Aerospace Engineer Phillip Hargrove

"Having it in front of you makes it real. So when you see it on TV, it’s like: ‘I know what that is. I know how that instrument works.’ There’s a connection there.” — Phillip Hargrove, Aerospace Engineer, Kennedy Space Center

“When I was a kid, I had a Lego set of one of the twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. It was like a Lego rover that could fold up the same way that the actual rover did. It’s crazy because I had that when I was like ten — and now, some of my current coworkers actually worked on that launch. So when I walked into my launch director’s office a couple of years ago, I saw that same Lego set sitting next to the people at Jet Propulsion Laboratory who actually built the rover.

“Just being able to see it and touch it [as a kid] helps you impart your own imagination onto it. It’s really exciting. I wasn’t an action figure type of kid — but when I had stuff that seemed real, I really enjoyed putting it together. The project of putting it together was the thing that made my parents think that I was going to be a good engineer. Having it in front of you makes it real. So when you see it on TV, it’s like: ‘I know what that is. I know how that instrument works.’ There’s a connection there.”

— Phillip Hargrove, Aerospace Engineer, Kennedy Space Center

Image Credit: NASA / Kim Shiflett
Interviewer: NASA / Thalia Patrinos

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