Tom McMahon

Mr. McMahon has spent his entire 30+ year career participating in space flight programs. Tom McMahon started his career as a crew member on the NASA Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO) where he supported the science teams with planning and implementing their infrared science observations. After graduate school at the University of Utah he returned to NASA Ames Research Center as System Engineer for the MIRS spectrometer flown on the IRTS observatory. At the University of Chicago he built instrumentation for the KAO and telescopes at the South Pole Station. Tom came to the University of Arizona in 1997 as the System Engineer for NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope MIPS instrument. Since then he has worked on many programs in different capacities, including OSIRIS-Rex asteroid sample and return and lately as Project Manager for the NASA’s Astrophysics Pioneers Aspera flight mission. Aspera is the first NASA mission designed, built, and operated by a University.

In his present role as the University’s Space Institute Program Manager, Tom serves as the Manager of the NASA Pandora Mission Operations and leads the efforts to commission the 6-meter UA thermal Vacuum Chamber. The 6-meter chamber simulates the environments of space for testing satellites prior to launch.

McMahon specializes in Systems Engineering and technical management and has mentored numerous students and early career engineers.

“…my largest contribution has been mentoring students and junior engineers, sharing my knowledge and experiences, challenging them to be problem solvers and to jump into the deep end of projects.”