Frontiers - Space-Library

inAlabam
Stars
Boeing has a rich history in Huntsville that has grown beyond
rockets and space
By Eric Fetters-Walp
Boeing’s presence in Huntsville, Ala., started with a small
group of engineers who set up makeshift offices in a downtown
hotel. They were working on NASA’s Apollo program,
figuring out how to send astronauts on the Saturn rocket to the moon.
Fifty years later, sitting in his west Huntsville office, Grant
Wang is one of hundreds of Boeing employees working on an
even grander goal: sending humans well beyond the moon.
“It’s going to be a modernized Saturn-class rocket, with
more capability and safety,” said Wang, a Technical Fellow
and avionics and software chief engineer for the heavy-duty
Space Launch System (SLS).
Wang volunteered to lend his talents to the program.
“This type of opportunity happens only once every 20 or
30 years,” he explained.
With a rich history tied to the U.S. space program over the
past half-century, Boeing Huntsville still is looking toward the
stars. The site also is home to the Ground-based Midcourse
Defense (GMD) program and provides engineering prowess
to a variety of Boeing products, including the 787 Dreamliner.
“The way I describe it to people is there really are three legs
to the stool in Huntsville,” said Greg Hyslop, vice president and
general manager of Strategic Missile and Defense Systems. “One
is Space Exploration, the second is GMD and the related missile
defense programs—including the Patriot Advanced Capability-3
Seeker—and the other is our Huntsville Design Center and intercompany
work. That really gives us a stable base here.”
Boeing employs approximately 2,600 people at the Huntsville site,
making it the largest aerospace firm in Alabama. The company has
22 BOEING FRONTIERS / SEPTEMBER 2012