Gregory W. Heckler is currently the Acting Director of the Commercial Services Office within NASA’s Space Communication and Navigation Program (SCaN). He also services as the Engineering Manager at SCaN. As Engineering Manager he oversees sustainment, development, and systems engineering for NASA’s three operational communication and navigation networks, the Near Earth Network (NEN), Space Network (SN), and Deep Space Network (DSN).
Prior to his position at NASA Headquarters, Greg was a telecommunications systems engineer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. He spent 6 years supporting the Tracking Data Relay Satellite Project (TDRS) as Deputy Telecommunication Systems Manager and Payload Manager, contributing to the construction, launch, and operational deployment of three TDRS satellites.
Throughout his career Greg has supported SCaN projects including the Space Network Ground System Sustainment (SGSS) Project, McMurdo TDRS Relay System, the SCaN Testbed, space relay architecture studies, and technology development activities. Greg started his NASA career in 2006 working on the Navigator spaceflight GPS receiver, helping to achieve the receiver’s first spaceflight in 2009 on STS-125 prior to its operational use on the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) and Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) missions. He holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from Purdue University.