Chullen, Cinda

Cinda Chullen serves as the primary point of contact for procurement activities at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, facilitating mission-critical acquisitions in support of human spaceflight systems and advanced aerospace technologies. She plays a pivotal role in aligning contracting actions with the Center’s strategic priorities in crew health, guidance and navigation, and environmental life support systems. Chullen manages the full lifecycle of procurements for high-precision instrumentation, avionics, and flight-critical hardware, ensuring compliance with federal acquisition regulations and NASA-specific technical requirements. Her work directly enables the development and sustainment of systems essential to crewed missions aboard the International Space Station and future deep space exploration initiatives. Chullen collaborates with a diverse ecosystem of aerospace contractors specializing in aerospace-grade sensor systems, flight avionics, and mission-critical navigation hardware. While no single contractor dominates her portfolio, she consistently engages with firms possessing deep expertise in aeronautical system manufacturing, including those with AS9100 certification and experience in NASA’s rigorous quality assurance protocols. Her working relationships are characterized by technical rigor, iterative requirements validation, and close coordination with engineering teams to ensure contract deliverables meet exacting spaceflight standards. Chullen’s procurement activity is entirely non-set-aside, with 100% of acquisitions conducted under full and open competition. This reflects the highly specialized nature of the technologies procured, which often require niche capabilities not yet broadly available among small or socioeconomically disadvantaged businesses. While small business participation is not formally prioritized through set-asides, she ensures fair opportunity through transparent solicitation practices and technical evaluations that reward innovation and proven performance. Her procurement focus is exclusively centered on NAICS 334511—Search, Detection, Navigation, Guidance, Aeronautical, and Nautical System and Instrument Manufacturing. She procures advanced flight control systems, inertial measurement units, environmental monitoring sensors, and radiation-hardened electronics, requiring deep domain expertise in aerospace systems engineering and space-rated component qualification. Her technical acumen ensures that all acquisitions support the safety, reliability, and performance demands of human spaceflight.