Adam works at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. After graduating with masters degrees in Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering from Purdue, he spent the first 10 years at NASA working on various in-space chemical propulsion systems including those on Ares-I, Orion, and a variety of commercial manned spacecraft designs.  From there he went on to serve for 7 years as the Commercial Crew Propgram Lead Engineer for the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle.  In that role, he was resposible for leading the first human spaceflight certification of a commercial and reuseable launch vehicle, as well as mission readiness for the Program's first 7 crewed launches.  Since early last year, Adam has served as the NASA manager for the DRACO Nuclear Thermal Rocket Engine, which is being managed jointly with DARPA