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Hey Ricky, I wanted to while we’re at it
today just to take a minute before the DPC

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here to recognize the newest class of flight
directors that was just announced yesterday,

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That’s an exciting thing.

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I know many many people applied across MOD
and the center, and it was an arduous process

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to go through and select these guys.

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But they finally selected the new group of
flight directors yesterday.

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I know the emails were flying around today,
and a big congratulations in order for Judd

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Frieling who comes from the ODIN world, the
space stations computer transferred over to

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the shuttle world to work shuttle PPS and
been with MOD since ’97 if I have that right.

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And now stepping into the flight director’s
seat or working his way toward it, Tomas Gonzales-Torres,

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an old friend of mine.

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He comes from the EVA world and was my lead
EVA officer for my first flight and first

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three spacewalks on STS-121.

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The return to flight days, really huge and
a lot of challenges and a big congratulations

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to Tomas.

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Pretty awesome.

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And the last one is Greg Whitney, who comes
from the planning world, and his world of

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course is the group that really pulls all
the details together.

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Takes all the requirements, all the constraints,
the time, the training, the abilities and

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mashes that all into a plan.

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I think he started off in the space station
world.

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He also worked as an ops planner in space
station, also worked as an FAO in the shuttle

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world, including the lead FAO or flight activities
officer for the final space shuttle flight,

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STS-135.

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And he had to rewrite the book in a lot of
ways, working with a shuttle crew of just

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four people to do that.

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So congratulations to these three.

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Just excellent, outstanding individuals, and
I hope they all get through their initial

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training quickly so we can work with them
during their OJT phase in the next couple

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of months.

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Congratulations to all.

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Thanks Mike.

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Great words.

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Special folks and a big job.

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And couldn’t do it without them.

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Oh you bet.

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Astronauts are a dime a dozen.