Maxime (Max) Faget

Maxime A. Faget was educated at Louisiana State University, earning an SB in aeronautical engineering.  He joined the staff at Langley Aeronautical Laboratory in 1946 and became head of the performance aerodynamics branch of the pilotless aircraft research division.  In 1958 he joined the Space Task Group in NASA, forerunner of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center that became the Johnson Space Center, and later became assistant director for engineering and development in 1962. He contributed many of the original design concepts for Project Mercury's manned spacecraft and played a major role in designing virtually every U.S. crewed spacecraft since that time, including the Space Shuttle. He retired from NASA in 1981 and became an executive for Eagle Engineering, Inc. In 1982 he was one of the founders of Space Industries, Inc. and became its president and chief executive officer.

NASA and Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) officials join the flight controllers in celebrating the conclusion of the Apollo 11 mission.

From left foreground Dr. Maxime A. Faget, MSC Director of Engineering and Development; George S. Trimble, MSC Deputy Director; Dr. Christopher C. Kraft Jr., MSC Director fo Flight Operations; Julian Scheer (in back), Assistant Adminstrator, Office of Public Affairs, NASA HQ.; George M. Low, Manager, Apollo Spacecraft Program, MSC; Dr. Robert R. Gilruth, MSC Director; and Charles W. Mathews, Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of Manned Space Flight, NASA HQ.

Sources

NASA's biography of Max Faget.

NASA's image repository, GRIN.

--A.B., Jan 2002.