John Muratore
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Muratore is a NASA engineer and Program Manager, well known in the aerospace circles for his flamboyant and unconventional style.
He earned his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1979 from Yale University and a Master of Science in Computer Science in 1988 from the University of Houston–Clear Lake. After serving in the US Air Force, Mr. Muratore joined NASA JSC in 1983 and has held progressively responsible leadership positions including Chief, Reconfiguration Management Division, Space Shuttle Flight Director, and Chief, Control Center Systems Division in the Mission Operations Directorate; and Associate Director and Deputy Manager, Advance Development Office and Assistant to the Director, Engineering within the Engineering Directorate.
From 1996 to 2003, he was the Program Manager of the X-38 program, an unmanned demonstrator which performed a series of successful demonstration flights at Edwards Air Force Base. He gathered a team of young, relatively inexperienced but highly motivated engineers to try to apply the 'faster, better, cheaper' method advocated by Daniel Goldin to human spaceflight, in order NASA to obtain at affordable cost a Crew Return Vehicle.
In 2003, following the cancellation of the X-38 program due to the International Space Station program financial woes, Mr. Muratore was named Manager, Space Shuttle Systems Engineering and Integration Office, Space Shuttle Program. Most recently he has served as Lead Engineer for the Space Shuttle Program.
In April 2006, following his technical opposition to Michael Griffin's decisions regarding the Shuttle return to flight, he is reassigned as Senior Systems Engineer supporting the Shuttle/Station Engineering Office in the Engineering Directorate. He is also a professor at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
