NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
John H. Glenn Research Center
Lewis Field
Cleveland, Ohio 44135

James M. Free

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James Free is Director of the Space Flight Systems Directorate at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. In this position, he is responsible for managing Glenn’s activities that include significant roles in the agency’s Constellation, Space Shuttle, International Space Station, Human Research and Science Programs.

Prior to this appointment, Free served as chief of Glenn’s Orion Projects Office, having responsibility for all Orion-related work at Glenn. This included Orion service module design and development, requirements management, Space Environmental Test Project for Orion qualification testing, and low impact docking system seal development.

More recently, from 2007 through 2008, he demonstrated his technical expertise and leadership capabilities as the Orion Service Module Manager and as the Orion Test & Verification Manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Since 1990, Free has worked on multiple spacecraft and technology programs in a variety of capacities. He began his career at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center as a propulsion engineer on NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite and worked on the first in-house spacecraft propulsion system built for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission.

Since joining Glenn in 1999, his first assignment was as the International Space Station liaison for the Fluids and Combustion Facility. He also led the development of electric actuation technologies for NASA’s Next Generation Launch Technology Project. Free then served as the launch vehicle manager and autonomous rendezvous and docking manager for the Prometheus spacecraft and as the LOx-methane Project Manager.

Free earned his bachelor’s degree in aeronautics from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and his master’s degree in space systems engineering from Delft University in the Netherlands.

Free is the recipient of the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and the Civil Service Excellence Award.

9/09