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Mark Nappi

Vice President, Launch and Recovery Systems &
Florida Site Executive

Mark Nappi is vice president of launch and recovery systems and Florida site executive at United Space Alliance, LLC. Nappi has served in this position since June 2008 and is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of all USA Space Shuttle program elements in Florida, including Ground Operations, Integrated Logistics and the Solid Rocket Booster Element.

Prior to this position, Nappi was the Associate Program Manager for Ground Operations at USA. He served in this position from June 2004 to June 2008 and was responsible for directing integration of all Space Shuttle processing activities as well as managing the operations of all facilities and more than 3,800 personnel required to process the Space Shuttle from landing to launch.

From November 2001 to June 2004, Nappi served as USA’s Deputy Associate Program Manager for Ground Operations. Prior to that he was Director of Launch Operations and the Director of Shuttle Engineering where he was responsible for External Tank and Solid Rocket Booster processing, along with integrated element launch operations. As the Director of Shuttle Engineering, Nappi assured design requirements were incorporated and satisfied for each Shuttle processing flow.

In 1996, he transitioned from Lockheed Martin at Kennedy Space Center to USA as the Director of Safety, Quality & Mission Assurance. Nappi began his career at KSC in 1985 with Lockheed Martin, and served for more than 10 years in various engineering and management roles with increasingly greater levels of responsibility.

In 1987, he was honored with NASA’s Space Flight Awareness Honoree Award and was selected by Lockheed Martin as the 1992 Supervisor of the Year.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in ocean engineering and a master’s degree in management science both from Florida Institute of Technology. He is also a graduate of the Lockheed Leadership Institute and the Boeing Strategic Leadership Center.

Nappi currently lives in Merritt Island, Fla., with his wife, Jana, and sons, Corbin and Cameron.

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