Christopher (Scott) Cox

I grew up knowing I wanted to work in space or aviation. When graduating from Auburn University, I had the opportunity to interview with Lockheed Martin as a system software developer for the Space Shuttle Program’s Flight Software team. I couldn’t pass that up. I began supporting the system software for the space shuttle in 1997. As shuttle began to wind down, I had the opportunity to support ER6 with the Orion Program. I have been supporting different projects for ER6 ever since. 

Currently, I am member of a small team that is responsible for developing the flight systems using core flight software for the Ascent Abort-2 (AA-2) mission. I am primarily focused on the 1553 system bus communication processes, as well as supporting each of the other systems. 

While working on the shuttle will always have a special place in my heart, AA-2 is going to be the first project that I have worked from the first line of code to the last. The additional experiences of witnessing the final stages of vehicle construction and the test itself have made this project my favorite by far. 

NASA is about being something more than yourself. I feel that what we do now will lay the groundwork for humankind and continued exploration. It’s hard to imagine getting that feeling in many other industries. Who knows—I may not see us ever reach Mars, but I was there when we began laying the groundwork.  

Throughout my 20 years at Johnson Space Center, I have met many incredible people and witnessed some amazing achievements and some catastrophic failures. I am not sure if there is any other place where I would have become so emotionally invested.