WASHINGTON — Shana Dale, who served as NASA deputy administrator during Michael Griffin’s tenure as administrator, is starting a similar position at the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s commercial space office in November.
George Nield, the FAA’s associate administrator for commercial space transportation, announced in an Oct. 10 memo that Dale will join the agency as deputy associate administrator, effective Nov. 3. Nield described her as “a long-time supporter of commercial space” in the memo.
Dale is best known in the space community for serving as deputy administrator of NASA from November 2005 to January 2009. In that position, she was responsible for day-to-day operations of the space agency. She also took on several strategic initiatives, including work on a global exploration strategy.
Dale has held several positions since leaving NASA. She worked for two-and-a-half years as a senior vice president at Dell Inc., leading the Science, Engineering, and Technology Services business sector that the company acquired in 2009 from the former Perot Systems. She served as a principal policy adviser for the House Science Committee for most of 2012, and most recently has been a senior fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, an Arlington, Virginia-based think tank devoted to technology policy issues.
Prior to becoming NASA deputy administrator, Dale worked for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as chief of staff and general counsel, and as the staff director for the House Science space subcommittee.
At the FAA, Dale succeeds George Zamka, a former astronaut who served as deputy associate administrator from March 2013 until July 2014. Zamka left the FAA to take a position at Bigelow Aerospace.
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