Mike Canga

Strategy Committee Chair

Mike Canga retired from NASA in 2021 after a 35-year career with the Agency. Most recently Mike was head of the Program Science Management Office for NASA’s Human Research Program coordinating strategic planning for the program's mission of developing countermeasures to protect the health and performance of crew in long duration missions. Mike led the Exploration Medical Capabilities Element within HRP developing methodology to apply systems engineering principles and probabilistic modeling for requirements definition and design of exploration mission medical systems.

Mike served as the Risk Manager for the final five years of the Space Shuttle Program where he was responsible for ensuring risk informed decision making was applied in the program. Risk assessments were used both for operational and programmatic decisions including risks associated with maintaining safe operations through program close-out. Prior to joining the Shuttle Program, Mike was part of NASA’s Independent Program Assessment Office managing reviews of multiple NASA Programs including Constellation Program Mission Operations Review Board, Hubble robotic servicing, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and EELV human rating study to support the Exploration Systems Architecture Study. These reviews assessed management systems against agency requirements and management best practices resulting in recommendations used to guide Agency, Center, Program, and Project Management decisions. Mike received his BS in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY.