Teresa Sindelar at all times knew she wished to be part of human spaceflight, however she was not sure methods to make that dream a actuality till an opportunity encounter with former NASA astronaut Tom Stafford when she was 11 years outdated.
The pair met in a neighborhood jewellery store close to Sindelar’s Nebraska dwelling, the place Gen. Stafford was signing autographs. Along with his photograph, Gen. Stafford gave Sindelar a invaluable tip – she ought to try the Kansas Cosmosphere, an area museum in Hutchinson, Kansas. “I proceeded to attend each camp the Cosmosphere supplied as a scholar, interned throughout school, and labored there full time whereas incomes my graduate diploma,” Sindelar stated.
She found a ardour for educating and mentoring younger college students via her work within the museum’s training division and a stint as a highschool science instructor. When she started in search of alternatives at NASA, she sought a place that melded instruction with technical work. “I like pouring into others and watching them develop,” she stated.
In the present day, Sindelar is a chief coaching officer (CTO) inside the Flight Operations Directorate at NASA’s Johnson House Heart in Houston. Alongside along with her fellow CTOs, Sindelar oversees the proper and full coaching of NASA astronauts, crew members representing worldwide companions, and all flight controllers. “I put the items collectively,” she stated. “It’s my job to verify instructors, schedulers, exterior companions, facility managers, and others are all in sync.” She added that CTOs have a singular place as a result of they see the massive image of a coaching circulation and perceive the long-term coaching objectives and goals.
“I get to do a variety of cool issues and go to a variety of cool locations,” she stated, noting that the coaching services at Johnson and different NASA facilities, in addition to services managed by worldwide companions, are top-notch. Whereas she does get pleasure from watching astronauts work via issues and be taught new methods, she has a particular fondness for flight controller coaching and mentoring younger professionals. “What fills my cup essentially the most is seeing a brand-new worker proper out of school blossom right into a assured flight controller, do their job nicely, and make our missions higher,” she stated. “I like understanding that I had one thing to do with that.”
Sindelar has been a part of the Johnson group since 2010 and labored as an educator in what was then known as the middle’s Workplace of Training and as a crew coaching teacher within the House Drugs Operations Directorate earlier than changing into a CTO. In March 2025, Sindelar acquired a House Flight Consciousness Program Honoree Award for her excellent management within the Personal Astronaut Mission (PAM) program, which is a vital element of NASA’s technique for enabling a sturdy and aggressive industrial financial system in low Earth orbit. Because the lead CTO for the third PAM, Axiom Mission 3, Sindelar managed coaching whereas figuring out essential inefficiencies, enhancing mission security and efficiency. She spearheaded a key stakeholder retreat to streamline operations, reorganized coaching sources for improved accessibility, and applied effectivity enhancements that optimized mission assist. Sindelar’s work was acknowledged throughout an award ceremony at NASA’s Kennedy House Heart in Florida, and she or he received to attend the launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission as a particular visitor.
In her 15 years with the company, she has discovered the significance of main by instance. “My group must see that I meet the bar I set,” she stated. “Main is about motivating your individuals so they’re dedicated, not simply compliant.”
Retaining a group motivated and on monitor is especially necessary to coaching success and security. “We solely get a matter of months to coach astronauts to do essentially the most hazardous actions that people have performed, or to coach flight controllers who actually have the mission and the lives of astronauts of their fingers,” Sindelar stated, including that they can’t afford to have an unfocused or detached group.
Sindelar noticed that Johnson’s coaching group is aware of their tasks. “We reside and work in the identical communities because the crew members,” she stated. “We see them in school capabilities, on the grocery retailer, on the park. We all know their households are relying on us to convey their family members dwelling safely.”
She has additionally discovered that her voice issues. “Once I was a younger skilled, I simply by no means felt I could possibly be influential, however the one individual holding me again was me,” she stated. “I needed to be taught to belief in my very own instincts. That was undoubtedly exterior of my consolation zone.” She credit her mentors with serving to her construct confidence and understanding when and methods to converse up. “I’ve had many giants of the spaceflight group mildew and form me in my profession, from my counselors on the Cosmosphere all the way in which to flight administrators and astronauts,” she stated. “It’s my privilege to be taught from them, and I’m grateful to every of them.”
Exterior of labor, Sindelar makes use of her voice otherwise – as a part of her church choir. She additionally performs piano, stating that she is as obsessed with music and volunteerism as she is about human spaceflight. She is a member of the Friendswood Volunteer Fireplace Division, as nicely, serving on its rehab group and because the division’s chaplain
As NASA prepares to return people to the Moon and journey on to Mars, Sindelar hopes she has taught the subsequent era of explorers sufficient to allow them to present the world the wonders of the universe. “This subsequent era will see and do issues my era by no means even considered,” she stated, including that it’s time for them to begin main. “Use your voice. Care for one another alongside the way in which. Attain out and assist the subsequent one in line.”
Sindelar retains a reminder of that necessary message on her desk: the image Gen. Stafford signed all these years in the past.