Charlie
Blackwell-Thompson
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson
NASA
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Charlie Blackwell-Thompson serves as launch director for NASA's Exploration Ground Systems Program, based at NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida. She will oversee the countdown and liftoff of NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft during its first flight test, called Exploration Mission-1. Named to the position in January 2016, Blackwell-Thompson is NASA's first female launch director. Her role includes leading and managing the launch operations planning and execution for the Exploration Ground Systems program and Exploration Systems Development Division, or ESD. She also serves as the cross-program lead to the Launch Integration team responsible for integration and coordination of launch operations across the three programs: SLS, Orion and EGS. In her role as launch director, she manages the development of all launch countdown plans, philosophy, and launch and scrub turnaround procedures and schedules, as well as training approaches.
Prior to being named launch director, Blackwell-Thompson served as the program's Test Management Branch chief. The branch manages test, launch, and recovery operations for EGS and the ESD. She also served as the chief of Launch and Landing through the retirement of the Space Shuttle Program (SSP), before taking a leadership position within the Ground Processing directorate at Kennedy upon the SSP completion.
Blackwell-Thompson is the holder of multiple patents related to launch vehicle interface standardization concepts, and command and control methods and systems. She has received numerous awards, including multiple Space Flight Awareness Team Awards, the astronaut's Silver Snoopy for her work on the Hubble Space Telescope, the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, and the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement Stellar Award.
Blackwell-Thompson graduated from Clemson University in 1988 with a degree in computer engineering.
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