Michele Brekke

Michele Brekke is a former flight director in NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) Space Shuttle Mission Control Center. She is notable for having been the first female NASA flight director. She presently holds the position of Manager, Visiting Vehicle Operations Integration, Transportation Integration Office at JSC.

Space Shuttle payloads and mission operations
Brekke was hired as an astronaut instructor by JSC soon after she completed a Master's degree in aerospace engineering at the University of Minnesota. She applied for an astronaut position but was not selected. After five years she began work as a payload officer in Mission Control. As a payload officer, she coordinated activities between NASA and its payload customers who wanted satellites launched or cargo taken into orbit. In 1985 Brekke was selected to join the flight director office, the first female to achieve this distinction.

Space Shuttle Flight Manager
As a Flight Manager, Brekke was responsible for the day-to-day decisions regarding mission design, operations and integration. This typically began about a year and a half prior to launch. Following launch, during the mission, she was a member of the Mission Management Team. As such, she reported on daily progress and accomplishments of payload/cargo operations.

Manager, Customer and Flight Integration
Brekke performed operations and integration for Space Shuttle missions.

NASA Loaned Executive to Houston Technology Center
Brekke's position was as a "business accelerator" for technology start-ups.

Director, Innovation Partnerships and Technology Transfer
Brekke facilitated partnership development through Space Act Agreements and patent licensing.

Manager, Visiting Vehicle Operations Integration
Brekke is responsible for operations integration for vehicles visiting the International Space Station.