UC alumnus honored for decades of work with NASA

The UC Alumni Association and UC's College of Engineering and Applied Science honored McCullough with the Herman Schneider Distinguished Alumni Award. Given to one outstanding CEAS alumnus each year, this award honors someone whose career has reflected a large measure of acclaim on our academic departments and disciplines they represent. 

McCullough received his bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from UC in 1989 and has spent the entirety of his career working for NASA. Currently, McCullough serves as the Deputy Associate Administrator for Integration in NASA's Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. 

Throughout his childhood, there were many small moments that led him to study aerospace engineering. Along with the memory of watching the moon landing, he shared that when he was young, he would bring in rocks from outside to his mom, excitedly telling her theey were from the moon. Her encouragement fostered his passion and dedication to pursuing a career in the field. 

"I learned a lot about people and about team building, and about finding new ways to accomplish things," he said. "You need good plans and strategies for when things don't go exactly as expected, and there's always something to learn." 

After that, he was selected as chief of the flight director office, assigning flight directors and making final decisions on whether shuttles are ready to fly. He was there for the last chapter of the storied U.S. Space Shuttle Program, overseeing the final 13 shuttle missions. 

McCullough has held various positions in his time at NASA including seven years as the Orion Vehicle Integration Manager, enabling early test flights and the Artemis I Mission, as well as serving as the Director for Exploration at the Johnson Space Center for four years. For the last couple of years, he has served as the Deputy Associate Administrator at Headquarters for Integration of Exploration Development, working to get us back to the moon. 

Early in his career as a flight director, McCullough also played a major role in the creation of the mission control room the space station team still uses today. Years ago, he recognized that the team, with international partners and collaborators, was quickly outgrowing one of the smaller control rooms. He made a pitch to renovate a decommissioned room for this purpose, got approval, aand completed it in six months.

"There's history there," he said. "It was the first room we flew Gemini missions out of in 1963 and we made sure that people understand when they come into that room, they're part of history, they're part of carrying that torch forward." 

He touts his experience and preparation at UC for playing a critical role in getting him where he is today. Because of his co-op relationships and experiences, as well as the ability to focus his education on space and orbital mechanics, McCullough was able to get his foot in the door at NASA early on and has spent his entire career there, making significant contributions to the history of U.S. space exploration. 

"I wouldn't be where I am today without my UC education. UC and the co-op program set me up with critical knowledge, exposure, and experience, developing relationships, an understanding of what it takes to work in the space program, the opportunity to ask questions, and to build a reputation for myself," McCullough said.