Ned Penley

Ned Penley is the deputy associate administrator of management for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate (ESDMD). He serves as a key advisor to the associate administrator for ESDMD in charting the future course of NASA’s human space exploration effort. Penley is responsible and accountable for resources and management systems and processes to enable NASA’s exploration spaceflight portfolio including safety, success, and performance of its programs and projects. From December 2021 until March 2023, Penley served in the this role for both ESDMD and the Space Operations Mission Directorate.

Prior to being selected for the deputy associate administrator management roles, Penley was the program planning and control (PP&C) manager for the Orion Program at NASA, managing Orion strategic planning, budget management, program performance analysis, schedule management, configuration management and export control. He previously served as the Orion Program’s deputy PP&C manager.

Penley worked on numerous human spaceflight development and operational programs. As a contractor, he worked at NASA Headquarters with Space Station Freedom research planning, and performed a key role during the space station redesign evaluating the designs from a research perspective. He joined NASA in 1994 at Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he worked as a founding member of the International Space Station program payloads office as the manager of research planning. In this capacity, Penley was responsible for negotiating and allocating resources for the international research community, and for manifesting the research bound for the space station.

Penley was also a founding member of NASA’s Human Research Program, establishing their program integration office and completing the first Human Research Integrated Research Plan. He also managed NASA’s Constellation Program Schedule, Cost Estimating, EVM (Earned Value Management) and Assessments (SCEA) office, and subsequently was the deputy manager of the Constellation Program Planning and Control office.