Planning for Failures - Using a Toothbrush to Repair a Space Station with Ed Van Cise

The Space Association of Australia Inc., the Royal Aeronautical Society - Melbourne Branch and One Giant Leap Australia, are pleased to present: Planning for Failures - Using a Toothbrush to Repair a Space Station with Ed Van Cise.

Ed Van Cise is a NASA flight director responsible for supporting the current and future operations on the International Space Station.

The International Space Station is a unique off-world research laboratory where out-of-this-world science is conducted every day. It is also a remote outpost in space that requires reliable maintenance and logistics planning, and well-trained crews, operators, and engineers to work through contingencies. The methods used by the leadership laboratory that is Mission Control, in Houston, Texas, and around the world, for managing this unique spacecraft can be directly mapped to the management of operations and assets.  This even includes using a toothbrush to save a spacewalk.

Entry is free but bookings are essential:  REGISTER HERE 

Ed Van Cise
Flight Director at NASA’s Johnson Space Center
Houston, Texas

Ed Van Cise – call sign “Carbon Flight” – was selected as a NASA Flight Director in 2009. He had previously worked in human spaceflight with the International Space Station (ISS) project since 1998 and has been certified to operate a number of different systems of the ISS over the course of his career, accumulating over 6,000 hours of console experience in ISS operations along the way. These operational areas include: Space Station Structures and Mechanisms; In-Flight Maintenance; Motion Control; Command and Data Handling; and Communication and Tracking systems.

Ed’s experiences include not only direct command and control of the space station but also the instruction of astronauts and flight controllers, as well as the management of groups that perform that work. He has also accumulated over 90 minutes of zero gravity experience on NASA’s ‘Vomit Comet’ reduced gravity aircraft and has used his SCUBA certification to dive on the full size ISS mockups in NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory.

Ed has a Bachelor’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan. The US Space and Rocket Center's Space Camp was a major influence on Ed's career planning and in the Summer of 2012 he was inducted into the US Space Camp Hall of Fame. Other honours include: a NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, a NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, multiple NASA Team Awards and multiple NASA Group Achievement Awards. 

Entry is free but bookings are essential:  REGISTER HERE