Meet: Chuck Davis

Who I Am

Hello Shuttle Team Online students, my name is Chuck Davis. I am a "storable propellants engineer" at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida -- America's gateway to the universe. I have not always been here though.

What I Do

I am in charge of having the necessary storable propellants (see below as to what a storable propellant is) or nitrogen gas to my customer's facility, such as Shuttle launch pad, which meets their purity and quantity requirements, in the most suitable container. This requires knowing who wants what, when, where, how much, how much it will cost, what to do with leftovers, how to fix it if it doesn't work, and how I know if it is any good via chemical analysis. So I now know much more than I ever thought I would about chemistry and logistics! These propellants are all contained in mechanical pipes, tankers, and other containers, and I can watch rockets take off from my back yard and know that each one could not have left the ground without my propellants. What a job! Most of my work is with spacecraft which are launched on the Shuttle or other rockets.

My Career Journey

I am from Savannah, Georgia. I graduated from The Georgia Institute of Technology - GO JACKETS!! - in 1982 with a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering. BSMEs have something to do with almost any type of machinery, air conditioning, vehicles, power generation, pumps, piping, etc. My main interests were in power (energy), piping, and fluid dynamics (how fluids move about such as water flow in a pipe). I also like physics and chemistry.

My first "real job" was with the US Army Corps of Engineers working on the Richard B. Russell Dam and Lake on the Savannah River between Georgia and South Carolina. I spent six years as an engineer installing and testing the dam's four turbine/generators and support systems! However, construction projects have a way of being completed, and I essentially worked myself out of a job.

Fortunately, NASA was hiring at Kennedy Space Center, where I moved in 1989. Currently, I work with four other NASA people on "propellant stuff" and with about 150 contractor people at KSC (home of the Space Shuttle) and "the Cape." Across the Banana River is Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, run by the Air Force, where the Titan, Atlas, and Delta rockets are processed and launched. Propellants services are provided to KSC and CCAFS by our office and our contractor.

Our capable staff is split up into storables, cryogens, gases, and contract administration responsibilities. The storables are a class of propellants which will "stay" in there storage tanks without special insulation and refrigeration devices, and include Hydrazine family fuels, Nitrogen Tetroxide oxidizers, and kerosene-based fuels. The "cryogens" are propellants which under normal circumstances would be gases but are compressed and cooled so they can be stored as liquids (take up less space) and include liquid hydrogen, liquid helium, liquid nitrogen, and liquid oxygen. Gases are the cryogens just listed but in their "naturual" state... except the pressures may be 6000 psi in the pipelines and pressure vessels.

To learn more about our Propellants group, check out our web site at: http://propellants.ksc.nasa.gov/

I am a Project Manager!

New opportunities abound at KSC. One came my way when I was given an opportunity to implement an idea I had. It concerns KSC providing spacecraft fueling services to NASA spacecraft programs. My project team has designed, built, and tested a spacecraft fueling system. Our first spacecraft fuleing will be NASA's Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) spacecraft in September, 2000. We have also "signed up" NASA's Contour, X-38 Crew Return Vehicle, and Triana missions. In response to JPL input, we are expanding into bi-propellant propulsion system fueling and are building N2O4 equipment so we can fuel the Eupora Orbiter mission in 2003 and Pluto-Kuiper Express in 2004. The service is an economic alternative for the NASA spacecraft persons to not perform the fueling operation themselves. Read more about the fueling services project on our web site at:

http://propellants.ksc.nasa.gov/scpropserv.htm

What's a COTR? Well, it is Contracting Officers Technical Representative. In addition to the storable propellants activities, I am lead-system engineer for the KSC/CCAFS nitrogen pipeline. The latest supply contract was made by NASA (it had been an Air Force contract) and as COTR, I am in charge of the day-to-day administration, especially from a pipeline technical-operation perspective, of the supply contract. I also have to do finance stuff, which I'm not particularly fond of, but is quite necessary. Read more about the nitrogen pipeline on our web site at:

http://propellants.ksc.nasa.gov/gn2pipeline.htm

Personal Information

I have a wife and two kids, currently 13 and 11. In my spare time, I enjoy anything to do with Star Trek, build model airplanes and tanks, play games on the computer.

I look forward to meeting y'all online!
Chuck

Learn More From My Chats

• May 20, 1998
• March 11, 1998