NASA Appoints Dina Contella and Bill Spetch for ISS Program

Ibadan, 22 May 2024. – NASA selected Dina Contella as the deputy program manager and Bill Spetch as the operations integration manager for the agency’s International Space Station Program, effective Sunday, June 2.

Contella is succeeding Weigel, who became space station program manager in April, and the two will share overall management of the International Space Station, including development, integration, and operations, as well as its cargo and commercial missions. Likewise, Spetch will oversee day-to-day operations, maintenance, and research aboard the orbiting laboratory, taking over the position held by Contella.

Contella has more than 30 years of experience in various roles supporting the International Space Station, Artemis, and the space shuttle. For the past two-and-a-half years, she was the operations and integration manager, responsible for leading real-time aspects of the program, including chairing the International Space Station mission management team. Similarly, Spetch has 27 years of experience supporting the space station throughout his career. He most recently was the office manager responsible for the health and integrity of the space station, including sustaining, sparing, and integrating commercial elements onto the station and providing real-time engineering support.

Before her work in the space station program, Contella held technical and management positions, including Gateway program mission integration and utilization manager, Advanced Exploration Systems lead for utilization and logistics across multiple Moon-to-Mars programs, and lead for an industry study to enhance NASA’s understanding of commercialization of low Earth orbit. Likewise, Spetch was the station transportation integration office manager, acting space station mission integration and operations manager, space station transportation integration office deputy manager, and station Vehicle Integrated Performance Environments and Resources team manager before his most recent role.