RELEASE NO. 00-17

GODDARD EMPLOYEES NAMED TO KEY HQ AND CENTER POSTS

NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin has named three Goddard Space Flight Center employees to key management positions at the Agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., while Goddard Center Director Al V. Diaz announced he has selected Dr. John Campbell to the position of Director of Flight Programs at the Greenbelt, Md. Center.

Brian Keegan has been named to the post of NASA Chief Engineer. The Office of the Chief Engineer assures that the development efforts and missions operations are being planned and conducted on a sound engineering basis with proper controls and management of technical risks. The Office of the Chief Engineer is responsible for the Provide Aerospace Products and Capabilities Process, which is one of the principal cross-cutting NASA strategic management processes.

Keegan currently serves as the Director of Applied Engineering and Technology at Goddard. Keegan’s organization, the largest organization at the Center employing nearly half of the 3,200 civil servants whom work at Goddard. The Directorate is responsible for providing a full range of engineering disciplines needed to enable end-to-end conceptualization, development, and use of Earth and space science missions, including delivery of appropriate science products.

Orlando Figueroa will become Keegan’s deputy for Systems Engineering. The Systems Engineering Program develops analysis and integration tools for multi-disciplinary analysis at the systems level.

Figueroa is Director of Systems, Technology and Advanced Concepts at Goddard. This office is responsible for providing end to end systems engineering expertise and leadership for the development of space flight mission systems, advanced concepts, and technology developments for Earth and Space Science missions.

"These are very important positions and I am pleased the Administrator has recognized the capabilities of these two engineering leaders at Goddard," said Diaz. "Needless to say, I will miss them. Both have made valuable contributions to Goddard over the course of their careers."

Mary L. Cleave has been selected to the position of Deputy Associate Administrator for Program Formulation in the Office of Earth Science. Cleave most recently held the post of project manager for the SeaWiFS project and has been working as the Program Formulation manager for Goddard’s Biology Initiative in the Center’s Earth Science Directorate.

"Mary has made many valuable contributions to Goddard missions including most notably to the SeaWiFS project that she managed," said Diaz. "Mary also will be missed but the newly established position that she will fill is important to the Earth Science Enterprise and to Goddard, and I am pleased again that the Administrator has turned to the Goddard Space Flight Center for the required leadership."

Campbell will be taking over the Flight Programs and Projects Directorate at Goddard, responsible for the overall direction, development, and management of Goddard's major flight projects, giving particular emphasis to the Earth orbiting scientific and application satellites, small and medium class expendable launch vehicle services, Explorer-class platforms, and Earth Observing System (EOS) projects.

"I have worked with John for many years in his capacity as a leader on the Hubble Space Telescope and most recently as the Associate Director for Space Science Observatories in the Flight Programs and Projects Directorate," said Diaz. "I have every confidence that John can provide the required flight project leadership during a very important period for Goddard and for NASA."

Campbell currently serves as the Associate Director for the Hubble Space Telescope Program Office located at Goddard. Campbell’s office is responsible for program management of the Telescope, including mission and science operations, servicing missions, and all associated development activities.

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Biographical Background

Brian Keegan

W. Brian Keegan was named NASA Chief Engineer in February 2000. The Chief Engineer reports directly to the Administrator and is responsible for overall review of the technical readiness and execution of all NASA programs. The Chief Engineer also provides an integrated focus for Agency-wide engineering policies, standards and practices.

Since 1997, Keegan has been the Goddard Space Flight Center's Director of Applied Engineering and Technology. He was responsible for providing engineering support to a wide array of science instrument and spacecraft development projects.

In August 1994, Keegan was appointed the Deputy Director of Engineering. In this position, he directed a broad spectrum of activity, ranging from technology development to the design, development and test of components, instruments, subsystems, and spacecraft for various flight projects such as the Roentgen X-Ray Timing Explorer (XTE), the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM), the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Servicing Missions, and the Small Explorer (SMEX) series of Space Science missions. In April 1997, he was appointed the Acting Director of Engineering.

In September 1986, he was selected as the Deputy Director of Flight Assurance at Goddard, providing direction and leadership in formulating and implementing policy for design reviews, environmental testing, reliability, quality, and flight systems safety in conjunction with the significant revamping of these activities that followed the Challenger accident. In recognition of his accomplishments, Mr. Keegan was awarded the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal in May 1994.

Keegan joined NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in 1966 as a structural engineer involved with test program planning and the derivation of environmental test requirements. Mr. Keegan received his Bachelor of Science in Physics from Loyola College in Baltimore in 1962.

Keegan currently resides in Ellicott City, Md., with Charlotte, his spouse of 37 years.

Orlando Figueroa

Orlando Figueroa was named NASA’s Deputy Chief Engineer for Systems Engineering in February 2000. He reports directly to the Agency Chief Engineer, and is the senior official responsible for defining and managing the systems engineering activity within the Agency that assures excellence across all NASA Centers.

Figueroa is responsible for assuring that the Agency’s engineering institution has a system to define, measure, and improve required systems engineering disciplines. He also is responsible for assessing the systems engineering capability and resources of the Agency, benchmarking other government and organizations, developing plans for continuous improvement in all aspects of NASA's systems engineering.

Since 1997, Figueroa had been the Goddard Space Flight Center’s Director of Systems, Technology and Advanced Concepts, where he was responsible for providing end-to-end systems engineering expertise and leadership for the development of space flight mission systems, advanced concepts, and technology developments for Earth and Space Science missions.

Throughout his career, Figueroa has exemplified engineering excellence and outstanding management. In 1993 was awarded the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal for his work on the Small Explorers (SMEX) missions, and in 1994, he received the Community Stars Award from the Maryland Science Commission for his work on innovative educational programs between NASA, industry and Maryland schools. In addition, he is the author of several technical publications in the field of cryogenics and SMEX missions.

Figueroa joined NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in 1978 as a mechanical engineer involved with mechanical integration and testing of the Heat Capacity Mapping Mission and has worked in a variety of project management positions until 1996. Mr. Figueroa received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Puerto Rico in 1978. He resides in Silver Spring, Md., with his wife, Josephine, and sons, Daniel and Alexis.

Mary Cleave

Dr. Cleave was appointed Deputy Associate Administrator in NASA's Office of Earth Science in February 2000. Her primary responsibility is developing the Earth Science Enterprise's advanced science, technology and applications plans and priorities.

Dr. Cleave came to NASA Headquarters from the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), where she joined the Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes in 1991. Dr. Cleave was the Project Manager for the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS), an ocean color sensor that is monitoring global marine chlorophyll. After the SeaWiFS Project became operational, she entered the NASA Senior Executive Service Career Development Program. Before her current appointment, she was the Earth Science Representative to NASA's Chief Scientist.

Before joining Goddard, Dr. Cleave worked at NASA's Johnson Space Center, where she was selected an astronaut in 1980 and flew aboard the Space Shuttle twice. She was the flight engineer and a mission specialist on STS 61-B in 1985. On her second flight, Dr. Cleave was mission specialist on STS-30, which deployed the Magellan Venus exploration spacecraft.

Dr. Cleave was named NASA Engineer of the Year in 1998 and has received the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal (1994) and NASA's Exceptional Service Medal twice (1988 and 1990).

Dr. Cleave held graduate research, research phycologist and research engineer assignments in the Ecology Center and the Utah Water Research Laboratory at Utah State University from September 1971 to June 1980.

Dr. Cleave was born February 5, 1947, in Southampton, New York. She graduated from Great Neck North High School, Great Neck, New York, in 1965; received a bachelor of science degree in biological sciences from Colorado State University in 1969 and a master of science in microbial ecology and a doctorate in civil and environmental engineering from Utah State University in 1975 and 1979, respectively.

John Campbell

Dr. John Campbell graduated from West Geauga High School in Chesterland, Ohio, in 1960. He received a bachelor’s degree in physics from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1964, a master’s in physics in 1967 from Purdue University at Lafayette, Ind., and his doctorate in high energy physics, also from Purdue University, in 1969.

Dr. Campbell was a Postdoctoral Appointee at Argonne National Laboratory 1969-1972. He performed high-energy particle experiments and analyzed their results using the laboratory’s particle accelerator and its bubble chambers. In 1972-1977 he worked at Singer-Kearfott Co., Wayne, N.J., as lead programmer for avionics software. In 1977-1987 he worked at IBM Federal Systems Division, Gaithersburg, Md. In this position he was responsible for flight and ground software for the Hubble Space Telescope.

Dr. Campbell began his career with NASA in 1987 at the Goddard Space Flight Center, as the Systems Engineering Manager for the Flight Software Systems Branch which has responsibility for the Center’s on-board spacecraft software. He moved to the HST Project as the Deputy Project Manager for HST in 1988. Dr. Campbell had responsibility for development of the scientific instrument hardware on-board the HST spacecraft, and for the pre-launch ground system development and post-launch operations. In 1990 the HST Project was reorganized into two Flight Projects and Dr. Campbell was promoted to Deputy Associate Director of Flight Projects for HST with responsibility for both Projects. He was in this position for the First Servicing Mission of the Hubble Space Telescope. In 1994 he was promoted to Associate Director of Flight Projects for HST. In this position, he led the Hubble team on the second HST Servicing Mission in 1997, and the recently completed Servicing Mission 3A in December 1999. Dr. Campbell received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 1991 and the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal in 1994 and the 1997 Presidential Rank Award-Meritorious Executive in Senior Executive Service.