An astronaut is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally reserved for professional space travelers, the term is sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists.
The NASA Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. Its primary campus is located inside Edwards Air Force Base in California and is considered NASA's premier site for aeronautical research. AFRC operates some of the most advanced aircraft in the world and is known for many aviation firsts, including supporting the first crewed airplane to exceed the speed of sound in level flight, highest speed by a crewed, powered aircraft, the first pure digital fly-by-wire aircraft, and many others. AFRC operates a second site next to Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, known as Building 703, once the former Rockwell International/North American Aviation production facility. There, AFRC houses and operates several of NASA's Science Mission Directorate aircraft including SOFIA, a DC-8 Flying Laboratory, a Gulfstream C-20A UAVSAR and ER-2 High Altitude Platform. As of 2023, Bradley Flick is the center's director.
Pamela Ann Melroy is an American retired United States Air Force officer and NASA astronaut serving as the deputy administrator of NASA. She served as pilot on Space Shuttle missions STS-92 and STS-112 and commanded mission STS-120 before leaving the agency in August 2009. After serving as deputy program manager of Space Exploration Initiatives with Lockheed Martin, Melroy joined the Federal Aviation Administration in 2011, where she was a senior technical advisor and director of field operations for the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation.
Charles Frank Bolden Jr. is a former Administrator of NASA, a retired United States Marine Corps Major General, and a former astronaut who flew on four Space Shuttle missions.
Frederick Drew Gregory is a former United States Air Force pilot, military engineer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut as well as former NASA Deputy Administrator. He also served briefly as NASA Acting Administrator in early 2005, covering the period between the departure of Sean O'Keefe and the swearing in of Michael D. Griffin.
Hugh Latimer Dryden was an American aeronautical scientist and civil servant. He served as NASA Deputy Administrator from August 19, 1958, until his death.
Shana L. Dale is an American politician and lawyer. She served as the Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the George W. Bush administration from 2005 to 2009.
The Coalition for Deep Space Exploration is a United States space advocacy organization for space industry businesses and non-profit groups supporting continued government investment in space exploration.
William Robert Graham is an American physicist who was chairman of President Reagan's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control from 1982 to 1985, a deputy administrator and acting administrator of NASA during 1985 and 1986, and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and concurrently science adviser to President Reagan from 1986 to 1989. He then served as an executive in national security-related companies.
The administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the highest-ranking official of NASA, the national space agency of the United States. The administrator 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, and is assisted by a deputy administrator.
Daniel R. Mulville is an American engineer who served briefly as Acting Administrator of NASA in 2001.
Anatoly Arkadevich Blagonravov was a Soviet engineer in the Soviet space program and later a diplomat. He represented the Soviet Union on the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). He worked closely with Hugh Dryden, his American counterpart, to promote international cooperation on space projects at the height of the Cold War. Anatoli adopted a dog named Tsygan, one of the first dogs to make a successful sub-orbital flight in 1951. Blagonravov died at the age of 80 in Moscow.
John Revell "Jack" Dailey is a retired United States Marine Corps four-star general who served as Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps (ACMC) and Chief of Staff from 1990 to 1992, Acting Associate Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from 1992 to 1999; and director of the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) from 2000 to 2018.
Dale Dehaven Myers was an American aerospace engineer who was Deputy Administrator of NASA, serving between October 6, 1986, and May 13, 1989. He was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1943.
Dr. Colleen Hartman is currently the Board Director for the Space Studies Board as well as the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, D.C. She was the deputy center director for Science, Operations and Performance of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and most recently, was the Director of the Science and Exploration Directorate. Previously she was acting Associate Administrator of the Science Mission Directorate (SMD), Deputy AA of SMD and presidential management intern, served as a senior policy analyst at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and served as deputy division director for technology at NASA Headquarters.
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.
Janet E. Petro is an American engineer and civil servant currently serving as the acting Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the 11th director of NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center. She was appointed as acting NASA Administrator by President Donald Trump on January 20, 2025, and as director of the John F. Kennedy Space Center by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on June 30, 2021, making her the first woman to serve in each of these positions. Petro previously served as deputy director at the John F. Kennedy Space Center.
