W. Russ DeLoach

W. Russ DeLoach is NASA’s chief of safety and mission assurance (SMA). Appointed to this role in January 2021, DeLoach is responsible for the development, implementation, and oversight of SMA policies and procedures for all NASA programs.

Prior to this assignment, DeLoach served as the SMA director at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where he led a dedicated team of experts in assuring workforce safety and collaborating on smart solutions to human spaceflight risks since February 2019. His team worked to identify, characterize, mitigate, and communicate risk to accomplish safe and successful human space exploration.

He previously held the same role at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where he was responsible for the planning and execution of center and program activities. In this capacity, he developed transformative SMA approaches to enable the success of Kennedy as the world’s premier multi-use spaceport.

DeLoach began his NASA career in 1987, on assignment as an intern in the Army Material Command’s Quality and Reliability Engineering training program. Returning to Kennedy, he conducted Reliability and System Safety analyses, as well as technical reviews and assessments of integrated ground systems, equipment, and operations for the Space Shuttle and International Space Station programs. In 2000, he was selected as the SMA branch chief within the Shuttle Processing Directorate, providing surveillance of space shuttle ground operations.

As his career progressed, he served as the shuttle processing mission assurance manager supporting ground processing, launch, and landing. In 2006, DeLoach stood up the SMA Support Office for the emerging Constellation Program and later oversaw the transition of Constellation efforts to support Orion and the Space Launch System. After the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, he was instrumental in the transformation of Kennedy to a thriving multi-user spaceport, developing an approach to enable public-private partnerships in a manner that maintains an acceptable risk posture for NASA, while allowing flexibility and innovation for commercial interests. He became Kennedy’s deputy director of SMA in 2012 and then SMA director in 2014. 

DeLoach holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Florida in Gainesville. He is married to Janice, a retired educator, and they have three grown children.