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Francis
Rondeau
Aerospace Fabrication Engineering Technician
In 1984, before he joined NASA, Francis
Rondeau was fixing cars. Before that, he was fixing
planes. Now, he doesn't repair things as much as he
builds them. Francis has had a hand in working the
metal that's gone into many of the NASA satellites
currently orbiting the earth. He's done a lot of work
on Hubble, and finds it challenging stuff. "It's prototype
work," he says. "They bring us down drawings of things
that have never existed, and say 'Okay, make this.'"
Francis
starts up his trusty Truematic 240.
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His
shop, a huge space the size of a football field, is
a favorite stop on NASA's tour of Hubble headquarters.
Francis gets a charge out of showing his work to visitors,
and of thinking that the things he's made are up in
the sky. He's happy to be able to learn so much about
astronomy and physics from some of the top people
in their fields. Francis is only five or six years
from retirement, but he's hoping he can stick around
until NASA launches a manned mission to Mars. "That
would be out of sight," he says.
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