Maxime Faget
2 vehicles·McDonnell, Rockwell/Boeing·1961-2011
Maxime Faget designed the Mercury capsule's blunt-body heat shield, the insight that made human spaceflight survivable by using atmospheric drag for deceleration rather than fighting it. He was the principal designer of the Mercury spacecraft and a key contributor to the Gemini and Apollo capsules that followed. Faget later championed the straight-wing orbiter concept that influenced the early Space Shuttle design, capping a career that shaped every American crewed spacecraft from 1961 to 1981.
