Maximum jobs don’t consequence to your automotive being destroyed by way of particles from an exploding rocket.
However for Daniel Kovalchik, previously of Allegheny Township, Leechburg and West Leechburg, a workday in 1997 became tragic at Cape Canaveral, Fla., when the release of an unmanned Delta II rocket skilled a failure, sending fiery particles again to Earth.
Having his automotive destroyed is solely one of the most many adventures Kovalchik recounts in a trilogy of books detailing his 30-plus years within the aerospace business.
Kovalchik, 73, is living in Merritt Island, Fla., however ceaselessly visits the Alle-Kiski Valley and circle of relatives in Gilpin.
“I used to be at all times keen on generation. And rising up in West Leechburg, I lived within the nation and I assumed, “Excellent God, I wish to get out of right here,’ ” Kovalchik stated. “There was once isolation again there. When the rockets have been launching and I used to be in my early teenagers, I pictured myself with a difficult hat and a clipboard strolling round a rocket.”
Kovalchik graduated from Kiski House Top College in 1968. He studied pc science at Florida Institute of Generation and electric generation at Penn State New Kensington, incomes an affiliate level and a bachelor’s level in pc design from the College of Houston.
He set his points of interest on journey.
Courtesy of Dan Kovalchik
Dan Kovalchik is observed on the Cape Canaveral Air Drive Station in 1995 in entrance of the primary Delta II rocket to release the usage of a networked pc gadget. He labored at the rocket’s upkeep.
His past due father, John Kovalchik, labored as an electrician for Alcoa Aluminum, and Dan grew up with an passion in generation.
The second one son of 7 kids, Dan dreamed of exploring and located a task that piqued his passion whilst studying the employment commercials in a newspaper.
“I spoke back to an advert short of other people to paintings on NASA monitoring stations,” Kovalchik stated. “I used to be very desirous about manned house.”
He was once employed as a NASA contractor in 1973 and was once proven an international map.
“I were given chilly ft, so I selected a put up in Corpus Christi, Texas,” Kovalchik recalled. “However, after they closed Corpus Christi, I installed for a switch.”
He accredited a excursion aboard the USNS Leading edge, a NASA monitoring send for Skylab.
Skylab was once the primary house station introduced by way of NASA in Might 1973.
Kovalchik’s more youthful brother, Joseph, liked to gloat about his brother’s global trip interests to his buddies in school.
“My brother was once a large deal as a result of I may say he was once in flight keep watch over with NASA, and it appeared unattainable and he’s available in the market on a monitoring send with rockets and issues,” Joseph Kovalchik stated.
Send existence took Kovalchik, then 24, world wide as he traveled to vital puts, receiving data beamed from the satellites in orbit all the way through optimum 12-minute spans when the send was once in a great geographic place.
The affection boat
Kovalchik’s deployments left from Port Canaveral. Locations incorporated Africa; Rio de Janeiro; Dakar, Senegal; Liberia; the Panama Canal; Tahiti; Australia; Mauritius; Seychelles; Mombasa, Kenya; and Hawaii.
“My passport was once super-stamped,” he stated.
It was once the ocean existence that led Kovalchik to satisfy his long run spouse, Gloria. She was once one in all only a handful of women operating on a boat with 200 males.
“I used to be from Maryland, and I in reality sought after to trip,” Gloria Kovalchik stated.
Courtesy of Dan Kovalchik
Gloria and Dan Kovalchik benefit from the island existence in Tahiti in 1975.
The couple married in 1976 in Florida.
Kovalchik’s first guide, revealed within the Nineteen Eighties, was once titled “Vary Rats at Sea.” It chronicled his two years at sea and his courtship of Gloria onboard the USNS Leading edge.
In Tahiti, Kovalchik had a motorbike, which allowed him to take a commute across the island together with his then-girlfriend.
Right through an African safari, the pair had a cabin, however no person warned them to stay inside of it at night time.
“The dust was once coated in large tracks. Probably the most spectacular factor was once seeing a rhinoceros, and he was once very curious,” Kovalchik stated.
“My oldsters have been beautiful inspired. I’d ship postcards and letters.”
The couple lived and labored at a monitoring station for 2 years in Ecuador.
They each labored in communications, married and accredited a put up on Ascension Island, a 34-square-mile volcanic island within the Atlantic Ocean about 1,000 miles from the African coast. The couple lived there for a number of years.
It served as the muse for Kovalchik’s 2d guide, “The Satan’s Ashpit: And Different Stories of Ascension Island.”
There, technicians operated and maintained apparatus that communicated with NASA satellites.
Island existence for the newlywed couple incorporated fishing, unfastened meals and accommodation at an Air Drive base, beneficiant pay without a taxes and the risk to break out from the fashionable international.
However there was once a drawback.
“Where was once crawling with eels. I were given bit by way of them,” Kovalchik stated.
After 3 years there, the couple have been in a position to go back to civilization.
“Thank God we did it then as a result of I don’t really feel like touring like that now,” Kovalchik stated.
Impressed by way of co-workers
Joyce Hanz | TribLive
Dan Kovalchik, previously of West Leechburg, has penned 3 books about his 30-year occupation within the aerospace business.
A retirement present from United Release Alliance in 2018, stuffed with dozens of images of rocket ships, impressed Kovalchik to write down.
“I’d been concerned with a specifically designed Delta II rocket, that introduced in 1995, thru its closing release in 2018. I sat within the release keep watch over facilities for the Delta III and Delta IV fashions, too. It’s one of the most causes I wrote the guide,” he stated.
His newest guide, “Days of Delta Thunder,” revealed in April after 5 years of writing.
He incorporated many co-workers within the guide.
“It’s concerning the individuals who introduced the Delta II rocket, and Bankruptcy One starts with the explosion that took place overhead,” Kovalchik stated. “It went up and blew up, and stuff was once dropping rain throughout us and catching fireplace. It burned up my automotive. (The guide) was once stuffed with rockets, and I assumed, ‘How concerning the other people I labored with? There’s not anything concerning the other people.’ ”
His resume contains operating as a programs administrator at United Release Alliance, {an electrical} engineer at Boeing Aerospace Operations, a flight controls engineer at Ford Aerospace and Communications Company, and {an electrical} technician at Bendix Box Engineering Corp.
Gloria, 72, joked that her Southern circle of relatives stated she introduced house a Yankee, however they appreciated him.They’ve been married for 48 years.
Gloria stated she enjoys visits to the Leechburg house.
“I’m an most effective kid, and Dan has a large circle of relatives,” she stated. “I assumed Leechburg was once gorgeous, and I nonetheless do.”
Dan echoed her remarks.
“You come back up right here and it’s hilly, with greenery, and it’s simply gorgeous,” he stated.
The trio of books seems to be the tip of his writing highway.
“I will be able to’t recall to mind a follow-up. Except it’s on my fishing adventures,” he joked.
Joyce Hanz is a local of Charleston, S.C. and is a options reporter overlaying the Pittsburgh area. She majored in media arts and graduated from the College of South Carolina. She can also be reached at jhanz@triblive.com
