Sridhar Manthripragada
Associate Director of Flight Projects
Mr. Sridhar Manthripragada is currently the Deputy Associate Director for the Earth Science Projects Division (ESPD) at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). In this role, Sridhar provides leadership for the Earth Systematic Mission program, which includes directed, Earth Science missions with a $5B portfolio value. Sridhar also led the establishment of a new program within ESPD with a $1.2B portfolio value, the Earth System Explorers Program (ESEP) for competitively-selected, Principal Investigator-led, MIDEX-caliber missions.
In his 30+ year career at NASA, Sridhar has held leadership positions on multiple flight projects, including James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), New Horizons (Pluto), OSIRIS-REx, Neutron-Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), ExoMars, Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), and Mars Sample Return – Capture Containment and Return System. Four of these projects (JWST, ExoMars, LISA, and Mars Sample Return) involved working with international partners, including the European Space Agency, CNES, and DLR.
Sridhar began his career at GSFC developing detector systems for flight missions including the Cassini mission to Saturn. On JWST, Sridhar led the detector technology development, maturing the infrared detectors to TRL6 for three of the four JWST instruments. As the NIRSpec instrument manager, Sridhar worked with the European Space Agency to deliver the NIRSpec instrument, which included state of the art detectors and Micro shutters, as key mission enabling technologies. On ExoMars, Sridhar led the development and delivery of the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) instrument. On Mars Sample Return, as the Capture, Containment and Return System (CCRS) project manager, Sridhar established a project office at GSFC and assembled the CCRS team across 4 NASA Centers including GSFC, JPL, LaRC and ARC.
Sridhar was the Standing Review Board (SRB) Chairman for the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source (EMIT) Project. He is currently the Independent Review Team (IRT) Chairman for the Mobile Launcher 2 (ML-2), which is providing critical ground infrastructure to enable the Artemis mission that will return astronauts to the moon. He is also the SRB chair for the NASA Rosalind Franklin Project (NRP) that will search for signs of life on Mars.
Mr. Manthripragada holds a Bachelors and Masters degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland and George Washington University respectively.
David Carter
Deputy Program Manager for Explorers
Coming Soon...
Christine Hinkle
Program Business Manager, Explorers Program
Ms. Christine Hinkle is the Explorers Program Business Manager in the Explorers and Heliophysics Projects Division (EHPD). Christine joined the EHPD in December of 2009, as the Deputy Program Business Manager for Explorers, supporting the IRIS, NuSTAR, SAM, Astro-H, and GEMS missions. In March of 2011, she moved to the position of Program Business Manager, currently supporting the GOLD, TESS, ICON, IXPE, XRISM, and GUSTO missions.
Before joining the EHPD, Christine supported the Exploration and Space Communications Division, for over 20 years in various business leadership roles in several projects and offices, including the Near Earth Network Project, Space Network Project, Technology and Standards, the Guam Remote Ground Terminal Project, and the Second TDRSS Ground Terminal Project.
Christine has a Bachelor of Science degree from University of Maryland, University College.
Bob Jenkens
Deputy Program Technical Manager
Coming Soon!
