James C. Adamson - NASA Experience

NASA Experience

Adamson was employed at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center from 1981 to 1992. During the Operational Flight Test phase of the Shuttle Program, he served as a research test pilot and aerodynamics officer in Mission Control. Following completion of the operational test flights he became Guidance Navigation and Control Officer for Shuttle Missions 5 through 11. As research test pilot he also conducted airborne remote sensing studies in Biospheric Research.

Selected by NASA as an Astronaut in 1984, Adamson became qualified for mission assignment on Space Shuttle flights. In November 1985, he was selected to the crew of a Department of Defense mission, which was subsequently delayed due to the Challenger accident. During the Shuttle Program reconstruction period, Adamson was one of eleven astronauts selected to hold management positions within NASA. He served as Shuttle Program Office Assistant Manager for Engineering Integration. In this position he was responsible for the initial development of a reliability based maintenance program for the Space Shuttle program. He also initiated an enhancements program for Shuttle ground processing.

In February 1988 Adamson was assigned to the flight crew of STS-28, the first flight of Space Shuttle Columbia following the reconstruction period. Columbia launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on August 8, 1989. The mission carried a classified Department of Defense payload and a number of secondary payloads. After 80 earth orbits in 121 hours, this five day mission concluded with a dry lakebed landing on Runway 17 at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on August 13, 1989.

Following STS-28 Adamson once again returned to management. This time he was assigned to the Kennedy Space Center as Director of Shuttle Processing Analysis. He served in this post from September 1989 until October 1990 when he was assigned to the flight crew of STS-43. During this period Adamson developed risk based processing and scheduling programs which resulted in reduction of processing times from 80 days to 50 days.

The nine day STS-43 mission aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis launched from the Kennedy Space Center on August 2, 1991, setting a new world record for payload weight lifted to orbit. The five member crew deployed a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS-E) and conducted 32 physical and life sciences experiments. During this flight Adamson performed the first flight test of the Orbital Digital Autopilot following Shuttle retrofit with new General Purpose Computers and new software. After 142 earth orbits in 213 hours, the STS-43 mission concluded with a landing on Runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center on August 11, 1991.

Following Adamson’s retirement from government service in June 1992, he continued as a management consultant to NASA and the aerospace industry. Until September 1994 he served as management consultant and strategic planner for Lockheed Corporation in the area of Human Space Flight Operations. He was also selected by the NASA Administrator to serve on the NASA Advisory Council.

In September 1994 Adamson joined Lockheed Corporation as Executive Vice President of Lockheed Engineering and Science Company (LESC) where he was shortly promoted to President and CEO. In late 1995 he was selected by Lockheed Martin to start up and become the first COO of the United Space Alliance (USA), a joint venture with Rockwell International. USA subsequently won the Space Flight Operations Contract with NASA to operate the Space Shuttle Program and grew to $1.5 billion annual revenue in the first year.

In 1999 Adamson was recruited by AlliedSignal Corporation to be the President of Allied Signal Technical Services Corporation. He remained in that post through Allied Signal’s merger with Honeywell until his retirement in March 2001.

Adamson is still active as a consultant and board member for the aerospace industry and still serves on the NASA Advisory Council for the NASA Administrator.