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>> Kyle: We have an
opportunity to be joined here

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in the flight control room

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by certainly no stranger
to mission control.

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Derek Hassman is
a flight director.

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He's also working in the
Commercial Crew Program,

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and he's just been named
to be the Partner Manager

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for SpaceX base exploration
technologies.

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And we're real happy to have
Derek stop by the front corner

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of the room, instead of back
there at the flight console.

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So welcome, Derek,
great to have you hear.

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>> Derek Hassman: Thanks,
Kyle, it's good to be back.

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>> Kyle: Well, obviously,
most people know you

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as a flight director,
but talk a little bit

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about your background, how
you got to NASA and got

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into this business
in the first place?

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>> Derek Hassman: Sure,
you bet, I can do that.

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Graduated from the University
of Texas in Austin in 1988.

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I worked for a couple years for
General Dynamics in Fort Worth

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on the F16 program there.

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And then I had an
opportunity to move to Houston,

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worked for a NASA
contractor in 1990.

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From 1990 to 2000 I was in the
mission operations directorate

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as a flight controller for
the International Space

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Station Program.

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I worked STS88 on the station
side, which was the first ...

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>> Kyle: Right.

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>> Derek Hassman: ...

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mission to deliver U.S.
hardware to the space station.

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Then I also worked, I finished
my flight control career

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as a flight controller on STS98,

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which delivered the
Destiny Laboratory.

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>> Kyle: Right, the laboratory.

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We've been watching some
of that this morning.

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>> Derek Hassman: Right.

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And then in 2000 I was
fortunate enough to be selected

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as a flight director, and
which is what I've been doing

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from 2000 to 2012.

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I was a lead flight director on
STS120 which delivered node two,

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and then STS134, which delivered
the AMS experiment, the station,

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and worked a number of other
shuttle assembly missions

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and have worked countless shifts
in this room over the years

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between shuttle flights.

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>> Kyle: Very familiar
with this room.

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>> Derek Hassman: Absolutely.

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And then in October of last
year I got the opportunity

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to do a rotation or
temporary assignment

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in the Commercial Crew Program,

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and I guess about six months
ago I volunteered to be a member

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of the Evaluation Board that
was evaluating the proposals

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that were submitted by
the commercial providers

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for the CCiCap effort.

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>> Kyle: Right.

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>> Derek Hassman: So I wrapped
that up, and came back -

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that effort was actually at KSC,
so I spent about three months

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out at KSC doing the proposal
review and then came back

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to Houston, was offered
the job of Partner Manager,

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which I'm very excited
about and I accepted.

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>> Kyle: Well, which
leads us to, obviously,

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to your current role with - as
the Partner Manager with SpaceX.

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How familiar, obviously,
with all the proposal work

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that you did, you're very
familiar with what's going on,

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but how familiar are
you anyhow with SpaceX?

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You probably already
had some early meetings

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with those folks, right?

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>> Derek Hassman: Yes,
as a matter of fact,

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when I was in the flight
director office from 2008

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to 2009 I was involved in
some of the early planning

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that we were doing for
the cargo missions ...

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>> Kyle: Oh, right, right.

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>> Derek Hassman: ...

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that SpaceX is supporting.

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I was actually working with
both SpaceX and Orbital,

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both of who have - both
of whom have contracts

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to do the cargo resupply
to station.

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So I worked with SpaceX for
about a year-and-a-half,

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prior to this commercial crew
assignment, made a number

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of trips out to Hawthorne,
to their facility out there.

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So I had relationships with
a number of folks out there,

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and understood a lot
about the culture

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and the capabilities and such.

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So it would - that
helped me in my new role.

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>> Kyle: So that transition
had to be pretty smooth then

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because you already had
that familiarization

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from the flight control
aspect, right?

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>> Derek Hassman: Right.

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That helped a lot, and then
additionally Garrett Riesman

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[assumed spelling] is
their program manager

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for their Dragon Writer Program,
SpaceX', and Garrett was,

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of course, an astronaut.

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So I worked with Garrett
quite a bit in my role

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as flight director, so I had a
previous working relationship

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with Garrett, as well.

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>> Kyle: So you guys,
after this announcement

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which came early August,

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SpaceX was awarded I
think $440 million ...

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>> Derek Hassman:
That's correct.

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>> Kyle: ...

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as part of CCiCap.

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>> Derek Hassman: Correct.

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>> Kyle: But you've already
as this new core team talk

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about the structure of your
team now and you guys just went

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out there, I don't know
if it's a kickoff meeting

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or how you describe your
early stage of getting

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into the milestone
development for CCiCap?

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>> Derek Hassman: Right.

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Last week I actually made a
trip out there with my partner,

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Integration Team Management.

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John Cowert [assumed
spelling] is my deputy

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for executing the
CCiCap milestones

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or the SpaceX agreement.

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Sharon Malloy [assumed
spelling] is my deputy

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for the certification
piece of the effort.

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So the three of us went
out to SpaceX last week,

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sat down with Garrett Riesman.

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Met a bunch of the
other employees.

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Just talked about strategy
and the road ahead,

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talked about the milestones that
we have planned, and just kind

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of got reacquainted with
the facility and the people.

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And then next week we'll have
our first two milestones.

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The first milestone, of
course, is the kickoff meeting

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where SpaceX gives
a presentation

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on where they are
today, what the status

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of their Dragon spacecraft
is, what the status

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of their Falcon 9 rocket is.

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They'll talk about their
ground systems and,

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as well as their
mission control systems.

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So just establish a baseline
for where we go from there.

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>> Kyle: I think we probably
all know the answer to this,

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but how valuable is it that
SpaceX has already been working

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on the cargo aspect of this?

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It's, certainly they've
even described the Dragon

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as in its early development
was really

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in their mind they thought
of it as a crew vehicle,

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and basically are using
it as a cargo [inaudible]

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but they have an
integrated approach.

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They have their own rocket,
they have their own spacecraft,

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but how valuable is it that
they are already integrated

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into the space station program
with the cargo aspect of this?

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>> Derek Hassman: It's
a tremendous advantage,

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a tremendous benefit
to SpaceX, so to NASA,

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because we have the
experience of working with them.

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But that has been SpaceX'
stated goal all along,

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to eventually fly crew to space,

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and they've designed
their rocket

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and their spacecraft
to that end.

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There's going to be
a significant amount

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of modifications and
upgrades that have to happen.

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>> Kyle: Right.

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>> Derek Hassman: For
example, on the spacecraft,

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when they flew the cargo
missions they didn't have an

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environmental control
or life support system,

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which obviously is required
to support the crew.

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>> Kyle: Right.

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>> Derek Hassman: And in
general across their spacecraft

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and rocket they didn't
necessarily have the amount

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of design margin, performance
margin, redundancy that's going

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to be required to fly crew.

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But the fact that they have
existing hardware that's built

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and designed and flight
proven, they've got the systems

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on the ground, they've got
trained teams on the ground,

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all of that is a
tremendous benefit

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for them heading
into the iCap effort.

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>> Kyle: You talked
about the structure

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and how it's a little - how
is it a little different now

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than it was in terms of the
pit team, as they're known,

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relative to what it was under
CC Dev 2 [assumed spelling],

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which was the previous
Space Act agreement work?

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>> Derek Hassman: One of the
key differences between CC Dev 2

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and CCiCap is that for iCap we
asked for an integrated system.

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So the proposals had to
include a spacecraft, a rocket

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or a launch vehicle, as well
as the systems on the ground

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to do all the ground
processing leading up to launch

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and to do the mission control
function on the ground.

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So what we're looking for
an integrated system and,

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in addition to that, the
key point of emphasis

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or focus during iCap is
going to be certification.

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How does the commercial provider
propose to certify their system,

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to prove that it's acceptable
and meets all the requirements

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for a human rating, to
fly crew into space,

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which is obviously a much higher
bar than exists for cargo?

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>> Kyle: Right.

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>> Derek Hassman: So
in order to support

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that we broke-up the
deputy position in the way

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that I described earlier.

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We've got John Cowert
focusing on the execution

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of the milestones and
the day-to-day activities

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that SpaceX does to
execute those milestones,

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and then we've got another
deputy, Sheryl Malloy,

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to support - to focus on
the certification piece.

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And that's - in the 20-month,
21-month execution of iCap

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that certification is going
to be a key area of emphasis

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that we need to make a lot
of progress on in order

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to support the downstream
activities after iCap.

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>> Kyle: All right, and risk

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and certification
are two big key words

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in this program right now,
in fact, we're going to -

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Brent Jet [assumed
spelling] is going to stop by,

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he's the Deputy Manager of
the Commercial Crew Program,

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he's going to stop by, hopefully
tomorrow and fill us in probably

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in more detail on all of that

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because that obviously is a
big aspect of the next step

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in getting to a crew vehicle to
be able to travel to the station

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and support U.S. crew
rotation activities, right?

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>> Derek Hassman: Absolutely.

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And we're doing things
a little bit different

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with these Space Act agreements
in that we don't have the level

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of control or the level of
insight that we would have

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with a traditional contract.

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So what we need to
do in the context

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of the Space Act agreements
is to identify the key areas

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of risk, the key areas of risk
or perhaps potential challenges

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down the road where we want
to have the most NASA insight,

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as opposed to penetrating across
the board to the same level

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of detail in all the system.

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So it's very important to
identify risk and areas

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of open work, in areas

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of significant design
challenges, as we move forward.

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>> Kyle: You talked about the
early milestones in CCiCap,

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what are some of the others
that are - you've got it laid

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out across this 21-month period
of time that will lead to -

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I guess leads up to the point
of critical design review

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or right about there, right?

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>> Derek Hassman: Yes, the way
it's set-up SpaceX has a total

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of 14 milestones.

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The second to the last milestone
is a critical design review,

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and that's - that represents
a fairly mature design

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for the integrated system, for
the rocket and the spacecraft

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and all the ground systems.

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It's basically once you get

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to critical design review you're
ready to cut metal, so to speak,

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you start - you're ready
to build the configuration

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of the control spacecraft
and rocket,

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leading toward an
eventual launch.

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And between now and that
critical design review,

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there's another - a number
of other critical milestones.

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There's a safety review.

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There's a human certification
review, which SpaceX is going

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to tell us what they plan to
do to certify their system.

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And there's also two very, very
significant test activities

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that SpaceX plans to conduct.

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There's a pad abort test in
which SpaceX will demonstrate

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that the rocket and the launch
abort system - excuse me,

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the spacecraft with the
launch abort system is capable

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of safely taking the spacecraft
away from the pad in the case

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of some significant
issue with the rocket,

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and they will also conduct
an inflight abort test,

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where it'll be a flight-like
rocket, flight-like spacecraft

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with a launch abort system.

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They'll actually launch
the integrated vehicle,

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and then abort the spacecraft
in - as it's going up the hill

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and during ascent, so two
significant test activities

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that I'm certainly
looking forward to.

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>> Kyle: That's a
lot of work to do

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in 21 months the
way it's laid-out,

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and I think everybody recognizes
that it's going to be a lot

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of fun to follow along with
this and to be part of it.

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And, hopefully, we'll be able to
bring all of that to the viewers

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and the public out there.

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So, Derek Hassman, we really
appreciate you stopping

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by the console today to
update us on this latest steps

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in the Commercial Crew Program.

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Derek Hassman, the
Partner Manager for SpaceX,