Rocket ships to wood chips: Welder joins staff at MHS
"He is very fresh, right out of the industry. He brings a new outlook and I have nothing but wonderful things to say about Mr. Wood and his ability to connect with his students.”
Ryan Coggins, MHS ag department, on colleague Thomas Wood
Manteca High woodshop teacher Thomas Wood works a drill while students look on in the woodshop on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. (Moises Ramos/The Tower)
By ISABELLA GILLETTE
The Tower
Believe it or not, the man draped in saw dust is a whiz at rocket science.
In November, Manteca High welcomed a fresh face to our campus, Thomas Wood.
Throughout his time here, Wood has been the mastermind in the woodshop, but did you know he was instrumental in engineering a rocket?
Ryan Coggins, a fellow agriculture teacher says: “He has been a huge addition to our ag (agriculture) department. I feel that he brings a lot of different skill sets to our team. He is very fresh, right out of the industry. He brings a new outlook and I have nothing but wonderful things to say about Mr. Wood and his ability to connect with his students.”
Before jumping into the rocket ship world, Wood had been welding for 10 years.
He initially learned how to weld during his sophomore year in high school and eventually joined their competitive welding team. From there on, Wood continued to be member of the team for the next three years. The team would practice a few days a week and on Saturdays.
The welding tournaments would run all day from 8 a.m. to noon. From these tournaments the team would be congratulated with awards such as welding accessories or even a welder for bigger projects.
Wood’s team placed second at the Occupational Olympics at Modesto Junior College, always placed top-five at all competitions, and placed seventh at their finals.
Wood is now creating his own welding team here with Coggins, Manteca’s welding teacher.
“My first thing when I came here, I tried to start a welding team,” said Wood. “I got with the welding teacher (Coggins) and said, ‘We should have a welding team’ and got that going.”
Woods’ long term welding experience led him to this once in a lifetime opportunity.
He found out about the company Astraspace through a friend, Felix Lemuth. The company’s original welder had left to move in a different direction. Astraspace needed an extra pair of hands to weld, and Wood was the one to do it.
Astraspace is a company that originated in October of 2016. Chris Kemp and Adam London started the company in Delaware. Paired with a team of engineers the team made a mission to provide daily access to space.
In 2017 they built a rocket development and test facility in Alameda, California. By the next year, they launched two rockets successfully from Kodiak, Alaska. Astoundingly, in 2021 Astra’s LV0007 was one of the first rockets to reach orbit in less than 5 years.
Woodshop teacher Thomas Wood works on a name plate in the Manteca High woodshop on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. (Moises Ramos/The Tower)
Wood said: “It was a cool process. It was kind of challenging at first, and it was newer than what I was used to. It was a cool experience seeing the process, like actually getting to be a part of that.”
One of Wood’s adversities was working alone.
Working with others may create a sense of comfort for some people. Previous jobs allowed Wood to work in teams or to collaborate with other employees.
This unique project was not quite that.
In some areas, Wood would team with others but mostly worked alone while he worked on the rocket. This was not what he was accustomed to but working independently is a valuable strength to learn. This is something he had time for.
For 10 months, Wood was on a solo trip.
“Just being by myself most of the time (was most challenging) because usually I had a team of people from my past jobs. So being by myself in certain areas was probably the most challenging,” Wood said. “I have learned to work by myself more, how to take initiative in the projects firsthand. Being able to be more like a motivator to myself than having other people try to motivate me.”