Janet Karika
NASA Launch Services Program
Jacobs Technology Inc.

Ms. Janet Karika supports NASA's Launch Services Program (LSP) as the Jacobs Director for Interagency Launch Programs. She is a Senior Program Manager with Jacobs Technology Inc. Ms. Karika is the point of contact within NASA LSP for coordinating and facilitating Program-wide partnerships and interchanges with the Air Force, National Reconnaissance Office and outside government Agencies for NASA's expendable launch vehicle programs. Ms. Karika works on space-related issues supporting Congressional staffs and various Federal agencies and departments, including the National Security Council, and the Departments of Commerce, Defense, Transportation, and State. Within the U.S. Government Interagency, she interacts with both the nonproliferation and space communities.

Previously, Ms. Karika served as the Executive Advisor to the Air Force for current and future space acquisition programs. Prior to that, she provided oversight of all current and future space launch and range system programs, reusable and expendable, for the Office of the Secretary of Defense as the Assistant for Launch Systems. Ms. Karika retired from the Air Force after serving 20 years in the space and missile acquisition field. During her military career in Washington D.C., she was the AF Director of Launch Programs and served as the Space and Missile Nonproliferation Policy Advisor to the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) at the State Department. She was ACDA's representative to the 32-nation Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), and was a member of U.S. delegations to Berlin, Moscow, Paris, Zurich, and Tokyo. Also while in the Air Force she worked on the development of ICBMs at the Ballistic Missile Office, commanded a 72-person nuclear detection operations center, and was selected as a Research Scientist for NASA Ames Research Center.

She has a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering; with an emphasis in ultra-high temperature composites used in space-related thermal protection systems.