posted 05-26-2024 10:30 AM               

From a self-prepared profile for the Space Walk of Fame:

Worked at the Johnson Space Center from 1962 to 1998 as a federal civil servant; and from 1998 to 2012 as a contract employee in support of the JSC Education Office, performing education outreach tasks and programs. Since 2012 I have served as an unpaid volunteer for the JSC Education Office performing a variety of tasks.

I worked in the JSC Propulsion and Power Division from 1962 to 1984, initially assigned to work on the reaction control systems for Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, ASTP, Skylab, Space Shuttle. My first mission supported was the Scott Carpenter Mercury flight in May of 1962.

I became Deputy Chief of the Propulsion and Power Division in 1981. I moved to the International Space Station Program Office in 1984 where I served as Level 2 Chief Engineer for Program Integration in the Systems Engineering and Integration Office. My work was on the early Space Station Freedom. In 1988 I moved to the new Lunar and Mars Exploration Program Office as Manager of Systems Engineering and Integration, and in 1990 was named Acting Program Manager on the Senior Staff at JSC. In early 1991 I was asked to serve as the Deputy chief of the new JSC Automation and Robotics Division in the Engineering Directorate, where I served until late 1995, at which time I was detailed for 9 months to serve as Deputy Chief of the Biomedical Engineering Office. At that time I returned briefly to the Robotics Division and retired in October, 1996. I was immediately asked to work half-time as a rehired annuitant for two years in support of the JSC Education Office. In November, 1998 I fully retired as a civil servant and became a contract employee of the Education Office.

I have also served as Chairman of the Houston Section of AIAA (1980-81); as Chairman of the JSC Chapter of the National Management Association (1988–89); and currently as President of the Clear Lake Council of Technical Societies (2006-2019).

Above: On Oct. 19, 2018, retired NASA engineer Norman Chaffee spoke with the children and brought with him historical items, like the RCS thruster that he helped design, to help foster an interest in STEM careers for the local Klamath Falls, Oregon students. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Tech. Sgt. Jefferson Thompson)

posted 06-28-2024 11:16 AM               

Roger and I were acquaintances, not quite friends, I guess. We never socialized but we did visit because we used to get each other's mail and each other's phone calls sometimes, and frequently when I was on a business trip, I'd be introduced as the astronaut Norman Chaffee because people didn't recognize the difference between Roger Chaffee and Norman Chaffee.

And not too long ago, I did a Google search on my name and found several references to Astronaut Norman Chaffee, so the myth persists.