Pam Underwood
Director, Office of Spaceports
FAA, Office of Commercial Space Transportation
Pam Underwood is the Director of the Office of Spaceports in the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation. Her office is responsible for strengthening the Nation’s competitiveness in commercial space transportation infrastructure and increasing their resilience for the Federal Government and commercial customers. Her office develops policies that promote infrastructure improvements at spaceports, supports licensing activities for operation of launch and reentry sites, and provides technical assistance and guidance to spaceports. She is also responsible for promoting United States spaceports within the Department of Transportation.
She has been with the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation for approximately 16 years, and has approximately 25 years of aerospace experience in both private industry and government applications. Prior to joining the FAA she was a Solid Rocket Booster Integration Engineer for United Space Alliance working with the NASA space shuttle program, a Wind Tunnel Test Engineer at the National Transonic Facility at NASA Langley Research Center, and an Instrumentation Engineer for Pratt & Whitney in their Large Military Engines Division. She earned a B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and M.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Tech.