Kyle Herring May 4, 1995
RELEASE: 95-032
SUNY, BUFFALO GRADUATE IN RUSSIA FOR HISTORIC SHUTTLE MISSION
State University of New York, Buffalo, graduate Gail Schneider (BS aeronautical engineering, 1983) recently served as a member of a NASA consulting group working in Russia during the Space Shuttle mission that rendezvoused with the Russian Space Station Mir.
Made up of several experts from NASA's Mission Control in Houston, Texas, the consulting group worked with Russian counterparts in the Mission Control Center, Kaliningrad, just outside of Moscow during Discovery's STS-63 mission in February that maneuvered within 37 feet of the Mir station and conducted a 360-degree fly around of the orbiting laboratory.
The group provided technical support, as required, for activities that occurred between Discovery and Mir through the completion of the rendezvous. The group included veteran Flight Director William Reeves, who headed the consulting team, communications specialist Harry Black, rendezvous expert Todd Miller, public affairs officer Kyle Herring and Gail Schneider a timeline expert for atronaut activities during flight.
The rendezvous and fly-around marked a significant step in the growing cooperative effort between Russia and the United States leading toward development of the International Space Station scheduled to be assembled in space beginning in 1997.
The next joint Russian/U.S. space mission is the launch of Atlantis in June to perform the first docking with Mir. The flight, called STS-71, will launch with two cosmonauts to be dropped off at the Mir station and return two cosmonauts and American Astronaut Dr. Norman Thagard who have been aboard the space station since March 16.
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Schneider has worked for 12 years in Mission Control as a Flight Activities Officer responsible for scheduling and managing astronaut timelines throughout Shuttle missions. She will be the lead for the second Shuttle/Mir docking mission (STS-74) scheduled for later this year.
She graduated from East Syracuse-Minoa High School in 1979, received a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering from SUNY, Buffalo, in 1983, a master of science degree in aerospace engineering from Stanford University in 1986, and a master of science in physical sciences from the University of Houston, Clear Lake, in 1993.
Her parents, Donald and Jean Schneider, reside in East Syracuse.
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