Dr. Jon B. Olansen

Dr. Jon B. Olansen is the manager of NASA’s Gateway Program, leading a team of international and commercial partners in the design, development, delivery, and eventual operation of a space station in a unique lunar orbit. The lunar Gateway is the cornerstone of NASA’s Artemis Program, architected to establish a sustained human presence in cislunar space, paving the way for human exploration of the Moon, Mars and beyond. Jon has been with the Gateway program since its inception, initially managing the development of the Habitation and Logistics Outpost – or HALO – module, where astronauts will live and conduct research while visiting Gateway. It, along with Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element, will be the first pieces of the space station to launch.

Dr. Olansen previously led the development of the Orion Ascent Abort-2 (AA-2) Crew Module, designing, building, and delivering a fully certified crew module for the AA-2 flight test vehicle 6 months early, as well as the ground systems, control center, and flight operations team. Dr. Olansen then served as the AA-2 Spacecraft Test Director, leading the flight control team in executing the AA-2 launch in July 2019. Prior to the AA-2 development, Dr. Olansen led the Morpheus Project to its successful conclusion, managing a team from 8 NASA centers in developing and conducting 63 flight tests of a full-scale planetary lander prototype for the advanced development of human spacecraft propulsion, navigation, and autonomous precision landing systems.

Dr. Olansen has over 34 years of experience, beginning his career at JSC as a Space Shuttle flight controller, supporting 32 missions in NASA’s Mission Control Center. After a leave to earn his Ph.D., he returned to JSC where he eventually became a civil servant and held numerous positions of increasing responsibility, including Deputy Chief, Avionics Systems Division and Manager, Engineering Directorate Planning & Control Office.

Dr. Olansen’s Ph.D. specialized in biomedical experimentation in electrophysiology and cardiopulmonary hemodynamics. He published several journal articles related to his research and authored a reference book on biomedical instrumentation.

Dr. Olansen has received numerous awards including NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal, Exceptional Service and Public Service Awards, the NASA Systems Engineering Tech Excellence Award, and he was one of the initial individual recipients of NASA’s Space Flight Safety Award.