NASA Administrator Michael Griffin announced that Rob Strain will be the next center director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Strain is currently the head of the Space Department at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Maryland. He will assume his duties as center director on August 4.
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. 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.
