Joe Vellinga has been the Lockheed Martin Program Manager for Stardust since the proposal in 1994. Since launch Stardust has been a part time activity with Mission Success for all the LM Space Exploration Systems spacecraft engaging most of his time. Prior to Stardust he delivered the Faint Object Spectrograph to the Hubble Space Telescope and preformed studies of weather satellite instruments and earth observing imaging spectrometers. In 1991 he demonstrated that the Manned Maneuvering Units flown in 1984 were still flight worthy. He studied space based lasers for the USAF and integrated payloads into a USAF research satellite. He integrated instruments into the Skylab program from inception through the three manned missions. He helped in the early development of small radiation cooled rocket motors including those flown on the Apollo Service Module and the Lunar Excursion Module.

Mr. Vellinga received a B.S. degree in Engineering from UCLA in 1961. He completed the Defense Systems Management College Program ManagerUs course in 1985. He received the NASA Public Service Medal for Leadership of the Stardust Development Team.