The Langley Research Center,located in Hampton,Virginia near the Chesapeake Bay front of Langley Air Force Base,is the oldest of NASA's field centers. LaRC has focused primarily on aeronautical research but has also tested space hardware such as the Apollo Lunar Module. In addition,many of the earliest high-profile space missions were planned and designed on-site. Langley was also considered a potential site for NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center prior to the eventual selection of Houston,Texas.
Robert Laurel Crippen is an American retired naval officer and aviator,test pilot,aerospace engineer,and retired astronaut. He traveled into space four times:as pilot of STS-1 in April 1981,the first Space Shuttle mission;and as commander of STS-7 in June 1983,STS-41-C in April 1984,and STS-41-G in October 1984. He was also a part of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL),Skylab Medical Experiment Altitude Test (SMEAT),ASTP support crew member,and the Approach and Landing Tests (ALT) for the Space Shuttle.
Charles Frank Bolden Jr. is a former Administrator of NASA,a retired United States Marine Corps Major General,and a former astronaut who flew on four Space Shuttle missions.
Roy Dubard Bridges Jr. is an American pilot,engineer,retired United States Air Force officer,test pilot,former NASA astronaut and the former director of NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center and Langley Research Center. As a command pilot,he has over 4,460 flying hours,and is a decorated veteran of 262 combat missions during the Vietnam War. He retired as a U.S. Air Force major general,last serving as the Director of Requirements,Headquarters Air Force Materiel Command,Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,Ohio,from June 1993 until his retirement. He is married with two adult children.
Bryan Daniel O'Connor is a retired United States Marine Corps Colonel and former NASA astronaut. He was inducted into the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2008.
Ellen Ochoa is an American engineer,former astronaut and former director of the Johnson Space Center. In 1993,Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman to go to space when she served on a nine-day mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. Ochoa became director of the center upon the retirement of the previous director,Michael Coats,on December 31,2012. She was the first Hispanic director and the second female director of Johnson Space Center.
The University of North Texas System is a public university system headquartered in Dallas,Texas. It is the administrative overseer of three otherwise autonomous Texas institutions of higher learning:the University of North Texas,a comprehensive research institution based in Denton;the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth;and the University of North Texas at Dallas in South- and Downtown Dallas.
Shana L. Dale is an American politician and lawyer. She served as the Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the George W. Bush administration from 2005 to 2009.
Hans Michael Mark was a German-born American government official who served as Secretary of the Air Force and as a Deputy Administrator of NASA. He was an expert and consultant in aerospace design and national defense policy.
The Cockrell School of Engineering is one of the eighteen colleges within the University of Texas at Austin. It has more than 8,000 students enrolled in eleven undergraduate and thirteen graduate programs. The college is ranked 10th in the world according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities,11th nationally for undergraduate programs and 7th nationally for graduate programs by U.S. News &World Report. Six of the nine undergraduate programs and seven of the thirteen graduate programs are ranked in the top ten nationally. Annual research expenditures are over $267 million and the school has the fourth-largest number of faculty in the National Academy of Engineering.
Renu Khator is the fifth chancellor of the University of Houston System and the thirteenth president of the University of Houston. In 2008,she became the first female chancellor in the state of Texas and the first Indian immigrant to lead a comprehensive research university in the U.S.
Serena Maria Auñón-Chancellor is an American physician,engineer,and NASA astronaut. She visited the ISS as a flight engineer for Expedition 56/57 on the International Space Station.
The National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) is a non-profit research and graduate education institute headquartered in Hampton,Virginia,near NASA's Langley Research Center.
Michael R. Williams is an American osteopathic physician and the current chancellor of the University of North Texas System. On November 29,2021,Williams - the sixth president of the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth,Texas - was appointed by the University of North Texas System Board of Regents as the fifth UNT System Chancellor,effective Jan. 1,2022 succeeding Lesa Roe.
Walter Charles Williams was an American engineer,leader of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) group at Edwards Air Force Base in the 1940s and 1950s,and a NASA deputy associate administrator during Project Mercury.
George Henry Born was an American aerospace engineer,Distinguished Professor,founder and Director Emeritus of the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR) at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is known for his work in satellite navigation and precise orbit determination. He worked on various missions while at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as well as navigation support for the Apollo program in the late 1960s while at Johnson Space Center.
Leroy Stevenson (Skipp) Fletcher is an American mechanical and aerospace engineer,and college dean,who served as the 104th president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1985–86,and was recipient of the 2002 ASME Medal.
Stephen G. Jurczyk is an American engineer who served as the Acting Administrator of NASA. He previously worked at Langley Research Center in Hampton,Virginia.
Janet E. Petro is an American engineer and civil servant currently serving as the 11th director of NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center. She was appointed by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on June 30,2021,making her the first woman to serve as director. Petro previously served as deputy director at the John F. Kennedy Space Center.
