Dana Weigel, the primary lady to helm the Worldwide Area Station program supervisor, says she’s excited to supervise a lot industrial house exercise on the orbiting advanced.
Weigel formally took helm of the Worldwide Area Station (ISS) program supervisor place on Sunday (April 7), succeeding Joel Montalbano. She was beforehand deputy ISS program supervisor and has 20 years of expertise in quite a few high-profile NASA roles.
Working instantly alongside Montalbano in administration since 2021, she stated, “I’ve gotten a whole lot of expertise with the challenges which might be there,” Weigel advised Area.com on March 28, together with working with different companies or answering questions for the U.S. State Division.
She praised Montalbano’s mastery of worldwide associate relationships, together with spending prolonged stays at different nations to be taught the tradition and norms, saying she needs to do the identical. (Montalbano, for his half, was promoted to deputy affiliate administrator of house operations on April 7.)
Associated: NASA’s Dana Weigel would be the 1st feminine ISS program supervisor
The ISS program supervisor place has existed since 1994, and the primary items of the orbiting advanced flew to orbit in 1998. Weigel has seen the ISS by a lot of that historical past, as flight director (2004 to 2014), deputy chief of the flight director workplace (2012 to 2014) and supervisor of the house station automobile workplace (2014 to 2021), previous to turning into ISS deputy program supervisor and now ISS program supervisor.
Weigel stated her job is supported by a “actually attention-grabbing, various staff that spans throughout the globe (and) throughout a number of NASA facilities right here within the U.S.”, centered on issues similar to “breadth of of teaching and mentoring and issues to move on to newer generations.”
That enormous staff can also be very busy, she famous. As one instance: The ISS hosted 40 “dynamic operations” in 2023: which means dockings, berthings, spacewalks and related actions. And much more actions are taking place with this system within the coming years.
Just lately, the ISS has swiftly grown right into a industrial hub, and it is getting busier by the month. SpaceX often flies astronauts to the orbiting advanced, whereas Boeing Starliner is anticipated to do the identical no sooner than Might. Other than the long-term industrial crew missions these firms execute on behalf of NASA for six months every, Axiom Area runs half-month non-public missions on SpaceX to the ISS as nicely. Cargo is flown from the U.S. aboard SpaceX, and Sierra Area’s Dream Chaser might run its first demo flight with cargo as quickly as June.
“The highest precedence is to have the ability to safely and efficiently execute all of these actually advanced missions,” Weigel stated of her focus. Other than security, nonetheless, the ISS will play a key help within the Artemis program to deliver astronauts to the moon later within the decade, similar to testing spacesuits and “de-risking” vital applied sciences for future missions similar to life help methods.
This industrial launch exercise is all other than the tons of of economic experiments that run on board the ISS. “There are tons of and tons of of publications,” Weigel stated, referring to peer-reviewed analysis — a metric of effectiveness within the science group. To call only one instance, she stated artificial retinas are being manufactured in house proper now on board ISS.
The ISS partnership is at present anticipated to final till 2030, with Russia (underneath fireplace for its ongoing warfare in Ukraine) anticipated to step apart as quickly as 2028. NASA is within the early levels of funding a set of economic house stations that can take over the analysis. At this early date, it’s arduous to say if these house stations might be prepared by decade’s finish. Weigel, in the meantime, is concentrated on smoothing the transition as a lot as attainable. Non-public astronaut missions with Axiom are a begin, she stated, in addition to the industrial science missions.
“There’s a whole lot of exploratory early improvement work we’re doing to use analysis and manufacturing on board to see what would possibly make sense as a enterprise case, or one thing that may assist industrial enterprise circumstances, but in addition have returned profit on the grounds,” Weigel stated.
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