Richard D. Wissinger

Mr. Wissinger has over 45 years of experience in computer information systems, real-time and mission-critical software development, systems analysis, and engineering management — supporting NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1998 through his retirement in June 2026. His career spans U.S. Navy strategic communications systems, satellite ground-control software for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, enterprise hardware/software engineering, and independent product development.

Mr. Wissinger graduated with honors from the Computer Learning Center in Springfield, Virginia in 1985 and holds an honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy (Data Processing Technician, 1980–1985). He is an active Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Dallas Section.

Mr. Wissinger's NASA JPL career began in 1998 as an independent contractor. His initial JPL engagement was delivery of the Jason Ground Support Equipment (JGSE) — the ground data test framework used by CNES (France's space agency, JPL's Jason-1 mission partner) — completed in three months against an 18-month projection. From that delivery he went on to contribute extensively to the broader Jason-1 Telemetry, Command, and Communications System (JTCCS) — an approximately 1.2 million-line C/C++/Java platform supporting four generations of Jason-class ocean-altimetry satellites over 20-year mission lifecycles. The JTCCS was awarded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Software of the Year award in 2002 and Honorable Mention for the 2002 NASA Software of the Year; Mr. Wissinger is a co-recipient with the JTCCS team of both.

In March 2002, Mr. Wissinger co-founded Alethium Corp alongside Henry Judd, and the JPL relationship continued through the company. He served as President and co-founder of Alethium Corp until his retirement from the company in June 2026. He is also a recipient of JPL's Meritorious Service Award, and Alethium Corp was awarded JPL's Supplier Trust and Recognition (STAR) certificate.

Through Alethium Corp, Mr. Wissinger contributed to NASA JPL satellite ground systems for the next 24 years — Jason-2 and Jason-3 (continued ocean-altimetry support for JPL and NOAA, modernized to single-baseline Java 1.8 with ODBC integration and dynamic external earth-terminal communication); WISE/NEOWISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, later repurposed for near-Earth object survey); Asteria (CubeSat technology demonstration); and SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer — a NASA Astrophysics Explorer mission launched March 2025). Alethium Corp was named JPL Small Vendor of the Year for FY23 and is a SAM.gov-registered federal contractor (UEI HNF1JXGKW5P7, NAICS 541511 — Custom Computer Programming Services).

Mr. Wissinger's prior commercial engineering experience includes Hewlett-Packard Company (February 2004–December 2006), where he contributed as a team member to HP's Memory Module Replacement Program (MMRP) — a worldwide rollout of strategic utility tools to identify affected memory modules across 14 language groups while minimizing customer impact — and provided multidisciplinary engineering support to HP's notebook division for hardware/software escalation resolution, firmware solutions, and resolution-performance metrics tooling (initially as a software engineering consultant via Aquent, February 2004–January 2005, then converted to HP-direct as Systems/Software Engineer V, January 2005–December 2006); and Stepstone Corporation (Objective-C compiler porting and maintenance). As a U.S. Navy Data Processing Technician (1980–1985), he designed and implemented software for the NAVCOMPARS (Naval Communications Processing And Routing System) and LDMX (Local Digital Message Exchange) strategic communications systems on dual Unisys Series 90/60 systems, and held a Secret clearance.