NASA’s Associate Administrator for Science Al Diaz
announced today, Dr. Michael Ryschkewitsch, Director of the
Applied Engineering and Technology Directorate at NASA’s
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, Md., would
lead the Genesis Mishap Investigation Board (MIB).

The MIB will gather information; analyze the facts; identify
the proximate cause(s), root cause(s) and contributing
factors relating to the Genesis mission; and recommend
appropriate actions to prevent a future similar mishap. The
Genesis sample return capsule failed to deploy its
parachutes, as it descended through Earth’s atmosphere
September 8.

The MIB will include experts from NASA, other government
agencies and external consultants. The Board’s investigation
report is due to NASA Headquarters in mid-November. NASA will
release the names of additional MIB members as soon as
available. The Board’s initial meeting is next week.

Prior to his current assignment, Ryschkewitsch was Deputy
Director of the GSFC Applied Engineering and Technology
Directorate. He also served as the center’s Deputy Director
of the Systems, Technology and Advanced Concepts Directorate.

He has a bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. in physics from Duke
University, Durham, N.C. Prior to joining NASA, he served as
a postdoctoral fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor of
Physics at the University of Delaware. He joined GSFC in 1982
as a cryogenics engineer. He served as Head of the Cryogenic
Systems Development Section and Assistant Branch Head for the
Electromechanical Systems Branch. He was selected as
Associate Chief of the Space Technology Division in 1990.

He led the GSFC team that worked with Ball Aerospace to
develop the concept for the Corrective Optics Space Telescope
Axial Replacement (COSTAR), used in the repair of the Hubble
Space Telescope. In 1992, he was selected to form, then
became Chief, of the Engineering Directorate Systems
Engineering Office.

He is a past recipient of the Robert Baumann Award for
Mission Success. In 2004 he received the NASA Engineering and
Safety Center Leadership Award.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.,
manages the Genesis mission for NASA’s Science Mission
Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems,
Denver, developed and operated the spacecraft. JPL is a
division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.

News and information about Genesis is available on the
Internet at: www.nasa.gov/genesis

Detailed background information about the mission is
available on the Internet, at: http://genesismission.jpl.nasa.gov