HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Paul Gilbert has been appointed deputy manager of the Flight Programs and Partnerships Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
Appointed to the position in September 2011, Gilbert will provide oversight and management of the center’s work portfolio in the areas of human exploration projects and tasks; flight mission programs and projects; and enable future partnerships with external customers. The office performs program and project management to deliver products and services to NASA, other government agencies, international partners and the commercial space development community.
Gilbert was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2009, and helps manage a team of more than 248 civil service and contractor employees in the Flight Programs and Partnerships Office and directs an annual budget of more than $108 million. The Senior Executive Service is the personnel system covering top managerial, supervisory and policy positions in the executive branch of the federal government.
“Our office focus ties directly to the agency’s exploration goals, by not only producing NASA projects for the International Space Station and Exploration programs but also by enabling the Department of Defense, international partners, academic institutions and commercial space sector access to Marshall’s capabilities and experienced workforce to solve the unique challenges of space exploration,” said Gilbert.
From 2009 to 2011, he managed the Science Programs & Projects Office within the Marshall Center’s Science & Mission Systems Office. There, he directed multifaceted work in the planetary, Earth science and astrophysics disciplines, overseeing NASA programs and projects ranging from approximately $100,000 to more than $1 billion.
Gilbert was the program manager for the Discovery, New Frontiers and Lunar Quest programs at Marshall from 2006 to 2009. He managed complex scientific programs and projects from development, integration and testing to launch, in-space operations and post-flight data analysis. From 2004 to 2006, he was program integration manager for the newly created Discovery and New Frontiers program offices at Marshall. He established the program office structure and implementation philosophy necessary to effectively operate complex planetary science programs which included missions with lifecycle costs between $325 million and $1 billion.
From 2002 to 2004, he served in NASA’s Orbital Space Plane program, a next-generation launch vehicle development effort, first as manager of the program’s Operations Integration Element and later as deputy of operations for the System Engineering Integration & Operations Team. He led development of an operations concept for the program and established the Multicenter Operations Cost Credibility Team, developing operations cost processes and analyses for the program.
He was manager of the Multiuse Payloads Group, supporting International Space Station hardware development, from 1998 to 2002. He supervised the design, development and testing of flight facility hardware for operation on the space station, including experiment facilities for the EXPRESS Rack, the Human Research Facility, the Biological Research Project, and the Window Observation Research Facility. In 2001, his team successfully developed the first payload facility hardware to fly and operate on the space station.
From 1996 to 1998, he was an engineering integration manager in Marshall’s International Space Station Utilization Office. He managed the development of analytical and physical integration processes and requirements for space station payloads, and wrote the space station’s initial payload integration implementation plan with other space station organizations across NASA and its international partners.
Gilbert joined NASA in 1990 as the deputy mission manager for the First U.S. Microgravity Laboratory Mission. He later became the mission manager for the Second U.S. Microgravity Laboratory, with responsibility for the payload integration and operation of a Spacelab module — including safety analysis and certification of flight readiness — which successfully flew in 1996.
He was employed from 1980 to 1989 by the Tennessee Valley Authority, initially as a mechanical engineer performing design of mechanical pipe systems and stress analysis of piping support structures on nuclear power plants. In 1986, he was promoted to a supervisory position, managing contractor field activities, overseeing a stress analysis group; and supervising a component qualification team. He was a safety engineer for Teledyne Brown Engineering from 1989 to 1990, performing flight and ground safety assessments of the Spacelab facility and payloads for flight on the space shuttle, using NASA and military standards.
Gilbert is a native of Huntsville. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and graduated magna cum laude in 1980 from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He has received numerous honors for his contributions and dedication to the nation’s space program, including a NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2004 for orchestrating NASA’s Orbital Space Plane integrated operations; a Marshall Center Director’s Commendation in 1998 for defining payload integration processes for the EXPRESS Rack, a transport and operation facility for experiments on the International Space Station; a Director’s Commendation in 2001 for leading the EXPRESS Rack team in support of Assembly Mission 6A, which flew the rack to the station; a NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal in 1997 for his role as mission manager for the second U.S. Microgravity Laboratory mission, which flew on STS-73 in 2005; and an International Space Station Program Award in 2004 for his work in developing the EXPRESS Rack and Derivative Facilities for the space station. In 1991, he was presented a Silver Snoopy award by the Astronaut Corps for his contributions to the success of human spaceflight missions — specifically for his support of the first U.S. Microgravity Laboratory Mission, which flew on STS-50 in 1992.
He is married to the former Rena Baldwin of Knoxville, Tenn., and has two children. He and his wife live in Priceville, Ala.
