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Space shuttle Discovery heads to space after lifting off from Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to begin its final flight to the International Space Station on the STS-133 mission.

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SpaceX Safety VP Quit Late Last Year

Dan Leone, Space News

Date: 19 January 2012 Time: 10:50 AM ET

Ken Bowersox in the Quest Airlock Aboard the ISS

Astronaut Kenneth D. Bowersox, Expedition Six mission commander, is pictured in the Quest Airlock on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2003.
CREDIT: NASA

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WASHINGTON — Ken Bowersox, the former NASA astronaut and space station commander who joined Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) in 2009, has quit the company.

"Ken Bowersox left SpaceX at the end of last year," SpaceX spokeswoman Kirstin Grantham wrote in a Jan. 17 email to Space News. "His responsibilities were split up among a few different people. Hans Koenigsmann was named SpaceX vice president of mission assurance."

Bowersox, who was SpaceX's vice president of astronaut safety and mission assurance, could not immediately be reached for comment.

A Jan. 17 Space News query addressed to Bowersox's SpaceX email account produced an automated reply notifying the sender that "this mailbox is no longer being actively monitored by the user."

This story was provided by Space News, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.