Rear Admiral Craig Eugene Steidle, USN, Ret., served as the first Associate Administrator of the Office of Exploration Systems at NASA, an organization formed to implement NASA's human exploration of the solar system as announced in the Vision for Space Exploration. Admiral Steidle also served as Program Manager of the Joint Strike Fighter Program. He is currently serving as a Distinguished Visiting Professor in Aerospace Engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy.
During his tenure with the United States Navy, Admiral Steidle became most well known for his prominent role as Program Manager of the Joint Strike Fighter where he managed the "fly off" between the X-32 and the X-35 to determine what design would ultimately become the F-35 Lightning II. Admiral Steidle also commanded the Navy’s F/A-18 program, the naval aviation’s largest production research and development program, as well as the largest foreign military sales program.