[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 212 (Tuesday, December 15, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1149]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               ROB STRAIN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ED PERLMUTTER

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 15, 2020

  Mr. PERLMUTTER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the career of 
Rob Strain, a friend and constituent who is retiring as President of 
Ball Aerospace headquartered in Colorado.
  Rob first joined Ball Aerospace in 2012 after serving as Director of 
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. At Goddard, Rob's strong oversight 
and leadership skills contributed to the success of more than 13 
missions as he was able to blend technical and programmatic solutions 
while under intense Congressional and agency scrutiny. Rob has a hands-
on managerial style and collaborative nature which makes him a critical 
contributor on mission teams and not just the person in charge.
  Rob helped devise and execute a smooth transition from the flawed 
tri-agency NPOESS program for the Nation's next generation polar 
weather satellites to the NASA-NOAA Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) 
based at Goddard to ensure the continuity of these critical weather 
satellite observations. The significance of his thoughtful, effective 
leadership during the program's transition cannot be overstated.
  Rob also served a key role for the final Space Shuttle servicing 
mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. The mission encountered a major 
programmatic challenge from a pre-launch computer failure one month 
before the scheduled launch. In this ``failure is not an option'' 
moment, Rob brought together the government and industry expertise to 
fix the problem, ensured the team stayed on track, and minimized 
schedule impacts. The result was a successful servicing mission, 
extending Hubble's incredible contributions to our scientific community 
as we approach 31 years in service.
  Prior to joining NASA, Rob led the Space Department of the Johns 
Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, where he was integral to the 
successful development, launch and operations of the New Horizons 
spacecraft to Pluto. New Horizons overcame numerous technical and 
instrument availability issues to meet an extremely tight planetary 
launch window and successfully flew by Pluto in 2015.
  Through his career at Ball Aerospace, Rob has been a strong champion 
for diversity and inclusion across his teams and empowering all members 
of the team to be themselves and contribute to the success of the 
business and the mission. Despite the success Rob has achieved in his 
career, he remains an incredibly approachable and humble person. Rob 
remains accessible to individuals at all career levels, actively 
seeking their input and making them feel valued.
  I will miss Rob, for his dry sense of humor which often brought 
levity to serious meetings and tense situations. I thank him for his 
friendship and his work on behalf of the aerospace community, Colorado 
and the Nation. I wish him the best in his retirement.

                          ____________________