William
M. Foster is the lead Space Shuttle Ground Control Officer (GC)
at the Mission Control Center in Houston. He has worked as a
contractor in Mission Control for thirty years, starting as a
Research and Development Engineer for Ford Aerospace responsible
for various MCC terminal systems. Due to changes in contracts,
Foster progressed through several companies while moving into an
engineering management role responsible for all network
interfaces and console systems in the MCC. After 17 years in
Engineering, he transferred into the GC Office, which is the
senior operations position responsible for all MCC systems and
networks. He currently works for Honeywell Technology Solutions,
Inc after various times with Bendix Field Enginerring
Corporation, which became Allied Signal Technical Services
Corporation, United Space Alliance, Lockheed Marten and
Cimarron, Inc. According to Foster, the opportunity to work for
a variety of companies without even trying is just one of the
benefits of being a NASA contractor, but being part of history
as humans continue in the early stages of reaching for the stars
is the real attraction!
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Bill Foster at
the GC console in the White Flight Control Room (WFCR),
the shuttle control room in Houston, during the STS-117
mission to the ISS in 2007.
Foster has supported all Space Shuttle
missions since STS-90 in April 1998 from the GC console, and
worked the Ascent/Entry shifts for all missions since STS-95 in
October of 1998. He has been the lead Ascent/Entry GC for 38
missions and is currently scheduled to support all remaining
missions in this capacity. Foster was recognized with a Silver
Snoopy Award, the personal recognition from the Astronaut Corps
in 2001. He was also picked to hang the plaque in the MCC after
the STS-105 mission in August of 2001, an honor bestowed on the
MVP of the Flight Control Team by the Lead Flight Director of
each mission. He was recognized with a Spaceflight Awareness
Award in 2003 and scheduled to go to KSC to see the launch of
STS-114, scheduled to launch a month after STS-107. The trip was
deferred until STS-115 so he could work the Return to Flight
mission that STS-114 had become, but did not actually see the
launch due to delays associated with a lightning strike on the
pad two days prior to the planned launch. Foster was inducted
into the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels a few months after
the Columbia accident in 2003 although still does not know why
or by whom; the ornate certificate, signed by Paul E. Patton,
the Governor of Kentucky, simply showed up at his desk one day.
More recently, Foster was presented with the Foundations of
Mission Operations Award by the Flight Director Office for
technical excellencs and for being the “keeper of the
traditions” in the MCC. This includes organizing the plaque
hanging ceremonies, conducting tours for the public and visiting
dignitaries and developing new methods of using MCC display
systems to maintain a high level of situational awareness in the
room during critical periods.

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In 2003 Foster
participated in the filming of Gene Kranz’ documentary
“Failure Is Not An Option” for the History Channel,
portraying an Apollo era Flight Controller. Not much air
time, but a lot of fun to work on.
In 1999, Foster served as a technical advisor
to Liz Radley, the Video & Computer Graphics Supervisor on the
film Space Cowboys and through her, was introduced to Michael
Okuda, who was the Scenic Art Supervisor and Technical
Consultant for Star Trek productions at the time. Okuda began providing graphic support to Mission Control
and Foster provided occasional technical advice or MCC graphics
for the ongoing Star Trek productions. Following the Columbia
accident in 2003, Foster and Okuda collaborated to create the
Spaceflight Memorial Emblem, remembering the three crews lost in
spacecraft related accidents in the United States. This emblem
was included on the rear cover of the Columbia Accident
Investigation Board and was recently taken to the summit of
Mount Everest by astronaut Scott Parazynski.
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Bill Foster and
Michael Okuda on the transporter pad on Enterprise
NX-01. Okuda was providing Foster and several Flight
Directors a tour of the Enterprise set back in 2004.
Based on the influence of Okuda’s artwork,
Foster began creating emblems for all the active duty Flight
Directors. Each Flight Director picks a color or symbol to
represent their team, beginning with the first ones, Chris Kraft
(RED Flight), Gene Kranz (WHITE Flight) and John Hodge (BLUE
Flight). They have run out of useful colors to use so have moved
on to constellations, elements and other names symbolic of the
virtues they want to associate with their team. Providing a
graphic to go with the team name has been another way to
symbolize the traditions that Flight Controllers live by in
supporting human spaceflight as the journey to the stars
continues, albeit slower than preferred.
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Bill Foster
stands behind STS-114 Commander Eileen Collins following
a training mission in one of the Shuttle Training
Aircraft (STA) at Edwards Air Force Base in 2004 during
preparations for the return to flight mission after the
Columbia accident. Foster was part of a network team
using the STA as a platform to simulate shuttle
communications for the Dryden Tracking Station.
Foster plans to continue supporting as a GC
for the ISS program following the end of shuttle missions,
currently scheduled to happen in late 2010. He is hoping the
program gets extended so the US continues to have the ability
for heavy up mass and down mass for the ISS until such time as
we have another viable way to perform this critical support
function for the orbiting laboratory, and to continue to
provide the US with access to low earth orbit for any other
reason that might be required.
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Foster on the
bridge of the Enterprise with Captain Archer, thanks to
Mike Okuda. He would normally not take guests up to cast
members, but Scott Bakula had just had a private phone
conversation with Mike Fincke on the ISS a few minutes
earlier and when he found out there were people from
Mission Control on the set, took us to the bridge and
posed for photos.
Foster lives in La Porte, Texas with his wife
of 25 years and two of his four children, the other two being
married. He has a Bachelors Degree in Physics from the
University of Houston Clear Lake focusing on Electro-Optics and
is an Eagle Scout.
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