Maynette Smith

Maynette Smith received her Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Vanderbilt University in 1983, and a Master of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Central Florida in 1995. Ms. Smith began her career with NASA at KSC in 1983 as a systems engineer working experiment integration for Spacelab and Shuttle partial payload experiments. In 1988, she was promoted to experiment project engineer, responsible for integrating multiple engineering disciplines for Shuttle experiment processing. Ms. Smith entered management in 1991. From 1991 to 1996, she was chief of the Partial Payload Checkout System Branch. In 1996, she began working Space Station Utilization, serving as the Chief of the Payload Integration Division, with responsibility for launch site planning of station experiments and processing of the final Spacelab and shuttle partial payloads missions. As part of KSC’s reorganization in 2000, Smith became Chief of the Utilization Division in the International Space Station Payloads Processing Directorate. Under her tenure, the first seven payload racks and a number of smaller payloads were successfully processed and launched to the station. From 2003 to January 2006, Ms. Smith worked on the Center Director’s staff as the Strategic Planning Manager. In January 2006, she returned to the International Space Station Payloads Processing Directorate as the Deputy for Program Management. Ms. Smith transferred to the Safety and Mission Assurance Directorate in 2008, where she held multiple leadership positions with responsibility for the planning and execution of safety and mission assurance activities at KSC for the International Space Station Program, Shuttle Transition and Retirement Project, and Orion Production Operations. Ms. Smith became Lead of Independent Assessment in January 2014, and she retired from NASA in 2016.

Ms. Smith has been awarded the Kennedy Space Center Director’s Award, the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, and numerous performance awards.