Chris Crumbly Named Director of NASA’s Michoud Facility in New Orleans

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Chris M. Crumbly, a native of Rome, Ga., was recently appointed director of NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

Named to the position in February 2012, he oversees and manages the multi-tenant manufacturing facility, where development of NASA’s Space Launch System, or SLS, and Orion spacecraft is under way. The SLS will carry the Orion crew vehicle, as well as important cargo, equipment and science experiments to Earth’s orbit and destinations beyond low-Earth orbit. Michoud, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., is one of the world’s largest manufacturing plants.

From March 2011 until appointment to his current position, Crumbly was deputy director of Michoud. He provided day-to-day management of the facility and worked to build a broader base with government, university and private sector entities.

Crumbly is also serving a concurrent role as the NASA Research Announcement Evaluation Team Chairperson for the Space Launch System Advanced Booster Engineering Demonstration and/or Risk Reduction effort. He is responsible for leading a team of experts in the evaluation of proposals contributing to the development of a Space Launch System Advanced Booster.

Prior to these positions, Crumbly served in multiple management positions at the Marshall Center and at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Crumbly was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in January 2011 as the senior advisor to the associate administrator for NASA’s Mission Support Directorate at NASA Headquarters. The Senior Executive Service is the personnel system covering top managerial positions in approximately 75 federal agencies. He oversaw implementation of the Institutional Readiness Project — an effort led by NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, charged with enacting a robust and balanced strategy to streamline, modernize and align institutional infrastructure with mission needs.

From October 2009 to October 2010, Crumbly served on detail at NASA Headquarters as special assistant to the deputy administrator. In that capacity, he was project director for the Institutional Readiness Project.

Prior to and concurrent with that position from May 2009 to January 2011, Crumbly was assistant manager of the Marshall Center’s Science & Missions Systems Office. He was responsible for ensuring the implementation of more than 60 projects and programs involving 180 civil servants.

From November 2005 to July 2007, he was deputy manager of the Propulsion Systems Engineering and Integration Office in the Marshall Shuttle Propulsion Office. In that position, he served as a member of the Shuttle Mission Management Team, and directed 70 NASA and contractor engineers.

Crumbly worked as an integration manager in the Spacelab Management Office from August 1995 to December 1998. He managed the integration of two Spacelab Module Missions. Subsequently, the office transitioned to the Space Station Development Office, where he managed development and integration of Logistics Carrier Missions for the International Space Station, or ISS.

From February 2001 to September 2004, he was a project manager for the Space Launch Initiative Program that became the Orbital Space Plane (OSP) Program. His responsibilities included leading the Alternate Access to Station Project and later the OSP team consisting of Northrop Grumman Corp. and Orbital Sciences Corp.

In 1999, Crumbly was the ISS congressional affairs officer within NASA’s Office of Human Spaceflight. He returned to Washington as a senior space analyst for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from 2000-2001. His third rotation to NASA Headquarters was in 2004, when he was the Constellation chief systems engineer in the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate.

Crumbly also has experience in the private sector. Prior to rejoining NASA in 2009, he was vice president for NASA Systems for aerospace contractor Quadrus Corp. in Huntsville. He was responsible for all NASA support and served as a senior advisor to the Ares V Project Office. From July 2007 through July 2008, he was a senior program manager for Ball Aerospace in Huntsville, as the company pursued a Constellation contract for the Ares I Instrument Unit. From June 1988 through March 1989, Crumbly worked at Teledyne Brown Engineering in Huntsville as a stress analyst on Spacelab Payload Integration.

Crumbly graduated from Coosa High School near Rome and earned both a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in aerospace engineering from Auburn University in Auburn, Ala. He also is a graduate of the Program for Management Development at the Harvard Business School. He is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Crumbly has received numerous awards, including an Individual Special Act Award from NASA Headquarters in 2010 for his leadership of the Institutional Readiness Project. In 2001, he received an Acquisition Improvement Award from Marshall’s Office of Procurement for his support of the Space Launch Initiative procurement activity. He also has received numerous commendations from NASA Headquarters and the Marshall Center.

Crumbly and his wife, the former Lynn Odom, also of Rome, have two sons and reside in Madison, Ala. His parents, Charles and Paulette Crumbly, reside in Rome.