Joe Cassady Executive Director for Space Programs, Washington Operations Aerojet Rocketdyne

Mr. Cassady is the Executive Director of Space Programs in the Washington DC Operations for Aerojet Rocketdyne where he helps oversee strategy development and architectures for future space and launch systems. He obtained his BS (1981) and MS (1983) in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University as well as a Graduate Certificate in Systems Engineering at the George Washington University in 2005.  Mr. Cassady holds five U.S. Patents for Electric Propulsion technology. He has 37 years of experience in propulsion development and mission and systems analysis and has authored more than 60 technical papers dealing with electric propulsion, power and attitude control systems and mission analysis. Prior to coming to the Washington office, Mr. Cassady led flight project teams for the 26 kWe ESEX arcjet system (which still holds the record as the highest power electric propulsion system flown) and the EO-1 Pulsed Plasma Thruster system.  In addition, he has served on a number of advisory groups for NASA and the DoD.  He is an Associate Fellow of the AIAA, is Vice President of the Electric Rocket Propulsion Society and serves as Executive Vice President and member of the Board of Directors for ExploreMars, a 501c(3) non-profit dedicated to promoting STEM and human Mars exploration.  It is his stated goal to see humans join their robotic precursors on the surface of the Red Planet.