Arthur G. Stephenson (born 1942) was the ninth Director of the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Marshall Space Flight Center The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), located in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (Huntsville postal address), is the U.S. government's civilian rocketry and spacecraft propulsion research center. As the largest NASA center, MSFC's first ...

located in

Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in t ...

. He served as director from September 11, 1998, to May 2003.

Early years

Stephenson was born in

New London, Connecticut New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States, located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It was one of the world's three busiest whaling ports for several decades ...

, and finished his secondary schooling by graduating from

Narbonne High School Nathaniel Narbonne High School (NHS) is a school located at 24300 South Western Avenue, in the Harbor City area of Los Angeles, California. Narbonne serves grades 9 through 12 and is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Narbonne serve ...

Harbor City, California Harbor City is a highly diverse neighborhood in the Harbor region of Los Angeles, California, with a population upward of 36,000 people. Originally part of the Rancho San Pedro Spanish land grant, the Harbor City was brought into Los Angeles as ...

Education

* A graduate of Narbonne High School in Harbor City, California (Los Angeles City Schools) * He attended

University of Redlands The University of Redlands is a private university headquartered in Redlands, California. The university's main, residential campus is situated on 160 acres (65 ha) near downtown Redlands. An additional eight regional locations throughout Califo ...

Redlands, California Redlands ( ) is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 73,168, up from 68,747 at the 2010 census. The city is located approximately west of Palm Springs and east of Lo ...

, obtaining a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

. * In later years, he completed the Executive Program in

Management Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

given by

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

's John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management.

Career

*Worked for TRW in

Redondo Beach, California Redondo Beach (Spanish for ''round'') is a coastal city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located in the South Bay region of the Greater Los Angeles area. It is one of three adjacent beach cities along the southern portion of Sa ...

, for 28 years from 1964 to 1992 starting with Apollo program, followed by Pioneer 10 and included work on many Space Shuttle related programs including development of the S-Band Communications Transponder. *Worked for Oceaneering Inc. in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, as Vice President of Space Systems and then President of Oceaneering Advanced Technologies from 1992 to 1998. *Worked for

, from September, 1998 to June 2003 as Director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). *As Director of MSFC Stephenson oversaw the Shuttle Space Transportation System propulsion elements including the Orbiter Main Engines, Solid Rocket Motors, and External Tank. *Other programs at MSFC during his tenor included Advanced Space Transportation development programs X-33, X-34, X-37, and Space Launch Initiative, International Space Station programs Element Structural Testing, Standard Rack development, and waste water recycling development, Microgravity Science experiment development and operations, the

Chandra X-Ray Observatory The Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO), previously known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), is a Flagship-class space telescope launched aboard the during STS-93 by NASA on July 23, 1999. Chandra is sensitive to X-ray sources 1 ...

development and on-orbit operations, and the Gravity Probe B spacecraft development oversight. *Served as Chairman of the Mars '98 Orbiter Failure Investigation Board and testified before the U.S. Senate. *NASA MSFC's annual budget during his tenor averaged about 2.3 Billion dollars. *Worked at Northrop Grumman from 2004 to 2008 as Vice President of Laser Programs, then Executive Vice President of Human Space Programs and then Executive Vice President and Deputy Program Manager of the NPOESS program. *Worked as President of Stephenson Consulting LLC. from 2008 to 2015 consulting for various Aerospace Companies. *Retired full time in 2015. *Published Autobiography in 2019 titled "Out of The Blue" available from Amazon in paperback or e-book format. Also available from sifat.org.

References

External links

NASA biography
NASA people Directors of the Marshall Space Flight Center Living people People from New London, Connecticut University of Redlands alumni UCLA Anderson School of Management alumni 1942 births People from Redondo Beach, California Narbonne High School alumni {{Alabama-stub