Paul Sean Hill (born June 23, 1962)
was the Director of Mission Operations at the
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
He was formerly a
Flight Director in the
Mission Control Center
A mission control center (MCC, sometimes called a flight control center or operations center) is a facility that manages spaceflight, space flights, usually from the point of launch until landing or the end of the mission. It is part of the gr ...
for
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...
and
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...
missions under the call sign "Atlas".
Early years
Paul Sean Hill was born in
Orlando, Florida
Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...
to Lawrence Edwin Hill and Sonya Kaye Robinson.
Hill's father, Larry, joined
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
in 1959 at the
Redstone Arsenal
Redstone Arsenal is a United States Army base adjacent to Huntsville, Alabama in the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. A census-designated place in Madison County, Alabama, United States, it is part of the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistica ...
(now known as the
Marshall Space Flight Center
Marshall Space Flight Center (officially the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center; MSFC), located in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville postal address), is the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government's ...
) in
Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville is the List of municipalities in Alabama, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the List of United States cities by population, 100th-most populous ...
, and worked on every crewed space program from
Project Mercury
Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...
through the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...
era.
While growing up, Hill migrated from Titusville, Florida to Dallas and Irving, Texas; Marathon and Sugarloaf, Florida; Lexington Park, Maryland; Pensacola, Florida; and back to Irving.
Hill attended nine schools in Florida (Coquina (1st grade), Sue Moore (4th), and Sugarloaf (5th) Elementary Schools, Ferry Pass Middle School (7th and 8th), and
Booker T. Washington High School (9th and 10th)); Texas (Jefferson Davis (1st and 2nd) and Farine (2nd - 4th) Elementary Schools); and Maryland (Leonardtown Elementary (6th)) before graduating from
Irving High School (11th and 12th) in Irving, Texas.
Education and training
A third generation "
Aggie", Hill attended
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...
. He earned a
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...
degree in 1984 and a
Master of Science
A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...
degree in 1985, both in
Aerospace Engineering
Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...
. He was a member of the
Texas A&M University Corps of Cadets and had an Air Force Scholarship. He worked in
military satellite operations in the
Air Force
An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...
following his university training, attaining the rank of
Captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...
.
During his service in the Air Force, Hill commanded mobile satellite communications crews providing missile launch and nuclear detonation detection, and was responsible for all facets of covert deployment planning for that system. He was also an undergraduate
aerodynamics
Aerodynamics () is the study of the motion of atmosphere of Earth, air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dynamics and its subfield of gas dynamics, and is an ...
and aircraft performance instructor.
NASA career
After four years in the Air Force, Hill started work at
Johnson Space Center
The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight in Houston, Texas (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight controller, flight control are conducted. ...
in 1990 as a
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...
and
Space Station
A space station (or orbital station) is a spacecraft which remains orbital spaceflight, in orbit and human spaceflight, hosts humans for extended periods of time. It therefore is an artificial satellite featuring space habitat (facility), habitat ...
operations engineer. At that time planning was underway for
Space Station Freedom
Space Station ''Freedom'' was a NASA-led multi-national project proposed in the 1980s to construct a permanently crewed space station in low Earth orbit. Despite initial approval by President Ronald Reagan and a public announcement in the 1984 ...
, which evolved into the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...
. Hill worked as a Flight Control Engineer for Barrios Technology Incorporated from 1990 to 1991, for
Rockwell Space Operations Company from 1991 to 1993, and for NASA Johnson Space Center from 1993 to 1996.
Hill led development of International Space Station assembly operations and integrated systems procedures. He participated in every formal Space Station design review, three extensive spacecraft redesign activities and wrote many of the initial Space Station activation procedures. He served as Joint Operations Panel Chairman.
Hill's responsibilities soon expanded, eventually leading to his appointment as a Space Shuttle and ISS Flight Director in 1996, a position in which he served until 2005. In this post he was responsible for the safe conduct of crewed space flight missions. Hill led the flight control team in flight preparation and execution from
Mission Control, and supported over twenty Shuttle and International Space Station missions as a Flight Director.
Each NASA Flight Director chooses a call-sign to represent his or her team; Hill chose "Atlas" as the call-sign for his flight control team.

Hill led an independent assessment of the
Chandra X-ray Observatory
The Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO), previously known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), is a Flagship-class space telescope launched aboard the during STS-93 by NASA on July 23, 1999. Chandra is sensitive to X-ray sources ...
’s flight readiness for
NASA Headquarters.
In September 2002, Hill served as an
aquanaut on the joint NASA-
NOAA
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploratio ...
NEEMO 4 expedition (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations), an exploration research mission held in
Aquarius, the world's only
undersea research laboratory, four miles off shore from
Key Largo. Hill and his crewmates spent five days
saturation diving
Saturation diving is an ambient pressure diving technique which allows a diver to remain at working depth for extended periods during which the body tissues become solubility, saturated with metabolically inert gas from the breathing gas mixture ...
from the Aquarius habitat as a
space analogue for working and training under extreme environmental conditions. The mission was delayed due to
Hurricane Isadore, forcing National Undersea Research Center managers to shorten it to an underwater duration of five days. Then, three days into their underwater mission, the crew members were told that
Tropical Storm Lili was headed in their direction and to prepare for an early departure from Aquarius. Fortunately, Lili degenerated to the point where it was no longer a threat, so the crew was able to remain the full five days.
Hill led the
''Columbia'' accident investigation team responsible for detecting and locating early debris during re-entry; obtaining and analyzing all data collected by government agency sensors during entry; and coordinating radar testing with the
Air Force Research Laboratory
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is a scientific research and development detachment of the United States Air Force Air Force Materiel Command, Materiel Command dedicated to leading the discovery, development, and integration of direct- ...
. He also led the team that developed on-orbit inspection and repair techniques for the Space Shuttle and was the lead Flight Director for its return to flight on mission
STS-114.
Interviewed in July 2004, Hill said, "Flying the Shuttle is a really dangerous business. But that is not a bad thing. That doesn't mean we should stop flying in space. You can make some changes to make parts of this dangerous endeavor safer, but in the end it's still dangerous."
Hill served as Deputy Manager of the
EVA Office at Johnson Space Center from 2005 to 2006, as Manager of Shuttle Operations in the Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) from 2006 to 2007, and as Deputy Director of Mission Operations during 2007. In December 2007 he became Director of Mission Operations, in which position he is responsible for Mission Operations support for crewed space flights.
Interviewed in January 2011 about the downsizing of the Mission Operations Directorate as the Shuttle program ends, Hill said, "I could not be more proud to be part of this great MOD team and the people that comprise this national treasure... The risk of fully eliminating it keeps me awake at night, both for the technical capability and the human impact to these people who are carrying the load for the cause."
In 2024, Hill headed up the agency's Independent Review Board (IRB) that assessed why the heat shield on the
Orion spacecraft lost so much material during the 2022 uncrewed Artemis I test flight.
Personal
Hill is married to the former Pam Gerber. They have two daughters who are fourth generation Aggies.
Hill enjoys skiing, traveling with his family, and playing and coaching soccer.
References
External links
NASA bio (somewhat outdated)* Paul's book and leadership website: AtlasExec.com
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulhillleadership/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Paul
1962 births
Living people
Aquanauts
NASA flight controllers
People from Orlando, Florida
Texas A&M University alumni
United States Air Force officers