Ron D. Dittemore (born April 13, 1952 Cooperstown, New York) is a former Space Shuttle program manager for NASA. He was the shuttle program manager during the timeframe of the Columbia accident. He later served as President of ATK Launch Systems Group. He is currently retired.
Ron Dittemore graduated from Medical Lake High School in Medical Lake, Washington in 1970. He received a bachelor's degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from the University of Washington in 1974, and a master's degree in the same subjects one year later. [1]
Before joining NASA at Johnson Space Center (JSC) in 1977, Dittemore worked as a turboprop/turbofan engine development engineer in Arizona. While at JSC, Dittemore held several positions, including flight director on 11 Space Shuttle missions, [2] deputy assistant director of the Space Station Program, and manager of Space Shuttle Program Integration. He assumed the position of manager of the Space Shuttle Program in 1999. [3]
Dittemore was the Shuttle Program Manager for NASA at the time of the disastrous loss of Space Shuttle Columbia in February 2003. On February 5, 2003, Dittemore incorrectly asserted that foam debris from the shuttle's external tank that struck the left wing during the launch could not have caused the reentry disintegration of the shuttle. Dittemore announced his resignation from NASA in April 2003. [4] [5]
Dittemore is currently retired. Previously, he was the president of ATK Launch Systems Group, formerly known as ATK Thiokol Propulsion, of Brigham City, Utah. [6] ATK (Alliant Techsystems) was selected in December 2005 as the prime contractor for the first stage of NASA's Ares I. [7]
Ron Dittemore is married to Shirley Ann Seibolts. They have two children. [1] Dittemore is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. [8]
STS-1 was the first orbital spaceflight of NASA's Space Shuttle program. The first orbiter, Columbia, launched on April 12, 1981, and returned on April 14, 1981, 54.5 hours later, having orbited the Earth 37 times. Columbia carried a crew of two—mission commander John W. Young and pilot Robert L. Crippen. It was the first American crewed space flight since the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) in 1975. STS-1 was also the maiden test flight of a new American spacecraft to carry a crew, though it was preceded by atmospheric testing (ALT) of the orbiter and ground testing of the Space Shuttle system.
The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight in Houston, Texas, where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late US president and Texas native, Lyndon B. Johnson, by an act of the United States Senate on February 19, 1973.
STS-2 was the second Space Shuttle mission conducted by NASA, and the second flight of the orbiter Columbia. The mission, crewed by Joe H. Engle and Richard H. Truly, launched on November 12, 1981, and landed two days later on November 14, 1981. STS-2 marked the first time that a crewed, reusable orbital vehicle returned to space. This mission tested the Shuttle Imaging Radar (SIR) as part of the OSTA-1 payload, along with a wide range of other experiments including the Shuttle robotic arm, commonly known as Canadarm. Other experiments or tests included Shuttle Multispectral Infrared Radiometer, Feature Identification and Location Experiment, Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites, Ocean Color Experiment, Night/Day optical Survey of Lightning, Heflex Bioengineering Test, and Aerodynamic Coefficient Identification Package (ACIP). One of the feats accomplished was various tests on the Orbital Maneuvring System (OMS) including starting and restarting the engines while in orbit and various adjustments to its orbit. The OMS tests also helped adjust the Shuttle's orbit for use of the radar. During the mission, President Reagan called the crew of STS-2 from Mission Control Center in Houston.
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LeRoy Edward Cain is an American aerospace engineer who worked for NASA as a flight director, launch integration manager and deputy manager of the Space Shuttle Program. Cain may be best known to the public from footage and documentaries showing his work as the entry flight director for STS-107, the mission that ended in the catastrophic disintegration of Space Shuttle Columbia, February 1, 2003. Cain issued the famous "Lock the doors" command, initiating contingency procedures in mission control for the first time since the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster 17 years earlier.
DIRECT was a late-2000s proposed alternative super heavy lift launch vehicle architecture supporting NASA's Vision for Space Exploration that would replace the space agency's planned Ares I and Ares V rockets with a family of Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicles named "Jupiter". It was intended to be the alternative to the Ares I and Ares V rockets which were under development for the Constellation program, intended to develop the Orion spacecraft for use in Earth orbit, the Moon, and Mars.
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