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Inside NASA's Mission Control Center with its longest-serving flight director Paul Dye

Flight director Paul Dye monitors data at his console in the space shuttle flight control room in the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center during STS-134 flight day two activities. Photo: NASA
Bill Stafford-NASA-JSC
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NASA’s Mission Control Center is responsible for the safety of its astronauts and space hardware. It takes a special kind of person to take on that responsibility. NASA’s flight controllers and directors are there in the MCC 24 hours a day, 7 days a week keeping our astronauts safe and helping them conduct on-orbit science and maintenance.

When he retired from NASA in 2013, Paul Dye was the longest serving flight director, tallying 39 missions during his tenure.

His new book Shuttle, Houston: My Life in the Center Seat of Mission Control chronicles his four decades in aviation and takes us behind the scenes to NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas.

We’ll talk with Paul about his career and what it takes to be a flight director.

Brendan Byrne is Central Florida Public Media's Assistant News Director, managing the day-to-day operations of the newsroom, editing daily news stories, and managing the organization's internship program. Byrne also hosts Central Florida Public Media's weekly radio show and podcast "Are We There Yet?" which explores human space exploration, and the weekly news roundup podcast "The Wrap."