For Release: August 4, 1999

June Malone
Media Relations Department
(256) 544-0034
June.Malone@msfc.nasa.gov

/centers/msfc/NEWSROOM/

99-177

Keith Henson Reflects on 38 years as NASA Engineer/Manager

Growing up in Dothan, Ala., Keith Henson’s life was about hunting and fishing, delivering the Dothan Eagle newspaper on his bicycle, tinkering with old motor scooters, and playing basketball and baseball.

His father was an office manager with a meat packing company, his mother an elementary school teacher. Henson appeared to be headed toward a career in veterinary medicine until Russia’s Sputnik satellite went into orbit. As it did for a lot of other teen-agers, Sputnik captured Henson’s imagination -- and decided his career.

Henson’s career at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has spanned the Saturn moon rocket program, the Skylab space station program and the Space Shuttle program.

It was all "beyond my wildest imagination," Henson reminisced recently. No doubt his biggest challenge and responsibility was heading the Shuttle’s Reusable Solid Rocket Motor program. For the last 60 Space Shuttle missions, Henson’s "go or no-go" was among those required to clear the Shuttle for launch.

That job has come with a lot of satisfaction, a lot of responsibility and the weight of making that decision every time, Henson said.

"In this job, you’ve got to weigh everything your experts tell you and communicate that accurately to the Shuttle program, to NASA and to the public," he said. "You’ve got to explain it so the whole world understands you, and you’ve got to be able to answer every question put to you. It’s tremendously satisfying when you succeed at those challenges."

Henson retired recently from NASA after a distinguished career of nearly 38 years with the nation’s space program. Born in Nashville in 1939, Henson grew up in Dothan. He received a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., in 1961, and a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in 1970.

He began his professional career in 1961 as an aeronautical engineer at the Marshall Center. In 1974, he was assigned to the Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster Project Management Office. He managed the booster’s parachute recovery system from 1980 to 1985, then served as the project’s business manager.

In 1986, Henson was assigned as Systems and Requirements manager to the Solid Rocket Motor Redesign Project. He served as technical assistant to the manager of the motor project in 1988, and in 1989 was named deputy manager of the project. Since 1991, Henson has been manager of the motor project.

The motor -- one of three major propulsion elements of NASA’s Space Shuttle -- is the world’s largest solid propellant motor. Henson was responsible for the budgeting, scheduling, engineering, testing, facilities and launch operations associated with the motor. The project is critical to safe operation of the nation’s space program. It involves more than 100 NASA employees and more than 2,000 industry employees through the motor’s prime contract.

Awards Henson has received during his career include the NASA Medal for Exceptional Service in 1988 for his contributions to the redesign of the Shuttle Solid Rocket Motor, NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal in 1993, and NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal in 1999.

Henson and his wife, the former Martha Howell of Rogersville, Ala., live in Madison, Ala. They have five children — Kerri, Katherine, Mike, Mark and Debbie. His father, Victor, and his stepmother, Virginia, longtime residents of Louisville, Ala. and Dothan, currently live in Dothan.

For Henson, the payoff for his work was being at the core of the nation’s space program. He recalls meetings with Dr. Wernher von Braun -- Marshall Center’s first director and leader of the team that developed the Redstone and Saturn rockets -- and being on a first-name basis with astronauts and top NASA officials.

"You’re really a part of history," he said. "That’s what a NASA career has as its heart and soul. I don’t think I could have done anything else and been any more satisfied."

Note to Editors/News Directors: Interviews with Henson, photos and video supporting this release are available to media representatives by contacting June Malone of the Marshall Media Relations Department at (256) 544-0034. For an electronic version of this release, digital images or more information, visit Marshall’s News Center on the Web at:

/centers/msfc/NEWSROOM/

If you would like to start receiving our releases by e-mail instead of fax, please e-mail judy.pettus@msfc.nasa.gov with your address and we'll put you/your organization on our e-mail distribution list.