Michael Allen has been named deputy manager of the Shuttle-Ares Transition Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Appointed to the position in August, he assists in managing tasks associated with the end of the Space Shuttle Program and cancellation of the Constellation Program.
Allen helps determine whether Marshall-related shuttle facilities, hardware, property, records and artifacts are to be retained for other NASA programs; donated to qualified U.S. institutions, public museums and libraries; or disposed. The 30-year Space Shuttle Program ended when shuttle Atlantis completed the final mission in July. He also helps oversee the closeout of Ares Projects records and assets, necessitated by the cancellation of the Constellation Program in 2010. That program included the Ares I launch vehicle and Ares V cargo launch vehicle, which were being designed and developed by engineers at the Marshall Center.
The Shuttle-Ares Transition Office is working closely with the Space Launch System organization to determine which shuttle and Ares assets can be transferred to that program.
Space Launch System is the heavy-lift rocket program that has replaced the Ares program. Engineers at the Marshall Center are leading design and development of the system for NASA. The rocket will carry the Orion spacecraft, crew, cargo, equipment and science experiments to space that will expand human presence beyond low-Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration across the solar system.
“We’ve been preparing for the closeout of the shuttle program for more than five years and now that the last shuttle has flown and the program has ended, we’re leveraging shuttle assets to Space Launch System to ensure human spaceflight capabilities development is efficient and cost-effective,” said Allen. Allen also is assisting with the identification of selected shuttle hardware and property for donation to qualified U.S. institutions and public museums and libraries that are in the best position to preserve these items as artifacts and tell the space shuttle story. Some artifacts will be used in NASA education programs and at visitor centers to stand as proof of the program’s three decades of discoveries and technology accomplishments.
A NASA employee since 1986, Allen has held numerous managerial positions at the Marshall Center. He was manager of the Shuttle Transition Project Office from 2006 until appointed to his current position, managing efforts associated with the closeout and retirement of the Marshall Center space shuttle propulsion projects and the transfer of shuttle assets to the Constellation program.
He was deputy manager, Test Evaluation Department, Space Transportation Directorate from 2000 to 2006, directing efforts associated with propulsion testing at the Marshall Center.
Allen served as project manager during the construction and testing of the X-34 experimental aircraft, a reusable launch vehicle technology demonstration program at Marshall from 1996 to 2000. He completed a one-year assignment at NASA Headquarters in Washington from 1995 to 1996 in the Office of the Deputy Associate Administrator for Spaceflight, where he provided technical and business information for Marshall shuttle propulsion projects to the Headquarters staff.
From 1986 to 1995, he served in the business management offices of both the Space Shuttle Main Engine and Solid Rocket Booster Project Offices at the Marshall Center.
Prior to his NASA career, Allen was a new construction sales engineer in charge of design, bid and construction of heating and air-conditioning systems for new construction projects at Johnson Controls Inc., of Huntsville, from 1981 to 1986.
Allen was awarded the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 2005 for significant contributions to space flight while serving in the Space Transportation Directorate’s Test Evaluation Department.
A native of Childersburg, Ala., Allen is a 1981 graduate of Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., where he earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering. He earned a master’s degree in business administration in 1990 from Alabama A&M University in Huntsville.
He served as city councilman in Arab, Ala., from 2002 to 2008.
Allen and his wife, the former Tammy Taylor, live in Arab. They have three children.
