Moderator

Dana Weigel is presently serving as the International Space Station (ISS) Program Manager. She is responsible for the overall management, development, integration, and operation of the International Space Station. This nearly $3B per year, 15-nation program encompasses the design, manufacture, testing and delivery of complex space flight hardware and software and its integration with modules from international partners into a fully functional and operating space station with a permanent human presence. In addition, the Program Manager is responsible for policy development, international partner negotiations, all cargo missions, development of low-Earth orbit commercialization, onboard research and utilization, and the overall safety and health of the crew and on-orbit vehicle.

Prior to her role as the Program Manager, Weigel served as the Deputy Program Manager for the ISS Program Office, sharing associated responsibility with the Program Manager for day-to-day management of the program. Weigel also worked as the ISS Vehicle Office Manager responsible for sustaining, sparing, and developing space station vehicle systems and payload facility hardware, managing the vehicle risks, and integrating commercial and international partner elements into the station.

Previously, Weigel served as the deputy chief of the Flight Director Office from 2012 through 2014. During that time, she led the Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Recovery Team responsible for investigating and recovering from a major spacewalk in-flight anomaly. Prior to that, she spent 2011 to 2012 serving as Deputy Manager of the Mission Operations Space Transportation Division. From 2010 to 2011 she led a NASA Headquarters-sponsored Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite servicing habitat study. This multi-center, multi-agency team focused on assessing capabilities and technologies needed to repair satellites, perform spacewalks, and live in GEO.

Weigel was also a NASA Flight Director from 2004 through 2014. During this time from 2006 to 2009, she served as lead NASA Flight Director for Expedition 13, the STS-123 (1J/A) mission which delivered major Canadian and Japanese elements, and the first H-IIB Transfer Vehicle (HTV) mission. Weigel was the lead ISS Flight Director from 2008 through 2011.

Weigel started her career with Barrios Technology in 1994 as an EVA Officer and became a NASA civil servant in 2004. She was appointed ISS Deputy Program Manager on June 20, 2021, and most recently as ISS Program Manager on April 7, 2024.

Weigel holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University.