January 6, 2016
Vincent LaCourt, who received his B.S. degree in aerospace engineering at The University of Texas at Austin in 2003, is one of five new flight directors selected by NASA to manage the International Space Station Operations. He joins a select group of human exploration leaders in this role.
Flight directors at NASA are charged with leading teams of research and engineering experts and flight controllers, supporting personnel across the world.
According to NASA, these new flight directors will oversee teams of human spaceflight engineers and experts carrying out current and future human exploration missions. They will oversee U.S. commercial cargo spacecraft and American Commercial Crew Program transports now under development as they arrive at and depart from the space station.
They will also work with crew members to demonstrate new cutting-edge technologies about the space station that will help prepare them for missions to Mars and beyond.
Once these five new flight directors have completed training, NASA will have 27 active flight directors supporting exploration, the ISS, commercial spaceflights and new technology.
According to the NASA press release, LaCourt began his space career at the NASA Johnson Space Center as a member of the mechanisms and maintenance flight controller group. He gained certifications as an Operations Support Officer (OSO), Operations Support Officer Mechanisms (OSO MECH), and Repair and Mechanisms (RAM) instructor.
LaCourt supported numerous space shuttle flights and ISS Increments, including serving as lead for Increment 18, Flight 1JA and Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-3) mission. He also led OSO Team 4 during the STS-120 P6 Solar Array repair. He then moved to the role of Program Integration Engineer within the Flight Director Office, where his responsibilities included integrating technical/operational positions and presenting those positions to the ISS and Commercial Crew Program (CCP).
Prior to selection as a flight director, he was chief engineer of the Commercial Crew Branch within the Astronaut Office, managing technical and programmatic issues with CCP and its commercial partners (Boeing and Space X).
