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For release: 11/27/02
Release #: 02-299
Dennis A. “Denny” Kross, director of the Space Transportation Directorate at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has been awarded a 2002 Presidential Rank Meritorious Executive Award — one of the highest honors attainable for a civil servant. Kross, a native of Detroit, Mich., has led the Space Transportation Directorate since June of 2001. Under his guidance, the directorate has provided world-class propulsion and engineering expertise to NASA’s Space Shuttle program, as well as development of advanced space transportation and launch vehicle systems, in-space propulsion and a Mars ascent vehicle.
Photo: Kross (NASA/MSFC)
Dennis A. “Denny” Kross, director of the Space Transportation Directorate at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has been awarded a 2002 Presidential Rank Meritorious Executive Award — one of the highest honors attainable for a civil servant.
Kross, a native of Detroit, Mich., has led the Space Transportation Directorate since June of 2001. Under his guidance, the directorate has provided world-class propulsion and engineering expertise to NASA’s Space Shuttle program, as well as development of advanced space transportation and launch vehicle systems, in-space propulsion and a Mars ascent vehicle.
“I am honored and humbled to receive this recognition,” Kross said. “It has been my distinct pleasure to work with the finest group of women and men imaginable — across the Marshall Center, across NASA, and among our myriad partners and contractor teams.”
Kross received the award at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., this month.
"The honor conferred on Denny Kross is a source of pride and inspiration to me and the entire Marshall team,” said Art Stephenson, director of the Marshall Center. “His selection demonstrates that hard work, dedication and achievement by those in public service do not go unrecognized, and that is tremendously gratifying to me,” he added.
The Presidential Rank Awards honor executives who have provided exceptional service to the American people, exhibiting strong leadership skills, strength, integrity and a commitment to outstanding public service. The awards are given annually to a select number of government executives in the Senior Executive Service — a group of leaders who serve as a vital link between presidential appointees and the rest of the federal workforce.
Prior to his appointment to the Space Transportation Directorate, Kross served in Marshall’s Engineering Directorate as manager of the engineering systems department. During his tenure there, he was responsible for leading systems-related engineering services and support functions for a variety of NASA programs and projects.
Kross is a 1963 graduate of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering. In 1968, he received a master’s degree in engineering mechanics from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Kross joined NASA in 1967, serving as a structural dynamics researcher in the former Propulsion and Vehicle Engineering Laboratory at the Marshall Center. He subsequently held management roles in the former Astronautics Laboratory and the Systems Dynamics Laboratory.
During his NASA tenure, he also has served in a number of senior technical and managerial positions at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. From 1987-1988, he led the Space Station Performance Evaluation division at NASA Headquarters. He managed the International Space Station Vehicle Office at the Johnson Center from 1995-1999, before returning to Huntsville to resume leadership duties within the Marshall Center’s Engineering Directorate.
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