posted 05-24-2005 01:58 PM               

Astronaut Jim Voss to Lead Engineering for New Space Company

Veteran astronaut James S. Voss has accepted an appointment as Vice President for Space Exploration Systems at Transformational Space Corporation LLC (t/Space).

Mr. Voss' experience spans the U.S. Space Shuttle, the Russian Soyuz and the International Space Station - a total of five space flights and 202 days on orbit. He has performed four spacewalks logging 22 hours of extra vehicular activity. A retired U.S. Army colonel and NASA astronaut, he has 30 years of operational and management experience, including military flight testing.

"Having flown in both U.S. and Russian spacecraft, I'm excited about using my experience to help t/Space create a private-sector spaceship that will be safe and affordable," said Mr. Voss.

In his last service with NASA, Mr. Voss was Deputy for Flight Operations in the Space Station Program Mission Integration and Operations Office. More recently, he was Associate Dean of Engineering at Auburn University where he taught classes on spacecraft design.

Last week, t/Space unveiled an engineering mockup of its proposed Crew Transfer Vehicle (CXV) in Arlington, VA at the International Space Development Conference presented by the National Space Society. It featured a lightweight crew seat designed by an Auburn University research team led by Mr. Voss. The research was funded by an educational grant from t/Space.

"Jim's hands-on experience with human space flight already is producing breakthroughs for our company, as shown by the crew seat his team designed that weighs less than 10% of the Space Shuttle seat," said David Gump, president of t/Space. "Having an astronaut who has flown in space on the Shuttle, Soyuz, and International Space Station directly in charge of design, safety, and operability will help t/Space usher in the era of personal human space flight."

NASA awarded t/Space a $3 million contract in September 2004 to assist the space agency in developing its Moon-Mars exploration plans, and to begin design of a Crew Exploration Vehicle. One of eight companies that won "Concept Exploration and Refinement" contracts, t/Space was one of only two to be awarded a full $3 million six-month option in March 2005.

About t/Space

Transformational Space Corporation LLC is an entrepreneurial space company developing vehicles for the Vision for Space Exploration. Contractors on the t/Space team include: Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites Inc., which made history recently by rocketing the first civilian pilot into suborbital space aboard SpaceShipOne; and AirLaunch LLC, which is under contract with the Defense Department to develop a low-cost responsive launch vehicle.

posted 11-07-2007 06:51 PM               

Jim Voss, NASA Veteran of 5 Space Flights, Appointed as Vice President of Engineering

SpaceDev announced today that James S. Voss has joined the Company as Vice President of Engineering. Mr. Voss will direct SpaceDev's engineering teams and also have an active role with direct client interaction, product design and reviews and the continuing development of SpaceDev engineering and quality processes.

"Jim has an extraordinary breadth of experience in engineering, business, the military, education and the space program," said Mark N. Sirangelo, SpaceDev's Chairman and CEO. "We are fortunate to have an individual of his caliber join our team."

Mr. Voss began his career in the U.S. Army where he rose to the rank of Colonel. He is a graduate from the Army Airborne and Ranger schools and served as a company commander. After this experience, Mr. Voss taught aerospace and mechanics at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He then attended, and was a distinguished graduate of, the US Naval Test Pilot School and the Armed Forces Staff College before moving into Aviation Engineering as a Program Development Coordinator, where he helped lead several major flight programs.

Mr. Voss is a former NASA astronaut with 19 years of operational spaceflight experience including five space flights on the Space Shuttle including a long duration expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). He has logged more than 200 days in space and over 22 hours of spacewalk (EVA) time. He has a broad training in multiple spacecraft as a flight engineer on the Space Shuttle, the Russian Soyuz, and ISS. His NASA management experience included serving as a Payload Commander and as Deputy for Flight Operations in the Space Station Program Mission Integration and Operations Office.

After leaving NASA, Mr. Voss was Associate Dean of Engineering at Auburn University and taught human spacecraft design. More recently he has been involved as a corporate executive in the emerging space industry including being VP for Space Exploration Systems for Transformational Space Corporation. Mr. Voss received his Bachelor of Science, Master's and honorary Doctorate degrees in aerospace engineering from Auburn and the University of Colorado and has remained active in teaching at both schools.

About SpaceDev

SpaceDev, Inc. is a space technology/aerospace company that creates and sells affordable and innovative space products and mission solutions.

posted 09-21-2009 01:55 PM               

Astronaut Jim Voss Joins CU-Boulder Aerospace Faculty

University of Colorado alumnus-astronaut Jim Voss has become the second astronaut to join CU-Boulder's aerospace engineering sciences department following his NASA career, which for Voss included five spaceflights, 202 days in space and four spacewalks.

Voss is one of three astronauts affiliated as faculty at CU-Boulder. He joins former astronaut Joe Tanner, who joined the aerospace engineering sciences department as a senior instructor in fall 2008. Their NASA colleague John Grunsfeld, who remains active at NASA, accepted a future appointment as adjoint professor in the astrophysical and planetary sciences department through an email from space last spring.

"I have returned to CU to teach and to help the College of Engineering and Applied Science and the aerospace department," said Voss, who earned his master's degree in aerospace engineering at CU-Boulder in 1974 and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Colorado in 2000. "I hope to help inspire the next generation of space explorers."

Voss was hired as a full-time scholar in residence and holds the Roubos Endowed Chair in Engineering, supported by a gift from CU-Boulder alumni Gary and Terie Roubos. He also will serve as an ambassador for the college and campus.

"Jim Voss brings a wealth of hands-on experience that will benefit both the educational and research missions of our university," said Robert Davis, dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science. "It is a privilege to have Jim on our faculty."

Voss was a U.S. Army flight test engineer before he went to work at NASA's Johnson Space Center in 1984. He was selected as an astronaut candidate in 1987, after which he trained for Space Shuttle flights, then trained in Russia as a back-up crew member to the Russian space station Mir. His first spaceflight came in 1991, and he flew again in 1992, 1995, 2000, and 2001. During 2001, he lived on board the International Space Station for 163 days as a member of the Expedition2 crew.

Since his retirement from NASA as a U.S. Army Colonel in 2003, he has held positions as professor and associate dean of engineering at Auburn University, where he earned his bachelor's degree in 1972; vice president for space exploration systems at Transformational Space Corp.; vice president of engineering for SpaceDev in Louisville, and director of advanced programs at Sierra Nevada Corp, which acquired SpaceDev in 2008.

Voss said his assignment includes teaching classes and mentoring graduate student projects in the area of human space flight and helping to develop the department's graduate program in bioastronautics, along with Tanner, associate professor David Klaus and research professor Louis Stodieck.

"There are very few universities that have a focus area involving bioastronautics and human space flight, so CU is rather unique in this," Voss said. "We hope to make it even stronger through further development of the research component."

Voss will develop and teach a new undergraduate course, "Introduction to Human Space Flight," which will be similar to what he taught during the 2004 and 2005 summer sessions and may be open to engineers and non-engineers alike.

Next year, he also will take over the department's "Introduction to Aerospace Engineering" course, which helps first-year engineering students to better understand the engineering profession. "I volunteered to teach it because I thought it would be a good way to motivate students to continue to pursue engineering as a career," said Voss, whose wide range of work experiences, including military, NASA and industry engineering positions, make him a good fit for the course.

Voss said his desire to teach was born some 30 years ago when he taught for three years at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. "When I left, I said I wanted to eventually come back and teach again. I told that to an interviewer while I was on the Space Station (in 2001) and to my surprise, the next day I was contacted by both Auburn and CU."

"This position combines my interest in teaching with the specialty in human space flight, which I have made my career. I look forward to helping the college achieve its vision for excellence by assisting with industry and alumni relations while sharing my experiences with students to prepare them to meet the engineering challenges in our global society."

posted 05-03-2025 08:44 PM               

Astronaut professor launching into retirement

From training as an Army Ranger and flight test engineer, to life as an astronaut in the microgravity of space, to educating the next generation of aerospace engineers, Jim Voss (MAero'74; HonPhD'00) has a list of career achievements a mile long.

Now he is taking on a new challenge: retirement.

A scholar-in-residence in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, Voss has served as a faculty member at CU Boulder since 2009.

He has also taught at Auburn University and West Point and worked in the commercial space sector as Vice President for Space Exploration Systems at Sierra Nevada Corporation and its predecessor, SpaceDev.

Above: Voss at Sierra Nevada with students and a Dream Chaser mockup.

What led you to pursue engineering as a career?

My older brother was in engineering at Auburn at the time and I didn't know what I wanted to major in. He said to pick engineering because it's very broad, and I could move from that discipline to almost anything else easily.

I found the math parts very difficult. I really questioned whether engineering was the right thing and thought about switching over to physical education. I was wrestling for Auburn and thought I would like coaching that. But I stuck with it and finished with my Aerospace Engineering degree.

When did you decide to apply to the astronaut program?

I've always liked space and I like reading science fiction. Growing up we didn't have a human spaceflight program yet, so even the idea of going to space was science fiction, but it always sounded really interesting.

In 1978, when I was stationed in Germany, there was a little tiny article in the Army Times that NASA was creating a new vehicle and would need engineers and scientists to be astronauts and you didn't have to have perfect vision. When I read that I thought they'd created the program just for me.

I applied, but didn't get selected because I wasn't qualified at that point.

How long did it take before you were accepted?

I applied five times over nine years.

Each time I was improving and had done things that made my application stronger.

Getting declined feels pretty bad. You know it's a tough application and only a few people get selected, but it's hard to accept you're not good enough. To go through it multiple times you wonder if you're ever going to be good enough.

What were you doing to improve your application prospects?

I did things in my career that were interesting to me that I also knew were relevant to NASA.

I was always interested in flying, so I got my private pilot's license.

Then I saw a note about the Naval Test Pilot School, which is where the Army sends its pilots. I was being recruited for the Army Aviation Research and Development Command, but I asked my assignments guy if I could be sent to the test pilot program first. I thought it would help at the R&D command if I was trained to be a flight test engineer.

He said, "You're not going to test pilot school. You're an infantry guy," but I got bold and wrote a letter to the responsible general officer about it and he got me assigned to test pilot school.

I'm convinced that program had a big role in me eventually being chosen as an astronaut.

The one thing I didn't do was get a PhD. It would have been just for my application, and that didn't appeal to me.

You were selected in 1987 and had your first spaceflight in 1991. What is it like working in microgravity?

Floating around in microgravity is a pretty neat thing. I like being able to move really heavy things around and do weird moves and flips in space. From a sensory perspective, it's almost overwhelming because it's very different. You can be upside down or in any orientation.

You have a different perspective on volume when you're floating around. You can use all the volume. You're not limited to the floor. You can have someone lying up on the ceiling and they feel out of the way. Your perception changes.

You share the record for the longest spacewalk in American history at eight hours and 56 minutes. Was that planned?

We had no idea when we were out. It wasn't until we got back inside that they said, 'You know that's the longest spacewalk ever.'

Wow, I knew I was tired and getting thirsty.

Had I known we were at 8:56, I would have stayed out for four more minutes to hit nine hours.

You flew on five shuttle missions. What led you to retire from the astronaut program?

There were three of us on my final flight and we were giving an interview from ISS. The interviewer asked if we would sign up for another mission. Yuri Usachev and I both said this was probably our last flight. Susan Helm said she wasn't sure. It ended up being the last for all of us.

We trained for four years for the mission and a lot of that was spent in Russia. I thought I'd done everything I wanted to do, and I didn't want to go through another couple years of training. It was time to do something different and I wanted to teach again.

You've had multiple assignments in Russia for NASA. How is your Russian?

I'm not a language person. Before going the first time, I got a couple months of very part-time instruction, but when I got to Russia my Russian was really not good.

We didn't have any interpreters. None of the training materials were in English and almost nobody spoke English.

I really had trouble since I spoke it poorly; I wanted to speak it correctly. Roscosmos provided a Russian instructor and I spent every morning doing training and I eventually got there. After a year I could communicate well.

How does teaching at West Point compare to CU Boulder and Auburn?

I enjoy all the undergraduate and graduate students I've taught. I enjoy the interaction with them and seeing their enthusiasm. The difference at West Point is the students are very disciplined. If you were boring as an instructor—as sometimes happens— and they were sleepy, they would stand up behind their desk to pay attention.

How does space mission training compare to actually being in orbit?

The actual mission is a lot easier than the training. NASA needs you to be ready for anything, so during the training they're intentionally causing malfunctions. Once you actually get up there, everything's not breaking around you.

Above: Jim Voss with his Cirrus SR22.

What do you have planned for retirement?

I still enjoy flying and working on my airplanes. I have a Cirrus SR22 and a Rutan Long-EZ experimental aircraft I built myself. I spend a good bit of time doing maintenance on them. They keep me pretty busy.

My wife and I would like to travel more, although I think she's worried I'm going to miss teaching.

We have a lot of travel plans. We went to Egypt when we were younger and are interested in visiting again. I'd like to go to New Zealand and go back to southern Africa. Our next big trip will be to Brazil this fall for the annual Association of Space Explorers Congress. I expect to stay busy in retirement, but will miss my CU students and colleagues.