County native among shuttle project leaders

By Staff
Staff Reports, Hartselle Enquirer
A Morgan County native is among those working to find what went wrong with the Space Shuttle Columbia with aims of preventing any future disasters.
Jody A. Singer, formerly Jody Sandlin, is a Danville native. Late last year, she was named manager of the Space Shuttle Reusable Solid Rocket Motor Project at NASA"s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.
She is the first woman to hold this position at Marshall.
At presstime, Singer was unavailable for comment.
As manager, Singer supervises more than 1,000 government and contractor employees involved in the design and production of the reusable solid rocket motors. The motors are the propulsion element of each solid rocket booster. The boosters are recovered at sea after each shuttle launch and refurbished for use on future missions.
After Saturday's disaster, Singer and other NASA officials are working to piece together the fragments of the destroyed Columbia.
Singer graduated from The University of Alabama with a degree in industrial engineering. She began working with the Marshall Center's Program Development Office in 1985 and joined the Space Shuttle Projects Office in 1987.
Singer was appointed program business manager for the Space Shuttle's External Tank Project in 1990 and became the project's assistant manager in 1996. She was appointed deputy of the External Tank Project in 1998 and became assistant manager of the Space Shuttle Project Office in 2000.
Singer has been recognized with NASA's Exceptional Service medal, as a Space Flight Awareness honoree, and has participated in NASA fellowships.