NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Patrick Whipps is the team lead of the External Tank Project Resident Office at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, which is managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. He is the senior representative responsible for day-to-day operations involving the manufacture of space shuttle external tanks. He coordinates the work of engineers and other technical specialists engaged in the research, design and development that supports external tank production for the Space Shuttle Propulsion Office.

Mr. Whipps was named to the position in December 2006 to oversee all contractor activities necessary to assure implementation and timely cost effective accomplishment of external tank project goals.

From 1995 to 2006, Mr. Whipps was senior engineer in the Marshall Center Resident Office at Michoud, leading NASA engineering oversight and on-site technical risk assessment for flight hardware nonconformance. He also served as design integration lead at both Michoud and the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., during shuttle Return to Flight activities.

Mr. Whipps was the lead engineer at NASA's Reusable Solid Rocket Motor Yellow Creek Resident Office in Iuka, Miss., from January to April 1995, responsible for oversight of startup and engineering activities associated with space shuttle reusable solid rocket motor nozzle manufacturing.

From 1989 to1994, he was a space shuttle main engine materials and processes engineer at the Marshall Center's Resident Office in Canoga Park, Calif. He supervised failure analyses and vendor technical issues, and provided engineering oversight for materials and processes nonconformances.

Before joining NASA, Mr. Whipps worked for Hughes Aircraft Company in Tucson, Ariz., from 1978 to 1989. Beginning as a metallurgical failure analyst, he later supervised the materials and failure analysis laboratory. He was a staff member of the U.S. Navy Phoenix air-to-air missile program manager and also served as reliability manager for the Phoenix program.

He earned his bachelor's degree in metallurgical engineering from the University of Arizona in Tucson in 1978.

In 2004, he was selected as a NASA Space Flight Awareness honoree -- the highest form of recognition given to an employee by NASA's Space Flight Awareness Program. He received a Marshall Center Certificate of Appreciation in 1999 for his work supporting aluminum-lithium welding.

Mr. Whipps is the recipient of two Hughes Aircraft Company Missile Division Invention Awards, including "Gasless Infrared Thermal Beacon," in 1981, and "Specialty Injection Molding and Plating Process for Small Diameter Coaxial Connector," in 1982.

He holds a U.S. patent for his work on weapon system infrared sources, "Silicon-containing Compositions for Self-Sustaining Intermetallic Reactions," issued in 1983.

Mr. Whipps and his wife, the former Lisa Watts of Springfield, Ill., and their six children reside in Diamondhead, Miss.

+ Photo: Patrick Whipps