Paul Hill (flight director)

Transcription

>> Dan Huot: So joining me here now in Mission Control Houston, it's a real privilege, I have our veteran flight director and our flight director for Orbit 2 for the week, Mr. Paul Dye. This is his final week as a flight director here at NASA. Paul, first off, I really want to thank you, coming on and talk to me for a little bit, sharing all your experiences with me today. >> Paul Dye: Sure, Dan, it's great. >> Dan Huot: So, I want to jump right in. How has this last week felt? I mean, you're a flight director, you're a very integral part of the human space flight program. How's this last week felt so far? >> Paul Dye: Well, it's actually been quite fun. You know, I was afraid that it was going to be a little bit sadder than it has been, but the truth is that I've been very, very privileged to fly spacecraft for the United States for many, many years, and flew the entire shuttle program, and now finishing up with the station, and I did station as well, but finishing up, dedicated a station the past year and a half has really been fun because I've been able to work with a lot of young folks and pass on a lot of the things that were passed on to me by the early Apollo veterans. And so the week hasn't been as sad as I thought it might be. It's actually been a lot of fun just to work with the flight controllers again. >> Dan Huot: And we've been keeping it pretty light. We've been having the good [laughter] quote dress codes this week. You can see today was Vest Day; we had an Apollo Day yesterday, which was really cool. >> Paul Dye: Yes, we did. We had White Shirt and Skinny Black Tie Day yesterday just to remind people where we come from and think about the history. >> Dan Huot: And let's jump into your history really quick. Now, you started here as a student and in the cooperative program. >> Paul Dye: That's right. I came here as a student from the University of Minnesota, back in my, I guess it was my junior year of college, after my junior year of college, and didn't know what I was going to be doing. But it turned out that the Operations Group had seen my resume and I'd been flying, I was a commercial pilot when I was young, and I'd been in the diving business when I was young in college. And they said hey, here's a guy who knows operations, real-time operations, let's snap him up. And so I came here as a flight controller and worked on some of the very earliest shuttle missions and moved on to being a senior flight controller pretty quickly and then was a flight controller for about a dozen years before I was selected as a flight director in 1993. >> Dan Huot: Tell me a little bit about your experience as a flight controller. Now, when you are the flight director, you're overseeing every flight controller. You are the flight controller, you're the hive brain, that's you. How did your experiences, just, you know, one of the flight controllers here in the room, how did that really help you get to where you were? >> Paul Dye: You know, there probably isn't any better leadership school than Mission Control here in the frontroom. And that's not just for flight directors, it's flight controllers as well, because every frontroom flight controller has a backroom of flight controllers that supports them, and so you have to lead your backroom, you have to learn to trust your backroom just as the flight director needs to learn to trust his frontroom flight controllers. You learn how the business works. When we get selected as a flight director, we're given basically a year of training, and people say, well golly, you know, you learned to be a flight controller, and, you know, you learned to be a flight director in a year. And I said, no, I learned to be a flight director in 12 years as a flight controller, watching how flight directors worked and learning the spacecraft systems, not just learning the systems I was responsible for but learning everybody else's systems, and that's what made me qualified, like other flight directors, to be a flight director. We were looking outside of our own responsibilities to really look at the big picture. >> Dan Huot: So really, really being part of a team, eventually leading the team. >> Paul Dye: Yeah, yeah, you've got to be part of the team. I always joke around with flight controllers -- it's not really a joke, but it's a thought experiment -- when I'm talking with FCR frontroom flight controllers in training, and I tell them at some time we're going to do a simulation where just before we start the sim I'm going to make everybody in the room switch consoles. >> Dan Huot: [Laughter]. >> Paul Dye: And the idea behind that thought experience, or experiment, is to get them to think about what would terrify them the most, what console would terrify them the most, and I ask them that, and then I say, well that's what you need to go study. I assume that if you've made it to the frontroom, you're already an expert on your own systems. What you need to learn is how to interface with everybody else, and that's what's really valuable. >> Dan Huot: Now, let's jump right into, you made it as a flight director, now your very first mission STS-63, that was a hallmark mission really in U.S.-Russian relations. That was the space shuttle did a fly-around and a rendezvous with Mir. Nowadays, you know, U.S. and Russian space agencies, it's an everyday thing. What's it been like to really see the progression from that very first, you know, big partnership step to where we are today? >> Paul Dye: Well, I'll tell you the story behind that was that it really, I started working with the Russians before that in 1992 we were, there was a meeting between our president and their president, and they decided that we needed to work together better, and they thought maybe the space programs could do that, and so our agency head met with their agency head and they said, you know, our presidents said we should do something together, so let's get some experts together. And a very small team of Americans, myself included, went over to Russia and we sat across the table from our counterparts in Russia, and we said, well, our government said we should work together, what do you think we can do with each other in space? And they said, well, we have this space station but we don't have a shuttle, and you guys have a shuttle but you don't have a space station, so maybe we can go visit each other. And that's where it came from. And because I was working on that as a senior flight controller and got very deeply involved with that, it made me better prepared to be selected as a flight director, and lo and behold, I worked all of the shuttle Mir missions. We had a very small team of people who worked all the shuttle Mir missions because the Russians really like working with particular people, not with a person with a title but with, they want to work with Paul. Once they know Paul, they want to work with Paul. >> Dan Huot: They want to establish that relationship, and [laughter]. >> Paul Dye: [Inaudible] the relationship's important. >> Dan Huot: So you became their go-to. >> Paul Dye: That's right, and there was a small group of us that did that. So we worked, a small group that did all those missions. And there was a lot of time where we had to discover how each was different but we really discovered that we were very, very similar, and I told you that when [inaudible] sitting across a table, you could point at a guy and say he looks like a ground controller... >> Dan Huot: [Laughter]. >> Paul Dye: ...that guy looks like an instrumentation officer, and sure enough, that's what they were. That's the way they worked, is very similar to the way we work, and here today when we work with them on a constant basis -- we have Russians here, and we have Americans over there, and we're constantly talking back and forth -- we work very naturally together. >> Dan Huot: Okay. Now let's jump to the end. You were a flight director on the final shuttle mission, STS-135. >> Paul Dye: Right, right. >> Dan Huot: Want to see if you can go back to that day. How much did it mean to you to really be part of that... >> Paul Dye: [Laughter]. >> Dan Huot: ...flying it out, seeing the successful end of the space shuttle program? >> Paul Dye: I think that you have to understand that I'm basically an airplane guy. I grew up as a pilot, and silk scarf and goggles, and the like, and so to me the space shuttle was the highest flying, fastest flying airplane ever built, and there's nothing about the shuttle that I didn't like. I spent a lot of time flying it in the simulators, doing a lot of development work with the handling qualities and things like that. To see the program end was very tough because we could have kept flying that bird for a long time. I'm talking about from the standpoint of from engineering-wise and operations-wide, we could've kept flying that and it would've been nice. Here, we finished the station and it would've been nice to be able to continue carrying large loads up and large loads back. And so that last shuttle mission was a little tough. But the great thing about it is that we flew it as professionals right to the very end. We had people that were working on console that knew they were walking out the door when we landed, and they never let up, not one iota, until it was done. That's how much they cared about the program. >> Dan Huot: And these teams always shown so much dedication, and it's always been very impressive. Now before, you were talking to me, flight directors think fast. >> Paul Dye: Right. >> Dan Huot: Describe that again... >> Paul Dye: [Laughter]. >> Dan Huot: ...because that was very cool. >> Paul Dye: I think one of the hallmarks of flight directors, either by selection or by training, is that we tend to think very, very fast. We think of contingencies, and we think of multiple paths and multiple contingencies. And before we make a decision, we've probably gone very quickly through our mind, and if I do this I can get this, if I do this I go to this, and if this happens and this happens, and this happens, then, and that sometimes isn't apparent to other people. They just see us go, okay we're going to do this. And then they ask us, well, have you thought about that, have you thought about this, have you thought -- yes, I've thought about all that stuff, and I know that this is what I want to do. And that's probably one of the hallmarks of most of the people who've sat in the center seat here. >> Dan Huot: So, for all the flight controllers in this room that are maybe aspiring to someday become flight director and sit in your seat, what kind of, what advice would you give them? >> Paul Dye: They've got to get outside of their own systems, they've got to think the big picture, they need to constantly be thinking about how they serve the overall mission. Our goal is two things: flight safety and mission success. We want to make sure everybody comes home, and we want to make sure we accomplish the mission. It doesn't do any good to accomplish the mission and people don't come home, so you got to do both those. And in order to do that, you got to understand all the systems, you have to understand how they play together, you have to understand what the program wants and how that program needs to be accomplished. And today, with a space station, you have to understand all of the international partners, and how they contribute, and how they work. It's a vast program, and you can't do it without a great deal of help. We sometimes describe flight directors as the conductor of an orchestra. I'm not a virtuoso on every instrument... >> Dan Huot: [Laughter]. >> Paul Dye: ...I may be able to make noise with most of the instruments, and one or two of them I can probably play fairly well, but we have to depend on a big team, and you have to learn leadership and how to develop leadership, what leadership is. It's different than management. Leadership is about inspiration, it's about inspiring people to a vision. I can identify a leader in an instant by saying, "What's your vision?" And if they don't have one, then I know that they're not a leader. You have a vision, you make it so attractive to other people that they say, "I got to go do that," and the leader just needs to get out of their way and help provide them with the resources to get it done. >> Dan Huot: Well, hopefully we have a few more leaders sitting here listening in that are going to take note. >> Paul Dye: I think we will. >> Dan Huot: Well, as your, you know, as your time as a flight director is coming to an end, was there anything you're really, really going to remember from all the time you spent in this room, flying the shuttle? >> Paul Dye: [Laughter]. >> Dan Huot: Is there anything that's really going to stand out? >> Paul Dye: You know, people ask me that all the time, and the fundamental answer is I have had so many incredible moments doing what I've been allowed to do for 33 years that it's impossible to pick them out. It would be like choosing between which is your favorite child. We've just had so many incredible moments from beginning to end, and sometimes you stop and you go, "Wow! I can't believe I've been allowed to do that." People who are really enamored by space, and aeronautics, and the like, but haven't been given a chance to work here, would probably give just about anything to be involved, to have been involved in some minor way with one shuttle mission. I flew 39 missions as a shuttle flight director, nine of those as the lead. How can I possibly complain about anything? Every one was a highlight. >> Dan Huot: Well, it sounds like you certainly will be walking away with, you know, just as much as you put in I hope. >> Paul Dye: Oh, yeah. It's been an incredible experience. >> Dan Huot: Any big plans for afterwards? Anything exciting you're looking forward to? >> Paul Dye: Well, I've always been an airplane guy, and I'm going to continue being an airplane guy. I'm pretty deeply involved in experimental aviation, flying and building airplanes, and helping to test airplanes and work on designs. I'm an advisor with the Experimental Aircraft Association, I'm big into operations, and safe flight testing, and things like that. So, we have a lot of things to work on in that area, and flying is wonderful. >> Dan Huot: Alright, well, best of luck with that, you know, stay safe in the air. You certainly have a lot of experience with flying safe, so I have no doubt you'll continue to carry that on. >> Paul Dye: Okay. Thank you very much. >> Dan Huot: I really want to thank you real quick, Paul, so much. It's honestly, it's been a real privilege. It's been great sitting here with you and the team for your last week, and it really, it's been an honor. >> Paul Dye: Okay. Well thanks much. We'll see you tomorrow. >> Dan Huot: Best of luck in the future. >> Paul Dye: Okay. Bye-bye [background voices].