At 14, Claire Parfitt already knew she wanted to work in the space industry. Her first attempt was to get work experience at NASA. She was rejected.
Instead, she found an opportunity much closer to home at the National Space Centre in Leicester, which was being prepared for its 2001 opening. It may not have been the glamorous start she imagined, but that placement became an important first step toward a career that would eventually take her to the European Space Agency (ESA).
