[UPLIFTING MUSIC]
TIERA FLETCHER:
My parents told me
that they had seen greatness in
me since I was a little girl.
They tried to nurture
that greatness,
even though I didn't
see it in myself.
[FUTURISTIC MUSIC]
[SPACESUIT BREATHING]
I was about six
years old when my mom
started getting me to calculate
the cost of our groceries
before we got to
the cash register.
I also began to choose
mathematics over recess.
That's when they
began to realize,
OK, this kid loves math.
From there, I became passionate
about military planes.
I was crazy about
the F-22 Raptor.
It was my favorite plane.
But, you know, I was
about 10 or 11, right?
So I would design
everything in pink.
Yep, I'm talking about pink
planes and pink rockets.
But I was a young girl, right?
What would you expect?
Around that time, I began to
attend science and engineering
camps.
And that's when I
decided I wanted
to be an aerospace engineer.
That was 12 years ago.
And now I'm a Boeing employee,
working on the biggest
project of a lifetime--
getting humans to Mars.
Humans have been fascinated
with Mars for a long time.
It's the only other known
planet that we can potentially
colonize.
And now technology has caught
up with our imaginations.
We are the Mars generation.
In the near future, people
will be traveling to Mars.
And as a matter of fact, I'm
thinking about going myself.
The Space Launch System,
or SLS, as we call it,
will be the fastest and
largest rocket ever created.
It's beautiful, isn't it?
The core stage launches you
off the Earth's surface.
The upper stage keeps
you going beyond that
and will actually
get humans to Mars.
My job is to perform stress
analysis of the exploration
upper stage of the rocket.
Right now, I'm focused on
testing the cryogenic tanks.
They are essential because
they provide the propulsion
fluid for the rocket.
It's a huge responsibility.
There is no room for
even a slight error.
But we test and retest to make
sure our astronauts are safe.
We literally have their
lives in our hands.
At this point, I'm
doing everything
in my head, mathematical
equations with my computer,
with my calculator.
But as the project
goes along, I get
to see how everything
is actually made,
and that's the
beautiful part of it.
I get to see everything
come to life.
My journey hasn't been easy.
Being a triple minority,
a young black woman,
it can be very intimidating in
the workplace, or at school,
when there's no one
else who looks like you.
But my focus is to
understand my subject matter,
to get the job done,
and most importantly,
to help others along the way.
I just really hope that I
can inspire women of color,
men of color, anyone who's
underrepresented in this field,
even if they have a
slight interest in space.
Just give it a go.
Growing up, believing in myself
was my biggest challenge.
But believing in myself
was the key to my success.
Believing in
yourself is very key
because if you don't,
then no one else
is going to believe in you.
I feel humble and
extremely excited to be
a part of history.
The Space Launch System
is capable of changing
the future of
mankind and womankind
as we know it because a new
world will be open to us.
And you know what?
To be able to say that I helped
get human feet on the surface
of Mars, that's pretty amazing.
SPEAKER 1: Eight.
Seven.
Six.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
[ROCKET BOOMING]
And liftoff on the
Space Shuttle Discovery.
[FUTURISTIC MUSIC]
