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Station Nation: Erin Edwards describes her crew operations and capcom role.
Summary
Erin Edwards is Deputy Branch Chief for Crew Operations and serves as a capsule communicator at NASA's Johnson Space Center, where she helps manage astronaut candidate training and relays operations to the ISS crew.
Content
Erin Edwards works at NASA's Johnson Space Center as Deputy Branch Chief for Crew Operations and as a capsule communicator in the International Space Station Mission Control Center. She helps organize astronaut candidate schedules and develops and tests new training programs to keep crews mission-ready. Her duties include managing field medical exercises, land survival training, and underwater operations at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston. Edwards also supports integration of a TH57 helicopter fleet for lunar-focused Space Flight Readiness Training and serves in instructor and capcom roles.
Key facts:
- Edwards manages astronaut candidate training schedules and develops new training programs to maintain crew readiness.
- She serves as a capsule communicator (capcom) in ISS Mission Control, relaying technical information to the crew during operations.
- Her background is in the Canadian military as a CH-146 Griffon aircraft commander and she previously served with Canadian Special Operations Forces Command.
- She was the first Canadian non-astronaut posted as a capcom at Johnson Space Center and later served as an operations officer.
- Early highlights at NASA included being selected to take over astronaut Jonny Kim's operations job and sending her first transmission to the station as a qualified capcom.
- Outside work, she plays contact rugby, runs, and pursues various forms of climbing.
Summary:
Edwards' work supports ongoing astronaut readiness and contributes to the collaborative operations of the space station, a program that marked 25 years of continuous human presence in November 2025. She continues to develop training programs and help integrate the TH57 helicopter fleet as part of her multi-year assignment with the military and NASA.
