Mission Integration Managers (1:28) audio

Boeing's Kris Walsh describes the role of a mission integration manager. A person in this career role works with quality teams, suppliers, the launch site, and NASA to ensure that the launch is a success.

TRANSCRIPTION of MISSION INTEGRATION MANAGERS audio:

For this mission, I am also the mission integration manager. And therefore, we have bi-weekly telecons with that whole team. In addition, we have quarterly face-to-face meetings to make sure that everything is going forward to the right time and the right place, that everybody understands each other's requirements, and that there are no hiccups. Every mission has a mission integration manager, or sometimes called missile mother. They work all the specification to make sure that this rocket is what's required to do the mission. They work with engineering. They work with our integrative product teams. We have an integrative product team for each stage. They work with our suppliers. They work with quality. And they work very closely with the launch sites. And they are our primary interface with NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration], KSC [Kennedy Space Center], JPL [Jet Propulsion Laboratory], and the spacecraft manufacturer, Lockheed Martin. But our entire process to get this rocket made for this customer is about 30 months long. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of work, but it's a lot of fun and there's not much you can do in this world that is as exciting as a launch countdown.