Port High grad, NASA veteran earns promotion

Port Washington High School graduate Michael Hess was appointed deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Mission Support Directorate in January 2023.

In this role, Hess will partner with the associate administrator to develop strategy and facilitate the delivery of NASA’s institutional support functions with an annual budget of more than $3.5 billion and a workforce of more than 11,000 people.

Hess has more than 30 years of NASA service and served as the deputy director of the NASA office of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he managed the Caltech/JPL agreement and NASA’s only federally funded research and development center to provide robotic exploration of the solar system, planetary science, unique astrophysics, Earth science and operate NASA’s Deep Space Network.

He began his NASA career in 1989 as a cooperative employment student at Johnson Space Center. His early technical career was spent as an extravehicular activity officer planning spacewalks, training astronauts, developing space tools and serving as a shuttle flight controller.

After completing an assignment at NASA headquarters as an acting program executive for exploration, he took on progressively more strategic leadership positions. These include working with Mission Support Directorate as Johnson Space Center’s acting deputy chief financial officer and associate director for the center’s engineering directorate.

From 2021 to 2022, Hess served as the deputy of safety for the NASA Engineering and Safety Center, acting as a conduit between the NESC, Office of Safety and Mission Assurance and center SMA organizations. Hess served as operations integration manager of the commercial crew program from 2018 to 2021, where he was responsible for leading and managing real-time mission support during all phases of flight of NASA commercial partners such as SpaceX and Boeing, including serving as the chairman of the NASA mission management team.

In 2018, Hess served a detail as the interim Johnson Space Center associate center director, where he helped manage one of NASA’s largest installations, with nearly 14,000 civil service and contractor employees and an annual budget of approximately $5 billion. He also oversaw a broad range of human spaceflight activities.

Hess, who was valedictorian of the Port High Class of 1986, earned bachelor of science degrees in aerospace and mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan and an executive MBA from the Naval Postgraduate School. He is a graduate of the Program and Project Management Development Program and the Harvard University Senior Executive Fellows Program.

Hess has been recognized with the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, the Silver Snoopy Award and the Center Director’s Commendation.