Joseph Pelfrey New MSFC Center Director

Press/Media Conference for Joseph Pelfrey, New MSFC Center Director

What is said in the film

Good morning. Good morning. I'm Lance Davis news chief here at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. We're so glad to have our members of the press here today. This is our first media day for 2024.

And we thank you for coming. As you've heard, we have a new boss and he has served as the acting center director, as well as the deputy center director for Marshall. And prior to that, he led the human exploration, Development and operations Office. So he is our new center director, the 15th Center director of Marshall Space Flight Center, and his name is Mr. Joseph Pelfrey.

Please welcome him. Good morning. Thank you for being here. I am deeply humbled and honored and grateful to get to serve as the 50 senior director, Marshall Space Flight Center. I accept this opportunity with a profound appreciation of our rich legacy and history that has shaped our journey in space exploration.

For more than six decades, Marshall Space Flight Center has been on the forefront of leading humanity's endeavors in space. We have been a beacon of innovation and discovery right here in Huntsville, Alabama. A founding member of Team Redstone. We've been we have a legacy that is woven with dedication and perseverance, rich in innovation and driving what our nation's goals were in space exploration. As we approach our 65th birthday next year, we're just getting started.

As we set our sights on the stars, as we set our sights on the stars. Excuse me. We do so with a humble acknowledgment of the challenges that lie ahead and responsibility of our mission. We understand that the pursuit of knowledge and exploration is a journey filled with uncertainty and challenges. We will navigate that through transparency, collaboration, and a willingness to learn.

As we write the next chapter of our story. I'm confident of a bright future that we have from Marshall Space Flight Center. We are focused on building strategic partnerships, enabling new missions, and harnessing our deep technical expertise to be a technical solutions provider, not only for the agency, but for our partners. We've already begun to lay the foundation through our space launch system and the human landing system, which is the backbone of our exploration goals. Our evolution includes new operating models, new ways of doing business, more partnerships and mission opportunities that will harness the full strength of the Marshall Space Flight Center.

For example, in our science portfolio, we're celebrating two years of science with the imaging X-ray Polar Imagery Explorer XP, which is our astrophysics mission. That was developed right here at Marshall Space Flight Center. That team was recently recognized with the 2024 Bruno Rossi Prize, which for us is like the Grammys of astrophysics. We're continuing our rich legacy of propulsion development with a partnership with the Defense of Applied Research Programs Agency to develop the first nuclear propulsion thermal engine. We'll be demonstrating in orbit, and it's a partnership with our industry partners called Dreykov.

And this is a major step to developing the systems. We need to return humans to deep space and put humans on Mars for the first time. We have some brand new projects that we're excited about. Just last night, the Intuitive Machines launch with our industry partners included a marshall payload called Lunar Navigation, one that is on its way to the moon as we speak. It's a technology demonstration for autonomous navigation that will help us inform future designs for landers and exploration vehicles on the surface of the moon.

We're excited about that launch and we wish them well on the mission as they proceed towards the moon. Marshall is continuing to lead the formulation of the exploration habitats that the agency will use, not only on the surface of the moon but in transit to Mars. We are excited about a new partnership that we're leading for the agency with the Italian Space Agency to develop the concepts for a multipurpose habitat, which will be the first habitation element on the surface of the moon to support a sustained presence for exploration goals. We just kicked off the mission concept review for that habitat and we hope to finish that this year and we're very excited about this partnership with our international partners. We've also been working with our industry partners here to test new designs for habitats, including creep and burst testing, which have contributed to some of the noise you may have been hearing from our backyard here on the arsenal.

In addition, these exciting projects, we are continuing to invest in our people. Since March of 2020, we've hired over 600 New NASS employees and we are excited to welcome that new generation in our workforce, the Artemis generation. We're continuing to invest in our facilities. We have two new facilities that are in design process right now to help enable Marshall's future. One is called the Marshall Exploration Facility, which will sit on the site of our previous headquarters building.

4208 will provide us lab, auditorium, space collaboration, space training center and many other services that we lost when we lost 4200. We're also excited to start the design process for a new engineering and science laboratory 144,000 square foot facility state of the art that will enable the missions that we're supporting for the future. Both of these are expected in the coming years, and we're very excited to change the landscape of Marshall Space Flight Center. So as we look towards the aspirational goals that we have as an agency, Marshall's future is bright. Our contributions will be heralded to continue a rich legacy of space exploration and supporting our nation's goals.

And we want our partners, our employees and our community to be along with that, be on this journey with us. We have many opportunities to engage this year, and I'm excited to tell you about a few of those. In April, we'll have our annual state at Launch initiative, where we have teams from around the world come to Huntsville, Alabama, to launch their rockets and complete a challenge that we've given them. It's a great investment in our next generation. We also have the human exploration rover Challenge at the U.

S. Space and Rocket Center. Again, teams from around the world will come bring in their human powered rovers to navigate the obstacle course at the Space and Rocket Center. This will be our 30th year of hosting that tremendous event, and we encourage you all to come out and see the teams and all their hard work. I'm also very excited to announce that on June 22nd, we're going to bring back NASA in the park and we're going to bring all of our cool toys and mission activities and technologies that we're working on and bring it and show it to you guys in the community and engage with the community in a way that we in so much enjoy today.

And we look forward to that event and we're partnered with downtown Huntsville and bringing that back to the Rocket City. And we can't wait and hope you all join us. So as we look to the future, Marshall, there's more to explore. There's more to dream. There's more to innovate.

There's more to inspire and there's more to gain when we do it together. Thank you for being here. And thank you for helping tell our story. I'll take your questions now so you won't serve in other roles. The what it was like to become Director.

One thing about you and it's a great question, so we have a tremendous leadership team here at Marshall and during the transition period, I had the complete confidence of the agency to continue pressing forward with the missions we had. And so it was very overwhelming, very humbling to get the call from the administrator. They conducted a nationwide search, had quite a rigorous process of interviews through the through through that time. But the agency is committed to Marshall's role in supporting what we do as a nation in space exploration. And so I am just honored that they have the confidence in me and our team to continue to lead for the future.

The questions. So I've been with the here at Marshall for almost 24 years now. I started as a industry partner and then transferred to the government about 20 years ago. You talk about 600 employees being hired in the last two years and we've brought in people here at Marshall, other centers are experiencing major layoffs right now with the budget still in flux. And we're coming from Capitol in just a few weeks.

Where does that stand as far as more of the people at JPL or just because of that? Or maybe you might ask, where is more testing today and what will it look like in this marketplace? So NASA's enjoys tremendous bipartisan support, and we have enjoyed tremendous support in Capitol Hill for our budgets and the missions that we have. Marshall had our highest budget ever last year in FY 23 enacted. And so we have a very healthy portfolio.

However, we are partners with JPL, and so we feel the pain that they are experiencing with the cuts that have happened. The agency had to take a very conservative approach because we were under continuing resolution and we don't have an appropriation for 24. And so because of that conservative approach, it drove the agency to plan to a lower budget level that affected the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Marshall. We were able to restructure some of our contracts on the Mars ascent vehicle and replan some of our staffing to handle the reductions in staffing.

And so we do not anticipate any cuts here at the center. All right. Tell me about the future of the ISS. There will be changes here at Marshall in five years. Where is that going?

Because that's like an integral part of that daily, hourly contact about Earth service. Absolutely. Marshall is proud to have led the science operations on the International Space Station for the last 23 years. Continuous 24 seven 365. We've also developed many of the scientific experiments the facilities, the environmental control and life support systems are used on ISIS, and all of that knowledge is paying forward as we plan for our next missions in armaments, both on the surface of the moon and in transit to Mars.

So we're taking that experience that we want, that we've learned on ISIS, and we're starting to develop the concepts for how we're going to do science on the surface of the moon. And how will these science and lunar orbit and eventually all the way to Mars, the International Space Station is a world class laboratory, and our ability to test the technologies that we need for that long duration spaceflight has been tremendous and our teams have been heavily involved with that. So we have many more years of science that we can take advantage of this national laboratory. And Marshall is going to be continuing to lead right to the end, and then we'll transition that workforce over to supporting armaments in the new missions that we have going forward. So it's a very bright future and that experience is going to pay forward very well.

And what we're doing as an agency in the future, that's a great question. So from a very early age, as a small town kid from South Carolina, I was just enamored with spaceflight, with aircraft and airplanes. And and I grew up as a shuttle kid. I was part of the shuttle generation. I recorded every shuttle flight and we go replay it and watch it over and over again.

So working for NASA's has been a childhood dream of mine, and I can't imagine a better place to be a better group of people to work with and a better community to be in. The passion for this community and what they have for our mission and what we do as an agency is beyond anywhere else in the country. And your neighbors, your friends, your colleagues, your family members are coming here every day to help advance our nation's goals and aspects of space exploration. And I cannot imagine a better place to be than to get to work with that team every day. As I learned a long time ago in Washington, D.

C. , they recently, the past few days, they all about Russia's capabilities in space. It's me and being able to drop bombs from space. You know, I know there's only one side to side, but that. So we have a long standing partnership with a number of our international partners on the International Space Station.

It is a beacon of international hope as we come together to really do some amazing science on this international laboratory. And we value those partnerships as a nation, as an agency. As we look to the future, Marshall is really focused on how we go further out in deep space in developing the technologies we need to carry our astronauts further than we've ever been before. We're going to start that in autumn as to where we're going to return humans to the moon for the first time in 50 years. Our teams are laser focused on that mission and making sure those four astronauts, Reed, Victor, Christina and Jeremy, can accomplish our mission and come home safely.

Beyond that, we're looking to Artemis three, where we're going to land humans on the moon for the first time in 50 years. And we're working with our industry partners to develop the landers being led right here at Marshall to accomplish that mission. So many, many new firsts that are coming in front of us, and that's what we're focused on to ensure that we can really advance our exploration goals as a nation. We're talking about this issue once that happened overnight and was was really navigation, right? Yeah, this is a great technology demonstration where we're testing a new design for autonomous navigation, only about why you're on the surface of the moon or why you're trying to land on the moon.

You need to be able to navigate the different obstacles, the craters, the boulders that are there. And so this is a new technology to test a method for doing that. And we're excited that it was included on this launch. And we hope for tremendous success as they transit to the moon and hopefully land later this month. This is a technology developed here at Marshall and very proud of our teams and the work they've done to develop that framework for what do you last?

What did you learn from her and what do you hope to take in your. That's a great question. You know, Jody is one of many great mentors that I've had, many leaders of this center that came before me and left big shoes to fill. However, I'm just tremendously grateful for all I've learned from all of them. As we look to the future of this center, I carry with me lessons from all the folks that I work with, how we invest in our people, how we engage in our community.

Those things are very important. And as we look forward to leading this team for the future, I can't say enough about our team and especially our leadership team that is invested in making sure that we have a bright future for the center and in this community. And so I'm honored to follow behind some great leaders of this center, and I look forward to charting a path and writing the next chapter with all of us together. More recently, there were some delays on this program, but definitely an update on how that's going. And absolutely.

So I mentioned Artemus to we have announced the launch date is ten four September of 2025. That was a decision based on crew safety. We wanted to give the teams the opportunity to make sure that we learn everything we can from Artemus one and that we listen to the hardware and make sure that it tells us when we're safe to fly. And so this extra time will give our teams really the chance to ensure that everything is in order and we have the best chance for missing success for those four crew members that were lost, for almost two down at our machine assembly facility, which is a component facility of Marshall outside of New Orleans. We have hardware four of Artemus two, three, four and five.

They're going through the factory and some phase. And later this summer, we're excited to roll out the core stage for Artemus to to get it ready to ship to the Kennedy Space Center to begin stacking for that mission. So we have a lot of exciting work going on for Artemus and a lot of big milestones that the team is focused on to support those goals for the future. You know, a lot of people in this space like that, but is there anything that you want me to really know about the work that you guys are doing here and just how, you know, impact on the team? Yeah, absolutely.

I think what most people don't realize are some of the technologies that we're working on to support the future missions that we have, that it's not just rockets and propulsion systems. We do so much more here. That's a part of our legacy that we'll always have. But the science missions that we're doing and the discoveries that we're doing to contribute, they contribute to the knowledge of our universe and how our world operates. The work we're doing in Earth science and providing data to decision makers for weather events.

We have a great partnership with the National Weather Service there, where a lot of the data you see coming from the NASA's satellites are the data is analyzed and processed right here in Huntsville by our science team. So some tremendous work going on that most people are not aware of because it's not as loud or noisy as rockets as we have in the past, but no less important in the missions that we're doing to make sure that we can have both robotic and human technology to explore our universe. And we have some, which is so great about our NASA in the Park event where we get to show off some of those technologies and things we're doing to the community that people don't get to see every day. We're seeing a lot of people that are hearing things as a right coming from a space like that and tell us a little bit about the partnerships. Tell us about what we're going to hear over the next few months from the Blue Origin, from the reason and what else is going on.

Absolutely. We we see a future at Marshall where most of our missions are enabled through some strategic partnership. And so having the partnerships like with Blue Origin, with Space X, with the others that we have on the center, really enable us to really succeed in our missions and what we're doing forward. And so we're proud of the partnerships that we have. Blue Origin is has a commercial space launch agreement to utilize one of our historic test stands and they are testing their engines for their missions.

And so that's contributing to some of the noise you hear. They have a pretty regular cadence of testing planned and you can we can refer you to them if you have more questions on the specific schedules and what they're doing there. But we're glad to have them onsite and using our facilities and take advantage of the capabilities that we have on the center. We expect to continue some of the testing on the habitation systems where we're testing the strength and the materials of those which make contribute to some of the noise you hear. But most for the most part, we're excited just to be continuing to have those partnerships to really advance the technologies and the missions and the designs we need to support our goals and exploration.

Partnerships. Kennedy, for instance, has really diversified in leasing some of that land to companies other than space audiences, primarily aeronautical company. Is that part of the big picture for you in that business? So as we look for continued partnerships and unique partnerships, we are evaluating how we can utilize facilities, inner space that we have that really align with our mission and align with the things that we're trying to accomplish, both as a center and as an agency. So we'll continue those discussions and look for those opportunities.

Our ability to to share our facilities and let other companies come in and not only use our workforce and capabilities, but also our facilities is a way to continue our sharpening our skills and to continue to keep those facilities in use in between the needs for the NASA program. So it's a it's a great opportunity for us to enable commercial space, enable their goals in addition to the goals that we have as an agency. What industries, for instance, other centers are looking at moving companies. What are you looking for? We're focused on the partners that align with our mission needs that we have in our have complementary skills to the capabilities that we have here in the center.

That's a great question. We NASA's goals for going back to the moon and on to Mars are based on three pillars science, discovery and inspiration and national posture. And that inspiration piece is just a tremendous part of the mission that we have to to not only inspire our community, but to inspire the next generation of explorers, engineers, scientists, business professionals. And so for us to be able to bring our story out to the community is a way to to engage, to inspire the next generation, to demonstrate the advancements that we're making for humanity. It's also a chance for your neighbors and friends and colleagues to be able to show off what they get to do every day.

And it's an exciting time for us to show the value that NASCAR brings to the general public, to humanity, and the things that we're advancing every day. And so we're very excited about the event. We've had it in years past and always have a tremendous turnout and engagement from the community. And we just we truly appreciate the passion that our community has for our mission of space exploration. We have time for two more questions.

Yeah, sure. Marshall In 20 years, we'll have a vibrant future. So in 20 years we'll be 40 in 2044. I expect we'll see human missions to Mars. We'll have a sustained presence on the moon.

Astronauts living in habitats developed by Marshall Space Flight Center flying and spacecraft developed by Marshall Space Flight Center and I believe we'll have a vibrant workforce that is making sure all those missions can be accomplished. The next the first person to walk on Mars is in our schools today, most likely. And I can't wait to see that happen in our future. More specifically, can you go into the math? That's only 40 minutes or so ago.

And in NASA's 2040 is an internal NASA initiative that we've kicked off to evaluate our processes, our structure, the way we do business, our business functions, to really enable the agency to be prepared to support the missions that we need to do in 2040 and to be the preeminent institution for research, technology, engineering and innovation for the nation. So it's always good as an organization to reflect on how you perform and how you operate and continue to evolve and improve for the future. And that's exactly what the NASA's 2040 initiative is about. We are heavily engaged in that and following along and being a part of outlining how we can improve as an agency so that we can go accomplish our mission for the future. So a very exciting initiative, and we look forward to continuing how that progresses over the next few years.

Aspen That's a great question. I spent a number of years working on the International Space Station program, developing experiments, working with scientists, working with universities and industry partners to fly science experiments to the International Space Station. And my job was responsible to make sure that when they got there, they worked effectively, they connected, they had all the resources they needed, and we could get the science back from those missions. That was a tremendous experience because I got to see the entire lifecycle of a of a of a of a piece of space hardware. And I did that over 30 times with experiments that are on ISIS today or still operating today.

And so to be able to see that full progression from idea to concept, to design, to build the hardware, test it and actually see it operating on the space station is it's a tremendous experience that really very few people get to do. So I cherish that time. It really provided me a lot of great experience that I still lean on today in my roles. And that's a key part of our mission here at Marshall is the work that we've done on the International Space Station for so many years. What have we not asked anybody here?

So I'll just say this Marshall Space Flight Center has a tremendous future built on a legacy of space exploration endeavors that that only we could do. And we I can't be more excited about the future that we have. We have a very robust strategy for the future. We have a committed workforce. We have an engaged community, and we have such a bright future mission to support what this nation is doing in space exploration.

And Marshall is going to have a key role in that for the future. And how many civilians, how many people like today at Marshall, we have almost 7000 civil servants and contractors that support emissions. But either on side or near side. Thank you very much for being here. Thank you for your time and helping tell our story.

Good to see you. Thank you for.

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