Ken Munechika

Dr. Ken K. Munechika served as the seventh Ames Center Director, from January 28, 1994 to March 4, 1996.

Munechika was raised in Hawai‘i and earned a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Southern California. Prior to joining NASA, Munechika served as the executive director for the Office of Space Industry for the State of Hawai‘i, where he directed the planning, evaluation and coordination of space-related activities in Hawai‘i.

Munechika also served for 31 years in the U.S. Air Force, including more than 20 years in the aerospace field. He served as senior commander of Onizuka Air Force Base in Sunnyvale, CA before retiring as a colonel in 1989. Munechika was recommended to NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin by Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawai‘i.

In an era of tightening budgets, many consequential developments unfolded during Munechika’s tenure, such as the Zero Base Review, the beginning of Ames as a designated Center of Excellence in Information Technology, the start of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute, the Lunar Prospector mission, and the transfer of Moffett Naval Air Station to NASA. Also in 1994, after thirteen years of leadership from Ames, present-day Armstrong Flight Research Center (then Dryden) again became an independent NASA Center.

Following his tenure as Ames Center Director, Munechika was named to a then newly-created position as Director of the Moffett Federal Airfield. When Naval Air Station Moffett Field was disestablished in 1994, NASA took over as the host agency for this federal facility that was occupied by more than 10,000 active duty military, civilian, and military reserve personnel at the time. He passed away in 2022.