NASA’s Dana Weigel (ideal) will be program supervisor for the International Space Station (noticeable at left). (Image credit: NASA)
A female will organize the International Space Station program at NASA for the very first time.
NASA’s Dana Weigel was called inbound long-term program supervisor for the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday (Feb. 26), being successful Joel Montalbano. As Weigel takes workplace on April 7, Montalbano will be promoted to deputy partner administrator of area operations, company authorities stated in a release.
Weigel is deputy ISS program supervisor today and has actually served for 20 years at NASA in functions consisting of supervisor of the spaceport station lorry workplace (2014 to 2021), deputy chief of the flight director workplace (2012 to 2014), and flight director (2004 to 2014).
“Dana’s depth of competence and International Space Station Program experience will contribute as we continue to check out low Earth orbit for the advantage of all mankind,” Vanessa Wyche, the director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, stated in the declaration.
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Weigel will be the seventh ISS program supervisor in the 30 years the position has actually existed, and the very first female in a long-term position. Previous supervisors, according to NASA and the Defense Media Network, were Randy H. Brinkley (1994 to 1999); Tommy W. Holloway (1999 to 2002); William Gerstenmaier, who is now with SpaceX (2002 to 2005); Michael Suffredini, now with Axiom Space (2005 to 2015); Kirk Shireman, now vice-president for moon expedition at Lockheed Martin (2015 to 2020); and Montelbano, who has actually held the position considering that 2020.
Weigel will be accountable for the “general management, advancement, combination, and operation of the orbital complex,” NASA authorities specified. The station has actually been continually inhabited because November 2000 and has actually hosted 276 people representing 22 nations up until now, according to firm data.
She takes the helm of the program as the ISS wants to quickly broaden personal involvement in both science and astronaut objectives, while preparing for a possible retirement as quickly as 2030. NASA has actually moneyed a set of personal spaceport station that will take control of ISS science in low Earth orbit; the ISS has actually done 3,000 experiments since September 2023 varying from medication to production, according to Science. Authorities are likewise obtaining a personal lorry that will deorbit the ISS when the brand-new stations are all set.
Congress and personal business are worried about a growing space in low Earth orbit science on NASA’s part, stating that China’s Tiangong area station will be the only option. (NASA can not participate in bilateral work or coordination with China under a 2011 instruction called the Wolf change, unless Congress offers reveal consent.)
Over the last few years, personal astronaut objectives have actually flown to the ISS by means of Axiom Space. NASA is likewise raising its astronauts by means of business team cars: SpaceX’s Crew Dragon considering that 2020, and possibly Boeing’s Starliner as quickly as April 2024.
