Frank Bauer – NESC Academy Biography

Frank Bauer’s aerospace career spans over 40 years within NASA and private industry, including his current position as President of FBauer Aerospace Consulting Services (FB-ACS).  At FB-ACS, he provides expertise and consultation services in systems engineering, Guidance Navigation and Control (GN&C), spaceborne Global Positioning System/Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GPS/GNSS), space vehicle formation flying and small spacecraft development. He currently supports NASA as a GN&C discipline expert and represents NASA and the U.S. government on GPS/GNSS Strategy and Policy, including supporting the U.S. delegation in international discussions on joint GNSS interoperability strategies.

Frank started his NASA career at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) as a design analyst in Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C).  During his GSFC career, he also served as a mission systems engineer in the Spacecraft Systems Engineering Office and provided leadership and vision to a team of GN&C engineers as the head of the GN&C Branch and then the GN&C Bivision. Mr. Bauer’s role as the GN&C Division Chief encompassed the design, development, and qualification of advanced GN&C and Propulsion systems for a wide spectrum of space systems, experiments, and sub-orbital and launch vehicles at the Greenbelt and Wallops Flight Facility campuses. Mr. Bauer’s experience included other many roles within NASA.  These included serving as the GN&C discipline expert as part of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC), supporting NASA on 3 mishap investigations, human spaceflight endeavors at the Johnson Space Center and culminating in his role as NASA’s Chief Engineer for Exploration Systems at NASA HQ.  As Chief Engineer for Exploration, he provided engineering and technical leadership to NASA’s initiative to develop and operate a sustained human space exploration presence beyond low Earth Orbit (Moon, Asteroids, Mars).   
Mr. Bauer’s primary research interests include spaceborne applications of GPS/GNSS, space vehicle formation flying, and dynamic (control-structure) space vehicle interaction. He was the principal investigator of 4 spaceflight GPS and formation flying experiments including an investigation in the use of GPS above the constellation.

In his free time, Frank serves as the program manager and principal investigator of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) payload, an educational outreach program that allows students to communicate and interact directly with astronauts onboard the International Space Station.
Mr. Bauer received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University.

Biography information last updated March, 2017.