Expertise

• Biomedical Engineering 
• Medical support for aeronautics 
• Occupational Health

About Michael

Michael Hess serves as Assistant Director of Human Health and Performance where he is responsible for advancing and protecting the health and well-being of astronauts and the JSC workforce to enable human exploration of space. His areas of responsibility include medical support to NASA’s missions, biomedical engineering, crew exercise and conditioning, occupational health, International Space Station medical projects, space radiation analysis, and behavioral health. Mr. Hess recently served a detail through most of 2018, as the interim Johnson Space Center Associate Center Director where he helped manage one of NASA’s largest installations, with nearly 14,000 civil service and contractor employees – including those at White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico – and an annual budget of approximately $5 billion. In his role as associate director, Hess oversaw a broad range of human spaceflight activities.

Mr. Hess began his NASA/JSC career in 1989, as a Cooperative Employment Student.  His early technical career was spent as an Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Officer planning spacewalks, training astronauts, developing space tools, and serving as a shuttle flight controller. In support of the Shuttle/Mir Phase I Program and in preparation for assembly of the International Space Station, Hess was deployed three months per year to Moscow and Star City, Russia, from 1995-2000. Hess served as Chief of the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL), the 6.2 million gallon water tank used for underwater astronaut EVA training. Hess completed an assignment at NASA Headquarters as an Acting Program Executive for Exploration.  He then served in successively more important, complex, and strategic leadership positions including: Mission Operations Division Chief of the Operations Division; Division Chief of EVA, Robotics, and Crew Systems Operations; ISS Program Cost Account Manager for Mission Operations; JSC Deputy Chief Financial Officer; Division Chief of Flight Dynamics; Associate Director for the JSC Engineering Directorate; and Chief of the Space Medicine Operations Division. 

Mike Hess earned Bachelor of Science degrees in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan and an executive MBA from the Naval Postgraduate School. Hess is a graduate of the Program and Project Management Development Program and the Harvard University Senior Executive Fellows Program. Hess has been recognized with the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, the Silver Snoopy Award, and the Center Director’s Commendation.