Associate Director of Flight Projects: Nicholas G. Chrissotimos

Deputy Program Manager: Joseph Dezio

Program Business Manager: Herbert Mittelman

Deputy Program Business Manager: Jule Johnson

Mr. Chrissotimos has 25 years of project/program management experience at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). He is currently the Associate Director of Flight Projects for Heliophysics where he is the Program Manager for Explorers, Living with a Star and Solar Terrestrial Probes.

Mr. Chrissotimos joined GSFC full-time in 1974 after receiving a BSEE form Pratt Institute. He also has a MSEE from the University of Maryland. He first developed Ground Systems hardware for the NASA STDN tracking stations. Then designed and developed spaceflight hardware while supporting flight projects including, LANDSAT, SARSAT, SEASAT and COBE.

He served on the TDRS Project for eight years as Payload Manager, Spacecraft Manager, and Assistant Project Manager leading to the successful development and launches of TDRS 3 - 7. He later served as the TDRS H,I,J SEB Chairman.

He also has served as the Deputy Project Manager on the EOS Chemistry and Special Flights Project, and as the Earth Systems Science Pathfinder (ESSP) Project Manager where he led the definition, development and implementation of the ESSP program. He then served as the Earth Explorers Program Manager where he managed the development, launch and operations of ESSP and Earth Explorer missions; QuickScat, GRACE, SORCE, QuikTOMS, CALIPSO and CloudSat.

In 2003 Mr. Chrissotimos was appointed as the STEREO Project Manager where he led the project to a successful launch in October 2006. In addition, at that time he was serving as the Deputy Program Manager for the Sun Earth Connection Programs where he was the Living With a Star (LWS) Program Manager responsible for the SDO and Geospace missions.

He recently served as the Associate Director of Flight Projects for the Exploration and Space Communications Projects Division. There he was responsible for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Project, TDRS Project, Space Network and Ground Network Projects and GSFC Constellation Program support.

Mr. Chrissotimos is a recipient of the NASA Medal for Outstanding Leadership and Goddard's Exceptional Achievement Award.

Joseph A. Dezio
Deputy Program Manager for Explorers

Mr. Dezio came to the Explorers Program as the Deputy Program Manager in November 2001 to support the numerous Explorer mission's activities and PI's. In that capacity he is also the acting Swift Project Manager preparing that mission for launch in 2004.

Mr. Dezio received a B.S. Degree in Engineering Science from Oakland University, Rochester, MI in 1967 and came to NASA Goddard from the Physics Department of that institution in 1969 to begin work on the IMP-I Project. That was followed by numerous other successful projects including AEM/HCMM, Landsat 4, ERBS, Space Station Platforms now AURA and AQUA, GOES recovery 1989-93, GGS WIND and POLAR missions, and ICESAT.

Over the course of his 34 years at Goddard Mr. Dezio has received numerous performance and group awards and the NASA medal for exceptional service in 1997.

Mr. Mittelman assumed the position of Business Manager for the Explorers Program in March of 1998. In this capacity, he is responsible for the effective management of all business activities relating to the Explorers Program. Prior to this, he was the Deputy Project Manager for Resources on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). He managed the business and logistics activities of GSFC's largest in-house project and largest foreign launch from Tannegashima, Japan, in November of 1997.

Mr. Mittelman began his career at GSFC in 1966 as the College Recruiting Officer, serving in this capacity for 3 ¹/2 years. He then spent 10 years as a financial analyst in the Sciences Directorate supporting the development of instruments on numerous projects including: ERTS, NIMBUS, Atmospheric Explorer (AE), San Marco, Dynamics Explorer (DE), Voyager, Pioneer Venus, Galileo and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Next, he served as Financial Manager of the Engineering Directorate and on such projects as: Orbiting Satellite Project/Applications (OSP/A), Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) and Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). He was assigned as Deputy Project Manager for Resources (DPM/R) for the Satellite Servicing Project (SSP) overseeing the resources support for the development of the Multi-Mission Spacecraft (MMS) and UARS Airborne Support Equipment (UASE) for the UARS Project, the Explorer Platform (EP) for the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) Project and the early development of carriers for the first HST servicing and repair mission. Upon the disestablishment of the SSP Project in 1992, he moved to the Earth Science and Mission Operations (ESMO) Project as the DPM/R. ESMO evolved into the Landsat-7 Flight Project and he continued as DPM/R until he assumed the position of DPM/R on the TRMM Project.

Over 35 years at NASA/GSFC, Mr. Mittelman has been involved in the development of approximately 50 scientific instruments and 30 flight projects. In April of 2002 Mr. Mittelman received GSFC's Outstanding Management, Senior/Mid-Level Award for his contributions to the success of the Explorer's Program. During his career at GSFC, he has received a total of 25 NASA and GSFC Group Achievement, Special Act, Performance and Cost Reduction Awards.

Mr. Johnson is the Deputy Program Business Manager for the Explorers Program. He is responsible for all multi-year program budget formulation, execution and accounting activities for the $220M/year Explorer Program. This includes all current and future Medium Class Explorers (MIDEX), Small Explorers (SMEX) and new University Class Explorers (UNEX) missions.

He entered government service in June 1967 as an auditor with the Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Agriculture. He joined NASA in December 1969 and was assigned to NIMBUS Project as a Resources Analyst responsible for financial management of this earth-oriented platform to test advanced systems to collect meteorological and geological data. He was the Delta Program Financial Manager, responsible for program financial frame analysis and mission cost accounting. He designed and developed the Delta Mission Cost Reporting System (DMCRS) that was needed to provide full costing accounting for NASA and reimbursable missions. The DMCRS was a mainframe computer system that also provided detailed mission requirements in advance of launch and final billing support data after launch. Mr. Johnson was responsible for the financial aspects of procurement, financial framework planning and implementation in many various missions over the years, including the Medium Expendable Launch Services (MELVS) and Small Expendable Launch Vehicle Services (SELVS) under the NASA Mixed Fleet Program. Others include the Scout Launch Program, NOAA Polar Metsat reimbursable missions, and the Pegasus Ultra-Lite Expendable Launch Service program.

He was awarded the Exceptional Service Medal in recognition of his contributions to the sound fiscal management of NASA's medium and small expendable launch vehicle programs including the recently completed Most Favored Customer negotiations.