Physicist Les Johnson serves as principal investigator for NASA’s first interplanetary solar sail space missions, Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, and Solar Cruiser. He also led research on various other advanced space propulsion technologies at the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. During his career at NASA, he served as the Manager for the Space Science Programs and Projects Office, the In-Space Propulsion Technology Program, and the Interstellar Propulsion Research Project.