Session 6

John Dankanich is the In-Space Transportation Capability Lead (SCLT) for all of NASA. He serves a workforce of approximately 6,000 civil servants and contractors and guides a portfolio of more than $1 billion in investments, ranging from basic research through flight system delivery. Dankanich serves senior strategic alignment activities for technology portfolios across all government agencies and is an entry point for engagement with industry and academia.

Dankanich is a recognized subject matter expert with more than 100 publications in technology development, propulsion testing and qualification, low-thrust trajectory optimization, mission design and planetary defense. His career has evolved from design, build, test to systems analysis, technology maturation, project management, flight system development and now technology portfolio executive leadership.

He has served on the steering committee of the Small Body Assessment Group for the NASA Advisory Council Planetary Science Subcommittee, as the founding Chair of the AIAA Committee on Standards for Electric Propulsion Testing, and serves as the current Chair of the Chief Technologist Council at NASA. Dankanich has served on numerous review boards, conducted technology portfolio assessments and influenced investments of the AFOSR, AFRL, AF SMC, US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, DARPA, DOE, NRL, the NSF, Space Force, industry and academia.

He received BS degrees in Physics and Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering and a master’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics, all from Purdue University.