A Career Spans 48 Years

Looking forward to new horizons in space

by Robert S.

I started with Ford Aerospace in Houston, Texas in 1966 and supported the Apollo Program, Apollo Soyuz, Skylab and the initial Shuttle approach and landing test. I was a quality engineer supporting installation and testing of ground support equipment in the Apollo simulation area. Then I was a supervisor of the quality support group in the Johnson Space Center Mission Control Center (MCC). I worked in the MCC full time on the Apollo flights 15 through 17. Prior to that, I worked on the Apollo 13 flight support equipment and assisted the successful effort to install new equipment into the MCC to monitor key hardware parameters in the disabled vehicle, all in three days’ time. This was the highlight of my career spanning 48 years. 

When I left the space program in the 1980s, I supported the Air Force Satellite Control Facility network headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. I was the quality manager in Sunnyvale with Ford Aerospace, and Lockheed Martin Sunnyvale was our maintenance and operation subcontractor. I left after eight years and joined a mid-range defense contractor, building avionics for the Navy, Air Force and Army. I joined Lockheed Martin in 2006 to work on the next space vehicle, the Orion Crew Module as a quality engineer. I have enjoyed working on this important program and look forward to the first Orion orbital flight in 2014.