Dr. Packham is the Manager of the Flight Safety Office (FSO) in the Johnson Space Center’s Safety and Mission Assurance (S&MA) Directorate which has responsibility for implementation of the Safety Technical Authority for all Human Spaceflight Programs. The FSO houses the Chief Safety and Mission Assurance Officers (CSO) for the ISS Program, the Commercial Crew Program, the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Program and the Exploration Systems Development Division Enterprise. These CSO’s (and their Deputies – mostly resident at JSC) implement the Agency S&MA Technical Authority as delegated to them from the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance.
Dr. Packham is also Associate Director for the S&MA Directorate and also the Deputy Technical Lead for Life Support Systems for the NASA Engineering and Safety Center.
He was the Project Manager for the effort that culminated in the release of the Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report.
Prior to these appointments, he served as the Chief of the Environmental Factors Branch of the (then) Space Life Sciences Directorate, whose office had responsibility for the oversight of environmental quality (water, air, microbiological, radiation and acoustics) for all for all Human Spaceflight Programs.
He started his career at NASA in the Engineering Directorate working on Space Shuttle, International Space Station and Advanced Life Support Systems. In this position he also served as the Commander of a four-person crew that spent 91 days inside a 6-meter diameter chamber to demonstrate the capabilities of advanced systems for air, water and waste recovery for long-duration missions.
Dr. Packham holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Biology from the City of London Polytechnic, and a Ph.D. in Physical Electrochemistry from Texas A&M University.
