WASHINGTON — NASA Administrator Michael Griffin on Thursday announced that Rob Strain will be the next center director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Strain is currently the head of the Space Department at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Md. He will assume his duties as center director on Aug. 4.
Goddard Space Flight Center is located approximately 6 miles northeast of Washington, near the Capital Beltway. The center is a major U.S. laboratory for developing and operating unmanned scientific spacecraft. Goddard manages many of NASA’s Earth observation, astronomy and space physics missions. Goddard includes several other NASA installations, most significantly the Wallops Flight Facility near Chincoteague, Va., and the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.
“My association with Rob Strain spans years of shared experiences in both industry and at the Applied Physics Laboratory,” said Griffin. “He is one of the finest managers I know, and complements those talents with equally impressive ‘people skills’ and an unbending sense of personal integrity. I am truly looking forward to his addition to a superbly talented NASA management team.”
Strain previously served as the associate department head and assistant department head for operations at the Applied Physics Lab’s Space Division. Prior to his work at the Applied Physics Lab, Strain held various executive positions with Axiom Corporation, Orbital Sciences Corporation and Fairchild Space and Defense Company.
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