Jeff Gramling

Mr. Gramling began his career at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in 1985, supporting the Hubble Space Telescope Project. Following HST launch, he joined the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) Project as a subsystem manager in 1992, prior to the launch of TDRS-F. He advanced to Space Segment Manager on the TDRS second generation development program, serving in that position through the launch of TDRS-J in 2002. He served as acting Project Manager beginning in 2006 and was appointed Project Manager in 2007, leading the project from development of specifications for the third generation program (TDRS K,L,M) through launch of TDRS-K in 2013 and TDRS-L in 2014.  Over the course of his tenure he supported the launch of seven TDRS satellites across the three generations of spacecraft.

In 2015 Mr. Gramling became Associate Director of Flight Projects for Earth Science Projects at Goddard, concurrently serving as Program Manager of the Earth Systematic Missions Program (ESMP). In this role he was responsible for the portfolio of directed development projects identified by the Earth Science Decadal Survey, successfully launching Jason-3, SAGE-3, and TSIS-1.

Mr. Gramling joined the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in 2018 as a Program Manager.  He returned to NASA in 2020 to serve as the Director of the Mars Sample Return Program in the Science Mission Directorate at Headquarters.  He led the program through approval to enter Formulation through the Second Independent Review Board and the Administrator’s approval of a refined mission architecture following review of Industry Studies in January of 2025.

Mr. Gramling holds a B.S. from Clemson University and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland. He is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.