Michele_Brekke
Michele Brekke
American NASA official
Michele Brekke (née Hank) is a former flight director in NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) Space Shuttle Mission Control Center. She is notable for having been the first woman selected as a NASA flight director. She began the flight director training protocol in November 1985. On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded moments after launch, destroying the orbiter and killing the entire crew. The Space Shuttle Program was in stand down for ~2 1/2 years while the accident was investigated. Brekke continued the flight director training protocol while the Space Shuttles were grounded. During this time, she was flight director for mission simulations in Mission Control. She also lead the On-Orbit Flight Techniques meetings, completing thorough reviews of nominal and malfunction procedures and adding rationale to the Flight Rules. In 1988, although offered a flight director assignment on one of the missions to follow return-to-flight, Brekke choose to leave the Flight Director Office, citing family priorities as the reason. Following several years as a Payload Integration Manager in the Space Shuttle Program Office, she was selected as the first woman NASA Flight Manager. She served as Flight Manager for six Space Shuttle missions. She retired from NASA in 2014 after 37 years of service. After retiring from NASA, she joined Special Aerospace Services where she was a flight manager for the Boeing CST-100 Starliner missions until 2022.