Many people often dream of working for NASA to get the chance to test and build things that will soon be swimming in the stars. Well, Anthony Delmonte has lived that extraordinary experience.
Anthony Delmonte is a former NASA manager who managed lots of different contractors, from working in Data Center Management to working for the United Space Alliance. Anthony Delmonte worked a total of 18 years starting in 1989 and retiring in 2008.
Delmonte did not first start out working for NASA contractors.
“I was working in Orlando and one of the people that was working for me left the company to go work at Kennedy Space Center. About six months later he contacted me and asked if I was interested in applying for a Data Center Management position there…I jumped at the chance and after a series of interviews I got the job,” says Delmonte.
From there, Delmonte went on to work for a variety of different contractors that worked with NASA.
“After I worked at Data Center Management, I took over the management of the computer systems that interfaced with the Shuttle hardware (Orbiter, Solid Rocket Boosters, External Tank, and ground systems),” explains Delmonte.
Working at these management positions was not easy; throughout Delmonte’s career, he faced many challenges.
“The company I worked for was extremely good at providing their management team with opportunities to experience all aspects of the operation. At times it threw us into areas where we may have had limited expertise and presented great challenges. What the company understood, though, and I eventually learned, is that if you are a good leader, leadership can be applied to any situation,” says Delmonte.
Although his job was not easy there were many rewarding experiences throughout his career.
“It was very satisfying to be there when you were actually participating in making something so astonishing happen; it was also very satisfying to see the people working for you be very successful and confident,” Anthony described.
Delmonte also made a book with his stepson called 10 Lessons Learned from Sheep and Shuttles. Which incorporates humorous animal stories with life lessons that Delmonte has learned over his career.
“It happened over a period of time, my son Keith had always been involved with animals and he had a hobby farm and every time that I came to visit, he would always talk about various things that happened on the farm, some of them being very humorous. He always said that he wanted to create a book about these stories, and we kept talking about that and eventually we decided to relate the stories to different life lessons, and it grew from there,” states Anthony.
Finally, Delmonte talked about different things that he suggests kids could do if they would like to work at NASA in the future.
“First, make sure to get the most well-rounded education. Second, do not target only NASA there are hundreds of contractors that are involved with NASA related activities. Finally, think about what interests you and how you can make a difference,” explains Delmonte.
Anthony Delmonte has had a very successful career working for a variety of contractors that worked with NASA. He has helped to create many remarkable things that have revolutionized how we look at our planet as well as so many others.