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STScI Director Steven Beckwith Inducted as 2004 American Academy Fellow
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By NASA
Jeremy Johnson, a research pilot and aviation safety officer, poses in front of a PC-12 aircraft inside the hangar at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland on Thursday, April 17, 2025. Johnson flies NASA planes to support important scientific research and testing.Credit: NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna Jeremy Johnson laces his black, steel-toed boots and zips up his dark blue flight suit. Having just finished a pre-flight mission briefing with his team, the only thing on his mind is heading to the aircraft hangar and getting a plane in the air.
As he eases a small white-and-blue propeller aircraft down the hangar’s ramp and onto the runway, he hears five essential words crackle through his headset: “NASA 606, cleared for takeoff.”
This is a typical morning for Johnson, a research pilot and aviation safety officer at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Johnson flies NASA planes to support important scientific research and testing, working with researchers to plan and carry out flights that will get them the data they need while ensuring safety.
Johnson hasn’t always flown in NASA planes. He comes to the agency from the U.S. Air Force, where he flew missions all over the world in C-17 cargo aircraft, piloted unmanned reconnaissance operations out of California, and trained young aviators in Oklahoma on the fundamentals of flying combat missions.
Jeremy Johnson stands beside a C-17 aircraft before a night training flight in Altus, Oklahoma, in 2020. Before supporting vital flight research at NASA through a SkillBridge fellowship, which gives transitioning service members the opportunity to gain civilian work experience, Johnson served in the U.S. Air Force and flew C-17 airlift missions all over the world.Credit: Courtesy of Jeremy Johnson He’s at Glenn for a four-month Department of Defense SkillBridge fellowship. The program gives transitioning service members an opportunity to gain civilian work experience through training, apprenticeships, or internships during their last 180 days of service before separating from the military.
“I think SkillBridge has been an amazing tool to help me transition into what it’s like working somewhere that isn’t the military,” Johnson said. “In the Air Force, flying the mission was the mission. At NASA Glenn, the science—the research—is the mission.”
By flying aircraft outfitted with research hardware or carrying test equipment, Johnson has contributed to two vital projects at NASA so far. One is focused on testing how well laser systems can transmit signals for communication and navigation. The other, part of NASA’s research under Air Mobility Pathfinders, explores how 5G telecommunications infrastructure can help electric air taxis of the future be safely incorporated into the national airspace. This work, and the data that scientists can collect through flights, supports NASA’s research to advance technology and innovate for the benefit of all.
Jeremy Johnson pilots NASA Glenn Research Center’s PC-12 aircraft during a research flight on Thursday, April 17, 2025.Credit: NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna “It’s really exciting to see research hardware come fresh from the lab, and then be strapped onto an aircraft and taken into flight to see if it actually performs in a relevant environment,” Johnson said. “Every flight you do is more than just that flight—it’s one little part of a much bigger, much more ambitious project that’s going on. You remember, this is a small little piece of something that is maybe going to change the frontier of science, the frontier of discovery.”
Johnson has always had a passion for aviation. In college, he worked as a valet to pay for flying lessons. To hone his skills before Air Force training, one summer he flew across the country in a Cessna with his aunt, a commercial pilot. They flew down the Hudson River as they watched the skyscrapers of New York City whizz by and later to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where the Wright brothers made their historic first flight. Johnson even flew skydivers part-time while he was stationed in California.
Jeremy Johnson in the cockpit of a PC-12 aircraft as it exits the hangar at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland before a research flight on Thursday, April 17, 2025.Credit: NASA/Sara Lowthian-Hanna Although he’s spent countless hours flying, he still takes the window seat on commercial flights whenever he can so he can look out the window and marvel at the world below.
Despite his successes, Johnson’s journey to becoming a pilot wasn’t always smooth. He recalls that as he was about to land after his first solo flight, violent crosswinds blew his plane off the runway and sent him bouncing into the grass. Though he eventually got back behind the stick for another flight, he said that in that moment he wondered whether he had the strength and skills to overcome his self-doubt.
“I don’t know anyone who flies for a living that had a completely easy path into it,” Johnson said. “To people who are thinking about getting into flying, just forge forward with it. Make people close doors on you, don’t close them on yourself, when it comes to flying or whatever you see yourself doing in the future. I just kept knocking on the door until there was a crack in it.”
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By NASA
Official NASA portrait of Norman D. Knight. Credit: NASA NASA has selected Norman Knight as acting deputy director of Johnson Space Center. Knight currently serves as Director of Johnson’s Flight Operations Directorate (FOD), responsible for astronaut training and for overall planning, directing, managing, and implementing overall mission operations for NASA human spaceflight programs. This also includes management for all Johnson aircraft operations and aircrew training. Knight will serve in this dual deputy director and FOD director role for the near term.
“It is an honor to accept my new role as acting deputy director for Johnson,” Knight said. “Human spaceflight is key to our agency’s mission and our Johnson team is unified in that goal. The successes we see every day are the evidence of that. It never ceases to amaze me what our team is capable of.”
Knight began his career at the Johnson Space Center as a Space Shuttle mechanical systems flight controller, working 40 missions in this capacity. He progressed through management roles with increasing responsibility, and in 2000, he was selected as a flight director and worked in that capacity for numerous International Space Station expeditions and Space Shuttle missions. In 2009, he became the deputy chief of the Flight Director Office and participated in a NASA fellowship at Harvard Business School in general management. In 2012, Knight was selected as the chief of the Flight Director Office and then in 2018 as deputy director of the Flight Operations Directorate after serving a temporary assignment as the assistant administrator, Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. In 2021, Knight was selected as the director of FOD.
“Norm has an accomplished career within the agency,” said Steven Koerner, Johnson acting director. “His leadership, expertise, and dedication to the mission will undoubtably drive our continued success.”
Throughout his career, Knight has been recognized for outstanding technical achievements and leadership, receiving a Spaceflight Awareness Honoree award for STS-82. He also received several center and agency awards, including two Exceptional Achievement medals, multiple Johnson and agency group achievement awards, two Superior Accomplishment awards, an Outstanding Leadership medal, the Johnson Director’s Commendation award, and the Distinguished Service medal.
Knight earned a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from the Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in 1990.
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By NASA
Acting Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Steve Koerner. Credit: NASA/Norah Moran NASA has selected Stephen Koerner as acting director of Johnson Space Center. Koerner previously served as Johnson’s deputy director.
“It is an honor to accept my new role as acting director for Johnson,” Koerner said. “Our employees are key to our nation’s human spaceflight goals. I am continually impressed with what our workforce accomplishes and am proud to be named the leader of such an incredible team dedicated to mission excellence.”
Koerner previously served as deputy director of NASA Johnson beginning in July 2021, overseeing strategic workforce planning, serving as Designated Agency Safety Health Officer (DASHO), and supporting the Johnson Center Director in mission reviews. Before his appointment to deputy director, Koerner served as director of the Flight Operations Directorate (FOD) for two years. In that role, he was responsible for selecting and protecting astronauts, and for the planning, training, and execution of human space flight and aviation missions. He managed an annual budget of $367 million, 600 civil servants and military personnel, and 2300 contractor personnel. He oversaw the Astronaut Office, the Flight Director Office, the Mission Control Center, human spaceflight training facilities, and Johnson’s Aviation Operations Division. During this tenure he was also responsible for FOD’s flight readiness of the first commercial human spaceflight mission, ushering in a new era of domestic launch capability and the return of American astronauts launching from American soil.
Prior to assuming his position as director of Flight Operations, Koerner served in several senior executive roles, including:
Johnson Space Center Associate Director from 2018 to 2019 Johnson Space Center Chief Financial Officer (CFO) from 2017 to 2018 Deputy Director of Flight Operations from 2014 to 2017 Deputy Director Mission Operations from 2007 to 2014 Koerner joined Johnson full-time in 1992. He has extensive operations experience including serving as an environmental systems space shuttle flight controller, where he supported 41 space shuttle flights in Mission Control. Since that time, he has served in a series of progressively more responsible positions, including lead for two International Space Station flight control groups, chief of the space station’s Data Systems Flight Control Branch, chief of the Mission Operations Directorate’s Management Integration Office, and as the Mission Operation Directorate’s manager for International Space Station operations.
Additional special assignments throughout his career include:
Project manager for Johnson’s Crew Exploration Vehicle Avionics Integration Lab (June 2007 –June 2008) Member of NASA’s Human Exploration Framework Team (April 2010 –October 2010) Member of NASA’s Standing Review Board that provided an independent assessment at life cycle review milestones for the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Program, the Space Launch System Program and the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program (October 2011 – August 2014) Lead of NASA’s Mission Operations Capability Team (October 2015 –April 2017) “Steve has an accomplished career serving human spaceflight. His vision and dedication to the Johnson workforce makes him the perfect person to lead the Johnson team forward as acting director,” said Vanessa Wyche, NASA acting associate administrator. “Steve is an asset to the center and the agency—as both a proven technical expert and a leader.”
Throughout his career, Koerner has been recognized for outstanding technical achievements and leadership, receiving two Superior Accomplishment Awards, the Outstanding Leadership Medal, the Johnson Space Center Director’s Commendation Award, two group achievement awards, the Exceptional Service Medal, and the Presidential Rank Award.
Koerner is a native of Stow, Ohio. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Akron in Ohio, and a master’s degree in business administration from LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas.
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By NASA
Wayne Johnson, who in 2012 earned the highest rank of Fellow at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California, is known worldwide as an expert in rotary wing technology. He was among those who provided help in testing Ingenuity, NASA’s Mars helicopter.NASA / Eric James NASA Ames’ Wayne Johnson Elected to 2025 Class of New Members of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE)
Dr. Wayne R. Johnson, aerospace engineer at Ames Research Center, will be inducted as a new member of the prestigious National Academy of Engineering (NAE), class of 2025, on October 5, 2025, for his 45+ years of contributions to rotorcraft analysis, tiltrotor aircraft development, emerging electric aircraft, and the Mars Helicopter development. NAE members are among the world’s most accomplished engineers from business, academia, and government and are elected by their peers. The full announcement was released to the press on February 11, 2025 from NAE and is at
https://www.nae.edu/19579/31222/20095/327741/331605/NAENewClass2025
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By NASA
Jonathan Gardner of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, was selected as a 2023 Fellow of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) for extraordinary achievement and service. He is being recognized for exceptional community service and scientific leadership of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope science teams, leading to Webb’s flight hardware exceeding all of its requirements.
Dr. Jonathan Gardner is the Deputy Senior Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.Credits: Courtesy of Jonathan Gardner Gardner is the deputy senior project scientist for the Webb telescope in Goddard’s Astrophysics Science Division. Webb, which launched Dec. 25, 2021, is the largest, most powerful, and most complex space science telescope ever built. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.
John Mather, senior project scientist on Webb and a senior astrophysicist at Goddard, nominated Gardner for the fellowship. In his nomination, Mather wrote:
“Jonathan Gardner is a quiet superstar, well known to the Webb community. As deputy senior project scientist for Webb, Gardner represents the senior project scientist in all aspects of the mission, with responsibility for ensuring Webb’s scientific performance. Gardner is a tireless advocate for the scientific vision and its accurate implementation. He is the main spokesperson for Webb science throughout NASA and in the wider astronomy community. He is the person most responsible for keeping the science teams working well together and for communicating with other astronomers.”
Gardner began working on Webb as a member of the Ad-Hoc Science Working Group in the late 1990s, joining the project as the deputy senior project scientist in 2002.
Beginning in 2002, Gardner organized all the meetings and communications of the Science Working Group, which included people from the U.S., Europe, and Canada, including instrument teams and other partners. He recruited Goddard scientists for the mission’s Project Science Team, and ensured a scientist was assigned to every engineering topic. Gardner also wrote and published the scientific requirements in a dedicated issue of Space Science Reviews. He set up the Science Requirements Analysis Board to review any potential threats to the scientific goals of the mission and worked with engineering teams to avoid any failures. He represented scientific interests throughout the engineering project and throughout NASA, by ensuring regular communication between scientists, managers, and engineers.
The 2023 AAS Fellows are recognized for enhancing and sharing humanity’s scientific understanding of the universe through personal achievement and extraordinary service to the astronomical sciences and to the AAS.
AAS, established in 1899, is a major international organization of professional astronomers, astronomy educators, and amateur astronomers. Its membership of approximately 8,000 also includes physicists, geologists, engineers, and others whose interests lie within the broad spectrum of subjects now comprising the astronomical sciences. The mission of the AAS is to enhance and share humanity’s scientific understanding of the universe as a diverse and inclusive astronomical community, which it achieves through publishing, meetings, science advocacy, education and outreach, and training and professional development.
For information about NASA and agency programs, visit: https://www.nasa.gov
By Robert Gutro
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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