Contact
Steve Roy
Media Relations Department
(256) 544-0034
steve.roy@msfc.nasa.gov

Release: 01-059

Marshall Center's Jan Davis, Hubble Telescope inducted into Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame

Dr. N. Jan Davis of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., was inducted into the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame on Saturday.

Also inducted was NASA's Hubble Space Telescope for its contributions to the advancement of engineering.

As director of the Flight Projects Directorate at the Marshall Center, Davis oversees development of the International Space Station's connecting nodes 2 and 3; multi-purpose logistics modules; commercial EXPRESS racks; and environmental and life-support systems. Davis also oversees the Payload Operations Center — the science command post at the Marshall Center that links Earth-bound researchers around the world with the Space Station. Her directorate works closely with the Boeing Co. as it builds and tests structural elements and truss segments of the Space Station.

Davis began her career at the Marshall Center in 1979, leading a team responsible for structural analysis and verification of the Hubble Space Telescope, the telescope servicing mission and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. She also was lead engineer for the redesign of the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster External Tank attach ring.

Selected to join the Astronaut Corps in 1987, Davis flew on three Space Shuttle missions — STS-47 in 1992, STS-60 in 1994 and STS-85 in 1997. Prior to her Shuttle flights, Davis served as the capsule communicator with Shuttle crews from the Mission Control Center at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Before returning to Marshall, Davis was director of the Human Exploration and Development of Space Independent Assurance Office at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The owner of one patent, Davis is a Registered Professional Engineer and has been awarded NASA's Outstanding Leadership Medal, Exceptional Service Medal, and three Space Flight Medals, as well as the Marshall Space Flight Center Director's Commendation. A winner of the Alpha Xi Delta Woman of Distinction Award, she was recently named to the University of Alabama in Huntsville Distinguished Engineering Alumni Academy. She also is an ASME Fellow -- the highest distinction bestowed by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Davis, a 1971 graduate of Huntsville High School in Huntsville, Ala., earned a bachelor's degree in applied biology at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, and a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Auburn University in Auburn, Ala. She earned her master's and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

The Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame also honored the Hubble Space Telescope, the first major infrared-optical-ultraviolet telescope to be placed in Earth orbit. The first Hubble image was returned from space May 20, 1990, and to date the telescope has studied 13,670 astronomical objects and made 271,000 individual observations.

Virtually every major Hubble subsystem required advancement of the state of the art in hardware and software. Design concepts provided by engineers at the Marshall Center resulted in the Center being chosen to lead the design, fabrication, prelaunch verification, and in-orbit operational verification of the telescope.

NASA and its collaborator on the project, the European Space Agency, brought together engineers, scientists, contractors, and institutions from across the globe, all under the direction of the Marshall Center.

Art Stephenson, director of the Marshall Center, accepted the induction honor on behalf of all involved in the Hubble Space Telescope's success.

The Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame — based in Tuscaloosa -- was founded in 1987. The Hall of Fame honors, preserves and perpetuates outstanding accomplishments and contributions of individuals, projects, corporations and institutions that contribute to the advancement of engineering and technology.