engineering

LeRoy E. Cain

LeRoy E. Cain is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand LeRoy E. Cain rather than just read about it. In short: LeRoy Edward Cain (born February 4, 1964) is an American aerospace engineer who worked for NASA as a flight director, launch integration manager and deputy manager of the Space Shuttle Program. Cain may be best known to the public from footage and documentaries showing his work as the entry flight director for STS-107, the mission that ended in the catastrophic disintegration of Space Shuttle Columbia, February 1, 2…

Key takeaways

LeRoy E. Cain belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect LeRoy E. Cain to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of LeRoy E. Cain from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

LeRoy Edward Cain (born February 4, 1964) is an American aerospace engineer who worked for NASA as a flight director, launch integration manager and deputy manager of the Space Shuttle Program. Cain may be best known to the public from footage and documentaries showing his work as the entry flight director for STS-107, the mission that ended in the catastrophic disintegration of Space Shuttle Columbia, February 1, 2003. Cain issued the famous "Lock the doors" command, initiating contingency procedures in mission control for the first time since the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster 17 years earlier.

Early life and education Born in Dubuque, Iowa, Cain earned a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, in 1988.

Career

NASA As of September 2015, Cain was serving as the Chair of the Exploration Systems Development (ESD) Standing Review Board, reporting directly to the Associate Administrator for HEOMD at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., as well as the entire Agency leadership staff. In this role, his responsibilities include, but are not limited to, staffing a team to assess all three major ESD programs (Space Launch Systems, Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle/Orion, and Ground Systems Design Operations) and providing guidance for integrating these programs by ESD. He serves as the Chair for an integrated review team for all three major programs to establish review milestones and reports these findings to program, center, mission directorate, and Agency leadership, as well as outside entities to include the Office of Management and Budget, Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Congress, as necessary. Cain served as the Deputy Manager, Space Shuttle Program (SSP), from March 2008 through the completion of the Program. In this position, Cain shared responsibility with the Program Manager for the overall management, integration, and operations of the SSP from NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas. He also served as Chairman of the Mission Management Team for all Space Shuttle missions. Previously, Cain held the position of Manager, Launch Integration, at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, from November 2005 until July 2008. As head of the SSP at KSC, he was responsible for all program operations at KSC and all launch integration requirements for the Space Shuttle and International Space Station programs. In this role Cain also served as the Chairman of the MMT for Space Shuttle prelaunch and launch activities. In March 2011, Cain also began serving as the Deputy Chair for the NASA Mishap Investigation Board for the Taurus XL T9 Glory mishap investigation. Prior to joining the SSP, Cain served as a NASA Flight Director in the Mission Operations Directorate. Selected in the Class of 1998, Cain supported numerous Space Shuttle missions in all phases of flight. He served as the Ascent Flight Director for six missions, and Entry Flight Director for eight missions, including the STS-114 Return-To-Flight mission in July 2005. Cain began working in the space industry in 1988 as a Guidance and Control systems engineer at JSC. He was a flight controller in the Mission Control Center for the Space Shuttle Guidance and Control Systems. Cain held progressively more responsible technical, management, and leadership positions within Mission Operations from 1988 until 2005, when he entered the SSP Office.

Personal life Cain lives in Houston, Texas, with his wife. They have three daughters.

Awards Cain has received numerous honors and awards, including NASA's top honor, the Distinguished Service Medal, in 2015; the Presidential Rank Award in 2012, which is one of the highest honors awarded to a civil servant; having been nominated for the prestigious NASA Rotary Stellar Award for two consecutive years in 2010 and 2011, and won the award in 2011; he was a candidate for the SES Rank Award for 2011; he earned the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medals in 2005 and 2011; a NASA Outstanding Contribution award for the Ariane 502 Re-entry Observation Project in 1997; and a Certificate of Commendation from Johnson Space Center in 1996.

Multimedia

References

External links archived NASA Biography of (then) Kennedy Space Center employee Leroy E. Cain, May 2007 Archived 2007-08-14 at the Wayback Machine Appearances on C-SPAN

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with LeRoy E. Cain

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what LeRoy E. Cain claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to LeRoy E. Cain before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about LeRoy E. Cain ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of LeRoy E. Cain

In research: LeRoy E. Cain appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses LeRoy E. Cain in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: LeRoy E. Cain is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1964 births, American systems engineers, Iowa State University alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for LeRoy E. Cain outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study LeRoy E. Cain in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what LeRoy E. Cain means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain LeRoy E. Cain out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is LeRoy E. Cain in simple terms?

Why does LeRoy E. Cain matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study LeRoy E. Cain?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on LeRoy E. Cain.