Michelle Frieling, the Director of the Human Health and Performance (HH&P) directorate at JSC, will provide insights into how HH&P ensures that crew members will be at their peak, both on the ground and during flight, in order to perform their mission tasks.
The Human Health and Performance Directorate is the primary organization focused on humans living, working, and thriving in space, on the moon and on to Mars. Their mission is to lead the global spaceflight community in protecting astronaut health and ensuring human mission performance.
Ms. Frieling began her aerospace career with Wyle Laboratories at JSC in 1999 as a Biomedical Flight Controller focusing on medical operations for both the space shuttle and International Space Station programs. She then moved into overseeing Space Medicine training operations, where she helped design and identify innovative training techniques for astronauts and ground crew.
Michelle utilized her expertise in human spaceflight operations to concentrate on the emerging commercial human spaceflight market. As the co-chair of the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Council (COMSTAC) Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) working group Task Force on Training, Michelle helped author the Commercial Human Space Operations Training Standards. For several years. Michelle served as the Flight and Medical Operations Department manager, overseeing 300 staff members who were responsible for crew and ground medical operations, radiation operations, ISS medical project implementation, behavioral health and performance, epidemiology, and industrial hygiene.
She served as the program manager for the Human Health and Performance Contract, a $150 million/year contract with more than 1000 employees supporting research, medical, and human systems engineering for NASA’s Human Health and Performance Directorate.
Michelle received her Bachelor of Science degree in molecular biology at Vanderbilt University in 1996. She is actively involved in the Aerospace Medicine Association and is a past president of the Space Medicine Association of the Aerospace Medicine Association. She is a proud recipient of the Silver Snoopy.
