Joseph Cassady Executive Director, Space 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. He has 33 years experience in propulsion and mission and systems analysis and has authored more than 50 technical papers dealing with electric propulsion, power and attitude control systems and mission analysis.

His experience includes flight projects for both the Air Force and NASA. 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. Both systems were accomplished within program cost and schedule constraints and were successful flight demonstrations. 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 STEM and human Mars exploration.