Kristie Foster paved her road to becoming a NASA civil servant with literal miles of dedication. Her work at the agency’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, supports NASA’s mission to return American astronauts to the Moon, build a Moon Base for an enduring presence on the lunar surface, and ensure American leadership in space.

Foster’s move from a long-time contractor to a civil servant secures critical institutional knowledge after being hired in June under the agency’s workforce directive to restore core competencies.

“It means a lot, especially carrying the family legacy forward after my father retired from NASA last year after working about 20 years at Stennis,” said Foster. “It meant something to finally see that dream come true in full circle.”

As a quality engineer, Foster manages quality assurance and engineering at America’s largest rocket propulsion test site with much of her focus at the High Pressure Gas Facility and High Pressure Industrial Water Facility.

Known as the heart of Stennis, the gas facility is where gaseous nitrogen, helium, hydrogen, and air are created, stored, and distributed through a 7-mile pipeline across the center for propulsion testing. The water facility utilizes a 66-million-gallon reservoir to pump massive volumes of water to the test stands for cooling and sound suppression.

She also has taken on a safety role of supporting the build up at the Thad Cochran Test Stand (B-2), where Blue Origin will conduct second stage hot fire testing of the company’s New Glenn rocket.

Her technical work involves reviewing test preparation sheets, verifying operational plans in the field, and ensuring processes are executed from the initial design phase through final closeout.

“If you put safety and quality up front and incorporate it throughout the entire process, you are going to end up with a better product at the end,” said Foster. “Because NASA pushes safety and actively performs it, we are able to work at a fast pace with safety at the forefront.”