NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Mike Kirsch currently serves as a Principal Engineer in the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC). He began his career at NASA's White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) in 1989 while completing his degree in Mechanical Engineering from New Mexico State University. Prior to joining the NESC, he was the Deputy Manager at White Sands Test Facility responsible for planning and directing developmental and operational tests of spacecraft propulsion systems and related subsystems. In preparing for the Deputy Manager position, Mr. Kirsch managed projects and test facilities within the Engineering Office, Laboratories Test Office, and the Environmental Program Office at WSTF. His most recent activity was the plume front mitigation project to implement a ground water remediation system to control migration of contaminated ground water while managing WSTF's overall Environmental Program. He also served as the Contracting Officer's Technical Representative for the WSTF support contract which culminated in the implementation of Project Management tools and processes. Prior to the Environmental Program, Mr. Kirsch participated in a rotational assignment within the Space Shuttle Program's (SSP) Vehicle Engineering Office at Johnson Space Center where he was the Technical Assistant to the Manager. His other projects at WSTF included oxygen hazards analysis and oxygen system and component testing for the International Space Station (ISS) and Shuttle Programs, as well as oxygen ground service equipment for NASA and DOD facilities. He also served as the Manager of the Hypervelocity Test Facility performing impact testing on a variety of materials for the ISS, SSP, and other spacecraft hardware. Early in his career he led the WSTF initiative to implement reliability centered maintenance techniques for facility systems and served as a Pressure Systems Engineer. He also served as the Construction of Facilities project manager for the fabrication of WSTF's small altitude simulation system for propulsion testing.