Ken Yienger is the Chief Engineer and Systems Architect for the Office of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Observations. In this role, he supports the architecture development and acquisition of a variety of mission elements including instruments, spacecraft, launch vehicles, mission operation centers, ground systems, mission simulators, and associated science data systems.
Ken began his career at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in 1990 in the propulsion section. He later joined the Orbital Launch Services Project as a liquid propulsion system engineer, supporting launch vehicle teams that returned NASA to Mars, sent Lunar Prospector to the moon, and launched the TIROS Polar Operational Environmental Satellites, and Defense Meteorological Satellite Program weather satellites.
After working at Orbital Sciences on the Pegasus XL launch vehicle, Ken returned to NASA as a mission system engineer and led the engineering teams on the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) NOP series as the mission system engineer and technical authority. He later served as Mission Systems Engineering Branch Head supervising approximately 65 systems engineers supporting various projects across NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
In 2012, Ken returned to the weather satellite program serving as Mission Systems Engineer and Technical Authority for the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) Flight Project, leading a team of over 70 discipline engineering and systems engineers in the design, construction and testing of the next-generation polar weather satellites.
Since March 2016, Ken led mission formulation activities for a variety of NASA New Business Opportunities including Heliophysics, Astrophysics, and Earth Science Lines of Business. He received a 2017 NASA Agency Acquisition Improvement Award for his work on the Restore-L Spacecraft Source Evaluation Board. In spring 2019, he led the development of NOAA’s QuickSounder mission, which NOAA directed as a precursor for the next-generation Near Earth Orbit Network (NEON) LEO satellite program. In June 2022, Ken became the Chief Architect for NOAA’s Office of LEO Observations, supporting the development of the NEON program’s future satellite architecture.
Ken holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering Degree from Johns Hopkins University.