Dr. Maxime “Max” A. Faget (1921–2004) was a truly remarkable man, and an engineering genius, who developed many of the innovative ideas and design concepts that have been incorporated into all of the manned spacecraft flown by the United States. His accomplishments included the capsule design and operational plan for Project Mercury, and numerous inventions, papers, and books that laid the foundations for today’s spaceflight. An expert on vehicles suitable for safely reentering the Earth’s atmosphere, he is also noted for his contributions to the basic configuration of the command module and development of the pressure-fed hypergolic engines used in the Apollo Program.
Faget was born at Stann Creek, British Honduras (now known as Belize). As a child, he enthusiastically built model airplanes, read science-fiction magazines, and aspired to be an engineer. He attended San Francisco Junior College in San Francisco, California; and received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Louisiana State University in 1943. In World War II, he served for three years as a submarine naval officer during combat in the South Pacific.
After the war, he was advised by his former LSU professor to seek a job at the NACA Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. Faget joined the Langley staff in 1946 as a research scientist; and worked in the newly-formed Pilotless Aircraft Research Division (PARD) headed by legendary Robert “Bob” Gilruth. The main focus of the division’s research at the time was on the use of rockets to obtain information on the aerodynamics and flight dynamics of aircraft models at transonic and supersonic speeds. However, the work soon broadened into studies of high-speed aerodynamic heating, with applications to ballistic missiles.
Faget’s early research included studies of ramjets and the development of Mach meters for flight; but his interests soared to new levels when, in 1954, he became involved in the planning studies for the X-15 research airplane. The project included studies of how to attain even faster speeds — at least twice as fast as the X-15. A main barrier to that goal would be the extreme heat generated by flight at such conditions. While studying the problem, he was impressed by the work being done by noted NACA scientist H. Julian “Harvey” Allen at the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, who had concluded that blunt bodies offered more protection from heating at high speeds than pointed configurations.
With this background, Faget conceived possible configurations for a one-man, blunt-ended capsule-type spacecraft. His analysis showed that a simple non-lifting, ballistic capsule had distinct advantages over more complicated winged reentry vehicles. In particular, he predicted that capsules would have minimum requirements for guidance, autopilot, and control systems — a direct savings in weight and potential avoidance of system malfunctions. The weight issue was particularly critical, because U.S. rockets of the time, such as the Atlas, were incapable of lifting heavy configurations. His results, presented at the 1958 NACA meeting on High-Speed Aerodynamics, proved to be the cornerstone for selection of the capsule used in Project Mercury. Within a few months, it became apparent that the Atlas was the nation’s best large launch vehicle, and that Faget’s Mercury-type capsule was the only concept that had a chance to be made light enough to be able to attain orbit.
Faget had been the Head of the Performance Aerodynamics Branch within PARD, and became one of the original group of 35 persons assigned by Langley Director Floyd Thompson to form the nucleus of the Space Task Group to carry out Project Mercury. Faget turned his attention to systems required for the capsule. The issues of human tolerance to high “g” loads during reentry were addressed; and he worked with Langley’s in-house shops to design and fabricate special light-weight seats for the astronauts. Faget was also involved in adapting the hydrogen-peroxide attitude-control system used by the X-15 to the Mercury capsule. In one of his most important contributions, he conceived the concept of an escape tower for Mercury, based upon ideas and rocket experiments conducted by Willard “Woody” Blanchard, a particularly innovative member of PARD. Faget’s escape-tower concept was used for all follow-on NASA capsule configurations — with the exception of Gemini — although it was never needed during a manned launch. It was, however, copied by the Russians and successfully used to save the lives of two cosmonauts in 1983, when fire broke out on the launch pad and the launch rocket blew up. When the head of the Russian cosmonauts later visited Faget at NASA, Faget jokingly told him that, “I invented the escape rocket, and you guys saved a crew that way, and I never got a Red Star Medal for that.” He later received a small medal and a little ceremony from the Russians. They told him that they were particularly grateful, because they had never tested the system before the incident.
In 1962, Faget became the Director of Engineering and Development at NASA’s new Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas, and became immersed in the challenges of the Gemini and Apollo Programs. He was relatively removed from the design of Gemini, and expressed his concern over the fact that the Gemini capsule had been designed with ejection seats, not an escape tower. He stated that “the best thing about Gemini was that they never had to make an escape.” He also vividly remembered the numerous heated discussions and arguments within the agency on how to conduct the moon mission — especially the “direct flight” concept versus the “lunar-orbit rendezvous” approach.
Faget was deeply involved in planning for the Space Shuttle, including proposing a straight-winged configuration as a possible candidate for the orbiter. He was very concerned about the use of solid rockets for the Shuttle launch system, and the lack of a plan for continuously-improved versions of the Shuttle, as happens for military aircraft. He also believed that a number of unmanned flights should have been used in the program.
During his career, Dr. Faget authored or co-authored numerous technical papers on aerodynamics, rocketry, high-speed bomb ejection, reentry theory, heat transfer, and aircraft performance. He was co-author of a textbook, Engineering Design and Operations of Spacecraft, and author of a book entitled, Manned Space Flight. Dr. Faget held joint patents on the “Aerial Capsule Emergency Separation Device” (escape tower), the “Survival Couch,” the “Mercury Capsule,” and a “Mach Number Indicator.” As a NASA member of the Polaris Missile Steering Task Group, he also contributed to the design of that submarine-launched missile.
Dr. Faget received the Arthur S. Fleming Award in 1960. In 1961, he was presented the Golden Plate Award by the Academy of Achievement. In 1963, he was awarded the NASA Medal for Outstanding Leadership and, in 1965, was presented the Award of Loyola. Dr. Faget was awarded Honorary Doctorate of Engineering degrees from both the University of Pittsburgh and Louisiana State University. As a visiting professor, he taught graduate-level courses at the Louisiana State University, Rice University, and the University of Houston. He was the winner of the prestigious Guggenheim International Aeronautical Award in 1973. The award citation recognized him for playing a major role in developing the basic ideas and original design concepts that have been incorporated into all of the manned spacecraft flown by the United States. He was inducted into the National Space Hall of Fame in 1969, and the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2003.
Faget retired from NASA in 1981, following the second Space Shuttle mission. After leaving NASA, he was among the founders of one of the early private space companies, Space Industries Inc., established in 1982. One of its projects was the Wake Shield Facility, built for the University of Houston and flown twice aboard the Space Shuttle to demonstrate a technique for processing materials in a near-perfect vacuum in space.
He was married to Nancy Carastro of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and they had three daughters and a son, Ann Lee, Carol Lee, Nanette, and Guy.
“Max” Faget died on October 10, 2004. His good friend and peer, Christopher Kraft, paid him this tribute: “He was a true icon of the space program. There is no one in spaceflight history, in this or any other country, who has had a larger impact on man’s quest in space exploration.”