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For release: 11/14/02
Release #: 02-289
Ludlow native appointed deputy director of Flight Projects at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
Twenty-year NASA veteran Tony Lavoie has been appointed deputy director of the Flight Projects Directorate at the Marshall Center. Lavoie will play a key role in the team responsible for managing scientific research aboard the International Space Station, continuing the science successes of the Chandra X-ray Observatory and pursuing advanced concepts such as space solar power and space elevators.
Photo: Lavoie (NASA/MSFC)
Ludlow native Tony Lavoie has been appointed deputy director of the Flight Projects Directorate at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
Lavoie, who was born in Ludlow and graduated from Ludlow High School in 1977, will play a key role in the team responsible for piloting NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, managing scientific research aboard the International Space Station, maintaining and developing life support equipment, cargo carriers and new pressurized modules for the Space Station, and pursuing advanced projects such as space solar power and space elevators.
"I'm looking forward to the challenge of helping lead an organization with such a diverse charter - human space flight, scientific exploration, and turning exciting future concepts into reality," Lavoie said.
Lavoie most recently served as program manager of the Chandra X-ray Observatory, launched in July 1999. The Chandra Observatory, which orbits up to one-third of the way to the Moon, is the world's largest and most powerful X-ray telescope. In addition to quasars and stars, it allows astronomers to study other sources of X-rays such as black holes, colliding galaxies and stars.
He previously served as chief engineer for the Tethered Satellite System Project and chief of telescope and science instruments for the Chandra Chief Engineer office.
As deputy director of Flight Projects, Lavoie will remain a key player not only in the Chandra Observatory program, but several other major NASA programs, as well.
The Flight Projects Directorate manages all science research experiment operations aboard the International Space Station, the delivery and return of experiments, and payload training and payload safety programs for the Station crew and all ground personnel.
The Directorate oversees the construction and operations of the Multi Purpose Logistics Modules for carrying supplies aboard the Space Shuttle to and from the Station, design and construction of a new Station compartment with sleeping quarters for four crewmembers, and technical support for U.S.-supplied life support equipment currently onboard the Station.
Flight Projects engineers also are exploring collection of solar energy in space and transmitting it to Earth, orbiting spacecraft or other planets; a space elevator for transporting people, payloads and power between Earth and space; and new space industries based on the current Space Station technologies.
Lavoie, who joined the Marshall Center in 1982, has a bachelor's degree in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. He has received the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal and numerous Group Achievement awards.
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