Stennis Space Center in Mississippi has a new deputy director.
NASA has named Joseph R. Schuyler as the new deputy director at the agency’s facility near Bay St. Louis. He will fill a vacancy left by Christine Powell, who was recently promoted to director of the center. Powell is the first female to hold the deputy director and director positions at Stennis.
As deputy director, Schuyler is tasked with assisting the center director in managing NASA’s primary rocket propulsion testing capabilities, which help the agency’s missions sustain American scientific, economic, and national security leadership, and overseeing a multi-agency federal city comprised of more than 50 resident agencies.
Stennis recently played a pivotal role in NASA’s first manned moon mission in over 50 years. The center has served as the test site for the RS-25 engines for the space launch systems involved in Artemis missions.
“Joe brings a wealth of leadership experience spanning military service, private industry, and NASA civil service,” Powell said. “His deep technical expertise and proven track record as director of our Engineering and Test Directorate make him uniquely qualified to help lead Stennis into a Golden Age of innovation, exploration, and propulsion testing.”
Prior to his appointment as deputy director, Schuyler served as the director of the Engineering and Test Directorate, where he managed and executed the center’s major lines of business in propulsion test and space technology.
He has been a civil service employee at NASA Stennis since 2010, previously serving as deputy director of the Engineering and Test Directorate, along with chief and deputy chief of Systems Engineering, where he led the implementation of advanced systems engineering tools and practices across all propulsion test projects at the center.
Schuyler, a native of Newburgh, N.Y, began his career as an officer in the United States Marine Corps, serving as the leader of Supply and Logistics at the 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. After his military service, he held manufacturing leadership roles in the automotive sector at Ford Motor Company and Visteon Automotive.
In 2006, Schuyler transitioned to the aerospace industry with Lockheed Martin at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. As a systems engineer and manager, he played a critical role in restarting manufacturing and assembly processes for the space shuttle external tank following the shuttle Columbia accident and Return to Flight activities, and led work supporting external tank delivery, integration, launch, and post-flight analyses.
Schuyler earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from the United States Naval Academy in 1993. He also holds two master’s degrees from Cornell University – a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Science in operations research and industrial engineering.