My first visit to Kennedy Space Center was in July 1981. Maueen and I were set to be married that summer in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Several friends and family members from Ireland and Florida were vacationing there, then joining us for our wedding. It was a happy time. However, being the adventurous type and rather than hanging about the pool at our apartment complex, most of my honeymoon was spent at the space center. Taking the KSC bus tours, watching IMAX movies, and enjoying the Rocket Garden, that’s my memory of those days. Maureen often called herself a ‘space widow’. I was determined to start a new career, no matter how menial it might be in the space program.
By 1994, that determination had led my family and I to uproot our business and home in Ireland and secure Green Cards to enter the U.S. as permanent residents. Friends of ours from all over the world have often ask me;
“How did an Irishman get a job at Kennedy Space Center”? Here’s my story.
In October 1998, the NASA-KSC contracting company Delaware North, had (and still do) a contract with NASA to manage the entire KSC Visitor Complex. They ran advertisements in the Florida Today newspaper, seeking applicants for a variety of positions. Unfortunately, that advertisement appeared in the newspaper on October 19th, the day following my birthday. Maureen and I had been out on the town the night beforehand, and yours truly was feeling a lot of pain. Later that afternoon I finally gathered my thoughts and physical presence and made my way to the Radisson Resort at the Port, in Cape Canaveral. It’s a modern hotel which caters for hosts of tourists visiting the space coast beaches. The hotel also accommodates those families taking cruises from Port Canaveral to the Caribbean, the Bahamas, and Mexico. Dozens of applicants lined up inside the hotel’s Convention Center, with copies of their resumes glued underneath their armpits.
“Would you be prepared to provide us a urine sample this afternoon”, my interviewer asked bluntly.
I instinctively knew that this was for a drugs test. I responded in the affirmative.
“There’s just one thing I should tell you”, yesterday was my birthday and”, I hesitated for a moment.
“To be honest, I had quite a few beers last evening, quite a few”.
“Don’t worry Tony, we’re not concerned about legal drugs. Beer is perfectly fine”.
Following my successful handover of a urine sample, I was informed that I could expect a call from KSC within two weeks and that I should be ready to start a week-long training schedule with their Guest Services department.No job description or salary was mentioned however, a job of some sorts at Kennedy Space Center would soon be offered to me.
“You’re going to learn all about the space program from the very bottom up,” Maureen joked with me. And I did!
Prior to my first working day at Kennedy Space Center, Maureen and I sat in a Mexican restaurant in Cape Canaveral and we ordered Margaritas with salt on the rim of the glasses. The premises had formerly been known as the ‘Moon Hut’. It was here that Alan Shepard (the first American in space), had once protested loudly to his entourage (after much alcohol consumption I should add), that he would – “find my own way back to the f’n hotel”. After all he argued, had he not flown home from the Moon?
