Steven Del Papa – NESC Academy Biography

Steven got his BS in mechanical engineering at Texas A&M University in ’96 and his MS in mechanical engineering at the University of Houston in 2001. He started his career on the X-38 project designing the TPS and performing thermal analysis. He then transitioned to the orbiter program where he was involved in the Columbia accident investigation with the creation of a highly detailed thermal model of the wheel well to understand the flight data. In 2004 he began training as a test director (TD) for the JSC arc jet facility and was certified in 2005. Currently he is the test director and lab manager for the JSC radiant heat test facility (RHTF) primarily supporting MPCV as well as other NASA programs and commercial programs.