When I started at NASA, the project I worked on was called the Technology Test Bed (TTB). In this program, we tested a highly instrumented Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) liquid rocket motor. I’m not sure the tests made the rocket better, but they certainly made good engineers BETTER engineers.

And when we fired the motor, Huntsville, Alabama came alive! It’s hard not to notice a rocket throwing out enough energy to convert thousands of gallons of water into steam in an instant. And it boldly reminded folks in North Alabama why Huntsville is called “Rocket City.”

I thought it was neat that I had the credentials to be inside the control room when we tested the rocket. With the confidence of a fresh-out engineering graduate who thought the world was his for the taking, I reminded my friends as often as I could that I worked inside the blockhouse during tests.

Looking back now through the lens of a fifty-something-year-old, I realize the senior engineers never let me do anything that would blow up if I screwed up.

My small part of the test was to help configure the thirteen locomotive engines that pumped water onto the massive steel flame bucket. The bucket had thousands of tiny holes, and we pumped water from a water tower through pipes big enough to stand inside to the flame bucket. We did this to keep the steel from melting and to absorb the sound from the rocket exhaust.

The more experienced engineers configured the cryogenic Liquid Hydrogen and Liquid Oxygen systems that fed the motor.

Thinking about my first full-scale rocket motor test gives me goosebumps. Feeling a rocket roar was better than any drug I could imagine. But, in full disclosure, I always took the random drug testing mandate seriously when I was working at NASA. So, I can’t know for sure.

* This article originally appeared on LinkedIn as part of the “Make NASA Great” series.