Mark D. Wiese is the manager for the Gateway program’s Deep Space Logistics at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In this role, he provides project management expertise and strategic vision for commercial spacecraft, launch vehicles and integration services to advance the agency’s Gateway lunar orbiting platform of complex systems, utilization payloads, and research and development technologies. Wiese oversees the design, development, test, and evaluation of the logistics spacecraft along with the program’s integration of commercial logistics missions to Gateway.

Experience
From April 2021 to May 2022, Wiese led the rapid development, evaluation, and award of NASA’s multi-billion-dollar Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services (xEVAS) contract, a catalyst for the agency to make an agile cultural shift from over 50 years of in-house led spacesuit development to a new innovative commercial services approach that allows NASA to partner with private industry for the next generation of spacewalking capabilities.

Wiese was appointed to the Federal Senior Executive Service in January 2017 as the deputy director of the Safety and Mission Assurance (S&MA) Directorate at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. His contributions focused primarily on leadership development and strategic planning to ensure safety and mission success of Kennedy-managed programs as well as the center transition into a multi-user spaceport.

Wiese began his career with Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) in 1998 as a Geographic Information Systems technician. In the years following, he transitioned to SAIC’s S&MA team at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where he worked in NASA’s Mission Control Center and later joined the Launch Services Program (LSP) at Kennedy as a quality engineer.

Wiese joined NASA in 2003 as a mission assurance manager for LSP, where he was responsible for leading the S&MA efforts for NASA’s Atlas V vehicle certification that led to the successful launches of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Pluto New Horizons missions. In 2006, Wiese was promoted to support the Space Shuttle Program as deputy chief of the Launch Vehicle Processing (LVP) S&MA Division, rose to division chief in 2007, and was responsible for planning, organizing and directing activities required to gain insight, assess risk, and influence safe and successful launch operations for the final 20 space shuttle missions and the Ares I-X development flight test.

In the years spanning from 2010 to 2016 under LSP, Wiese was appointed to chair for the Expendable Launch Vehicle Integrated Services 2 (ELVIS 2) Source Evaluation Board (SEB), made chief of the Flight Projects Branch of LSP’s Business Office, and then became chief of LSP’s Flight Project Office (FPO). Wiese received the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2010 for his role in transforming the culture and improving the workforce dynamics of the LVP S&MA team and again in 2012 for his efforts in the award and contract phase-in of ELVIS 2.

In his chief roles supporting LSP, Wiese was instrumental in developing the Venture Class Launch Services Contracts (VCLS), which proved to be a significant milestone for assuring long-term launch services for an emerging commercial small-satellite market. Wiese was responsible for over $500M/year in launch service contracts, as well as the successful launch of four missions aboard SpaceX, ULA and Orbital-ATK rockets.

Education
Wiese earned his bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Florida Tech in 2000 and his master’s degree in industrial engineering, with a focus on program and project management, from the University of Central Florida in 2011.

Outreach and Awards
Wiese is known as a visionary thought leader in the area of aerospace logistics and regularly shares his subject matter expertise by keynoting at diverse conferences in the commercial, academic, and technology sectors to highlight the opportunities in developing the deep space commercial supply chain to the Moon and Mars.

His work has been recognized both inside NASA – three Outstanding Leadership Medals – and outside, including most recently, the Federal Executive Association of Central Florida 2024 Federal Employee of the Year Management Excellence Award, “For playing a key role in solidifying Kennedy Space Center’s role in commercial space for NASA’s Artemis program.”

Personal
Wiese was raised in Garrison, New York, and now resides in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, with his wife and three children.