Jack Dekker

Jack Dekker, System Safety Engineer for Lockheed Martin Space Systems

Jack started working at Lockheed Martin in 1979. It all started by answering an ad in the newspaper. System Safety was in high demand for development of the Peacekeeper missile system. He started working in Space Exploration Systems in 1995, and his first space exploration project was Mars Global Surveyor. He was the Lockheed Martin project System Safety engineer on both the Genesis and Stardust projects; during design, building, and testing of the spacecraft pre-launch and during the sample return recovery operations.

Peter has worked with Lockheed Martin, formerly Martin Marietta, almost 28 years. Involved with several spacecraft design and build efforts including several defense programs, A2100 commercial communications satellites, Cassini mission to Saturn, Mars Global Surveyor, Stardust Comet Sample Return, Genesis Solar Wind Sample Return and, most recently, Phoenix Mars Lander Mission slated to launch in August 2007.

Peter Doukas Mechanical Engineering Lead (Phase B,C, D)

When asked whether he liked to be in the field and on a recovery team, Peter responded:

"The Genesis recovery assignment allowed me to learn and gain an appreciation for the curation and science activities. In the months leading up the return date, I worked with others to build a team from diverse organizations and disciplines. It was rewarding to witness this group come together as a team to perform technical activities and set procedures very efficiently. I can distinctly recall situations early on when we didn't understand each others' needs and priorities.

"Learning to better understand the goals and processes of the other organizations took time and effort. The reward became evident when the actual Genesis return did not come off as planned. Through training, teamwork and communication, the team adapted to the anomalous landing conditions and executed a set of unforeseen contingency operations that resulted in recovering the remaining science and space-exposed hardware from the field before we lost sunlight that day. So while the experience wasn't 'fun,' I do feel a keen sense of satisfaction knowing that we all performed well under adverse conditions. The recovery team was successful and completed their assignment safely in spite of the crash.

"Recovering Genesis took a lot of work, and long hot hours in the field, but scientists are unlocking secrets of our solar system because the recovery team understood how important and precious these samples were and did what was necessary to preserve them."

Billy Jones Senior Spacecraft Technical Engineering Assistant

Billy presently works at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, Colorado building spacecraft and satellites. He's worked there for 22 years and claims he still don't know what he wants to be when he grows up.

Billy's role on Genesis was to build and test the spacecraft. "Senior Spacecraft Technician Engineering Assistant is my official title." He remembers the day the Genesis sample return capsule returned to Earth: "Unfortunately I didn't realize at the time that I would end up having to use a shovel and dig part of the spacecraft out of the desert floor. I believe I was chosen for the Genesis recovery because of my involvement with the build, test and launch of the spacecraft and I got to work with such wonderful people and everyone does such a great job at what they do . . ."

Chuck Love Mission Operations Team Member

Chuck was a member of the Mission Operations Organization responsible for “flying” all our spacecraft which include the three Mars Missions: MGS, Odyssey & MRO; Stardust; Genesis and Spitzer IR Telescope. Specifically, he was tasked with making sure all processes were followed correctly and any anomalies and risks were documented and mitigated properly.

Karen McNamara Materials Engineer, Curation Specialist

Karen works for NASA at Johnson Space Center in Houston as a materials engineer/curation specialist/sample return mission specialist. She and her group are responsible for maintaining all of the US' extraterrestrial materials collections, including Antarctic meteorites, the Apollo Moon rocks, cosmic dust and the Genesis and Stardust samples.  She assisted in helping to acquire new samples through new missions like Genesis and Stardust.

Karen began working on Genesis in 1993 — 8 years before it launched!In her words, "They asked me to make very pure diamonds to be used as solar wind collectors. In my research, I had developed a way to make very pure diamond plates, and the head of the mission had heard about my work. My role in the mission grew over the years until I became the JSC team lead, curation recovery lead and Genesis curator. When Genesis crashed, I was on the team that went out to recover the spacecraft and samples. It was my job to pick up and preserve the samples, to document everything that happened that might affect the samples and hardware, and to make sure we didn't do anything that might compromise their scientific integrity."

Ron Seeders Field Recovery Specialist

Ron, a member of the Lockheed Martin Space Systems team, whose role on Genesis was as the field recovery specialist. It was his responsibility to disassemble the capsule remove and open the SRC and turn over the flight grid to JSC curation.

Doug Carter, On-scene Commander (Oscar)

Doug’s role was to oversee all of the field activities and make sure the team was operating safely.

Steve Glenn Test Conductor

Steve’s role was to update all procedures and make sure everyone on the recovery team understood what needed to be according to those procedures.

Tim Welton Engineer

Tim assisted in the loading and transport of the Genesis capsule.

Randy Wilson Engineer

Randy assisted in the loading and transport of the Genesis capsule.