HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Teresa Bowman Vanhooser, a Johnson City, Tenn., native, has been appointed manager of the Flight Programs and Partnerships Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
Appointed to the position in September 2011, Vanhooser holds primary responsibility for managing the implementation of the center’s work portfolio in the areas of human exploration projects and tasks; flight mission programs and projects; and external partnerships. The office performs program and project management to deliver products and services to NASA, other government agencies, international partners and the commercial space development community.
Vanhooser, who was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2000, helps manage a team of more than 248 civil service and contractor employees in the Flight Programs and Partnerships Office and directs an annual budget of more than $108 million. The Senior Executive Service is the personnel system covering top managerial, supervisory and policy positions in the executive branch of the federal government.
“The Flight Programs and Partnerships Office plays a vital role in meeting NASA’s strategic goals by maintaining key space station hardware and supplying spare parts through 2020, or beyond,” said Vanhooser. “The office also will manage a host of low-cost robotic programs for NASA, provide key support to help enable our commercial space partners to succeed in their endeavors and grow the center’s partnerships –which will aid in developing technology that is applicable to NASA’s mission needs.”
From 2010 to 2011, Vanhooser was director of Ares Projects at the Marshall Center. She led an organization of 1,100 civil service and 2,600 support contractor employees in developing NASA’s Ares I rocket. Her responsibilities included the overall integration of the launch vehicle system, and development of a first stage derived from the current space shuttle booster and motor elements, and a new upper stage powered by a J-2X main engine. From 2009 to 2010, Vanhooser was acting manager for Ares Projects; she served as deputy manager for Ares Projects from 2007 to 2009.
From 2004 to 2007, she was co-deputy director of the Engineering Directorate at Marshall. She helped lead an organization of nearly 1,400 employees responsible for designing, testing, evaluation and operation of hardware and software associated with space transportation, spacecraft systems and science instruments and payloads under development at the center. The directorate also manages the Payload Operations Center at Marshall — the command post for scientific research on the International Space Station.
Vanhooser served as deputy director of the Flight Projects Directorate in 2004. She was responsible for project management, design, development, integration, testing and operations of ground and flight systems for the space station, along with overseeing operations of the Chandra X-ray Observatory — the world’s most powerful X-ray telescope. The directorate also managed the multi-purpose logistics modules, or moving vans used to carry supplies via the space shuttle to the station.
From 2000 to 2004, she served as manager of the Payload Operations and Integration Department, overseeing all space station science research experiment operations, payload training and safety programs for the station crew and ground support personnel, and the development, integration and delivery of multiple payload racks.
From 1987 to 2000, Vanhooser served in the Flight Projects Office in a variety of leadership positions. She was manager of the Space Station Utilization Office from 1997 to 2000, where she was responsible for the space station ExPRESS racks, formally named the Expedite the Processing of Experiments to the Space Station. She oversaw development and integration of the racks and pallets, as well as station payload operations.
From 1994 to 1997, she was mission manager of Microgravity Science Laboratory-1, a mission in which a series of 29 experiments were performed in a pressurized Spacelab module onboard the shuttle. She was assistant mission manager from 1987 to 1994 of the first ATLAS mission, and later managed the ATLAS-2 mission — the shuttle-borne, remote-sensing laboratory that studied Earth’s atmosphere, as well as the sun’s influence on Earth and its climate system. She began her NASA career at Marshall in 1980 as an engineer in the Ground Systems Analysis Branch, where she was responsible for defining, developing and documenting requirements for integration and testing of payloads for the Spacelab carrier, used to conduct science experiments in the shuttle’s payload bay.
Vanhooser is a native of Johnson City, Tenn. She earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville in 1980, and a master’s degree in administrative science with an emphasis on project management from the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 1986.
She has received numerous NASA awards, including a NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2011 for her leadership during the transition of the Ares launch vehicle development effort to align with changing agency goals; a Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executives — the highest honor for career federal employees — in 2006; and a NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal in 1994 for her management of ATLAS-2. In 1992, she was presented a Silver Snoopy award by the Astronaut Corps for her contributions to the success of human spaceflight missions — specifically for her support of ATLAS-1. In 2007, she was presented the Engineer of Distinction Award — the highest award offered to alumni from the College of Engineering at Tennessee Technological University.
Vanhooser and her husband Mike reside in Madison, Ala.
