MS. STILSON: As the Space Shuttle launch director, Mike Leinbach leads the launch team and makes the ultimate decision on launch day, go or no-go.
Mike is going to give us the inside story of what his job is like and how he handles the responsibility.
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MR. LEINBACH: Well, in my role as a launch director, the most visible portion, of course, is on launch day.
When I'm in the control room with my launch team, I essentially have the go, no-go for launch of the Space Shuttle.
So that's the most visible part of it.
But leading up to launch day, I'm essentially the Chief of Operations for all of NASA here at Kennedy Space Center, making sure that the orbiters
and ground support system and the Solid Rocket Boosters and the External Tank are being prepared properly, safely and meeting the major milestones
to protect the next launch date.
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The most fun part of it is representing the launch team who work so hard to get to launch day and then actually
getting down to T minus 0 where the Shuttle lifts off the launch pad. And then I get to represent them.
It's a privilege to represent them. It's an honor.
I also represent the technicians and the engineers who work on the vehicles daily. So it's not just the launch team, it's really the whole processing
team that, on occasion, I get to represent. And my role as a launch director in Return to Flight,
it's really making sure that when we get to launch day for Return to Flight that that vehicle is the best it can possibly be.
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