NASA Chooses Three New Flight Directors to Lead Mission Control

June 12, 2009

John Yembrick
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100


Kelly Humphries
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111


RELEASE: 09-133

NASA CHOOSES THREE NEW FLIGHT DIRECTORS TO LEAD MISSION CONTROL

HOUSTON -- NASA has selected three new flight directors who will
manage and carry out shuttle flights and International Space Station
expeditions. Dina Contella, Scott Stover and Ed Van Cise will join a
select group of individuals who lead human spaceflights from Mission
Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"Since the first flight director, Chris Kraft, was selected during
the
Mercury era, 77 men and women have served as flight directors. One of
the new flight directors will be the 80th in the history of U.S.
human spaceflight," said John McCullough, chief of the Flight
Director Office at Johnson. "Dina, Scott and Ed are senior flight
controllers who have lead management experience and an average of 10
years of flight control experience."

A flight director leads and orchestrates planning and integration
activities with flight controllers, payload customers, international
partners, and technical and program support across the agency. Flight
directors also are involved in developing plans and reviewing systems
for future Constellation Program exploration missions. All of the
recently selected individuals will begin training as space station
flight directors.

"This group will help us transition the knowledge and experience from
the existing human spaceflight programs into the development and
execution of our exploration program with the new Orion spacecraft in
the years to come," McCullough said.

Contella was born in Austin, Texas, and earned a bachelor's degree in
aerospace engineering from Texas A&M University in 1992. She began
working at NASA in the cooperative education program in 1990. Since
1995, Contella has served as a space shuttle and space station flight
controller and astronaut instructor responsible for planning,
training and executing spacewalks.

Contella served as the lead spacewalk, or Extravehicular Activity
Officer, liaison to Russia during early station construction. After
the Columbia accident, she was instrumental in the development of
repair tools and techniques for the space shuttle's thermal
protection system. From 1993 to 1995, Contella was an astronaut
instructor in the Shuttle Data Processing System Navigation group.

Stover was born in Chambersburg, Pa., but considers Lemasters, Pa.,
to
be his hometown. He earned a bachelor's degree in aerospace from
Pennsylvania State University in 2000, and a master's degree in Space
Architecture from the University of Houston in 2004.

Since 2000, Stover has supported six space shuttle assembly flights
to
the station as a member of the Power, Heating, Articulation, Lighting
and Control, or Phalcon team that manages the space station's
electrical power system. He has led the group since 2008. He was
group leader during a space station expedition mission and two
shuttle missions, including the STS-120 mission, supporting the
relocation and reactivation of the Port 6 power module and the
Harmony node.

Van Cise was born in Bay City, Mich., and earned a bachelor's degree
in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
in 2000. Van Cise joined NASA as a member of the Operations Support
Officer, or OSO, which coordinates station repair, maintenance and
assembly operations in 2000. Most recently, he has served as special
assistant to the director of Mission Operations in a leadership
development assignment.

Prior to that, Van Cise had been lead of the Mechanisms and
Maintenance Training Group since 2007, responsible for the training
of astronauts and flight controllers in skills and techniques needed
to repair, maintain and assemble the station. In 2006, he was on
staff in the Flight Director Program Integration Office, and worked
as a space station flight controller for the OSO and Telemetry,
Information, Transfer and Attitude Navigation, or Titan, groups. The
Titan discipline oversees attitude control, communications and
command, and data handling systems of the station during Houston
nighttime and weekend hours.

Photos of the new flight directors are available at:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/.../ndxpage1.html

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

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