HASSE Directors Meet with NASA Legend Dr. George Abbey

On May 29th of 2018, HASSE Executive Director James Liu and Former Astronaut Dr. Leroy Chiao,
visited Dr. George Abbey, former director of the NASA Johnson Space Center and senior fellow in space policy at Baker Institute.
There, they exchanged greetings and discussed the collaborative and project- based of STEM learning in the educational community, primarily exposing
and educating students specifically in the four disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Abbey’s leadership and vision at Johnson Space Center left a remarkable impact with the educational community.

(Credit: NASA)

George Abbey’s journey began young in Seattle, as he watched airplanes take off from a local airport/SEATAC Airport/the Boeing airfield.
He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, then obtained his master’s degree in electrical engineering from the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology in 1959.
Prior to serving as an Air Force captain to NASA’s Apollo Program at the Manned Spacecraft Center,
he served in Research and Development and shortly after graduation, was involved in the Dyna- Soar Program. Abbey became the director of flight operations,
where he was responsible for operational planning and management of flight crew, flights control activities for all manned spaceflight missions.

(Credit: NASA)

Abbey’s passion and diligence in the respectful field of Space, engineering, and flight brought him
to serve as Flight Crew Operations Directorate,then was appointed as deputy for Operations and NASA representative.
In 1991, Abbey was selected senior director for civil space policy for the National Space Council in the Executive Office of the President.
George Abbey has received numerous awards, including the NASA Exceptional Service Medal,
the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal and three NASA Distinguished Service Medals.
He was a member of the Operations team presented with the Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon
for its role support of the Apollo 13 Mission,which is the nation’s highest civilian award.

George Abbey’s leadership and vision at Johnson Space Center had a significant amount of influence
on human space flightand in the educational community.
Abbey’s current projects involves the release of his working papers,
preparing for presentations and speaking at educational conferences in the subject and
field of Science and Engineering. HASSE is looking forward to having George Abbey visit and speak to HASSE Students.