Chief of the Astronaut Office

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Chief of the Astronaut Office is the most senior astronaut position at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Chief Astronaut serves as head of the NASA Astronaut Corps and is the principal advisor to the NASA Administrator on astronaut training and operations.

[edit] History

The position was created in November 1963 when Alan Shepard was named as the first Chief Astronaut. His responsibilities included monitoring the coordination, scheduling, and control of all activities involving NASA astronauts. This included monitoring the development and implementation of effective training programs to assure the flight readiness of available pilot/non-pilot personnel for assignment to crew positions on manned space flights; furnishing pilot evaluations applicable to the design, construction, and operations of spacecraft systems and related equipment; and providing qualitative scientific and engineering observations to facilitate overall mission planning, formulation of feasible operational procedures, and selection and conduct of specific experiments for each flight.

[edit] List of Chief Astronauts

  1. Deke Slayton (September 1, 1962 - November 1963)
  2. Alan Shepard (November 1963 - July 1969)
  3. Tom Stafford (July 1969 - June 1971)
  4. Alan Shepard (June 1971 - August 1, 1974)
  5. John Young (January 14, 1974 - April 15, 1987), Deputy was Paul J. Weitz.
  6. Dan Brandenstein (April 27, 1987 - October 1992), Deputy was Steven Hawley.
  7. Robert Gibson (December 8, 1992 - September 6, 1994), Deputy was Linda Godwin.
  8. Robert Cabana (September 6, 1994 - October 1997), Deputy was Linda Godwin.
  9. Kenneth Cockrell (October 1997 - October 1998)
  10. Charles Precourt (October 1998 - November 2002), Deputy was Kent Rominger.
  11. Kent Rominger (November 2002 - September 2006), Deputies were Andy Thomas and Peggy Whitson.
  12. Steven W. Lindsey (September 2006 - present), Deputy is Sunita Williams (February 2008 to present). Janet Kavandi served as Lindsey's first deputy.

[edit] External links

 This space- or spaceflight-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.