Ms. Pamela Melroy joined DARPA in January 2013 after serving as the acting Deputy Associate Administrator and Director of Field Operations in the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation. As acting Deputy Associate Administrator, she was responsible for developing human commercial spaceflight safety guidelines and oversaw interagency policy coordination with the White House, NASA, and the Department of Defense on space policy. As Director of Field Operations, she was responsible for overseeing and growing activities from three to six field offices supporting operational safety oversight, licensing and inspection of commercial space activities.
Formerly, Ms. Melroy served as the Deputy Director, Orion Space Exploration Initiatives at Lockheed Martin Corporation from August 2009 until April 2011. Prior to her position at Lockheed Martin, she was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA and held several key positions within the NASA shuttle program from 1994 until 2009, including Crew Module Lead on the Columbia Reconstruction Team, Deputy Project Manager for the Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Team, and Branch Chief for the Orion Branch of the Astronaut Office. She served as pilot on two shuttle missions (STS-92 in 2000 and STS-112 in 2002), and was the Mission Commander on STS-120 in 2007. She was the second woman to command a space shuttle mission. She has logged more than 924 hours (38+ days) in space.
Ms. Melroy was commissioned through the Air Force ROTC program in 1983 and attended Undergraduate Pilot Training at Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock, Texas, graduating in 1985. She flew the KC-10 for 6 years at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, La., as a copilot, aircraft commander and instructor pilot. Ms. Melroy is a veteran of Operations JUST CAUSE and DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM, with more than 200 combat and combat support hours. In June 1991, she attended the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Upon graduation, she was assigned to the C-17 Developmental Test Program, where she served as a test pilot until her selection for the Astronaut Program. She retired from the Air Force in February 2007.
Ms. Melroy holds a Bachelor of Arts in Physics and Astronomy from Wellesley College and a Master of Science in Earth and Planetary Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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