Vanessa Aubuchon

Vanessa Aubuchon is deputy director (acting) for NASA’s Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP) in the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD). In this role, she helps lead the Agency’s aviation operations and safety research portfolio, working with projects across multiple NASA centers to advance tools, concepts, and architectures that enable safe, efficient, and sustainable operations in the National Airspace System. 

AOSP partners with the Federal Aviation Administration, industry, and academia to develop and mature technologies for emerging aviation concepts, including increasingly autonomous systems, advanced and urban air mobility, and new digital capabilities for managing complex airspace.

Aubuchon supports the integration of this research into a coherent program strategy, strengthens coordination across projects and centers, and helps ensure that AOSP’s work is aligned with national needs in airspace operations and safety. 

Aubuchon previously served as Acting Deputy Director for the Aeronautics Research Directorate at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Norfolk, Virginia, providing executive leadership for a large, multi-project aeronautics research portfolio and leading efforts in workforce development, governance, and cross-center integration.

Before joining AOSP, she was the Deputy Project Manager for the Transformational Tools and Technologies project, managing multi-center investments in autonomy, advanced/urban air mobility, modeling and simulation, digital engineering tools, and subsonic flight efficiency research. 

Earlier in her career, Aubuchon held a variety of technical and leadership positions at NASA Langley and NASA Headquarters, including roles in flight dynamics, systems engineering, and program integration. Her experience includes work on Orion and Commercial Crew flight test and verification activities, service as a flight dynamics subject matter expert and voting member of the NASA Langley Airworthiness and Safety Review Board, and support to the Integrated Aviation Systems Program in ARMD. 

Aubuchon is pursuing a Ph.D. in engineering management at Old Dominion University and holds a master’s of science degree in aerospace engineering from Virginia Tech and a bachelor’s of science degree in aerospace engineering from Mississippi State University.