Mark Hess

Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

December 16, 1991
(Phone: 202/453-4164)

Ed Campion
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
(Phone: 202/453-1134)

Release: 91-208

Nicholson Named Shuttle Program Director

Leonard S. Nicholson today was named Director, Space Shuttle

program replacing Robert L. Crippen who, as previously announced,
will become the Director, Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Fla.
Nicholson's new position becomes effective Jan. 1, 1992.
Nicholson will head up the restructured Space Shuttle organization
from KSC.

The restructured Space Shuttle organization reflects

recommendations made to NASA by former Deputy Administrator James
R. Thompson to streamline Shuttle management by dissolving the
Shuttle Program Office at NASA Headquarters and locating the core
of the Shuttle Program Managment Team at KSC.

Effective Jan. 1, the Program Director function will reside

at KSC. Functions formerly conducted at Headquarters, such as
systems engineering and analysis, program control and development
of the Shuttle manifest, will be consolidated under the Program
Director at the field offices.

A small Space Shuttle program staff will remain at NASA

Headquarters to support necessary external activities and to
provide a continuous linkage between Headquarters and the program
in the field. A complete description of the restructured program
organization will be released shortly after the first of the year.
Civil service personnel who served in the Shuttle Program Office
at NASA Headquarters are being relocated into other divisions at
Headquarters.

Nicholson currently serves as Deputy Director, Space Shuttle

Program, where he is responsible for the development of the Space
Shuttle Program's elements, including the orbiter, external tank,
solid rocket boosters, Space Shuttle main engines, the facilities
required to support mission operations and in the planning
necessary to efficiently conduct Space Shuttle operations.

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Nicholson was named to his current position in 1989. Prior

to that, he served as Manager, National STS Integration and
Operations, NSTS, Johnson Space Center (JSC), Houston.

Nicholson joined NASA in 1963 as an aerospace engineer in the

Spacecraft Integration Branch at JSC. He has held a number of
senior positions at JSC, including Technical Assistant to the
Manager, Apollo program; Manager, STS Operations Office, Shuttle
Payload Integration and Development Program; Technical Assistant
to the Director; and Manager, Mission Integration Office, National
STS Program.

A 1963 graduate of West Virginia University with a M.S. in

mechanical engineering, Nicholson has received a number of NASA
awards, including the Exceptional Service Medal and two NASA
Outstanding Leadership Medals.

Born in Atlanta, Ga., Nicholson is married to the former

Linda Fogarty of New Orleans, La.

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