Major Brandon Josef Hufstetler is the lead International Space Station (ISS) Capsule Communicator (CapCom) for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Born and raised in the Arkansas River Valley, Maj Hufstetler is a Greenwood, AR native and attended college at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Prior to joining the military, he taught in a public school in South Korea and worked as an Air Quality Engineer for the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality in Little Rock.

Maj Hufstetler commissioned into the United States Air Force in 2014 and transferred into the Space Force in 2020. He has a diverse background leading operations throughout the national security space enterprise. He has experience commanding spacecraft in three orbital regimes, led the Satellite Anomaly Response Team for three constellations of missile warning satellites, and crafted the Space Force’s orbital and electromagnetic warfare initial skills curriculum..

Prior to assuming his current position with NASA, Maj Hufstetler was the Space Sciences Department Head at the 533d Training Squadron, Vandenberg SFB, CA. In 2026 he will be taking command of the 53d Space Operations Squadron Detachment 2 at Fort Meade, MD, responsible for command and control of military satellite communications spacecraft.