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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Mr. James D. Tostenson

Having been employed by the Lockheed Missiles & Space Company (now Lockheed Martin) in April of 1958, I was fortunate to be involved with the design and development of the Agena Space Vehicles to counter the Russian Space Programs. My specialty was in Airframe Structures and High Pressure Gas and Hydraulic Systems. One of our first was the Corona Capsule which was successfully launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA and recovered over the Pacific Ocean. I was a frequent visitor to the VAFB facility over the years.

I went on to other classified programs involving the Agena and Advanced Vehicles, one of which was the Gemini Docking Vehicle use to perform Docking of the Gemini and Agena vehicles using a docking collar. I spent considerable time at the Cape Canaveral Launch Base familiarizing Lockheed and US Air Force personnel on the function of the Docking Collar.

The last twelve years of my employment were with the Thermal Protection System Tile used on the Space Shuttle Vehicles. I served as the Product Assurance Program Manager responsible for the Integrity of the Tile provided to Rockwell International (NASA) the manufacturer of the Shuttle Vehicles. I wrote and presented several Technical Papers on Product Assurance Systems utilized to assure the quality of the Tile and Raw Materials, including Coordinate Measuring and Realtime X-Ray equipment. I spent a total of 35 years with the company working primarily on Space Vehicle Programs.