Sun, Sep 03, 2006
Veteran astronauts and
Flight Crew Operations Directorate managers Ken Bowersox and Kent
Rominger have announced intentions to depart from NASA.
Both will be vacating their current positions later this month.
Pending his retirement from the Navy, Bowersox will move to a
position supporting Michael Coats, director of NASA's Johnson Space
Center. Rominger will leave the agency in September to pursue an
opportunity in the private sector.
“Ken and Kent have each made invaluable contributions to
space exploration and to this country,” said Coats. "Their
dedication and leadership have been a key contribution to the safe
return of the space shuttle to flight and to the resumption of the
International Space Station's assembly in orbit. We'll miss them
and we wish them the best."
Astronaut Ellen Ochoa will become director of flight crew
operations. Ochoa has served as deputy director of flight crew
operations since 2003. She will be the first female and the first
Hispanic to lead that office, which oversees the Astronaut Office
and Aircraft Operations. Ochoa is a veteran of four
spaceflights.
Succeeding Ochoa as deputy director of flight crew operations
will be astronaut Mike Bloomfield, a veteran of three space shuttle
flights including commander of STS-110. Astronaut Steve Lindsey,
who commanded space shuttle mission STS-121 in July, will become
chief of the Astronaut Office. Lindsey has flown four shuttle
missions.
Bowersox (pictured above) became the director of flight crew
operations in February 2004 after four shuttle flights and a
long-duration mission on the International Space Station. He served
as a commander of both the space shuttle and the International
Space Station and led on-orbit activities in science operations,
Hubble Space Telescope servicing and space station operations.
Rominger (above) has served as chief of the Astronaut Office
since 2002. He has completed five shuttle flights, commanding two
and serving as pilot on three. He has logged more than 1,600 hours
in space. His missions included two shuttle flights to the
International Space Station. Rominger also flew on both the longest
and second longest shuttle missions in history.
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