Keeping The Legacy Alive: Piecing Together History Lecture By Jean L. Wright, Docent, Nasa Speaker’S Bureau

Keeping the Legacy Alive: Piecing Together History Lecture by Jean L. Wright, Docent, NASA Speaker’s Bureau March 17, 2015 – 7 p.m. Ricketson Auditorium Denver Museum of Nature & Science 2001 Colorado Blvd, Denver FREE ADMISSION For Jean Wright, the American Dream is alive and well. A former candy store manager born in Flint, Michigan, Jean fulfilled her dream of working in the NASA Space Program in 2005, when she became an Aerospace Composite Tech for United Space Alliance -- the prime contractor for Space Shuttle Processing -- as a member of the Thermal Protection System Facility team at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). She would be the last person hired in that position before the Shuttle program ended in 2011. As one of 15 women in this role, Jean and her co-workers, who dubbed their group, “The Sew Sisters,” were responsible for fabrication, assembly, disassembly, and repair of Thermal Protection Systems hardware. This involved using measuring equipment, heavy-duty industrial sewing machines, and intricate and physically-demanding hand stitching to produce items such as: • Gap fillers, which filled the space between shuttle tiles. • Dome heat shield blankets which were used for sound suppression and thermal protection around the three main engines. • Fibrous insulation blankets which were installed on the upper surfaces of the orbiter, and could withstand temperatures up to 1200 degrees. • Solid rocket booster parachutes.