Patrick L. Crouse

Patrick Crouse is the project manager for the Hubble Space Telescope mission at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Crouse accepted this position in 2010 and has overall responsibility for all technical, budgetary and administrative aspects of one of NASA’s flagship missions.

Crouse’s career at NASA began in 1990 as an aerospace engineer in the Flight Dynamics Division performing mission analysis and developing ground system requirements for spacecraft attitude determination. In 1999, Crouse used that experience to become mission director for five Small Explorer spacecraft, for which he was responsible for overall operations, anomaly resolution and budget. In that capacity he developed and operated a testbed program that utilized the on-orbit Wide-field Infrared Explorer spacecraft to perform a variety of engineering and scientific investigations. These included tests to improve the star tracker radiation tolerance and to understand the scientific precursors necessary for future missions focused on asteroseismology and planet detection by studying the long-term variation in star intensity.

In 2001, Crouse moved into management as an associate branch head and lead mission director where he supervised operations personnel, including the mission directors for the Space Science Mission Operations Project and the Earth Science Mission Operations Project. This would lead to Crouse’s selection as the deputy project manager, and eventually the project manager of the Space Science Mission Operations Project where he was responsible for the safe operations and scientific productivity for more than 30 on-orbit missions in the heliophysics, planetary and astrophysics arenas.

Crouse earned his Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Frostburg State University and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park. He also received a master’s degree in engineering management from the University of Maryland, University College.

Crouse grew up in western Maryland in the small town of Hancock, wedged between Pennsylvania and West Virginia. He now resides in Annapolis, Maryland, with his wife and four children where he enjoys participating in youth sports, reading and gardening.