Hi there! My name is Valerie Kost, and I can't wait to meet you all this summer! I'm a Junior from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and I'm majoring in Aerospace Engineering. I'm originally from Lockport, Illinois (NOT pronouced with an "s"), a southwest suburb of Chicago. Being from the north makes living here in Houston pretty interesting; the heat is unlike anything I've ever felt in Chicago!

This summer is my fourth work tour here at Johnson Space Center. I started working as a co-op just after my Freshman year, in the fall of 1999. My first tour was in the Mission Operations Directorate with the Spaceflight Training Division (which I'll talk about in just a minute). My second was with Motion Control Systems. I worked with the Attitude, Determination, and Control Officers (ADCOs), which are the flight controllers for the attitude system for the International Space Station. I got to sit in Mission Control during simulations as well as during one of the shuttle/station missions to learn what it was like to be a flight controller. The third tour I took was in the Engineering Directorate, with the Aeroscience and Flight Mechanics Division. While there, I worked on modeling the mass properties for the X38 crew return vehicle.

This summer I'm working within the Mission Operations Directorate, again in Spaceflight Training. This division is responsible for training both the flight controllers in Mission Control and the astronaut crews for their missions. I am working on certifying to teach two lessons this summer so that soon I can begin teaching the classes myself.

One thing "unique" about me perhaps is that I don't own a car down here in Houston. My mode of transportation is a bike, which can make for difficult rides in to work in the morning. Still, it's good exercise. While at school, I'm a member of the Purdue Fencing Club. My weapon of choice is the saber, if any of you are fencers out there. I also participate in the Dungeons of Purdue club, which is a club that hosts role-playing games (my main hobby). I can't wait to meet all of you in July, I know it'll be a great week!