I looked away from the dim light of my TV to see that the sun was in the middle of the sky. I wanted lunch so I walked to my fridge. It has white paint with a blockly shape to it. I wanted a saddle so I started to look for one. When suddenly, out of nowhere, I got a call. I picked up the phone and said, “Hello?”
The person on the other side of the phone said, “Hello, is this Mrs.Cordova?”
I said, “Yes and who are you?”
The person on the other side of the phone said, “I’m Dan Goldin and I’m calling because NASA wants to offer you a position as Chief Scientist. Would you be interested?” This was a big deal because I was only 28 years old. And the person on the other side of the phone was a NASA administrator who wanted to interview me for the position of Chief Scientist. I thought that was interesting, but I didn’t know anything about the science policy.
“I would be interested in the position.”
Then he asked “Do you have any plans for dinner?”
I said, “I don't think so.”
He said, “Can we discuss more about this at dinner?”
I answer, “Sure.” Now I have some time to kill so I found a saddle and sat down to eat it. So when it was time, I went to have dinner with Dan Goldin. He still holds the record of longest-serving NASA administrator. When I got to the restaurant I found Dan Goldin and we talked about if NASA was a good job for me.
When our food arrived he said “So do you think you meet all the requirements for the job?”
When the waiter put my food on the table I responded with “Yes I have a bachelor's degree, a master's degree in business administration, and a doctoral degree in research and development.”
He took a drink of his water and said “Great, do you know anything about the science policy?”
As I was cutting my steak I said “Not really but I can learn about it.”
After he started cutting his steak he said “That’s ok, what is it you do?”
Before I ated some of my steak I said “Right now I’m researching things about X-rays.”
He ate some of his steak and then said, “That seems interesting.”
While he ate I replied, “It’s quite amazing how X-rays work.”
When I started eating, he asked “Why do you think science is imported?”
Then dessert arrived and I said “I think science is imported because it allows you to look at things in a different way.”
We talked some more and after we were done eating He said “How do you feel about your ability in science?”
My response came easily. “My ability in science is infinite. I will never stop looking for answers to questions. Everyone who asks questions has a great ability in science.” When we were done we said goodbye and I drove home.
The next day, back home where I was head of the astronomy and astrophysics department, Dan Goldin called me and offered me the job at NASA. I checked with other department heads, and they said it was a terrible idea because it would take me out of doing my research on xrays.
When I talked with women, including a friend who was head of the history department at Penn State, they all said something like, “You can’t be talking about how important it is for women to be in leadership roles and not take a job that affords you a platform for encouraging women in science.” Even my mom agreed with their points. So I took the job. When I arrived at NASA in late 1993, one of my most important roles was to bring in scientists to become more involved in future missions. An important result of that effort was a much-increased emphasis on astrobiology. I was really excited to start working at NASA and I was glad I could become a Chief Scientist. This was a big step in my life which I hoped would help my scientific career. By that time I started to work at NASA, The International Space Station was being designed. This led to experiments on the ISS like the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which was designed to address the question of matter–antimatter imbalance and the problem of the nature of dark matter. I spent a lot of time talking to Congress about the science we could do in a microgravity environment. Taking the job at NASA opened up so many opportunities to further my scientific research and expand on ideas I had not even thought of yet. I believe joining NASA was the best decision I have ever made.