Bill Stafford

Being able to do photography in an environment I am passionate about has been incredible. From when I started in 1999, it has been a wild ride, to experience the manned spaceflight program in its different iterations of development: from the hustle and bustle of the shuttle program, the build-up to space station, the trauma of the Columbia accident, and then the Return to Flight effort. As a photographer, I was in Mission Control during Columbia, and being locked in that room for an hour was surreal, especially with my responsibility to document that for posterity.  Afterwards, documenting the recovery effort was a whole new challenge; it was documenting things I would never think to document.  I feel a weight because my job is important: I want people to look at my pictures and see what I was able to see.