LeRoy E. Cain

Leroy E. Cain is a NASA engineer. Formerly a flight director, he became the manager of Space Shuttle Launch Integration at Kennedy Space Center in November 2005.

Born in Dubuque, Iowa, Cain earned a Bachelor of Science from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, in 1988.

Cain began working in the space industry in 1988 as a guidance and control systems engineer at NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston. He was responsible for pre-mission planning and real-time flight control support in the Mission Control Center for space shuttle guidance and control systems. Cain started as a contractor with the Rockwell Shuttle Operations Company and became a NASA employee in 1991.

In 1997, he became the manager of the Space Shuttle Ascent/Entry Guidance and Procedures Section, where he was responsible for pre-mission planning and real-time support in the Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center.

He then served as a NASA flight director in the Mission Operations Directorate, where he supported seventeen space shuttle missions, including six of those missions as the ascent flight director and eight as the entry flight director. Cain was entry flight director during the mission of STS-107, which broke up on re-entry. All seven crew members were killed.

Cain served in temporary roles as acting deputy manager of the Space Shuttle Program and acting deputy director of Space Shuttle Processing during a six-month rotational assignment to the Space Shuttle Program office at Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 2004. In November 2005 he became manager of Launch Integration at Kennedy Space Center. Reporting to Wayne Hale, he assisted with the overall management, integration and operations of the Space Shuttle Program and helped to define launch integration requirements between the Shuttle and International Space Station.

Cain has received numerous honors, including NASA Outstanding Performance Awards for five consecutive years; a NASA Outstanding Contribution award for the Ariane 502 Re-entry Observation Project in 1997; and a Certificate of Commendation from Johnson Space Center in 1996.

He lives in Merritt Island with his wife, Teri, and has three daughters.

Sources

* [http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/about/biographies/cain.html Kennedy Space Center Bio]