About Maxime Faget

Maxime Faget worked at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and then later as one of the founding employees of the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA). He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University in 1943 and then served in the Submarine Service of the United States Navy during World War II.

Faget was on the design team for the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle vehicles and held several key patents for both Mercury and Shuttle. He later went on to found the company Space Industries after his retirement from government service. Space Industries, Inc. was founded with the goal of placing a commercially operated space station is orbit. This project was called the Industrial Space Facility and was proceeding well until the disaster of Space Shuttle Challenger. After the Challenger disaster, resistance from Congress as well as several key financial backers withdrawing effectively ended the viability of a commercial space venture for the 1980’s and 1990’s. Space Industries later merged with the Calspan Corporation and then later with General Dynamics Corporation and no longer exists as an independent entity.