Vir Thanvi is a seasoned aerospace leader with over 25 years of distinguished service at NASA and in support of other federal agencies. He served as Deputy Program Manager at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Exploration and Space Communications (ESC) Projects Division, where he oversaw the portfolio with annual budget of over $200M and combined civil servants and contractor staff of over 700. . A visionary strategist and accomplished leader, Vir played a central role in enabling the communications and navigation backbone for NASA’s human spaceflight and robotic space missions, driving innovation, commercialization, and strategic partnerships across government and industry.
Vir spearheaded transformative initiatives including the Near Space Network Services procurement, and a multi-billion-dollar ceiling effort to integrate commercial communication and navigation services into NASA’s infrastructure, enabling the Agency’s objectives related to the lunar missions. He was also the founding leader of the Near Space Network managing the operations, maintenance, sustainment, and technological advancement of spacecraft fleet and globally distributed ground stations providing space relay and direct-to-Earth services to human spaceflight and robotic space missions from the Earth’s surface up to 2 million Km.
Earlier in his career, Vir held various key engineering and management roles across NASA and NOAA, where he led full lifecycle efforts for complex systems. His leadership, management, and technical foundations are rooted in systems engineering and software development, with substantial contributions to spacecraft operations, satellite ground systems, environmental data systems, and mission support services.
Vir is a recipient of the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, multiple Agency and GSFC honors, and industry recognitions for leadership excellence. He holds a B.S. in Engineering and an MBA, along with professional certifications including PMP and ITIL.
