NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has named John Bailey as director of the agency’s Stennis Space Center, effective immediately. Bailey had been serving as acting director role since January.
“John will build on his nearly 35 years of federal service to lead our talented workforce at Stennis,” said Nelson. “So much of NASA runs through Stennis. It is where we hone new and exciting capabilities in aerospace, technology, and deep space exploration. I am confident that John will lead the nation’s largest and premier propulsion test site to even greater success.”
The center tested the Space Launch System SLS core stage that helped launch the Artemis I mission. The center is testing all RS-25 engines to help power SLS launches and will conduct flightworthy testing of the agency’s new exploration upper stage prior to its use in space on future Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond.
“This is an exciting time for NASA Stennis, and I am deeply honuored to lead its great family of employees who make up this amazing workforce,” Bailey said.
Bailey has more than three decades of federal service with the US Air Force and NASA. As a communications engineer with the US Air Force, Bailey led electronic communications testing worldwide. He joined the NASA Stennis team in 1999 and served in a various roles, managing and leading technical and non-technical organizations and supervising employees with a wide range of skills and backgrounds.
Bailey was tapped in 2015 to lead the NASA Stennis Engineering and Test Directorate, managing critical rocket propulsion test assets exceeding USD2 billion in value and projects more than USD221 million. He was named NASA Stennis associate director in 2018 and selected as the center’s deputy director in 2021.
