Sunday, January 20, 2013

Beyond Earth

We powered America’s spacecraft
by Larry C.

In 1961, I helped design the first Agena spacecraft solar array power system, which allowed classified missions to last six months instead of two weeks on battery power. Eventually, we would make them last five years. To test automatic deployable solar array wings, I climbed over 80-foot rafter beams to hang wires to simulate space deployment. I was the power systems department manager when we developed the huge solar array wings for the Space Shuttle. My last job at Lockheed was as project manager for the power system on the Iridium telecommunication spacecraft.