A very great deal of effort and testing goes
into building a successful spacecraft.
For example,
every transistor and integrated circuit is tested with an X-ray machine
to see if there's anything inside that could cause a problem later on.
In 1951 Townsend became the first woman to earn an engineering degree
from George Washington University.
She later became the first female project manager for a satellite mission at NASA
and worked on the Small Astronomy Satellite series, launching three satellites in the 1970s.
I'm the project manager for Lucy.
But before I became the project manager for Lucy, I was actually an engineer
at NASA Goddard.
So I've actually been working here
for 30 years, and when I started, I was actually a co-op student.
I mean, when things I do as a project manager is to assemble
a team of scientists and engineers
and technicians and business people to develop the concept,
to mature the concept, in order to achieve the science.