Life & Work with Susan Martinez of Huntsville

Today we’d like to introduce you to Susan Martinez.

Alright, thank you for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us how you got started?
I started my account AdAstraSu in October 2020 to encourage women in STEM to feel like they had every opportunity and resource to be themselves. I have been a woman in STEM without a role model my entire career, and now because of Instagram, I have many role models. I grew up being the only woman I knew wanting to pursue mechanical engineering and didn’t have a woman to look up to in that professional aspect. This is a way for me to show that if you have no one to look to, to pave the way? Pave it yourself. The idea is that they don’t have to pave it themselves, but they do have the power to do it; they just have to find it.

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Getting used to content creation and the ways of Instagram has been both surprisingly and unsurprisingly difficult. It’s never a smooth road! I started during the pandemic to inspire others and have a new “hobby” of my own, which is now a full-time job. So often, you just aren’t feeling it, work is stressing you out, or life is, you always have to pick yourself up and say, let’s do it anyway.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a Mechanical Engineer and have spent my entire career at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. I have been an Additive Manufacturing (3D printing) engineer, an In-Space Manufacturing engineer, and an Operations Controller (Flight Controller) for the International Space Station. All while maintaining my Instagram! I have had the incredible opportunity to design for the SLS (Space Launch System), the RS-25 engines, ECLSS (Life Support System on the International Space Station), Payload Development, and the International Space Station. I am proud of my professional career and what I have gotten to experience so far! My time at NASA has been incredible, and I look forward to my future in the Space Industry!

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I love Nashville! I am a Nashville SC season ticket holder, and my husband and I go as often as we can. I love cheering from the new Goedis Stadium! I love visiting Crema and Frothy Monkey. I always have to get Pucketts or hot chicken from Hattie B’s. Nashville is a jewel in the south and central to absolutely everything. I love it. I hate that because I live in Huntsville, and I am so far away. Maybe we should more of the aerospace industry to Nashville. I know more than a few people that would be on board!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: AdAstraSu
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRY5YgAV/