[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]