New Flight Director Scott Stover to Lead NASA’s Mission Control

Penn State alum Scott Stover was selected as one of three individuals to join the ranks of flight directors in Mission Control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Tasked with managing a team comprised of flight controllers, support personnel and engineering experts, a flight director assumes the overall responsibility for the execution of shuttle missions and space station expeditions.

Scott Stover was born in Chambersburg, Pa., but considers Lemasters, Pa., to be his hometown. He earned a bachelor’s in Aerospace Engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 2000, and a master’s in Space Architecture from the University of Houston, in 2004. Since 2008, has been a lead in the Power, Heating, Articulation, Lighting and Control (PHALCON) group that manages the space station’s electrical power system. A member of the PHALCON group since 2000, he has supported six space shuttle assembly flights to the station. He was lead PHALCON for two shuttle missions and one space station expedition, including the STS-120/10A, supporting the relocation and reactivation of the Port 6 power module and the Harmony module.

"Since the first flight director, Chris Kraft, was selected during the Mercury era, 77 men and women have served as flight directors. One of the new flight directors will be the 80th in the history of U.S. human spaceflight," said John McCullough, chief of the Flight Director Office. "This is a very strong class with senior flight controllers who have an average of 10 years of flight control experience, and nearly two years of group lead management experience."

A flight director leads and orchestrates planning and integration activities with flight controllers, payload customers, international partners, as well as technical and program support across the Agency. Flight directors also are involved in developing plans and reviewing systems for future Constellation Program exploration missions. All of the recently selected flight directors will begin training as International Space Station flight directors.

“This group will help us transition the knowledge and experience from the existing human spaceflight programs into the development and execution of our exploration program with the new Orion spacecraft in the years to come,” McCullough said.