sent him to its Los Angeles office to start immediately. Two summers ago, the firm landed its first space capsule booster on dry land. Since then, he has worked on every one of the 10 Dragon missions, including the eighth flight in 2016 that he served as primary engineer and had the most involvement in. He works with an aviation integration team of about a half-dozen engineers that handles any issues with tests, electronics, data and systems. They have been busy preparing and improving other capsules for flights to the space station.

This company is a very young company, said Mr. Gagnon, the son of Jill St. Pierre-Gagnon and John Gagnon of Monroe. There are over 100 engineers. Every one of them contributes to the mission. A good chunk of them are in their 20s and early 30s. Ive only been here 3 years, but when you reach five years, youre a veteran.

Besides Florida, the company also has launch sites in California and Texas.

A good portion of our work is with any issues that pop up weve gotten a lot better with each vehicle, he said. We deal with all of the electrical currents, computers, transmitters and radios.

The list of other responsibilities includes:

nTroubleshooting Dragon avionics issues throughout production and during in-space flight.

nAnalyzing and presenting vehicle data in SpaceX and NASA reviews for vehicle milestones.

nDesigning vehicle test equipment and procedures used in verifying the functionality of Dragon.

Another flight is anticipated to launch this spring from the Florida site.

Each morning he reports to work, he walks within five feet of the rocket outside the office.

I look up the entire length of the rocket, he said.

As the current cargo-only version of Dragon reaches the end of production, he will be transitioning to working on the Crew Dragon version that will take astronauts as well as cargo to the space station, he said.

Among his personal goals are working on the first manned space flight to Mars.

It would be really cool if I stuck around long enough to work on future vehicles that would take loads beyond Earths orbit, he said. Im proud to be here. Its very interesting work. I almost never do the same thing every day.

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Navigating Space Exploration - Monroe Evening News