Maxime Faget
contributorEngineering & Vehicle Design
NASA engineer whose blunt-body capsule, launch-escape, reentry, spacecraft, and Shuttle design work shaped every major early United States human-spaceflight program.
- Primary role
- Human-spacecraft design engineer
- Lifespan
- 1921–2004
- Relationships
- 10
- Sources
- 3
Biography
Place in spaceflight history
Faget developed the Mercury capsule concept and operational approach, contributed its escape tower, survival couch, and attitude-control systems, helped define the Apollo command module and its pressure-fed engines, and participated deeply in Space Shuttle configuration planning.
His engineering connected aerodynamic research to practical spacecraft that could protect crews during launch, orbital flight, atmospheric reentry, and recovery.
Maxime Faget’s archive record spans Mechanical engineer, Spacecraft designer, Director of Engineering and Development through work connected with NACA Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, NASA Space Task Group, NASA Manned Spacecraft Center. The linked record places that work within Project Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Space Shuttle.
Career profile
Roles, organizations, and programs
Roles
- Mechanical engineer
- Spacecraft designer
- Director of Engineering and Development
Programs
- Project Mercury
- Gemini
- Apollo
- Space Shuttle
Archive relationships
Named records, programs, and organizations connected to this archive identity.
- Mercury-Atlas 6Used the blunt-body Mercury capsule, escape, attitude-control, and reentry concepts Faget helped develop
- Apollo 11Used the Apollo command-module configuration and propulsion concepts developed under Faget's engineering leadership
- STS-1Opened the Space Shuttle flight era whose orbiter configuration and development Faget helped shape
- NACA Langley Aeronautical LaboratoryCanonical organization
- NASA Space Task GroupCanonical organization
- NASA Manned Spacecraft CenterCanonical organization
- Project MercurySpaceflight program
- GeminiSpaceflight program
- ApolloSpaceflight program
- Space ShuttleSpaceflight program
Sources
Original references supporting this record. Each source opens on its publisher’s website.