Dan Dumbacher, manager of the X-37 flight demonstrator project at NASA’s
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has been awarded the
Outstanding Mechanical Engineer Award by his alma mater, Purdue
University
in West Lafayette, Ind.

Dumbacher was honored Sept. 25 at the Outstanding Mechanical Engineer
Awards
Banquet in conjunction with the university’s President Council’s Annual
Weekend. Since 1991, Purdue’s School of Mechanical Engineering has
recognized alumni who demonstrate exemplary accomplishments and
leadership
in industry, academia and government service. To date, 167 alumni have
been
honored.

Dumbacher earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from
Purdue
in 1981, and a master’s degree in administrative science from the
University
of Alabama in Huntsville in 1984. He also has completed the Senior
Managers
in Government study program at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.

As X-37 project manager, Dumbacher is responsible for the design,
development and testing of the X-37 flight demonstrator. The X-37 will
test
and validate technologies in the environment of space, as well as test
system performance during the phases of orbital flight, reentry and
landing.
Results from the X-37 project will aid in the design and development of
the
nation’s next space vehicle – the Orbital Space Plane, which will
provide
crew rescue and transfer to and from the International Space Station.

Prior to his current assignment, Dumbacher was deputy program manager
of the
Orbital Space Plane and Space Launch Initiative programs. He has worked
on
several major NASA programs, including the X-33 flight demonstrator and
the
DC-XA Delta Clipper vehicle. He worked as assistant manager for the
Space
Shuttle Main Engine Project and served one year in the Space Shuttle
program
office at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Dumbacher began his NASA career in 1979 as a summer engineering aide in
the
Marshall Center’s Structures and Propulsion Laboratory. He received a
career
appointment as an aerospace engineer in 1981.

A native of Indianapolis, Dumbacher is a member of the American
Institute of
Aeronautics and Astronautics. He has been awarded the NASA Exceptional
Achievement Medal, which recognizes significant, specific contributions
to
NASA’s mission and the NASA Space Shuttle Program Award.