Mark Hess

Headquarters, Washington, D.C. January 5, 1990

(Phone: 202/453-4164) 3 P.M. EST

Dick Young
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
(Phone: 407/867-2468)

RELEASE: 90-3

TRULY MAKES KEY APPOINTMENTS

NASA Administrator Richard H. Truly today named Thomas E.

Utsman as the Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Flight
(Management) and James A. "Gene" Thomas as the Deputy Director of
the John F. Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

In his new capacity, Utsman will have overall responsibility

for assisting William B. Lenoir, Associate Administrator for
Space Flight, in the day-to-day oversight management of the Space
Flight programs. Specific responsibilities will include
overseeing procurement activities, assessing program management
performance and conducting long-range operational planning.
George Abbey continues in his capacity as Deputy Associate
Administrator.

Utsman was both Deputy Director of Kennedy Space Center, a

post he held since August 1985, and Director of Space Transporta-
tion System Mangement and Operations, with responsibility for the
engineering management and technical direction of return-to-
flight activities in the post-Challenger era, which he performed
from December 1986 until March 1989.

Utsman began his NASA career in 1963 as a facilities design

engineer in the Apollo program. In 1971 he was named to head the
Design Engineering Directorate's Project Engineering Office,
which was assigned the task of converting old facilities and
building new facilities for launching the Space Shuttle. He
subsequently served as Deputy Director of Project Management;
Associate Director of Design Engineering; Director, Operations
Management; Deputy Director and Director of Technical Support;
Director of Shuttle Operations; and Director of Shuttle
Management and Operations.

-more-

-2-

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Utsman was graduated from Fordson

High School, Dearborn, in 1954. He received a Bachelor of
Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of
Michigan in 1958 and a Master's Degree in Management from Florida
State University in 1968.

Utsman has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards,

including the NASA Distinguished Service Medal and, most
recently, the Presidential Rank of Meritorious Executive for his
outstanding contributions to the Space Shuttle return-to-flight
effort.

Thomas, who will serve as Deputy Director under Forrest S.

McCartney, has been the KSC Director of Safety, Reliability and
Quality Assurance since January 1987. In that post he has been
responsible for developing and implementing overall safety policy
and procedures at KSC and activities relating to KSC progams at
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., and Vandenberg Air Force
Base, Calif.

He joined NASA in 1962 and served as lead engineer for

prelaunch testing and checkout of communications systems on the
Apollo spacecraft.

Thomas became active in Space Shuttle activities early in

the progam, serving as the lead flight project engineer on the
KSC engineering team which participated in Orbiter Vehicle 101
(Enterprise) Approach and Landing Tests conducted at Edwards AFB,
Calif., in 1976 and 1977.

From November 1977 until June 1983, Thomas was lead orbiter
flight project engineer for the Space Shuttle orbiter Columbia,
first vehicle in the fleet to begin space flight. He later be-
came chief shuttle flight project engineer, Shuttle Engineering
Directorate, with overall responsibility for integration of all
testing and checkout of Shuttle orbiters, external tanks and
solid rocket booster flight hardware.

From September 1985 until December 1986, Thomas served as

Acting Director and subsequently Director, of Shuttle Launch and
Landing Operations.

A native of Meridian, Miss., Thomas received his Bachelor of

Science degree in electrical engineering from Mississippi State
University in 1962. He was graduated from Florida State Univer-
sity with a master's degree in technical management in 1973.

His awards include the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in

1981 and the Outstanding Leadership Medal in 1989.

- end-

TO: MDS/PRA Group

1615 L Street, N.W. - Suite 100
Washington, D.C. 20036

DATE & TIME: FRIDAY, JANUARY 5, 1990. 3:30 P.M.

ORDERED BY: Edward Campion

NASA Headquarters/LMD
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20546 PHONE: 202/453-8400

PROJECT TITLE: Release No: 90-3

PRINT ORDER: 2188

PRINTING: Camera Ready, lst pg on NASA logo, other pages plain

ENCLOSE & MAIL: Release of 2 pages

MAIL DATE: MONDAU. JANUARY 8, 1990

EXTRA COPIES: Deliver specified quanities to locations below:

50 copies 275 copies 75 copies

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