Pennsylvania Native Named NASA Flight Director

While attention is focused on the astronauts orbiting Earth aboard the International Space Station, it’s someone down below on the ground who’s turning the lights on and off each day and making the thrusters go.

Mary Lawrence, one of five new flight directors named in September 2015 to manage International Space Station operations, at the NASA's Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center in Houston on Jan. 4, 2016. NASA via AP

ERIE, Pa.—While attention is focused on the astronauts orbiting Earth aboard the International Space Station (ISS), it’s someone down below on the ground who’s turning the lights on and off each day and making the thrusters go.

Soon, that person will be Wattsburg native Mary Lawrence.

“We get to do the real flying of the International Space Station,” she said.

The graduate of Seneca High School and Penn State Behrend was one of five new flight directors named in September to manage International Space Station operations from NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston.

Lawrence, 36, a daughter of Patrick and Judy Good, of Wattsburg, is in training and hopes to be certified in a few months to support real-time operations as one of 27 active flight directors for NASA.

“We’re the lead of the flight control team,” she said.

NASA said its flight directors lead teams of flight controllers, research and engineering experts, and support personnel.

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