In this episode of Wear Your Cape to Work, Trina sits down with Jeff Conner, who spent 43 years as a project manager at NASA. From the early days of the shuttle program to coordinating recovery efforts after the Columbia accident, Jeff’s career spans some of the most mission-critical projects in NASA’s history.
This conversation explores Jeff’s career path, his family legacy in aerospace, and the mindset it takes to lead when failure is not an option.
Topics covered:
- The family connection: Trina and Jeff as cousins
- Jeff’s father’s role at NASA in the Air Force physical standards lab
- Starting his NASA career as a mechanical engineer
- Payload integration projects and contributing to the construction of the International Space Station
- Installing payloads aboard space shuttle missions
- Planning for shuttle emergency landings and alternate recovery locations
- Project management in the 1980s: printed schedules, phone calls, and couriered memos
- Reflecting on a bygone work era—before nonstop email and instant messaging
- The Columbia accident and Jeff’s role in the Air Boss helicopter recovery operations
- Risk as a defining factor in space projects—and how to lead within it
- Jeff’s superpower: identifying risks early and turning them into opportunities for precision and excellence
- How teams can minimize compounding issues when working on large, hazardous systems
- Leading diverse teams through complexity, pressure, and change
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to manage projects where the margin for error is zero, this episode is for you.
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