The Rogers Commission Report was written by a Presidential Commission charged with investigating the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster during its 10th mission, STS-51-L. The report, released and submitted to President Ronald Reagan on June 9, 1986, determined both the cause of the disaster that took place 73 seconds after liftoff, and urged NASA to improve and install new safety features on the shuttles and in its organizational handling of future missions.
Robert Lee Curbeam Jr. is a former NASA astronaut and captain in the United States Navy. He currently holds the record for the most spacewalks during a single spaceflight, accomplished during the STS-116 mission, when Curbeam completed four spacewalks.
George Michael Low was an administrator at NASA and the 14th president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Low was one of the senior NASA officials who made decisions as manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office in the Apollo program of crewed missions to the Moon.
Bryan Daniel O'Connor is a retired United States Marine Corps Colonel and former NASA astronaut. He was inducted into the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2008.
Christopher J. Scolese is an American engineer and intelligence official serving as the director of the National Reconnaissance Office. He was appointed the 19th director of the National Reconnaissance Office (DNRO) on August 1, 2019. Scolese was sworn into office on August 5, 2019.
Gregory Carl "Ray J" Johnson, , is a retired American naval officer and naval aviator, test pilot, aerospace engineer, and NASA astronaut. He spent his military career in both the regular United States Navy and the Navy Reserve. Johnson was the pilot on Space Shuttle mission STS-125, the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.
James Robert Thompson Jr., known as J.R. Thompson, was the fifth director of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center located in Huntsville, Alabama. He served as director from September 29, 1986, to July 6, 1989. Thompson also served as NASA's deputy director from July 6, 1989, to November 8, 1991.
Jerrol Wayne Littles was the eighth director of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center located in Huntsville, Alabama. He served as director from February 3, 1996, to January 3, 1998.
Robert Channing Seamans Jr. was an MIT professor who served as NASA Deputy Administrator and 9th United States Secretary of the Air Force.
Gerald D. Griffin is an American aeronautical engineer and former NASA official, who served as a flight director during the Apollo program and director of Johnson Space Center, succeeding Chris Kraft in 1982.
William H. Gerstenmaier is an aerospace engineer and policymaker who is the Vice President of Build and Flight Reliability at SpaceX. He previously served as NASA's Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations between 2005 and July 10, 2019. While in that role, he was described as "arguably the most influential person when it comes to US spaceflight." Prior to being Associate Administrator, Gerstenmaier served as the International Space Station Office Program Manager, at Johnson Space Center, a position he began in June 2002. He spent a total of four decades with NASA.
Alan Mathieson Lovelace was the Deputy Administrator of NASA from July 2, 1976, to July 10, 1981. He filled in as acting Administrator twice: once during the Jimmy Carter administration to fill the May 2 to June 20, 1977, vacancy left by the retirement of James C. Fletcher, and again during the start of Ronald Reagan's administration from January 21 to July 10, 1981, until Reagan's choice James M. Beggs was confirmed by Congress.
NASA Research Park is a research facility under the auspices of NASA located in San Jose, California. It is focused on fostering collaboration among government entities and academic institutions.
Lee R. Scherer was an American aeronautical engineer and director of NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) from January 19, 1975 to September 2, 1979. Prior to his appointment as KSC director, Scherer was director of NASA's Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, responsible for the conduct of advanced aeronautical flight research.
Alexander Henry Flax was the Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force (USAF) from 1959 to 1961, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Research and Development from 1963 to 1969, and the third Director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) from 1965 to 1969. He was the director at a time when the second generation of imaging systems became operational and began to play a major role in United States intelligence during the Cold War. He oversaw major growth in NRO funding and personnel, the development of signals intelligence collectors from space, and the development of electro-optical imaging for US reconnaissance satellites.
Walter Charles Williams was an American engineer, leader of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) group at Edwards Air Force Base in the 1940s and 1950s, and a NASA deputy associate administrator during Project Mercury.
Spence M. "Sam" Armstrong is a retired three-star general, combat veteran, and test pilot in the United States Air Force (USAF). In his thirty-four years of military service, he served in command assignments at five different levels in the USAF and retired as vice commander of Air Force Systems Command.
The Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the second-highest-ranking official of NASA, the national space agency of the United States. Administrator of NASA is NASA's chief decision maker, responsible for providing clarity to the agency's vision and serving as a source of internal leadership within NASA. The office holder also has an important place within United States space policy.
Wanda Peters is an American administrator at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and a member of the Senior Executive Service of the United States of America. She is currently the Deputy Associate Administrator for Programs in the Science Mission Directorate.
