![\"Mark](\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/vande-hei.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>This article is from the 2025 Technical Update.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n The exact date when the crew of Space Shuttle Columbia was lost is readily recalled by Patrick Forrester, as it likely would be for any NASA employee in service that Saturday morning when the Shuttle broke up during reentry. Forrester had flown to ISS for the first time in 2001 aboard Discovery in support of the STS-105 mission. He was scheduled to fly again shortly after Columbia\u2019s February 1, 2003 return. That date is now a somber anniversary etched in his memory.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cI had three classmates on Columbia,\u201d Forrester said. \u201cAs an astronaut class, you are even closer because you are selected together and go through that initial training together.\u201d That was the reason he said yes when asked to join the NESC in 2009 as the NESC Chief Astronaut\u2014the liaison between the NESC and the Astronaut Office. \u201cThe NESC was started after the Columbia accident, and it was really just an honor to be part of that organization where the focus was to make sure that didn\u2019t happen again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The NESC has had an astronaut liaison for most of its 22-year history. \u201cIt stands to reason that the individuals the NESC works so hard to protect should have a seat at the table,\u201d said NESC Director Tim Wilson.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Chief Astronaut gives them direct access to the NESC for insight into technical activities that might affect them and a forum for voicing concerns that otherwise might not have surfaced. The interface gives us access to them as well; astronauts have lent their expertise and unique perspectives to many NESC assessments over the years. As the agency\u2019s front-line risk takers, they are by definition our primary stakeholders, and much of what we do revolves around ensuring the risks they take are well-understood and mitigated.\u201d\u00a0 The current and some of the former Chief Astronauts shared their perspectives on how they feel about the NESC and whether this organization\u2014designed to increase the overall safety of their jobs\u2014was\u00a0 accomplishing that mission.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Patrick Forrester<\/strong>\u00a0 It would be four years after Columbia that Forrester would fly again. That was June 2007 aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis as part of STS-117, where he helped deliver the second starboard truss and third set of solar arrays to ISS.\u00a0\u00a0During his years with the NESC, Forrester assisted in NESC assessments or arranged for others from the Astronaut Office to participate. He recalled being a part of an NESC review of the astronaut pre-breathe protocol used before extravehicular activities, and he also worked with fellow astronaut Dr. Nancy Currie, who at that time was a principal engineer for the NESC, to assess the procedures and plans to ensure alternative means of return for STS-135 in the event Atlantis could not provide it. Since the other Space Shuttle orbiters had retired, rescue capability via Space Shuttle was not an option for this mission, he said. \u201cWe came up with the plan of how they could stay on the space station and use a Russian Soyuz to get them back.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Forrester always felt, however, that his primary mission was to educate others about the NESC, which was a relatively new organization at that time. \u201cI tried to help them understand that the NESC was engineering. This is what we do. This is what we need. It was one of my goals when I served: to help people understand what the NESC did.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n After leaving his NESC post to become chief of the Astronaut Office, he continued to call on the NESC during the lead-up to the launch of SpaceX Crew Dragon Demonstration Mission-2, the first SpaceX flight with crew aboard. \u201cI was feeling the weight and the responsibility as the chief of putting Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on that rocket for the first time. I took a lot of comfort in knowing how involved the NESC was in those decisions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Barry \u201cButch\u201d Wilmore<\/strong>\u00a0 Following Forrester\u2019s tenure, Butch Wilmore served as the NESC Chief Astronaut for two years.\u00a0 A former Navy test pilot, Wilmore joined NASA in 2000, flying three missions to the ISS, including his most recent as commander of the Boeing Starliner\u2019s first crewed flight. He took on the NESC liaison role already well acquainted with the NESC\u2019s mission.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very familiar with the certification, flight readiness, the flight readiness reviews, and how the NESC is used to validate some of the assumptions and the engineering that takes place. And I wasn\u2019t just aware of the organization, but knew exactly what it did and what benefit it was,\u201d Wilmore said.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWhen I worked with the NESC, it gave me knowledge to understand more of what and how they went about doing things\u2014that deep engineering analysis. And as an operator, I don\u2019t dig into the engineering analysis. I just see big picture. So, when I would see something that wasn\u2019t right, I knew the NESC could work on it and figure out why it didn\u2019t look right to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Wilmore ended his NESC tenure when he was chosen as the Starliner commander, but continued to reach back whenever he needed answers to the multitude of questions that arise in flying a spacecraft for the first time. \u201cCertainly when I became the commander of Starliner, there were things that I knew I wanted the NESC to have purview over.\u201d\u00a0In its support of the Commercial Crew Program, the NESC not only assisted in the lead-up to the flight, but helped troubleshoot propulsion issues it experienced on its way to ISS and with the plans to bring the crew home. \u201cThe NESC obviously has been a big help in all organizations,\u201d Wilmore added. \u201cI think that the role it plays is vital, and I wish it was larger.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Scott Tingle<\/strong>\u00a0 Scott Tingle was selected in June 2009 to the astronaut corps, serving as a flight engineer and U.S. Operational Segment Lead for Expedition 54\/55, where he spent 168 days aboard the ISS. His training for spaceflight involved many discussions about the Columbia accident.\u00a0 \u201cWe debriefed it 100 times,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we\u2019re talking safety issues\u2014Apollo, Challenger, Columbia\u2014they always come up, and there are always really good lessons learned.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n With his naval aviation and engineering background, Tingle said it didn\u2019t take him long to get a feel for how the NESC worked. \u201cThey really get their fingers on the pulse of operations, which is what I think is one of the high value things they do.\u201d When it came to filling in engineering gaps, Tingle liked having the NESC to lean on, \u201cnot only because of their engineering perspective, but because it\u2019s independent. They\u2019re not involved in the politics and everything that goes with it. And they have the end user and the operators in their heart and soul,\u201d said Tingle. \u201cThis is the product that you get out of the NESC. It\u2019s just a huge value because of that.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cHaving folks able to dive into the technicals, it really helps us. And it doesn\u2019t just help us, it helps the crew, it helps the program, it helps the contractors, it helps our technical authorities. It helps everybody just to have people with that capability.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He remembers when the NESC ramped up material testing to address an issue the astronaut corps was working. \u201cThey were able to get results very quickly. They really do fill the gap when it needs to be filled. They help us catch the things that we can\u2019t catch.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Being an astronaut was always on Tingle\u2019s career agenda, and that obsession was deeply rooted at an early age. \u201cI remember watching on TV Neil Armstrong stepping out onto the moon. I was four years old at the time, and me and my mom were watching in our living room.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In a way, that is part of what he thinks makes the NESC so valuable. \u201cThey have not forgotten their roots. They haven\u2019t forgotten the users who actually use this equipment and the value of the overall human spaceflight community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Sometimes that value is only seen in hindsight. \u201cWhen we finally get up and running with all of these vehicles, I think you\u2019re going to be able to go back and list all of these actions the NESC supported and how they helped provide critical information. You\u2019re going to end up seeing that, \u2018Wow, this was really transformational. This really helped us with our overall direction. It helped us be successful,\u2019 \u201d Tingle said. \u201cI\u2019m honored to have been a part of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Mark Vande Hei<\/strong>\u00a0 \u201cI think the fact that NASA\u2019s been willing to invest the talent and the resources to have an organization that can do a really deep dive with a second, third, fifth set of eyes, with the best technical experts and the perspective of knowing what\u2019s going on across NASA, is a hugely beneficial thing,\u201d said Mark Vande Hei, the current NESC Chief Astronaut.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Relatively new to the organization, he\u2019s been getting up to speed. \u201cI\u2019ve already seen programs like the ISS repeatedly pull in NESC expertise to help out.\u201d In his own experience, he sought NESC advice to help understand the risk posture associated with batteries. \u201cI knew it was something we could fix, but it was going to cost money. And so the emphasis was on \u2018how risky is this? Can we accept this risk?\u2019 \u201d Help from the NASA Technical Fellow for Electrical Power helped him make decisions on what avenues to pursue.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n He also asked the NESC to convey the risks associated with leaks in the Russian\u00a0PrK\u00a0module. \u201cI wanted to have both sides hear directly what the other\u2019s perspective was. I was\u00a0 impressed with the NESC\u2019s professionalism,\u201d said Vande Hei, in discussing a topic that has been controversial at times. \u201cIn addition to their technical skills, there\u2019s an impressive interpersonal skill set that comes along with the folks on the NESC, too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Having already spent more than 500 days in space, Vande Hei is focused on the next generation. \u201cThere are a lot of other people who haven\u2019t flown yet, and we need to get them to space because they\u2019ll still be around when we\u2019re doing much more challenging missions to the Moon and Mars. And they need to get the experience to be ready for those things much more than I do.\u201d Even today, Vande Hei said the emotions he goes\u00a0through when he watches astronauts launch, \u201cI\u2019m a mess. It\u2019s rough, but it\u2019s great. I call it \u2018horribly amazing.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n ____________________\u00a0<\/p>\n Today, 22 years in and with nearly 1,400 assessments behind it, the NESC has won the respect of the programs and projects it supports, and some of it was earned with the help of its astronaut liaisons. \u201cThey helped us prove we could add value to NASA missions and bring new perspectives to their technical problems,\u201d said Wilson. \u201cWe keep a photograph of the Columbia crew in the NESC office, but our astronaut liaisons are living, breathing reminders of why we do this work.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Pat Forrester, now retired from NASA, considers his time with the NESC well spent. \u201cYou always want to be able, if there is an accident, to look at the remaining family and let them know you did everything that could be done. The amount of involvement the NESC has is limited only by funds and people, so I know how hard everyone works on those assessments,\u201d he said. \u201cI appreciated it so much when I was in that role where I felt like I was carrying a lot of the burden.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n Get The Details…<\/a> This article is from the 2025 Technical Update. The exact date when the crew of Space Shuttle Columbia was lost is readily recalled by Patrick Forrester, as it likely would be for any NASA employee in service that Saturday morning when the Shuttle broke up during reentry. Forrester had flown to ISS for the first [\u2026] Continue reading
NESC Chief Astronaut 2009-2016\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/figure>
NESC Chief Astronaut 2018-2020\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/figure>
NESC Chief Astronaut 2020-2022\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a><\/figure>
NESC Chief Astronaut 2023-present\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a><\/figure>
\nMeagan Chappell <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"