Deputy Project Manager/Technical, Space Science Mission Operations, NASA GSFC
B.S. ASE 1989, The University of Texas at Austin
M.S. ASE 1991, The University of Texas at Austin
Ph.D. ASE 1996, The University of Texas at Austin
Russell Carpenter has been with NASA since 1987, spending most of his career focused on development of onboard navigation systems as a navigator at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) and the Goddard Space Flight Center. He currently serves as the deputy project manager/technical for Space Science Mission Operations (SSMO) at Goddard. SSMO is responsible for 19 missions and 26 spacecraft operating throughout the solar system.
Carpenter earned his B.S. in aerospace engineering in 1989 with highest honors and was a member of Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Gamma Tau. During 1991-1993, he returned to UT on a NASA fellowship, where he received an M.S. in aerospace engineering in 1992, followed by the completion of a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering in 1996.
He has been with NASA since 1987, spending most of his career focused on development of onboard navigation systems, as a navigator at JSC and Goddard. Since 2016, Carpenter has been providing technical management oversight of space science missions across NASA’s planetary, heliophysics and astrophysics enterprises.
Carpenter is a fellow of the of both the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the American Astronautical Society (AAS). NASA has honored his achievements with the Exceptional Service and Exceptional Achievement medals along with many other awards, and he was the AIAA National Capital Section’s Young Scientist/Engineer of the Year in 2000. Carpenter has over 100 publications, including papers that received the best paper award at the 2011 AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialists Conference, and the Institute of Navigation’s Burka award for best paper in the journal NAVIGATION in 2017. Main belt asteroid 12248 Russellcarpenter (formerly 1988 RX12) is named in his honor, for contributions to the Lucy and OSIRIS-REx missions.
He currently serves on the board of directors of the AAS, and has served on the AIAA GNC Technical Committee and the AAS Space Flight Mechanics Technical Committee. He is a past associate editor of the AAS Journal of the Astronautical Sciences and has served as guest editor for the AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics and the IEEE Control Systems Magazine.
Carpenter lives in Alexandria, VA with his wife, Carol Moore. They met in graduate school at UT, where she was getting a Ph.D. in economics. His hobbies include building and flying experimental aircraft and sailing on Chesapeake Bay.
