HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Alex Priskos has been appointed to the Senior Executive Service position of manager of the First Stage Office within the Exploration Launch Projects Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
As part of the Senior Executive Service – the personnel system covering top managerial positions in approximately 75 federal agencies – Priskos will lead the design, development, testing and evaluation of the first-stage propulsion element for NASA’s Ares I crew launch vehicle.
The Ares I is part of a new space transportation system NASA is designing to carry humans back to the moon by 2020. It is an in-line, two-stage rocket that will transport to low Earth orbit the Orion crew exploration vehicle containing up to six astronauts. The first stage will consist of a single reusable solid rocket booster similar to those used on the space shuttle, with an additional fifth segment. The second, or upper, stage will consist of a J-2X main engine fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants.
Priskos joined NASA in 2005 as associate director of the Engineering Directorate at Marshall, responsible for leading the directorate’s strategic and institutional planning efforts. In 2006 he assumed the additional responsibility for leading the Ares launch vehicle development efforts within that directorate.
Before embarking on a career with NASA, Priskos spent more than 20 years in the private aerospace industry. From 2001 to 2004, he was vice president of field marketing for Alliant Techsystems (ATK) Aerospace Group in Huntsville. From 1996 to 2001, he was president and general manager of ATK’s Alliant Missile Products Company in Rocket Center, W.Va., where he oversaw company operations and managed more than 600 employees.
Prior to joining ATK, Priskos spent more than a decade at Hercules Aerospace Company in Magna, Utah. From 1993 to 1996, he was program director of medium launch vehicles, managing the graphite epoxy motors production program for the Delta II launch vehicle – part of the Delta family of commercial rockets. From 1992 to 1993, Priskos was business manager of expendable launch vehicles, leading financial and business management planning for the Delta II, Pegasus and Taurus launch vehicle programs.
A native of Salt Lake City, Priskos earned his bachelor’s degree in mining engineering in 1982 from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, followed by a master’s degree in business administration in 1984 from Utah State University in Logan. Priskos and his wife, Lisa Davis, are the parents of two children, Stefani and Andrew, and reside in Huntsville.
