Question: where abouts in nasa do u work also where is nasa ???

Sara Imari Walker answered on 22 Jun 2011:

Hello annelouise!! NASA is all over the US. Its headquartered in DC but there are NASA centers everywhere. The two most famous are probably Kennedy Space Center (in Florida where the shuttles take off from) and Johnson Space Center (in Texas where the shuttles land!). But there are also places like Goddard Space Flight Center (in Maryland), and NASA Ames Research Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (both in California). This is not even all of them!!! There are lots of centers and they all specialize in something different – so you work at the center where they do things you are interested in!

I part of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, which is focused on the study and search for life in the universe (A lot of this is focused on studying Earth life! Its the only sample we have!). They are headquartered at NASA Ames in California, but they have institutes or nodes at 14 universities across the United States. So although my funding for my salary comes directly from NASA, I actually work with the Astrobiology team at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe AZ. NASA is cool like that, not only do they fund scientists at there own centers but they fund scientists across the country at all kinds of universities! Some get big grants like ASU but others are individually funded. All and all we get a lot of great science out of it.

I have gotten to visit a few NASA centers – NASA HQ in DC, Kennedy and Johnson. Those were fun experiences!! And, I’ve met several astronauts including Buzz Aldrin – second man on the moon. That is also very cool!!!