GNEST Dragon Slayer Award

The Ground NEwork for SwifT (GNEST) was reviewed several times in 2004 to make sure that we were ready to operate the mission. Such reviews are standard practice for NASA missions, but I believe things got out hand in this case. The head reviewer seemed more interested in demonstrating how important he was by making our lives miserable than in actually accomplishing anything useful. It was a stressful time for all, but most of the grief fell to one person. To recognize her  masterful job getting us over this hurdle and clearing the GNEST for launch operations, she was awarded the coveted Dragon Slayer award (left photo). In addition she was given a large sword to take care of any return of the dragon (right photo). Despite the distraction of dealing with the dragon, launch operations went well, and Swift has been a great success.

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