Alan Wade, The Aerospace Corporation’s board of trustees member and chair of the awards subcommittee, and Dr. Wanda Austin, president and CEO for the corporation, presided over the annual President’s and Trustees’ Distinguished Achievement Awards ceremony which honored 10 employees.
Dr. Michael Hilton, director of the Mechanical Systems Department, received the 2015 Trustees’ Distinguished Achievement Award for sustained leadership in guiding the development and insertion of hybrid bearings into satellite mechanisms onto numerous national security space systems. Hilton was a driving force in providing guidance and leadership to the Advanced Extremely High Frequency and the Global Positioning Satellite IIF reaction wheel anomaly investigations, and during the eventual insertion of hybrid bearing technology in these programs.
Dr. John Brader, director of the Vehicle Engineering Office, received the President’s Achievement Award. Brader made two achievements in service of a national security space program. Brader saved an operational system by designing a software-based redundancy for a single-string sensor suite. He also saved an operational payload by redesigning a payload support structure for a critical national asset.
The team of Donald George, senior project leader, Operations, Navigation Division; Heidi Graziano, senior project engineer, Space Assurance, Navigation Division; Dr. Warren Hwang, member of the technical staff, Electronics and Photonics Laboratory; Michael O’Brine, systems director, Operations, Navigation Division; and Mark Strub, senior project engineer, Operations, Navigation Division were honored with the President’s Achievement Award. This team successfully showed that the GPS IIR/IIR-M batteries could be life-limiting and developed a charging protocol that extended battery life. The Aerospace team developed groundbreaking solutions that mitigated GPS battery wear-out, greatly improving performance and reliability. The efforts of the team contributed greatly to the continued success of the GPS utility, which in this day and age, is a tremendous part of everyday life for millions of people all over the world.
The team of Dr. Renny Fields, distinguished scientist, Electronics and Photonics Laboratory; Kevin O’Brien, principal engineer/scientist, Missile Defense and Space Sensor Division; and Kevin Zondervan, principal engineering specialist, Missile Defense and Space Sensor Division were awarded final President’s Achievement Award. The team created a groundbreaking space sensor and test concept that was significantly more cost-effective than similar concepts of the past. This sensor was instrumental in assuring the mission success of a classified program.
The Aerospace Corporation is a California nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research and development center and has approximately 3,800 employees. It provides guidance and advice to military, civil, and commercial customers to ensure the success of complex, technology-based programs. The Aerospace Corporation is headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., with multiple locations across the United States.
