AIAA Young Professionals, Students, and Educators (YPSE) Conference

Technical Keynotes for YPSE 2026:

Tim Fisher

Chief Engineer, Lunar Landers, Firefly Aerospace

Morning Keynote | 8:45–9:45 a.m.

“Talk title to be announced”

Tim Fisher has spent more than 40 years helping turn ambitious ideas for spaceflight into working systems. Now Chief Engineer for Firefly Aerospace’s lunar landers, he brings an unusual perspective shaped by senior engineering leadership on both sides of the NASA–industry relationship.

Before joining Firefly, Fisher was the founding Chief Engineer of Blue Origin’s Lunar Permanence organization, with responsibility for the company’s crewed and uncrewed lunar landers, including its NASA Human Landing System. Earlier, during 37 years at NASA, he served as Chief Engineer of the Gateway lunar space station and held key technical leadership roles on Orion, Commercial Crew, the International Space Station, and the Space Shuttle.

His career includes helping establish NASA’s early human-rating partnership with SpaceX, working on Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser, and leading engineering for the Shuttle’s post-Columbia in-orbit heat-shield inspection system. Across programs ranging from urgent flight challenges to multibillion-dollar lunar architectures, Fisher has focused on sound engineering judgment, technical risk, and building teams that can solve hard problems together.

Dr. Asal Naseri

Associate Flight Director (Acting), Heliophysics Division, NASA

Afternoon Keynote

“Talk title to be announced”

Dr. Asal Naseri brings experience in NASA mission management, satellite development, and engineering education to her role as acting associate flight director for NASA’s Heliophysics Division. She oversees the technical and programmatic management of more than 20 operating missions and several in development, helping ensure that missions meet their engineering, budget, and science objectives.

Before taking this role, Naseri served as a program executive in NASA’s Heliophysics Division, overseeing EZIE, HelioSwarm, and IMAP and coordinating the Heliophysics Explorers Program. Previously, she led the satellite technologies branch in Space Dynamics Laboratory’s Civil Space Division, overseeing small-satellite projects including SunRISE and HARP. Her work has connected spacecraft development with the scientific goals those missions are designed to achieve.

Earlier, as a faculty member at the University of New Mexico, Naseri taught space engineering, dynamics, and systems and control. She also led a student research group working on the Virtual Telescope for X-ray Observations, a formation-flying mission supported by NASA’s EPSCoR program. She earned her Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with expertise in spacecraft systems engineering, dynamics, and small-satellite formation flying.