NASA names 4 new flight directors
Chloe Mehring felt like she was in a bad Mission Control simulation. One riddled with problems.
But this day in late 2019 wasn’t a training exercise for Mehring, the propulsion system’s officer on duty for launch. The Boeing CST-100 Starliner was traveling toward space, and it wasn’t flying right. There was a software issue, and the uncrewed spacecraft was poised to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
Mehring and her teammates were responsible for the jets used to maneuver the spacecraft into orbit after it separates from the rocket. They reported to the flight director, Richard Jones.
Under his direction, the team got the capsule into a safe orbit. It didn’t dock with the International Space Station as originally intended, but it did return to Earth. It was an experience of preparation and calm leadership that prompted Mehring to apply for the open flight director positions. On Monday, she was announced as one of four new flight directors
working at Houston’s Johnson Space Center.
“I’ve always been a very big advocate of camaraderie and teamwork and knowing that it takes more than just one person to get the job done,” Mehring said. “And seeing how (Richard Jones) led that team, I knew that was something I wanted to be a part of.”
Mehring, 35, Fiona Turett, 32, Diane Dailey, 38, and Brandon Lloyd, 35, are the newest cadre of flight directors responsible for human spaceflight missions. Both Lloyd and Dailey were raised in Texas; Plano and Lubbock, respectively.
They’re joining the likes of Gene Kranz, who led the moon landing portion of the Apollo 11 mission and, perhaps more famously, led the “Tiger Team” of flight directors who brought the Apollo 13 crew home after an oxygen tank exploded. Flight directors must be calm, collected and decisive. They make the real-time decisions critical to keeping astronauts safe in space.
Only 101 people, including this Class of 2021, have held the position. And only 19 have been women.
“I don’t notice the gender of people in the room because it’s usually a pretty good mix,” Turett said, “but it’s definitely exciting to have more women joining the office. Our boss, Holly Ridings, is the first female chief flight director as well.”
The Class of 2021 has collectively spent thousands of hours on console, sitting at the computers seen on TV (or at similar backroom computers) monitoring the space shuttle and International Space Station systems. They were at the ready to provide status updates and recommendations.
When not on console, Lloyd led a team that created emergency response plans for astronauts when Commercial Crew Program capsules were docked to the International Space Station. In this program, SpaceX and Boeing are building spacecraft to carry astronauts to the station.
His team’s procedures included how a crew would respond if there was a fire, cabin leak or toxic atmosphere when both the Russian Soyuz and a Commercial Crew capsule were docked to the station. In these scenarios, half the crew would go to one spacecraft and half the crew would go to the other. Lloyd spent about four years focusing on these types of procedures.
Similarly, Turett spent 18 months revamping the training for new flight controllers. She worked to create more structure around teaching the non-technical aspects of being a flight controller, such as communication, leadership and how to apply the flight controller’s knowledge to the context of the mission.
This showed Turett how a flight director is poised to help his or her team. Besides, the flight director position had been her favorite job during space camp in the eighth grade.
“I like engineering. I like problem solving,” Turett said. “But I also really like people, and I like working together. I like more of that type of environment versus being the expert on this one component that I just spend my whole life on. So for me, the variety of skills that it uses is really appealing.”
The new flight directors will spend the next several months in training. They’ll learn about various subsystems, ranging from robotics to spacesuits and exercise equipment. During non-COVID times, they would travel to NASA facilities around the country. Getting to know people is just as important as knowing systems.
Lloyd said they would try to find creative ways to accomplish this. Ultimately, they could be working as flight directors later this year.
“Our boss said that the goal is for us to be working console by the Thanksgiving holiday because the newbies have to take those shifts,” he said.
The exact timing will depend on when they’re qualified. Their training will culminate with a series of flight simulations for the worst possible day the space station could experience.
“I wouldn’t say that this was a goal of mine,” Lloyd said. “I’d say it’s a dream of mine because there is so much talent on our team. I’m just lucky that the stars lined up for me — pun intended, by the way — for me to get this. A lot of it is good fortune.”