Robert M. Lightfoot Jr.

Robert M. Lightfoot, Jr.
Official portrait of Robert M. Lightfoot Jr as Acting Administrator of NASA.
Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Acting
Incumbent
Assumed office January 20, 2017
President	Donald Trump
Deputy	Lesa Roe (Acting)
Preceded by	Charles Bolden
Associate Administrator of National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Incumbent
Assumed office September 25 2012
President	Barack Obama Donald Trump
Deputy	Lesa Roe
Personal details
Born	1962/1963 (age 53–54) Montevallo, Alabama, US
Spouse(s)	Caroline Smith
Education	Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering at University of Alabama
Occupation	Associate Administrator of NASA (Highest Civil position)
Website	NASA Biography

Robert M. Lightfoot, Jr. is an engineer and the Acting Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). He is also the incumbent Associate Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Succeeding Charles Bolden 23rd Administrator of NASA, Lightfoot became the space agency's acting Associate Administrator on March 5, 2012. That job became permanent on September 25, 2012. He had previously served as the eleventh Director of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, from March 2009 until his promotion in March 2012.

Lightfoot is acting NASA Administrator effective 20 January 2017 at noon ET.

Lightfoot joined NASA in 1989 as a test engineer and program manager at Marshall. In 1998, he was named deputy division chief of Marshall's propulsion test division. Lightfoot moved to NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center in 1999 as chief of propulsion test operations. In 2001, he was named deputy director of the Propulsion Test Directorate at Stennis and in March 2002 he was promoted to director.

From 2003 to 2005, Lightfoot served as assistant associate administrator for the Space Shuttle Program in the Office of Space Operations at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He returned to Marshall in 2005 as manager of the Space Shuttle Propulsion Office. In 2007, Lightfoot was named deputy director of Marshall where he shared responsibility for managing the center. He served in that capacity until becoming acting director on March 26, 2009, after the retirement of the previous director, David A. King. Lightfoot was formally named as the eleventh director of the Marshall Space Flight Center on August 24, 2009. He led Marshall through the transition from the Shuttle era to the Space Launch System.