Previously headed Gravity Probe B program at Marshall
Space Center
Todd May has been selected as manager of NASA's Discovery and
New Frontiers Program Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
in Huntsville (AL).
The Discovery and New Frontiers office provides opportunities
for the science community to propose full scientific investigations
to explore the Solar System.
Discovery and New Frontiers investigations are the
responsibility of NASA Headquarters in Washington (DC). The
Marshall program office will assist the Science Mission Directorate
at NASA Headquarters with program management, technology planning,
systems assessment, flight assurance and public outreach.
"I'm excited about the opportunities for this program to support
NASA's Vision for Space exploration and to launch unique science
research missions throughout our Solar System," said May. "The
teams leading these projects are modern day Lewis and Clark
explorers, who charted new territory on their 1803 westward
expedition. We'll be doing much the same - except we'll be setting
off to explore and understand the far reaches of our Solar
System."
The Fairhope (AL) native will lead the team responsible for
providing oversight of the Discovery and New Frontiers missions and
assuring the availability of technical expertise to quickly assess
and apply resources enabling scientific investigators to accomplish
their missions.
Most recently May served as the program integration manager for
the Gravity Probe B Program - the current mission, launched in
April, which is testing Einstein's theory of relativity. May
was responsible for managing cost, schedule and flight readiness of
the spacecraft, as well as education and public outreach for the
mission.
Graduating from Auburn University in Auburn (AL) in 1990 with a
bachelor's degree in materials engineering, May started his career
at NASA in 1991 as an engineer at the Marshall Center's Materials
and Processes Laboratory He relocated to NASA's Johnson Space
Center in Houston (TX) in 1994, leading a team that evaluated
materials and processes used for the Space Station. In 1996, he
became deputy manager of the team working with Russia on the Space
Station. In 1998, May returned to the Marshall Center to lead the
team constructing the International Space Station "Quest" Airlock
module.
The Discovery initiative includes focused, scientific
investigations that complement NASA's larger planetary exploration.
Its goal is to launch numerous small missions with a faster
development phase -- each for considerably less than the cost of
larger missions. The Discovery program has launched numerous
missions to date, including the Mars Pathfinder, Near Earth
Asteroid Rendezvous-Shoemaker, and Genesis missions.
The New Frontiers initiative addresses high-priority
investigations identified by the National Academy of Sciences -- a
committee made up of science and technology experts who address
critical national issues and offer advice to the federal government
and public. NASA's first New Frontiers mission is called New
Horizons, which will fly by the Pluto-Charon system in 2015 and
then target other Kuiper belt objects. NASA recently selected two
mission proposals under the New Frontiers program for
pre-formulation study, leading to a selection of the second New
Frontiers mission in May 2005.
May, his wife Kelly and their four children, Carson, Madison,
Harrison, and Sarah, reside in Huntsville (AL).
ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (04.15.24)
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