William Knopf

Bill Knopf joined the NASA Headquarters Office of Space Science (OSS, now the Science Mission Directorate, SMD) in November 2003 after a 9-month Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) assignment. He is the current Program Executive for the Advanced Multi Mission Operations System (AMMOS), Janus, Lunar Trailblazer, the Lead PE for Mission Operations, the Planetary Defense Emergency Response Officer and the Planetary Science Division (PSD) Liaison to Spacecraft Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Division in the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) for the Deep Space Network (DSN). He was previously the Program Executive for Cassini, Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL), Extrasolar Planets Observations and Characteristics-Deep Impact Extended Investigation (EPOXI), the Planetary Data System (PDS), National Space Science Data Collaborative Archive (NSSDCA), Discovery Data Analysis Program (DDAP), Planetary Mission Data Analysis Program (PMDAP), Planetary Mission Senior Review, and the Program Scientist for the Deep Space Network.

Before coming to NASA, Bill was a Senior Staff Physicist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory from 1983-2003. He worked as a Range Systems Analyst for the Trident I and II Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) tests and was a Flight Test Support System (FTSS) specialist. He conducted Mission Operations for the Strategic Defense Initiative Delta 181 Thrusted Vector and Delta 183 Vector Product missions. He was the Contingency Planner for the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX). Bill also managed the mission operations development for the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR), was the DSN interface for NEAR, the Mission Operations Manager for the Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) mission and holds a patent for developing APL’s Telemetry Definition System. Bill was a Section Supervisor in the Strategic Systems Department and in the Space Department, managing ground and operations system software development. Finally, Bill taught Software Engineering for Management with APL Chief Scientist Alexander Kossiakoff and assisted in the development of the first tablet-based PC system for medical rounds at The Johns Hopkins Hospital Department of Anesthesiology. Bill holds a BS in Physics and Mathematics from Villanova University, an MS in Physics from Drexel University, and an MS in Computer Science from the Johns Hopkins University.