![]() Thompson - who was not related to David W. Īfter retiring from NASA in November 1991, Thompson joined Orbital Sciences Corporation (now Orbital ATK). He became Deputy Administrator of NASA in 1989. Thompson became Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center on September 29, 1986. In that capacity, he headed the day-to-day operations of the 51-L Data and Design Analysis Task Force, which collected and analyzed accident-related information in support of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. įrom March to June 1986, he was vice-chair of the NASA task force inquiring into the cause of the Space Shuttle Challenger accident. He served three years as deputy director for technical operations at Princeton University's Plasma Physics Laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey. In that position, he was responsible for planning and executing the engineering overview, analysis, evaluation and support for all Marshall Center projects that were in the hardware development stage. In February 1982, Thompson was named associate director for engineering in the Marshall Science and Engineering Directorate. He served in that position almost from the beginning of early development testing on the Shuttle main engine through the initial Shuttle flights. ![]() In that position he was responsible for the development and operation of the most advanced liquid propulsion rocket engine ever developed. In September 1974, he was named manager of the Main Engine Projects Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center. In 1969, Thompson transferred to Marshall's Astronautics Laboratory where he served as chief of the Man/Systems Integration Branch from 1969 to 1974. In that capacity, he was responsible for the design and test evaluation of auxiliary space engine propulsion systems for the Saturn Launch Vehicle and experimental small interplanetary propulsion systems. In 1966 he joined the Space Engine Section in the former Propulsion and Vehicle Engineering Laboratory at Marshall and became chief of the section in 1968. ![]() He joined the research and development team at the Marshall Center in 1963 as a liquid propulsion system engineer responsible for component design and performance analysis associated with the J-2 engine system on the Saturn Launch Vehicle. ![]() Thompson spent 20 years with NASA at the Marshall Space Flight Center in various positions, including associate director for engineering in the Science and Engineering Directorate and as manager of the Space Shuttle Main Engine Project in the Shuttle Projects Office. Thompson began his professional career in 1960 as a development engineer with Pratt and Whitney Aircraft in West Palm Beach, Florida. Navy from 1958 to 1960 and was stationed at Green Cove Springs, Florida, as an administrative officer in the Atlantic Fleet. Thompson served as a lieutenant in the U.S. He has completed all course work at the University of Alabama toward a Ph.D. He was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1958 and a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Florida in 1963. Thompson also served as NASA's deputy director from July 6, 1989, to November 8, 1991.īorn in Greenville, South Carolina in 1936, Thompson graduated from Druid Hills High School in Atlanta in 1954. He served as director from September 29, 1986, to July 6, 1989. Thompson, was the fifth director of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center located in Huntsville, Alabama. ![]() Bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, Master's degree in mechanical engineering at University of Florida, post-graduate work in fluid mechanics at University of Alabama ![]()
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