Dr. Christopher (Chris) Lane Moore passed away at his home in Vienna, VA, on May 14, 2025. Chris was born in 1961 at Rockingham Memorial Hospital, Harrisonburg, VA, to Joseph Price Moore, Jr. and Sylvia Lane Sheaks Moore of New Market, VA. He attended New Market Elementary School and Stonewall Jackson High School, graduating as Salutatorian in 1979.
As a child, Chris was fascinated by rockets. His strong interest in space flight was apparent even in high school where one science project, for which he won first place in the Shenandoah County Science Fair, involved launching a mouse into the lower atmosphere aboard an Estes model rocket to measure the effect of a rocket launch mouse physiology. Luckily the mouse returned to earth via parachute and suffered no ill effects!
After graduating from Stonewall, Chris earned a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from University of Virginia (1983) and an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Tech (1985). Following graduation, he went to work at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia where he designed, integrated and tested Space Shuttle payloads and conducted research on robotics. In 1991, on a NASA scholarship, Chris graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering focused on robotics.
Chris spent his entire 39-year career at NASA, ultimately rising to the rank of Deputy Director of the Advanced Exploration Systems Division (AES) at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. NASA colleagues have noted that Chris was revered as an innovative and supportive leader, spearheading the agency’s AES group for over 17 years. Under his watch, the AES group yielded successes across crew life support, advanced flight propulsion programs, hundreds of spaceflight experiments and the creation of oxygen on the surface of the Moon for future travelers. Chris was also involved in the Mars Campaign prior to his retirement. Chris received numerous honors and awards from both NASA and the spaceflight community for his professional ability to inspire younger leaders and achieve so much with minimal funding and little government oversight. At Chris’s retirement party in March 2023, it was clear that he was greatly loved and appreciated as a manager of high intellect and integrity who gave unparalleled support for both team innovation and individual advancement.
An avid reader of all types of literature, Chris was also a talented writer of poetry. In his free time, he enjoyed running, skiing, playing the piano and travelling. He ran in multiple marathons, including two in New York City. His many travels took him to five different continents, including skiing in the Alps, exploring the Amazon and a safari in South Africa. A devoted son and husband, Chris faithfully attended to both his mother and mother-in-law in the final years of their lives.
Chris was also a poet who began to write poetry published in the local newspaper when he was a teenager. Chris continued to write in his 20’s and 30s. The date of the following poem is unknown:
If I had never seen a rainbow
Nor watched the moonlight upon the snow
If I were blind to butterflies
To misty dawns and starry skies
If there were no oceans vast and blue
No spider webs bejeweled with dew
If day did not sink into the west
Or the earth with flowers was not blessed
If there was no fire in autumn’s leaves
No eagles to soar upon the breeze
If there were no mountains capped in white
Nor storms to shatter the dark of night
If I had never seen a rainbow
Then I would never know
How beautiful you truly are.
After over 16 years of marriage to his wife Paulina, Chris succumbed to challenges of Lewy Body Dementia.
In addition to his loving and devoted wife, Paulina Moore of Vienna, VA, Chris is survived by three siblings: Joseph (Jay) Price Moore, III, of Marshfield, VT; Mimi R. Moore of Thomaston, ME; and Melissa J. Moore of Newton, MA.
A Life Celebration was held for Chris on June 21, 2025 at the Udvar Hazy Smithsonian Museum near Dulles Airport. Friends and family were able to attend either in person or via Zoom and share stories and memories of Chris. He is also memorialized at the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum’s Wall of Honor.
