Not many people can say their work is beyond this world, but Vernon Vigil can. There are instruments on satellites in orbit today that he built with his own two hands — for verifying compliance with nuclear test treaties, better understanding the boundaries of our solar system and more.
Vernon's 33-year career at Los Alamos National Laboratory started as a co-op student when he was still at Peñasco High School and had no particular interest in space.
"When I graduated high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do. But I got hired on here and I never left," Vernon says. "My career chose me."
In those 33 years, Vernon has always worked in the Intelligence & Space Research division. And he's never wanted to work for a different organization, either at the Lab or elsewhere.
An engineering technologist and co-team lead for one of the Integration & Testing teams, Vernon helps build, test and certify space-bound instruments designed by the Lab’s scientists and engineers.
"It's impossible to fix an instrument after it's been launched into space, so we really rely on Vernon's eyes, fingers and expertise to find and fix issues and build instruments that function in space for years or decades," says Ruth Skoug, a scientist in the Space Science & Applications group. "Vernon's contributions are critical to the success of every instrument he has worked on."
Always something new to learn
Walking through the Lab facility that is home to the Intelligence & Space Research division, Vernon points to an unassuming display case and describes the model instruments, going all the way back to Vela Hotel — the group of satellites the Lab helped develop to detect nuclear testing in outer space.
Farther down the hall, at another display case, Vernon delights in explaining CubeSats (small, modular satellites) and the "peapods" — like a spring inside a sleeve — that gently propel them from their launch vehicles into space.
Next he moves on to a fabrication shop, and then the Dynamics lab where instruments are tested on a vibration table to make sure they can survive a rocket launch. Then Vernon heads to a machine shop, the thermal-vacuum test facility and finally the clean room, where instruments are assembled and certified before being sent to partner organizations for satellite integration. In his time at the Lab, Vernon has worked in all these facilities and carries a deep understanding of what they do and why.
"I've never gotten bored because there's always something new to learn," Vernon says.
"For me, any day I have the opportunity to work with Vernon is a day that I'm glad I was able to spend time with him," says Benigno Sandoval, an R&D engineer in the Space Instrument Realization group. "Whether it is instrument assembly in the clean room, testing in the environment lab, solving problems in a meeting or chatting in the hall, Vernon makes my day brighter."
> Read the full profile on the Laboratory's Discover site