Jess is currently located at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Air Vehicle Directorate in Dayton Ohio. He supports the development of Military Spaceplane technologies for the laboratory. He graduated from the USAF Academy in 1978 and holds advanced degrees in Astronautical Engineering and Systems Management. He is also a graduate of the Defense Systems Management College. During his Air Force career he held many diverse jobs ranging from supporting Atlas launch operations at Vandenberg AFB to project management jobs in the Global Positioning System and the National Aero-Space Plane programs. In 1981 he was selected as an Air Force Manned Spaceflight Engineer and trained as a Space Shuttle payload specialist prior to the Challenger accident. Later he served as the Program Manager of the Delta Clipper-Experimental (DC-X) program and as the NASA Deputy for Flight Test and Operations on the DC-XA and X-33 programs. He was also the Program Manager of the Air Force’s Military Spaceplane Technology Program and served on several national space transportation studies and panels before leaving the Air Force in 1998.