NASA Chooses Three New Flight Directors to Lead Mission Control

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 roller 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.

SOURCE NASA