U.S. Black Engineer magazine recognizes NASA’s John Hines

John Hines – Chief technologist and manager of the astrobionics group at NASA Ames Research Center. PHOTO/NASA

Nano satellites opened up space exploration to a wider world.

At NASA, John Hines was founding father of the first of its kind GeneSat-1 satellite spacecraft. The 5 kg (11 pound) GeneSat-1 carried bacteria inside miniature laboratories, and the nano satellite was launched in December 2006 as the payload on Air Force Minotaur 1 rocket which delivered the Air Force TacSat 2 satellite to orbit.

As chief technologist in the Ames Research Center Engineering Directorate and Small Spacecraft Division, Hines directed the design, development, test and evaluation of space systems and developed biological, biomedical, biosensor and bioinstrumentation technologies from conception to feasibility and spaceflight hardware systems implementation.

The technologies are either crosscutting, which serve multiple NASA mission directorates, industry, and other government agencies, or game changing which enable currently unrealizable approaches to space systems and missions.

John Hines has a bachelor of science degree from Tuskegee University and a master’s in biomedical and electrical engineering from Stanford University.

Read more: Black Engineer