@prrhorseshoecurve posted:Question Matt, were you assembling satelites at that time, had a clean room that you had to go through to get to the satelite?
When I first worked there in 1976 (in college as a student worker), I worked in the Manufacturing Engineering Division and calibrated equipment used in building satellites (reflow soldering machines, pulse welders, heat guns, and other things). I had access to clean rooms and other areas. Ironically, one of the lines I supported built a satellite that I later was involved with.
I later transferred to Applied Technology Division, where I programmed data acquisition and control systems. That satellite they built, TDRSS, was launched on the space shuttle and was launched into a useless orbit when the booster malfunctioned. The group I worked for was doing the computer analysis that provided the instructions on using the alignment thrusters (one of which was damaged during the malfunction) on the satellite to move it over 6,000 miles into a usable orbit. The reason we were able to do it was that they had calculated how much fuel it would require for the thrusters, but at the last minute a lowly technician decided to completely fill the fuel tank which was about three times the fuel it would have needed over its lifetime. We definitely caught a break.
I also worked on a couple of other projects I can't talk about, but let's say they're using it's progeny today. Another fun fact was the panic that set in with my mother and neighbors when the FBI showed up asking questions about me. My father and the 12-year old kid across the street knew what was going on (the kid figured it out on his own and we had a good laugh) and didn't tell anyone. Some of the neighbors were expecting me to be carted off in an FBI raid. 
