The challenge of conquering space makes for a motivated workforce at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

"NASA was named the best place in to work in the federal government for the eighth year in a row," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said by video feed at a social (internet-based) media event Feb. 10 at Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. "We are leading the world into a new and dynamic era of space flight."

Tina Fisher Cunningham

Life Support Technician Phillip Weller instructs media volunteer David DeCristofaro of Bakersfield during DeCristofaro's virtual ejection from an aircraft.

Bridenstine set the day's tone in the feed from Stennis Space Center in Miss. as he announced a robust federal budget aimed at returning humans to the moon by 2024 and establishing the moon as a base to launch explorations on Mars (the "Moon to Mars" mission).

"NASA will launch American astronauts on American rockets for the first time in nearly a decade," said Bridenstine, 44, whose enthusiasm creates an irresistible gravitational pull.

Participants at the Armstrong event spoke with the engineers and pilots – many of whom live in Tehachapi -- who support space flight programs and develop technological advances for military and commercial aircraft. Their research evolves in small instrument-packed rooms and in hangars that house experimental "X" aircraft as well as older workhorses whose innards and bodies are constantly being altered in the quest for data.