Emily J. Nelson is the chief of the Flight Director Office in the Flight Operations Directorate at the Johnson Space Center. Nelson manages a group of 31 flight directors and flight directors-in-training who oversee all of NASA’s human spaceflight missions, including missions to the International Space Station, integrating American-made commercial crew spacecraft into the fleet of vehicles servicing the orbiting laboratory, and Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond. She and her team are responsible for a broad range of human spaceflight activities, including development and operation of human spacecraft, the training and certification of flight control teams and flight crews in Houston’s Mission Control and the safe and successful execution of NASA’s human spaceflight missions.

Nelson previously served as Deputy Chief of the Flight Director Office for five years beginning in 2017. During that time, Nelson served as the deputy vehicle manager for the Artemis II mission while on rotation to the Orion Program.

Nelson began her NASA career at the Johnson Space Center in 1998 as a flight controller working for the United Space Alliance in the Mission Operations Directorate. As a flight controller, Nelson supported the early phases of ISS assembly, working in mission control for both ISS Expedition missions and ISS assembly missions as part of the Thermal Operations and Resources (ThOR) team. In 2004 she was hired by NASA and continued to support the ISS program as a ThOR while joining the Constellation program as a leader in information architecture development.

In 2007, Nelson was selected as a Flight Director, beginning regular support leading ISS operations in mission control later that year. In addition to regular 24/7 support, Nelson has lead teams in support of four missions of the Space Shuttle to ISS, five ISS expeditions, two cargo missions to ISS and four ISS spacewalks, including a series of spacewalks to repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) research platform in 2019-2020.
Born in Okinawa, Japan and raised in Austin, Texas, Nelson earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas, at Austin. She has received numerous awards including NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal (2009), NASA’s Exceptional Achievement Medal (2014), five Exceptional Service Medals (2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016), Johnson’s Center Director Commendation (2023) and numerous Group Achievement Awards.