John A. McCullough

John A. McCullough is the Director, Exploration Integration and Science Directorate (EISD) at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) where he provides executive guidance and direction of a multi-disciplined organization of more than 406 civil servants and contractors to enable human and robotic exploration missions to the moon, cis-lunar space, and to develop/demonstrate capabilities for human missions to Mars. His organization includes exploration systems engineering and integration, mission concept and architecture development, physical science research, orbital debris and image science research and operations, and applied-science mission support. EISD also provides for curation of all NASA-held extraterrestrial samples, extra-vehicular activity (EVA) program management, and the development of strategic partnerships.

John previously served as the Manager, Orion Vehicle Integration Office, leading all Orion systems engineering and integration processes and integrated vehicle analysis.  He was responsible for the management of development, allocation, and closeout of Orion vehicle requirements, design reviews, design standards, Guidance Navigation and Control & loads development, and cross-program agency-level technical integration with the Space Launch System, Exploration Ground Systems, and Gateway. Additionally he has led numerous special projects and vehicle level assessments such as the Agency-level Exploration Mission-1 Crewed Mission Study, Orion Gateway and Asteroid mission assessments, and Orion support to JSC-wide system engineering initiatives.

He also served as Chief, Flight Director Office, and Chief of the Spaceflight Training Management Office in mission operations and served a headquarters detail where he led the agency-wide development of a mission operations leadership capability team bringing together human, robotic, and aircraft mission expertise from all 10 centers to improve operations approaches and techniques.  He previously spent 8 years as a flight director where he led flight control teams and crews for more than 620 shifts, and he worked more than 20 shuttle flights as a lead flight controller or flight director.  As Chief, Flight Director Office he was responsible for integration all planning, flight readiness, and direction of spaceflight operations within the Mission Operations Directorate (now the Flight Operations Directorate), for providing the focal point within JSC for all human spaceflight operations planning and execution activities.

He graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering.