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Auburn engineers have dominated NASA’s manned space flight operations and a number of its programs, none more so than the shuttle. Its 135 missions carried huge payloads, made numerous trips to the international space station and recovered satellites until the program ended this summer with Atlantis.

Don Magnusson, a ‘67 graduate in electrical engineering, began his career with the space shuttle program six years before the first mission flew, and he saw its final return on Aug. 31. There are few others that can make that claim.

Magnusson has worked in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL) for more than 33 years, modeling software that controls the space shuttle in flight. On the day Atlantis landed, Magnusson flew the final simulator flight from Johnson Space Center in Houston.The space shuttle program holds a special place in the hearts of Auburn engineers, so much so that in 2009 Mattingly presented the College of Engineeringwith his NASA Ambassador of Exploration Award — a moon rock he brought back from one of his expeditions.

Earlier this year, Auburn alums Liz Pattison, a ’00 graduate in mechanical engineering, and aerospace graduates David Hamilton ’67, Joel Sills ’87 and Fred Martin ’78 and ’80, got together at Johnson Space Center to commemorate those efforts and recall its challenges as well as its successes.They serve as a reminder that Auburn engineers have made an impact on our nation’s space travel and the space shuttle program, and that they will continue that legacy for years to come.

Two, please
Above left, T.K. Mattingly, ‘58 aerospace, and Hank Hartsfield, a ‘54 physics graduate, flew one mission together on STS-4. Their seven-day mission served as Columbia’s fourth and final orbital test flight — Mattingly was the commander, Hartsfield the pilot. Because of its test flight status, they were the only two members of the shuttle’s crew, unlike later missions that carried four to eight astronauts. This article includes a number of stories, notes and accounts retold by alumni and friends of the college, as well as highlights from a history of Auburn aerospace engineering compiled by department head John Cochran.

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