As a child in rural California, Phil Engelauf watched the Apollo missions with growing interest. Now he's in a position to help humans prepare for a return to the moon and for more distant space voyages.

Image at right: Chief Flight Director Phil Engelauf is pictured in his official NASA portrait. Credit: NASA

He was named lead flight director at NASA's Johnson Space Center earlier this month. He will lead the elite group that directs NASA’s space shuttle and International Space Station missions. His team has begun planning for those more distant missions.

“As we look forward to going back to the moon, I find myself recalling a lot of what I learned while I was in school following along with the Apollo program,” Engelauf said. “It is interesting to see it from this side of the fence. We’re learning how to apply what we know now to problems that were solved in a different era. But now we are trying to resolve them with new technologies, new capabilities and new experiences behind us.”

Only 67 people have served as NASA flight directors, or are in training to do so, in the 40-plus years of human spaceflight. Engelauf is in charge of 26 active flight directors. He follows in the footsteps of the legendary Chris Kraft and Gene Kranz, who defined the role of flight director during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions.

Jeff Hanley handed over duties to Engelauf as acting chief of the office when Hanley was selected to manage NASA’s Constellation Program in November 2005. One of Engelauf’s first duties will be to select a group of new flight directors and help groom them as NASA’s future leaders.

“When you look back over the years at the ranks of flight directors and where they have gone, it’s a very impressive group that has really made a difference at NASA,” Engelauf said. “The idea that I’m bringing people into that group is very humbling and exciting.”

Image at left: Phil Engelauf works in Mission Control as flight director for the STS-100 space shuttle mission in April of 2001. Behind him is flight director Steve Stich. Credit: NASA

Engelauf was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the highest honor awarded by NASA, in 2004 for supporting more missions as the lead flight director than any other flight director throughout NASA’s human spaceflight history, 29. He was lead flight director for 11 of them.

Before becoming a flight director in 1990, he worked as a flight planner in the Mission Control Center, beginning with the fourth shuttle mission, in 1982. He had transferred to the Johnson Space Center that same year after beginning his career with NASA at the Ames Research Center in Sunnyvale, Calif., in 1978.

Engelauf was raised in Rubidoux, near Riverside, Calif. He holds a B.S. in engineering and applied science from California Institute of Technology and an M.S. in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford.