My Plan B

 I’ve been very fortunate to be able to pursue the 2 biggest passions in my life: music and aerospace engineering.  I’m not saying that music was my life “Plan A” (although it really was for 15 years), but in regards to this webpage, my career as an aerospace engineer would qualify as “Plan B”.

My years at the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) have been extremely rewarding, and I’d like to share some highlights as my career winds down over these next few years.

  • Combustion integrated rack (CM-1, CM-2), 1993-1995: structural analysis, testing. Flew in Microgravity Science Lab (MSL-1) on both Space Shuttle Atlantis and Columbia. CM-2 was destroyed when Columbia (STS-107) broke up on re-entry, 2/2003. “Corsicanna” was written in memory of this mission and crew.
  • Launch Vehicle Structures Team (NASA Lewis Research Center at  that time); support for EOS, SOHO, GOES-K missions aboard ATLAS launch vehicles (1995-2000);  attended EOS and GOES-K launches in supervisory role.
  • Lead structural analyst for Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR), 2000-2005, which is part of the Integrated Fluids Combustion Facility (FCF) that  has been flying in the US Destiny Module of the International Space Station (ISS) since delivery in 2007.
  • Structural analysis of the “Connect” (ScaN testbed) package attached to an external truss on the ISS, 2008-present.
  • Lead structural analysis for the fuel, oxidizer ballast sections for the ARES-1-X mission, which was a flight test of certain key structures for the Constellation program ARES 1 vehicle.
  • Member of the ORION Service Module structures team at NASA GRC since 2008; this work includes numerous design trade studies, sructural test support, and structural anaysis (stress and dynamic); member of the EFT-1 NASA flight test team, which flew a complete ORION stack on-board a Delta IV heavy 2016 . My ORION support contimues to this day, and will contimue until retirement.

atlantis

 Space Shuttle “Atlantis”, post-landing inspection, KSC landing strip, circa  1997

 

AC-79_CROPPED_2

T-I hour, GOES-K launch on an Atlas-Centaur (AC-79), 4/1997

 

s107e05858
Crew of STS-107 (Space Shuttle Columbia), in front of Combustion Module 2 (CM-2), 1/2003

 

CIR_ISS

Unidentified ISS crew member in front of CIR Rack

 

connect_at_ISS2

ScAN (“Connect”) test bed, being positioned on ISS truss

 

connect_2

ScAN (“Connect”) test bed on ISS truss