Kristie Foster paved her road to becoming a NASA civil servant with literal miles of dedication. Her work at the agency’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, supports NASA’s mission to return American astronauts to the Moon, build a Moon Base for an enduring presence on the lunar surface, and ensure American leadership in space.
Foster’s move from a long-time contractor to a civil servant secures critical institutional knowledge after being hired in June under the agency’s workforce directive to restore core competencies.
“It means a lot, especially carrying the family legacy forward after my father retired from NASA last year after working about 20 years at Stennis,” said Foster. “It meant something to finally see that dream come true in full circle.”
As a quality engineer, Foster manages quality assurance and engineering at America’s largest rocket propulsion test site with much of her focus at the High Pressure Gas Facility and High Pressure Industrial Water Facility.
Known as the heart of Stennis, the gas facility is where gaseous nitrogen, helium, hydrogen, and air are created, stored, and distributed through a 7-mile pipeline across the center for propulsion testing. The water facility utilizes a 66-million-gallon reservoir to pump massive volumes of water to the test stands for cooling and sound suppression.
She also has taken on a safety role of supporting the build up at the Thad Cochran Test Stand (B-2), where Blue Origin will conduct second stage hot fire testing of the company’s New Glenn rocket.
Her technical work involves reviewing test preparation sheets, verifying operational plans in the field, and ensuring processes are executed from the initial design phase through final closeout.
“If you put safety and quality up front and incorporate it throughout the entire process, you are going to end up with a better product at the end,” said Foster. “Because NASA pushes safety and actively performs it, we are able to work at a fast pace with safety at the forefront.”
Foster applies an adaptable, mission-first mindset to her work that is advancing Artemis missions. Following the successful Artemis II mission last April, Artemis III is intended to demonstrate integrated operations between the Orion spacecraft and test versions of commercial human landing systems before Artemis IV returns astronauts to the lunar surface.
“I feel like the space race is back to that original excitement all over again,” said Foster. “Artemis I and II were huge, successful missions. That was amazing to be a part of, and it is something to look forward to with Artemis III and IV. I want to see humans back on the Moon. It is exciting.”
While her focus is now on returning humans to the Moon, Foster’s own journey to NASA started close to home. She completed two years at Pearl River Community College, along with summer night classes at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.
Her first time working at Stennis came with the largest tenant of the NASA Stennis Federal City: The United States Navy, and an internship with the Naval Oceanographic Office.
While finishing her bachelor’s degree in construction management and land development at Mississippi State University, Foster landed a four-week holiday internship on a Stennis construction project. This evolved into a senior-year schedule of working three days a week at Stennis, then driving hours back to campus to attend classes the other four days.
The hard work paid off with a full-time job. Foster worked as a contractor supporting NASA’s work from 2008 until her recent hire with the agency.
A resident of Poplarville, Mississippi, Foster balances her career with life on a farm. Her 12-year-old son, an avid space enthusiast, now shares similar aerospace conversations with his mother that she once had with her father.
As Foster ensures the safety and quality of NASA’s propulsion testing at Stennis, she is leading by example for her son and the Artemis Generation.
“I have always lived by the saying: ‘Shoot for the Moon, because even if you miss, you land among the stars.’ That is how I have approached my career,” said Foster. “It takes persistence and enjoying what you do. One neat thing about working with NASA at Stennis, especially in the test complex, is that I have never done the same thing twice. It is always an evolving situation.”
Source: NASA