NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Dr. Richard Gilbrech
Director,
John C. Stennis Space Center

Richard J. Gilbrech is director of NASA’s John C. Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss. He provides overall leadership, planning, policy direction, management and coordination for all activities implementing NASA’s mission directorates. The director's office is responsible for coordinating all of NASA's rocket propulsion test capabilities, Earth Science Application programs as well as managing SSC. SSC is a unique federal city that is home to more than 30 federal, state, academic and private organizations and numerous technology-based companies.

Before being named director of Stennis Space Center, Dr. Gilbrech served as deputy center director of Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va. As deputy, Dr. Gilbrech assisted in the general management of Langley Research Center. Prior to the deputy center director position, Dr. Gilbrech served as deputy director of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center, located at Langley.

Gilbrech started his NASA career in 1991 at the Stennis Space Center in the area of propulsion test technology. In 1995, he was selected as the Stennis National Aerospace Plane project manager responsible for the construction, activation and operation of a facility to test actively-cooled structures. Later in 1995, he was named the X-33 project manager, responsible for converting the A-1 test stand at Stennis from space shuttle main engine testing to linear aerospike turbopump single and dual engine testing. From 1998 to 2000, he served as chief of the Propulsion Test Engineering Division within the Propulsion Test Directorate at Stennis Space Center.

Dr. Gilbrech accepted a six-month detail at the Johnson Space Center in Houston in late 2000 where he served as technical assistant to the space shuttle program manager. He then returned to Stennis as deputy director of propulsion testing.

In 2003, he was named manager of the Propulsion Integration Office responsible for managing NASA’s rocket propulsion test facilities at Stennis, the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville Ala.; Johnson Space Center’s White Sands Test Facility, Las Cruces, N.M.; and Glenn Research Center’s Plumbrook Station, Sandusky, Ohio.

In late 2003, he relocated to Langley where he served as a principal engineer in the NASA Engineering and Safety Center.

Dr. Gilbrech earned a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Mississippi State University. He earned master’s and doctoral degrees in aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology with a minor in planetary science.

The recipient of numerous awards, Dr. Gilbrech has received NASA’s prestigious Exceptional Achievement Medal. He and his wife, Shelly, have two sons, Ryan and Brandon.