12 Facts About Maxime Faget

Maxime Allen "Max" Faget was an American mechanical engineer.

In 1958, Maxime Faget became one of the 35 engineers who formed the Space Task Group, creating the Mercury spacecraft.

Maxime Faget based his designs on the aerodynamic work of Harvey Allen from the mid-1950s, and was instrumental in selecting the blunt-body shape that won the Mercury competition over numerous contenders.

Maxime Faget led the development of the escape tower system used on Mercury, which was used in various forms on almost all following crewed spacecraft.

Maxime Faget worked on the Gemini and Apollo vehicles, which shared many design points with the Mercury.

Maxime Faget filed a patent for a space shuttle vehicle design in 1972.

Maxime Faget's design, which he named "DC-3" in homage to the famed Douglas DC-3 airliner, was a small two-stage fully reusable shuttle with a payload capacity around 15,000 pounds.

In 1962 Maxime Faget became the Director of Engineering and Development at the Manned Spacecraft Center and continued to work for NASA until his retirement in 1981, shortly after the second Space Shuttle flight.

In 1962, Maxime Faget received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

Maxime Faget was inducted into the Houston National Space Hall of Fame in 1969, the International Space Hall of Fame in 1990, and the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2020.

Maxime Faget died of bladder cancer on October 9,2004, aged 83.

Maxime Faget was co-inventor on five United States patents issued to Space Industries, Inc between 1988 and 1992:.