Erik Denson
Electrical Chief Engineer, Engineering Directorate
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Erik Denson is the electrical chief engineer within the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida – a position he has held since 2012. His duties include participating in technical reviews and providing technical guidance for the agency’s Exploration Ground Systems Program designs and technology development efforts.
Experience
Prior to his current position, Denson served as the branch chief of the Electrical Design Branch at NASA Kennedy from 2004 to 2011. He supervised engineers working on ground support equipment designs and technology development projects. He also held the position as technical integration manager for the Electrical division between 2011 and 2012, where he oversaw various electrical projects and activities.
Denson began his career at NASA Kennedy in 1990 as an electronic design engineer. His duties included the development of communication systems and ground support equipment for the Space Shuttle Program, including the Operational Intercom System-Digital at the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA Kennedy, the Paging Area and Warning System, Operational Television, and the Tracker Control System. He served as the Communications Architecture Subgroup co-lead for the Advance Range Technology Working Group and the Advanced Spaceport Technology Working Group, which paved the way for planning of today’s multi-user spaceport.
Denson graduated NASA’s Professional Development Program where he worked with the Office of the Chief Engineer at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and the Integrated Mission Design Center at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. He also served as the management intern to former Kennedy Space Center Director Roy Bridges. Denson returned to NASA Headquarters to work on various agency engineering initiatives within the Office of the Chief Engineer.
Education
Denson received a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Howard University in Washington, D.C. He also received a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from Polytechnic University of New York, now New York University in New York.
Denson is a member of Tau Beta Pi, the National Engineering Honor Society, as well as a member of the National Society of Black Engineers.
Awards
He has received many awards, including NASA’s Silver Snoopy Award in 1995, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 2000, an agency Equal Employment Opportunity Medal in 2004, a Certificate of Appreciation in 2016, a Distinguished Service Medal in 2021, as well as several Group Achievement awards.
Personal
Denson was born and raised in Hempstead, New York. He and his wife, Aubra, currently live in Oviedo, Florida.
Denson is a certified scuba divemaster.
Biography created September 2025