Trent Kingery \u201999 has enjoyed a career that has taken him all over the world. Now he trains others to escape it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following a career as a pilot and project officer with the Marine Corps and a civilian engineer with the Army, Kingery now wears multiple hats in his work for NASA: research pilot, flight training instructor and chief of aviation safety. Based at Johnston Space Center in Houston, Texas, Kingery oversees 26 specialized aircraft, 5,000 flights per year and 42 astronauts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also trains astronauts on simulators and\u2009\u2014\u2009more importantly\u2009\u2014\u2009the supersonic T-38 jet that mimics the challenges of space flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Affectionately called \u201cthe white rocket,\u201d the T-38 forces astronauts to endure conditions that can be seven times the force of gravity. Breathing is labored and hand movement is difficult. Some trainees have blacked out in flight. Pilots in this environment must concurrently monitor fuel, oxygen, navigation points and dozens of complicated systems. They must anticipate the unexpected while operating within protocols.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSometimes someone is taking a shortcut,\u201d Kingery says. \u201cI examine why.\u201d A shortcut may result in a mishap, so Kingery stresses the importance of understanding and operating within the rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that\u2019s just part of the work Kingery has done for NASA: He has flown to Kazakhstan in Russia to retrieve U.S. astronauts after they rotated off the International Space Station. As a research pilot, he\u2019s gathered data on Arctic fault lines, glacial packs and permafrost, working in conjunction with U.S. universities, testing global warming hypotheses. NASA recognized Kingery for that work in 2022 with the Neil Armstrong Award of Excellence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At age 50, I can take a T-38 out and go supersonic, doing loops with the astronauts. That\u2019s pretty cool beans.<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Kingery still sounds like the student at NC State who studied aerospace engineering with dreams of the sort of career he has enjoyed. \u201cAt age 50, I can take a T-38 out and go supersonic, doing loops with the astronauts,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s pretty cool beans.\u201d
<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\nBy Ed Williams<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Trent Kingery \u201999 has enjoyed a career that has taken him all over the world. Now he trains others to escape it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following a career as a pilot and project officer with the Marine Corps and a civilian engineer with the Army, Kingery now wears multiple hats in his work for NASA: research pilot, flight training instructor and chief of aviation safety. Based at Johnston Space Center in Houston, Texas, Kingery oversees 26 specialized aircraft, 5,000 flights per year and 42 astronauts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also trains astronauts on simulators and\u2009\u2014\u2009more importantly\u2009\u2014\u2009the supersonic T-38 jet that mimics the challenges of space flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Affectionately called \u201cthe white rocket,\u201d the T-38 forces astronauts to endure conditions that can be seven times the force of gravity. Breathing is labored and hand movement is difficult. Some trainees have blacked out in flight. Pilots in this environment must concurrently monitor fuel, oxygen, navigation points and dozens of complicated systems. They must anticipate the unexpected while operating within protocols.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSometimes someone is taking a shortcut,\u201d Kingery says. \u201cI examine why.\u201d A shortcut may result in a mishap, so Kingery stresses the importance of understanding and operating within the rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that\u2019s just part of the work Kingery has done for NASA: He has flown to Kazakhstan in Russia to retrieve U.S. astronauts after they rotated off the International Space Station. As a research pilot, he\u2019s gathered data on Arctic fault lines, glacial packs and permafrost, working in conjunction with U.S. universities, testing global warming hypotheses. NASA recognized Kingery for that work in 2022 with the Neil Armstrong Award of Excellence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At age 50, I can take a T-38 out and go supersonic, doing loops with the astronauts. That\u2019s pretty cool beans.<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Kingery still sounds like the student at NC State who studied aerospace engineering with dreams of the sort of career he has enjoyed. \u201cAt age 50, I can take a T-38 out and go supersonic, doing loops with the astronauts,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s pretty cool beans.\u201d
<\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trent Kingery \u201999 trains astronauts for the challenges they\u2019ll face in space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"views\/single-immersive.blade.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-immersive-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"backgroundColor\":\"indigo_400\",\"subtitle\":\"Trent Kingery \u201999 trains astronauts for the challenges they\u2019ll face in space.\",\"displayCategoryID\":5,\"caption\":\"Photograph courtesy of Trent Kingery \u201999.\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8,9,10],"tags":[272,389,757,844,1181],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"displayCategory":{"term_id":5,"name":"Best Bets","slug":"best-bets","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":39,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4807"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4807"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4998,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4807\/revisions\/4998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4807"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=4807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}