spacetoday.net: NASA names deputy directors at 2 centers

Posted: Fri, Jun 11, 2004, 8:47 AM ET (1247 GMT)
NASA

NASA has selected new deputy directors for two of its field centers, in one case tapping the wife of another official at that center. On Wednesday NASA announced that Lesa Roe will be the new deputy director of the Langley Research Center in Virginia. Roe is the wife of Ralph Roe, a former shuttle manager reassigned in the wake of the Columbia accident last year; he is now the director of NASA Engineering and Space Center at Langley. NASA spokesmen said that, on occasions when Langley director Roy Bridges is not available, Lesa Roe would have no oversight responsibilities over the center, which would instead report to NASA Headquarters. Lesa Row had been as associate director responsible for business management at Langley since arriving at the center last August. On Thursday NASA named Steven Schmidt as the new deputy director of the Dryden Flight Research Center in California. Schmidt, who worked at Dryden for several years in the 1990s, is currently serving as executive director for the President's Commission on Moon, Mars, and Beyond.