Tue, Jun 29, 2010
NASA Career Encompassed 37 Years
The former director of the Stennis
Space Center has died from complications related to an insect
sting. Roy Estess passed away Friday at the age of 71 at his
Tylertown, MS residence.
Estess (NASA photo, right) served as director of the
Stennis Space Center from 1989 until 2002. For the last year of
that tenure, he also served as acting director of the Johnson Space
Flight Center in Houston.
The Mississippi native joined the Stennis center as a test
engineer in 1966 and worked his way up through the ranks. According
to his bio on the NASA website, during his early years in key
positions at the facility and while serving on temporary duty at
NASA Headquarters, Estess came to be known as a "straightshooter."
Many describe him as a no-nonsense manager who has the ability of
cutting through the chaff to get to the heart of a problem or
situation.
His first assignment at SSC, known then as the Mississippi Test
Facility, was as a test engineer working on the Saturn V S-II
second stage test program. When the facility's manager, Jackson
Balch, began diversifying the installation in the early 1970s, he
assigned Estess to serve as one of his marketers. Balch tasked
Estess with searching for new and compatible federal and state
agencies to share in the vast facilities and diverse programs
starting up at the center.
He was eventually promoted to deputy director in 1980, and then
director in 1989.
Johnson Space Center Acting Director Roy Estess (right)
greets the Expedition 3 and STS-108 crews during return
ceremonies.
The Biloxi-Gulfport Sun Herald reports that Estess was working
to establish the Infinity Science Center in Hancock County at the
time of his death. A contract had been signed with the builder in
April, but construction has not yet begun.
The paper reports that he died because of an allergic reaction
to an insect sting.
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