Program Manager, Flight Opportunities Program, Armstrong Flight Research Center, NASA

John Kelly is Program Manager for the Flight Opportunities program at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center. Mr. Kelly began his career as an intern at NASA in 1988 and has worked there continuously except for a short time in 1996 at Lear-Astronics Corp., Santa Monica, CA and a detail assignment in 2013 working for Mr. Stu Witt at the Mojave Air and Space Port. Mr. Kelly earned a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott, AZ and a Master’s of Business Administration from the University of La Verne.

Highlights of his career include: working as flight controls engineer on NASA’s F-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle; leading the flight systems team on the X-43A Hyper-X, vehicle no. 1; leading a team that studied training the next generation of lunar-landing astronauts and briefing the results of study to four Apollo moon-walkers; and launching the Flight Opportunities Program.