30 year old engineer who wants to be a scientist

I'm an engineer at a shipyard. I received a degree in Aerospace Engineering, but I wasn't a very good student. I could take tests well and get decent grades, but I did nothing like take advantage of the opportunities I had there, mostly because I wasn't passionate about what I was doing. Now, 12 years later I've discovered my passion, and it's space. Working for JPL on robotic missions to other planets would be my ideal job.

I can be happy as en engineer. But I would like to be intimately involved in space exploration. To that end, I want to find an engineering job close to a good astronomy/planetary science school and then possibly take classes and get an advanced degree. I need to focus my job search on the geographic locations where the good schools are, but after googling it, it's hard to find which schools are ideal for this. Can anyone help?

My math is not strong, though I understand the concepts well. I have a strong understanding of many of the sciences, at least for a lay person, due to years of reading magazines such as Discover and Sky and Telescope and the fact that I actually paid attention in high school and read lots of science books growing up.

Edited May 20, 201213 yr by BJT