Meet Marcos Stocco, veteran of NASA’s Mission Control Center
2013-11-19
For Hispanic Heritage Month, Johnson Space Center is honoring a few Hispanic-American employees whose culture and history have helped shaped them into the people they are today.
Meet Marcos Stocco, a veteran of NASA’s Mission Control Center who has worked more than 35 missions since he began his career at Johnson Space Center in 2000. He is a family man with two beautiful daughters and an invested member of our community who has supported and given back in countless education- and minority-oriented programs. In addition, Stocco comes from a diverse family background with roots worldwide, but grew up in Brazil and later moved to Texas.
To set the stage, Stocco tells us a little bit about his father, and then elaborates with a love story.
“My father speaks very broken English but fluent Portuguese, Italian and Spanish—so he is very often faced with the same issues as many other immigrants, such as Mexican-Americans,” Stocco said of his dad, a Latino-American with a last name derived from Italian roots.
“He never finished high School,” Stocco said. “He quit school to play professional soccer. He lied about his age so he could play and get paid—similar to stories you hear in a lot of Latin-influenced Caribbean countries like the Dominican Republic … People just trying to get out onto the fast track through sports.”
As a teenager, Stocco’s father left Brazil for New York City, where he played for the New York Cosmos.
“When he first came to New York, he could barely speak English,” Stocco said. “He was trying to find his way on the subway to get to the Empire State Building (and) was helped by a red-headed stranger, mostly communicating through hand motions and gestures. That stranger became his wife and my mom.”
After deciding to take a different path, Stocco’s father was trained as an import/export controls inspector for PetroBras, a national petrochemical company headquartered in New York City, which brought him to Texas.
As a toddler, Stocco lived in Brazil with his family; but after constant allergic reactions to insect bites, his family relocated to Pasadena, Texas, where he grew up. Although he grew up in a predominately Latino area with mainly first- and second-generation families, Stocco just didn’t feel as though he fit in.
“I didn’t really begin to ‘identify’ as much with my heritage until I went to college at the University of Oklahoma, where the Minority Engineering Program and other groups provided a tight-knit ‘familia’ environment,” Stocco said.
One of Stocco’s first internships in college was working as a contractor for McDonnell-Douglas Space Systems in software development.
“The reason I got that job at McDonnell Douglas is because the VP of the company at the time, Larry Murrata, was a guest speaker at the banquet for the Minority Engineering Program that was held on campus at the University of Oklahoma my freshman year,” Stocco said. “He was one of the first Hispanic graduates in advanced engineering from there and had maintained a legacy and relationship with the department. I was selected as a scholarship winner and community leader from the Latino community on campus (I had already taken office in a couple organizations, including the student SHPE [Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers] chapter there) and given the opportunity to meet and greet with Mr. Murrata. During that time, he encouraged me to apply for the internship at McDonnell Douglass in Houston, so that’s how I got there.”
Stocco has had an incredible career in the Mission Control Center, the nucleus of spaceflight, as an Attitude & Pointing Office flight controller (pointer), where he has worked missions involving shuttle, International Space Station expeditions and SpaceX.
When asked which mission has stood out the most to him, Stocco said, “To me, the most significant is the work I did for the SpaceX missions as the lead. That was truly a milestone for the space program: the first successful commercial space vehicle to dock to the station. To be a part of that history and all the trials and travails for the years leading up to it was truly rewarding.”
Stocco most loves the engineering aspect of his job and has enjoyed software development through the years as well. Having a diverse background has been an asset to Stocco at JSC, because it prepared him for his working relationships with NASA’s international partners.
Investing much of his time into the community, Stocco has volunteered countless hours at schools, working with children and teaching others about the space program. He has worked with students of all ages supporting career days, science days, model-rocket launches and more. He, too, devoted his time working with minority students in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math. It is rewarding for him to see the excitement and innovative ideas from students each year.
For Stocco, giving back is a language of love he is fluent in, even though he never did master Portuguese.
Annie Schanock
NASA Johnson Space Center
Meet Marcos Stocco, a veteran of NASA’s Mission Control Center who has worked more than 35 missions since he began his career at Johnson Space Center in 2000. He is a family man with two beautiful daughters and an invested member of our community who has supported and given back in countless education- and minority-oriented programs. In addition, Stocco comes from a diverse family background with roots worldwide, but grew up in Brazil and later moved to Texas.
To set the stage, Stocco tells us a little bit about his father, and then elaborates with a love story.
“My father speaks very broken English but fluent Portuguese, Italian and Spanish—so he is very often faced with the same issues as many other immigrants, such as Mexican-Americans,” Stocco said of his dad, a Latino-American with a last name derived from Italian roots.
“He never finished high School,” Stocco said. “He quit school to play professional soccer. He lied about his age so he could play and get paid—similar to stories you hear in a lot of Latin-influenced Caribbean countries like the Dominican Republic … People just trying to get out onto the fast track through sports.”
As a teenager, Stocco’s father left Brazil for New York City, where he played for the New York Cosmos.
“When he first came to New York, he could barely speak English,” Stocco said. “He was trying to find his way on the subway to get to the Empire State Building (and) was helped by a red-headed stranger, mostly communicating through hand motions and gestures. That stranger became his wife and my mom.”
After deciding to take a different path, Stocco’s father was trained as an import/export controls inspector for PetroBras, a national petrochemical company headquartered in New York City, which brought him to Texas.
As a toddler, Stocco lived in Brazil with his family; but after constant allergic reactions to insect bites, his family relocated to Pasadena, Texas, where he grew up. Although he grew up in a predominately Latino area with mainly first- and second-generation families, Stocco just didn’t feel as though he fit in.
“I didn’t really begin to ‘identify’ as much with my heritage until I went to college at the University of Oklahoma, where the Minority Engineering Program and other groups provided a tight-knit ‘familia’ environment,” Stocco said.
One of Stocco’s first internships in college was working as a contractor for McDonnell-Douglas Space Systems in software development.
“The reason I got that job at McDonnell Douglas is because the VP of the company at the time, Larry Murrata, was a guest speaker at the banquet for the Minority Engineering Program that was held on campus at the University of Oklahoma my freshman year,” Stocco said. “He was one of the first Hispanic graduates in advanced engineering from there and had maintained a legacy and relationship with the department. I was selected as a scholarship winner and community leader from the Latino community on campus (I had already taken office in a couple organizations, including the student SHPE [Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers] chapter there) and given the opportunity to meet and greet with Mr. Murrata. During that time, he encouraged me to apply for the internship at McDonnell Douglass in Houston, so that’s how I got there.”
Stocco has had an incredible career in the Mission Control Center, the nucleus of spaceflight, as an Attitude & Pointing Office flight controller (pointer), where he has worked missions involving shuttle, International Space Station expeditions and SpaceX.
When asked which mission has stood out the most to him, Stocco said, “To me, the most significant is the work I did for the SpaceX missions as the lead. That was truly a milestone for the space program: the first successful commercial space vehicle to dock to the station. To be a part of that history and all the trials and travails for the years leading up to it was truly rewarding.”
Stocco most loves the engineering aspect of his job and has enjoyed software development through the years as well. Having a diverse background has been an asset to Stocco at JSC, because it prepared him for his working relationships with NASA’s international partners.
Investing much of his time into the community, Stocco has volunteered countless hours at schools, working with children and teaching others about the space program. He has worked with students of all ages supporting career days, science days, model-rocket launches and more. He, too, devoted his time working with minority students in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math. It is rewarding for him to see the excitement and innovative ideas from students each year.
For Stocco, giving back is a language of love he is fluent in, even though he never did master Portuguese.
Annie Schanock
NASA Johnson Space Center