Since 2024, Dina Contella has served as International Space Station (ISS) deputy program manager at NASA. Her considerable responsibilities, which are handled here on Earth, involve helping with the day-to-day management and overall operations of that habitable satellite and microgravity laboratory. ISS, which resides in low Earth orbit (LEO), has the distinction of being both the first space station constructed and crewed via international collaboration and the largest human spacecraft ever built.
Contella, who is of Mexican descent, was born in Austin, Texas. She graduated from Texas A&M University (TAMU) with a B.S. in aerospace, aeronautical, astronautical/space engineering in 1992. While she was still a student at TAMU, Contella began working at NASA’s Johnston Space Center (JSC) in Houston via a cooperative education program.
Contella started her first post-graduate position at NASA in 1993. This position entailed serving as an astronaut instructor for crews assigned to fly aboard space shuttle orbiters, which were essentially spaceplanes used for travel between Earth and the ISS. (This type of spacecraft was also deployed for other missions in LEO.) As an instructor, Contella specialized in computer and navigation systems installed on those orbiters.
In 1995, Contella became extravehicular (EVA) activity instructor and flight controller for NASA. Her duties in this position encompassed planning spacewalks for astronauts and training these individuals in that specific EVA in LEO. Contella remained in this job until 2007, when she was appointed the lead for the EVA Tasks Group. As the person in charge of this group, she led 30 people (both NASA employees and contractors) in ensuring that astronauts’ spacewalks and other EVA tasks were carried out as safely and efficiently as possible.
After a couple of years as the lead for the EVA Tasks Group, Contella was named mission control flight director. Contella remained in this role for nearly a decade and, throughout her time at the mission control center at JSC, she played a key part in preparations for various spaceflights and the actual carrying out of these operations.
From 2019 to 2021, Contella served as a control account manager responsible for the schedules, costs, and technical oversight of both NASA employees and contractors working within a wide range of NASA functional areas that included spacecraft imagery analysis, cargo packing, and payload operations.
Contella went to serve as the ISS program operations integration manager. Her chief duties in this role involved the overall management and integration of a variety of operational elements constituting the ISS program. She continued in the position until her appointment as ISS deputy program manager.
Over the years, Contella has received several major awards for her work at NASA. These have included an Outstanding Leadership Medal, a Space Flight Awareness Award, a Silver Achievement Award, and a total of three NASA Exceptional Service medals. She is also a recipient of the Silver Snoopy, a special award given by NASA to employees and contractors who have made noteworthy contributions to the safety and success of human spaceflight missions.
Photo Credit: NASA
For more information on Dina Contella, please check out https://www.nasa.gov/people/dina-contella/
Additional information on Hispanic Americans at NASA is available at https://www.nasa.gov/gallery/faces-of-nasa/page/9/?trk=public_post_reshare-text
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