Chris McLean GPIM Principal Investigator Ball Aerospace

Chris McLean is a staff consultant at Ball Aerospace and is the Principal Investigator for NASA’s Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM). His extensive expertise in propulsion and aerospace development have been critical to the GPIM program.

McLean began his career with Ball in 2004 where he served as the program manager for an in-space cryogenic propellant storage and delivery program, which included customer development and program execution. He has held multiple leadership positions during his time spent at Ball, including as the lead systems engineer for a robotic lunar lander effort. McLean is skilled in building highly motivated and multidisciplinary project teams and is well-known for his strong program management and ability to execute.

Prior to Ball, McLean was a propulsion research engineer specialist at Pratt & Whitney Space Propulsion.

McLean received a Ball Engineering Excellence Award in 2016 for his leadership and expertise in propulsion technology on GPIM. He holds a B.S. and M.S. in aeronautics and astronautics from the University of Washington.