Joseph A. Dant

Joseph A. Dant is the Chief Safety and Mission Assurance Officer (CSO) for the Launch Services Program (LSP) at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Appointed to this position in January 2020, Dant is delegated Safety and Mission Assurance (S&MA) Technical Authority under the NASA governance model and represents agency S&MA for the LSP. He is responsible for integrating safety, quality and mission assurance engineering practices, policies, procedures and standards across LSP and the LSP fleet of commercial launch service vehicles. He provides technical insight and approval for S&MA areas for all LSP missions and gives the S&MA “go/no go” position on day of launch.

Experience

Dant began his career with NASA in 2005 as a mission assurance engineer in the Launch Services S&MA Division at Kennedy, developing technical expertise in several areas such as liquid propulsion, ordnance and vibration analysis. There, he built the foundation of his expertise in commercial launch vehicles and worked on a variety of critically important science missions, including Pluto/New Horizons, Kepler and Dawn. In 2009, he began working as a mission assurance manager, integrating all aspects of S&MA for his assigned missions, including the Mars Science Lab (Curiosity Rover) and OSIRIS-REx. During his years in the Mission Assurance Branch, he became well versed in identifying, documenting and mitigating mission assurance risks and making recommendations to Program Management on mitigation plans and acceptability of risks.

In 2016, Dant was promoted to Deputy CSO of LSP under longtime mentor Rick Boutin. Dant performed the role of the CSO when delegated and provided technical assistance to the CSO for numerous NASA science missions, including Parker Solar Probe, GOES-S, InSight, TESS and ICON. In his 15 years supporting Launch Services S&MA, Dant has contributed to the flight readiness and successful launch of 45 LSP missions and the certification of six launch vehicles.

In addition to his experience with uncrewed commercial launch services, Dant spent 14 months, spanning 2018 and 2019, developing S&MA requirements for the Gateway Logistics Element at Kennedy. During this time, he enhanced his understanding of crewed spaceflight S&MA and human rating requirements for end-to-end commercial space services.

Education

Dant graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science in aerospace engineering and later earned a master’s degree in space systems from the Florida Institute of Technology in 2008.

Personal

Dant was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, but spent the early years of his life moving around the country, including Montana, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. He lives in Orlando with his wife, Nicole, and two children. He enjoys family time, backpacking, fishing, and the outdoors.

Biography last updated March 2020