Steven Hughes earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Tech in 1997 and 1999, respectively. Straight out of graduate school, he joined NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, launching a career focused on advanced mission design and innovative software engineering.

Steve began his NASA journey as a flight dynamicist, contributing to mission planning across a wide range of domains—from low Earth orbit to interplanetary trajectories. Notably, he developed the algorithms used to configure and reconfigure the four-spacecraft formation for the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS).

With a growing passion for software, Steve took on the role of Program Manager and Product Development Lead for NASA’s General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT), guiding its development for nearly two decades. Under his leadership, GMAT became an operational, open-source flight dynamics tool used by NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and international partners.

His leadership trajectory continued as Associate Branch Head of NASA’s Navigation and Mission Design Branch, where he supported a team of over 200 engineers and led strategic planning and new business development efforts. In 2022, he became Branch Head of the Flight Software Systems Branch, managing a multidisciplinary team of approximately 100 engineers and serving as the Engineering Technical Authority (ETA) for NASA’s core Flight System (cFS). In this role, he helps shape the future of NASA’s flight software through leadership, mentorship, strategic planning, and close collaboration with agency and DoD partners.

Steve has received multiple honors, including the NASA Exceptional Service Medal (2023), the Exceptional Technology Achievement Medal (2012), and three Robert H. Goddard Awards for Exceptional Achievement in Engineering (2007, 2011, 2014). He also received a Best Paper Award from the AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference for his work on optimal guidance for MMS.