John Leon

John has over 30 years’ experience in the aerospace industry. He started his career in 1987 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida where he learned all aspects of Space Shuttle operations culminating in key leadership roles including NASA Test Director and Landing and Recovery Director. John transferred to the Goddard Space Flight Center in 1998 where he managed instrument proposals and hardware development, supervised the Instrument Systems Branch, and was the Deputy Project Manager for the ICESat-2 mission which launched in 2018.

John has also led vital strategic planning efforts including development of the Access To Space portal for the ride share community, NASA Instrument Capability Study for NASA, NOAA, and the DoD, and the Virtual Technology Lab for the Instrument Systems and Technology Division at the GSFC. John retired from NASA in 2020 and is leading strategic planning efforts at Genesis.