posted 06-13-2012 03:33 PM               

NASA engineer Sam Beddingfield (1933-2012)

Samuel T. "Sam" Beddingfield, one of the original engineers to report to Cape Canaveral, Fla. to work for NASA in 1959, passed away this morning (June 13, 2012). He was 78.

From a NASA profile written about Beddingfield in 2006 on his being awarded the National Space Club's Lifetime Achievement Award:

Beddingfield retired from NASA in 1985 after a 26-year career with the nation's space agency. He joined NASA at the insistence of Gus Grissom and came to Florida in 1959 to help guide Project Mercury. He was among the first to work on the space shuttle at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and left the program as deputy director of shuttle operations.

Beddingfield shared that he was one of just 33 employees at the spaceport; when employees were assigned numbers, he was number four. "I had worked through 23 [shuttle] launches and decided enough was enough," he said about his decision to end his exciting career.

Credit: Wikipedia/Gary Blakeley

Beddingfield was a long-time volunteer and board member for the U.S. Space Walk of Fame Foundation. He could often be found in the foundation's Titusville museum, giving tours and sharing his stories and experiences working for NASA.

Credit: Retro Space Images/JL Pickering

Memorial services will be held at the First Presbyterian Church in Tituvsille, Fla. at 10:00 a.m. EDT on Saturday, June 16.

posted 06-13-2012 04:28 PM               

He dedicated his career to our efforts and his retirement to inspiring the next generation.

God Bless you Sam. I enjoyed our visits and I can't help but smile knowing that your with your old friends Gus, Al, Deke, Wally and Gordo.

posted 06-13-2012 05:06 PM               

What a nice guy with so many great stories. I so glad I ask to have a photo taken with him, though it came out blurry. Even so, it's one of my favorite pics from the trip.

My thoughts and prayers go to his family and friends.

posted 06-16-2012 10:19 AM               

As a kid, Sam Beddingfield saved his money to pay for flying lessons, thrilled by the speed and the notion of flight.

That boy, who loved "just being up in the air," went on to become an engineer who helped launch the nation into space.

Beddingfield was a pioneer in the country's space program, arriving in Florida in 1959 to work at what became the Kennedy Space Center. He was lured to NASA by his friend Gus Grissom, who that year was named one of the country's first seven astronauts.

posted 06-16-2012 01:06 PM               

I post these comments with a heavy heart of sadness on the passing of Sam Beddingfield.

Sam was a very good friend to me. Everytime I went to KSC/Cape Canaveral I always made a point to stop by and see Sam.

I could listen to Sam talk for hours about Gus Grissom and the space program. Sam was a very proud employee of our NASA Space Program!

Sam, I will miss having lunch with you as we always did while visiting with you. Sam and I would always end up getting Tuna for lunch. Sam would get a Tuna Salad Bowl and I would order a Tuna on toast sandwich.

I will miss riding in Sam's car and driving around Cape Canaveral and the Titusville areas and just listening to Sam talk about his career at NASA.

I will also miss seeing Sam at the Valiant Air Museum and the Space Walk of Fame Museum as well.

Sam, you were a great friend to me and I thank you. I will cherish our friendship forever! I will return to the restaurant where we always had lunch together but it will not be the same without you.

Godspeed and God Bless!

posted 06-16-2012 04:28 PM               

His memorial service, celebrating the life of Sam Beddingfield, was held this morning (June 16) in his Titusville church home. It was well-attended by many, including several of Sam's long-time space buddies.

I first heard the name of Sam Beddingfield as a teenage high school student while reading a current issue of KSC's Spaceport News in 1974.

Intrigued by his early association with our nation's space exploration efforts, I wanted to make contact with Mr. Beddingfield and express to him my appreciation and respect for all that he did, and was currently involved with at the time. But mainly of his dedicated NASA work with Project Mercury and the "upcoming" shuttle program.

Within that same week, he had written back to me and signed for me one of my very first space shuttle commemorative covers. It was posted for the "Space Shuttle Port Ground Breaking" in 1974 here at Kennedy that Sam had participated in.

In addition, Sam had gotten for me other signatures of those officials that were first assigned to the KSC Shuttle Projects Office, of which he was chief of the new program assessment office since the early 1970s.

I have that exact cover in my hands as I am writing this; looking back in fond memory of a man that I was fortunate enough to get to know for nearly four decades.

Long since that first letter was typed, I was able to meet with Sam on many occasions, tour the space center with him, and even work with Sam on a project or two and serve with him on a space committee.

I will forever be grateful to Sam Beddingfield of our friendship together. I'll certainly miss hearing his many stories of his early flight test days at Wright-Patterson, knowing and flying with Gus Grissom, and Sam's close association with our nation's Space Task Group along with his later NASA years. What an exciting and wonderful career he had to help put Americans in space and on the moon!