Mike Fazah has been named the director of the Propulsion Systems Department in the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Center Director Joseph Pelfrey made the announcement in early November.
In his role, Fazah will oversee a workforce of more than 370 civil servants and contractors and a budget of almost $95 million. The Propulsion Systems Department plans, directs, and executes technology maturation, advanced design and development, testing, and engineering excellence of propulsion systems and components for NASA’s space transportation systems.
He previously served as deputy director of the Propulsion Systems Department in the Engineering Directorate from 2020 to 2024.
Fazah, who has worked at NASA for more than 30 years, assumed the Senior Executive Service (SES) position after serving as senior technical assistant to former Marshall Associate Director, Technical, Preston Jones. In that role, he led special studies and provided technical guidance and technology strategy recommendations to senior Marshall and NASA leadership.
Fazah managed Marshall’s Systems Engineering and Integration Division from 2013 to 2019. He was also on detail from 2017 to 2018 to the Commercial Crew Program Launch Vehicle System Office, where he was deputy manager, leading the certification of SpaceX Falcon 9 and United Launch Alliance Atlas V rockets for crewed flights.
In 2016, he took a rotational assignment at NASA Headquarters as deputy enterprise integration manager for the Exploration Systems Division of NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. He supported the integration of the Space Launch System, Orion crew vehicle, and Artemis I mission ground systems.
Since joining NASA in 1998 as a reliability engineer, Fazah has led multiple divisions within Marshall’s Propulsion Systems Department, Spacecraft and Vehicle Systems Department, and Space Systems Department.
A native of New York, Fazah received an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering in 1988 from Polytechnic University — now New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering — in Brooklyn, and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1994 from The University of Alabama in Huntsville. During his NASA career, he has earned numerous awards and certificates of appreciation, including a NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2011.
Fazah and his wife, Angela, live in Huntsville. They have two adult children.