Sridhar Manthripragada
Associate Director of Flight Projects
Mr. Sridhar Manthripragada is currently the Deputy Associate Director for the Earth Science Projects Division (ESPD) at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). In this role, Sridhar provides leadership for the Earth Systematic Mission program, which includes directed, Earth Science missions with a $5B portfolio value. Sridhar also led the establishment of a new program within ESPD with a $1.2B portfolio value, the Earth System Explorers Program (ESEP) for competitively-selected, Principal Investigator-led, MIDEX-caliber missions.
In his 30+ year career at NASA, Sridhar has held leadership positions on multiple flight projects, including James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), New Horizons (Pluto), OSIRIS-REx, Neutron-Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), ExoMars, Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), and Mars Sample Return – Capture Containment and Return System. Four of these projects (JWST, ExoMars, LISA, and Mars Sample Return) involved working with international partners, including the European Space Agency, CNES, and DLR.
Sridhar began his career at GSFC developing detector systems for flight missions including the Cassini mission to Saturn. On JWST, Sridhar led the detector technology development, maturing the infrared detectors to TRL6 for three of the four JWST instruments. As the NIRSpec instrument manager, Sridhar worked with the European Space Agency to deliver the NIRSpec instrument, which included state of the art detectors and Micro shutters, as key mission enabling technologies. On ExoMars, Sridhar led the development and delivery of the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) instrument. On Mars Sample Return, as the Capture, Containment and Return System (CCRS) project manager, Sridhar established a project office at GSFC and assembled the CCRS team across 4 NASA Centers including GSFC, JPL, LaRC and ARC.
Sridhar was the Standing Review Board (SRB) Chairman for the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source (EMIT) Project. He is currently the Independent Review Team (IRT) Chairman for the Mobile Launcher 2 (ML-2), which is providing critical ground infrastructure to enable the Artemis mission that will return astronauts to the moon. He is also the SRB chair for the NASA Rosalind Franklin Project (NRP) that will search for signs of life on Mars.
Mr. Manthripragada holds a Bachelors and Masters degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland and George Washington University respectively.
Mark Goans
Deputy Program Manager for Explorers
Mr. Goans serves as the Deputy Program Manager for the Explorers Program providing programmatic guidance and institutional support to a variety of Heliophysics and Astrophysics projects and missions. Prior to his move into this position and starting in 2010, he served as the Deputy Program Manager for Strategic Projects within the Explorers and Heliophysics Projects Division, responsible for projects such as Parker Solar Probe (PSP), Van Allen Probes, and the Heliophysics Environmental and Radiation Experiment Suite (HERMES) to be flown on the Artemis Gateway.
Mark joined the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in 1983 providing flight systems support to the Sounding Rocket Division. Later reorganized to the Special Payloads Division, he served as engineering lead and technical manager responsible for the development, flight implementation, and maintenance of reusable Shuttle-attached payload carrier hardware and Shuttle interface hardware for free-flyer spacecraft used by the Get Away Special (GAS), Hitchhiker, and Spartan programs.
From 1988 to 2001, he was employed in the private sector providing engineering and management services to the aerospace industry with expertise in spacecraft systems architecture and engineering trade studies; flight structures and mechanisms design and analysis; and project/engineering management application systems and services.
Returning to NASA in 2001 within Systems Review Office of the Safety and Mission Assurance Directorate, he was responsible for managing and chairing independent review teams for the conduct of technical and programmatic assessments of spacecraft and instrument systems developed for scientific research and operational purposes. Soon appointed Office Chief, Mark supervised a multidiscipline staff responsible for conducting milestone reviews that encompassed products from in-house developers, other NASA Centers, private industry and universities, and foreign governments working under cooperative international agreements.
He has served as the Standing Review Board Chair for the Aquarius project, Soil Moisture Active-Passive (SMAP) project, NASA Jupiter Icy moons Explorer (JUICE) project and the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO) Pathfinder project. He also served as the Deputy Chair for the Libera project Standing Review Board.
Mark holds a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the West Virginia University and a Master's Degree in Engineering Administration from the George Washington University.
Christine Hinkle
Program Business Manager, Explorers Program
Ms. Christine Hinkle is the Explorers Program Business Manager in the Explorers and Heliophysics Projects Division (EHPD). Christine joined the EHPD in December of 2009, as the Deputy Program Business Manager for Explorers, supporting the IRIS, NuSTAR, SAM, Astro-H, and GEMS missions. In March of 2011, she moved to the position of Program Business Manager, currently supporting the GOLD, TESS, ICON, IXPE, XRISM, and GUSTO missions.
Before joining the EHPD, Christine supported the Exploration and Space Communications Division, for over 20 years in various business leadership roles in several projects and offices, including the Near Earth Network Project, Space Network Project, Technology and Standards, the Guam Remote Ground Terminal Project, and the Second TDRSS Ground Terminal Project.
Christine has a Bachelor of Science degree from University of Maryland, University College.
Bob Jenkens
Deputy Program Technical Manager
Coming Soon!
