Chris Hansen Manager, Extravehicular Activity Management Office
Chris joined JSC as a coop student in 1991 while pursuing a Mechanical Engineering degree at the University of California at Irvine. After graduating in 1993, he joined JSC full-time as a structural analyst and spent much of his early career on development projects such as the Space Shuttle Lightweight Seats project, landing gear conceptual studies for the X-38 vehicle, a resistive exercise device for ISS, a structural prototype for a portable, inflatable hyperbaric chamber and numerous other hardware for the Space Shuttle and ISS Programs.
After earning a Master's of Mechanical Engineering at Rice and gaining continued hardware experience, Chris later became the Mechanical Systems Integration Lead for the International Space Station. In this role he led numerous anomaly resolution teams and was the NASA Chair of the Structures and Mechanisms Problem Resolution Team for ISS.
In 2007, he became the Chief Engineer for the International Space Station Program where he led a diverse engineering team that resolved numerous issues during shuttle assembly and was instrumental in bringing the new Dragon and Cygnus cargo vehicles into the ISS Program.
In the summer of 2013 Bill Gerstenmaier, the Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, named Mr. Hansen to lead the Investigation Team for the International Space Station (ISS) EVA Suit Water Intrusion High Visibility Close Call that resulted in termination of US EVA 23 approximately 23 minutes into the EVA due to water in the helmet of one of the EVA crewmembers. In this role Chris led a cross Agency team to investigate the failure, determine root cause, and make recommendations which have been enacted by the ISS Program and the EVA team to insure the safety of our astronauts on future spacewalks.
Beginning in 2014 Chris led the Crew and Thermal Systems Division in Engineering with responsibility for all human spacecraft life support and thermal systems and engineering support for the current and future EVA capabilities.
In June of 2015 he was named the Manager of the EVA Management Office.