Faces of SLS: Jeff LaDelfa

I greatly enjoy the effort required in the assembling and testing of components for space applications and their unique environments, like the Space Launch System (SLS). I find it exciting to witness a product that starts out as lines on a drawing or as a computer model on a screen become real, tangible hardware and to watch that hardware perform as it is intended to do.  

I’m a project engineer for Moog Inc. on a NASA research announcement to develop a flow control valve for the SLS advanced upper stage engine. This scalable flow control valve regulates the propellant that enters the engine’s combustion chamber. Through this initiative, we want to demonstrate a low-cost and reliable control valve that is capable of the extreme requirements for a high-performance upper stage engine.

One key element in this effort involved the use of additive manufacturing processes to produce the valve body. This can greatly reduce the cost and lead time to make complex parts. The testing program we conducted at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. It is exciting to think that eventually the work we’ve done on this project will contribute to the SLS, and deep-space missions.

Since joining Moog’s Space and Defense Group in Buffalo, New York, in 2008, I have been involved in the development, qualification and production of many different fluid- and motion-control devices. These devices are used on a broad array of space systems, including a small valve used on a mass spectrometer that determines carbon dioxide and oxygen content on the International Space Station.

I received my bachelor’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics engineering in 1993 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and master’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1998 from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

As someone who grew up in the Buffalo area, I’ve always been a Buffalo Bills fan. Now that I am back in the area, I’m a season ticket holder. I enjoy the whole game-day experience — from the tailgate, to the game, to the postgame conversations and debates.