Stephen J. Altemus to Lead New KSC Engineering Organization

NASA Kennedy Space Center Director Jim Kennedy announced today the center is standing up a new organization called the Engineering Directorate with Stephen J. Altemus as its director.

The new 800-person Engineering Directorate is being created to centralize the center’s engineering activities, processes and personnel into one organization that will have an independent reporting line of authority and to ensure the highest quality of engineering rigor at the center.

“I’m extremely excited to have a person with Steve’s strong technical background and exceptional commitment to engineering excellence join our management team,” said Kennedy. “He not only brings tremendous leadership abilities, but having previously worked at Kennedy, he shares a unique perspective on center operations.”

The new directorate will be fully staffed by Oct. 1 and will be responsible for supporting projects and programs at Kennedy by furnishing design, development and operations engineers to these offices.

Since January 2005, Altemus has been serving as acting and then deputy director for engineering at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. He was responsible for providing engineering design, development and testing, as well as technical expertise in support of hardware, software and systems for human space flight programs such as space shuttle, International Space Station, and advanced spacecraft for human exploration initiatives.

Prior to joining the Johnson team, he served at KSC as the chief of the Shuttle Launch and Landing Division, where he supervised and managed a team of engineers and technical experts in the specialized fields of shuttle ground processing and launch and landing operations.

In this role, he also served as the Columbia reconstruction director for the Space Shuttle Program and KSC. During this six-month period, he managed a diverse team of up to 400 engineers, scientists and technicians from multiple NASA field centers, government agencies and contractor organizations. The team was responsible for cataloging, identifying and assembling more than 85,000 pieces of Columbia debris.

Altemus holds a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and a master’s degree in engineering management from the University of Central Florida.

Steve and his wife, Brunella, have two children, Samantha and Joseph.