Federal Contractors | Technology 2024: DAWN M. SCHAIBLE

In July, Kurt Vogel, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), retired, setting off a reshuffling that resulted in Schaible becoming acting director of Langley Research Center, which employs about 3,400 scientists, engineers, researchers and staff at its 764-acre aeronautical research facility in Hampton. Langley’s previous director, Clayton Turner, was tapped as Vogel’s acting replacement.

Schaible began her NASA career in 1987 at the Kennedy Space Center, where she worked on the Space Shuttle and International Space Station programs. She had served since February 2023 as deputy director at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Before that, she led the NASA Langley Research Center Engineering Directorate and was NASA deputy chief engineer. She had also managed the Systems Engineering Office for the NASA Engineering and Safety Center, an agency branch created in the aftermath of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003.

Established in 1917 as the nation’s first flight-testing facility in the early years of aviation, the Project Mercury astronauts trained at Langley Research Center in the first years of the Space Race. Langley generates more than $1 billion per year for the Hampton Roads economy.