Mr. Cody Kelly
Cody Kelly currently serves as the Deputy for National Affairs within NASA’s Search and Rescue Mission Office at the Goddard Spaceflight Center. His role includes the coordination and leadership of NASA’s national-level work in research and development of search and rescue technologies for use by those in distress anywhere in the world. He is the current lead for all Human Spaceflight SAR operations activities and supports SpaceX, Boeing and Artemis/Orion HSF missions with dedicated search and rescue data for locating crew capsules and astronauts following landing. For future exploration missions, Cody is leading the development of Lunar Search and Rescue (LunaSAR) requirements and systems for human exploration of the lunar south pole and sustained lunar surface presence.
His past work as an Orion Program subsystem manager included the design, development and operational use of systems for maintaining the health of astronauts following long-duration spaceflight, electronic signaling systems for DoD-integrated rescue operations, and the development of ultra-light weight water survival hardware for NASA Orion and Commercial Crew Programs. Cody served as the Johnson Space Center’s human spaceflight search and rescue subject matter expert, working across the government on classified and public programs to locate and rescue those in distress. Cody additionally served as the project manager of NASA’s Advanced Next-Generation Emergency Locator (ANGEL) beacon system, the world’s first second-generation 406 Mhz personal locating beacon developed by a joint industry and government team.
Cody was honored by Popular Mechanics Magazine as one of 2017’s Breakthrough Award winners for his work in the civilian and military satellite-aided search and rescue community, as well as NASA’s prestigious Early Career Achievement Medal for enabling joint NASA and military rescue operations. Cody was awarded NASA’s Silver Snoopy Award in 2020 for his work on astronaut rescue equipment and testing.
Cody graduated from Texas A&M in 2012 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Aerospace Engineering and Certificate in Advanced International Affairs.
Outside of NASA, Cody is a Lieutenant in the League City Fire Department specializing in hazardous materials and technical rescue response, as well as serving as a Planning Team support member on the Texas A&M Task Force One urban search and rescue team, combining professional passions in search and rescue with opportunities to help others.
Cody is originally from Bandera, Texas, a small rural town of around 980 people.