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iversity in STE A M www.diversityinsteam.com
COVER STORY
An Unusual Route
Melvin, 57, and, in his post-astronaut career, a prominent advocate for STEAM, did not take the usual route to space. He was a wide receiver in the NFL, but he suffered a career-ending injury and Act II of a remarkable life journey was on. Since childhood, he'd been interested in engineering, though he was known for his exploits on the gridiron. He starred at his high school, at University of Richmond and, in his short stint in the pros, for the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys. Along the way, he earned a bachelor of science degree in chemistry and a master's degree in materials science engineering. It's been said that luck occurs when preparation meets opportunity. Melvin's post-NFL opportunity came at a job fair. A recruiter tracked him down and told him, You're coming to work at NASA.
A Team Player
This was in the 1980s. Melvin said his mental image of NASA involved white men with crew cuts. He wasn't far off. Historically, NASA has been myopically focused on a certain mindset, he said. He became part of a sea-change in the world's most esteemed space organization. The biggest part of succeeding in a NASA culture is to be a team member, he said. Just like sports and mathematics. That's why diversity is so important. You look at things in a different way. To work at NASA, you have to allow yourself to be heard. People sometimes don't speak up because they've been marginalized. Melvin started his career in aerospace working in the Nondestructive Evaluation Sciences Branch at NASA Langley Research Center in 1989. In 1994, he was selected to lead the Vehicle Health Monitoring team for the NASA/Lockheed Martin X-33 Reusable Launch Vehicle program. In 1996, he co- designed and monitored construction of an optical nondestructive evaluation facility capable of producing in-line fiber optic sensors. He became an astronaut in 1998, after sustaining a traumatic ear injury during underwater training exercises and, eventually, being cleared to fly despite his lifelong impairment. He flew two missions - 565 hours of total log time - on the Space Shuttle Atlantis as a mission specialist on STS-122, and as mission specialist 1 on STS-129. The STS-122 mission was accomplished in 12 days, 18 hours, 21 minutes and 40 seconds, and traveled 5.2 million miles in 203 Earth orbits. The STS-129 mission was completed in 10 days, 19 hours, 16 minutes and 13 seconds, traveling 4.5 million miles in 171 orbits.
NICOLE STOTT
NASA astronaut Leland Melvin, STS-129 mission specialist, holds the failed Urine Processor Assembly / Distillation Assembly (UPA DA) in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station. He and European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne (out of frame), Expedition 21 commander, removed and packed the UPA DA, then transferred it from the Water Recovery System 2 (WRS-2) rack to Atlantis for stowage on the middeck.
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