Ron Dittemore and Michael Kostelnik - GPN-2003-00087

Ron D. Dittemore (born April 13, 1952 Cooperstown, New York) is a former

Space Shuttle program The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. I ...

manager for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

Education

Ron Dittemore graduated from

Medical Lake High School Medical Lake High School is a four-year Public school (government funded), public secondary school in Medical Lake, Washington, Medical Lake, Washington (state), Washington, the sole traditional high school in the Medical Lake School District (#326 ...

Medical Lake, Washington Medical Lake is a small city in Spokane County, eastern Washington, United States. At the 2010 census, the population was 5,060. The city is the site of a psychiatric hospital, Eastern State Hospital, and of Fairchild Air Force Base, two major e ...

in 1970. He received a bachelor's degree in aeronautical and

astronautical engineering Astronautics (or cosmonautics) is the theory and practice of travel beyond Earth's atmosphere into outer space. Spaceflight is one of its main applications and space science its overarching field. The term ''astronautics'' (originally ''astronaut ...

from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

in 1974, and a master's degree in the same subjects one year later.

Career

Before joining

at Johnson Space Center (JSC) in 1977, Dittemore worked as a turboprop/turbofan engine development engineer in Arizona. While at JSC, Dittemore held several positions, including

flight director Flight controllers are personnel who aid space flight by working in such Mission Control Centers as NASA's Mission Control Center or ESA's European Space Operations Centre. Flight controllers work at computer consoles and use telemetry to mon ...

on 11

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program ...

missions, deputy assistant director of the Space Station Program, and manager of Space Shuttle Program Integration. He assumed the position of manager of the Space Shuttle Program in 1999. Dittemore was the Shuttle Program Manager for

at the time of the disastrous loss of Space Shuttle '' Columbia'' in February 2003. Dittemore announced his resignation from

in April 2003.

Current Occupation

Dittemore is currently retired. Previously, he was the president of ATK Launch Systems Group, formerly known as ATK

Thiokol Thiokol (variously Thiokol Chemical Corporation(/Company), Morton Thiokol Inc., Cordant Technologies Inc., Thiokol Propulsion, AIC Group, ATK Thiokol, ATK Launch Systems Group; finally Orbital ATK before becoming part of Northrop Grumman) was an ...

Propulsion, of Brigham City, Utah. ATK ( Alliant Techsystems) was selected in December 2005 as the prime contractor for the first stage of

Ares I Ares I was the crew launch vehicle that was being developed by NASA as part of the Constellation program. The name "Ares" refers to the Greek deity Ares, who is identified with the Roman god Mars. Ares I was originally known as the "Crew Launc ...

Personal

Ron Dittemore is married to Shirley Ann Seibolts. They have two children. Dittemore is a member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dittemore, Ron 1952 births Living people Latter Day Saints from New York (state) Dittemore, Ron University of Washington College of Engineering alumni People from Cooperstown, New York People from Medical Lake, Washington Latter Day Saints from Washington (state)