William Banks Williams II

02-27-1944Date of Birth | Clinton, KY

PROGRAMS:

Apollo ProgramU.S. Space Shuttle Program

COMPANIES:

LOCATIONS:

Kennedy Space Center
Edwards AFB (Shuttle Approach and Landing Test Program and Shuttle landings)
Grumman Aircraft in Bethpage, NY (Lunar Module)
Marshall Space Flight Center (Skylab)
White Sands Space Harbor (STS-3)

POSITIONS:

Electrical Engineer on all of the Apollo missions and the Lunar Rover, Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz, Mars-Viking, 1967-1982, Shuttle GSE, Shuttle Payload Integration, Advanced Technology Transfer Office, 1982-2001
Shuttle Operations Directorate, Convoy Commander and NASA Test Director, 1982-1990.
Design Engineering Directorate, Technology Manager, Technology Transfer Office, 1990-2001.

COMMENTS:

I now live in Michigan and am a big Detroit Tigers fan. I worked at for NASA at KSC from May 1967 to January 2001. After I retired, I moved with my family to the Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, area, purchased and renovated a home in the suburb of Croydon and purchased an 8-acre farm in South Gippsland with plans to build a house. But after 3 years, we moved back to Florida for 9 years. In 2012 my wife accepted a position with the Air Force at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richarson in Anchorage, Alaska. After 2 years in that gorgeous state, we moved to Howell, MI, where she is currently employed with the Livingston County Health Dept. We purchased a lovely home just 2 minutes from her job.

Since retiring, I started and ran a small website building business, but have devoted most of my time writing a science fiction novel, The Belarian Initiative, and 4 western short stories, Dillon Smith – Bounty Hunter, all available on Amazon.com in paperback and for the Kindle. But lately, I’ve spent a lot of time creating 105 quizzes that I have posted on my website. In the early 90s, I composed and recorded 14 songs on my keyboard and posted them here. I also created and manage these websites:

I started my career at NASA-KSC working from 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM, 7 days a week on the Apollo Program. At that time we were under pressure to land a man on the Moon before the end of the decade, so KSC was as busy at midnight as it was at noon. Almost everyone worked a 12-hour day.

When that program ended, I moved to the Skylab Program and spent a lot of time in Huntsville, AL, assigned to the Apollo Telescope Mount. After the launch of Skylab, I was assigned to the Apollo-Soyuz Program. After that I volunteered to work at the Martin-Marietta plant in Denver where the Viking Lander was being designed and built. That program was behind schedule, so many of the NASA centers sent engineers to help out. KSC sent around 12 engineers and managers for 6 months. After returning to KSC, I was temporarily assigned to the Centaur launch vehicle for the launch of the Mars-Viking spacecraft.

Then the Shuttle Program started up and I volunteered for an 18-month TDY to Edwards AFB where the shuttle Approach and Landing Test Program (ALT) was being conducted. There I served as the 2nd shift Site Manager at the Shuttle Facility. I found a nice apartment in Lancaster and ultimately met my future wife, Sandy, to whom I’ve now  been married for over 40 years. After ALT, we moved to Titusville, FL, and built a house on 1.3 acres in a development called Windover Farms south of town. When our son, Jonathan, was born 7 years later, we moved back into town so he would have kids to play with.

I was working for Fritz Widick in the Test Conductors office when the need arose for the development of a Shuttle Recovery procedure. KSC at the time had only launched spacecrafts and had never had to recover them. So Fritz assigned me to develop a “Shuttle Post-landing Procedure” and I would be the Convoy Commander in charge of the Shuttle Recovery. It was a big role for me, but I plunged head-long into it and, without much help from Rockwell personnel, I wrote the rather large post-landing procedure.

The first Shuttle landing took place at Edwards AFB on the dry lake bed since the auto-landing system on the Shuttle had not yet been validated. Roland Norris served as the Convoy Commander for that first landing. After that, he took another job and I served as Convoy Commander for the next 25 or so landings at Edwards, White Sands, and at KSC. When the Challenger disaster occurred, me and Tim Bollo were tasked to meet every ship at Cape Canaveral that was returning with Challenger debris. We, along with a NASA Safety person and a NASA engineer, would identify the debris, wash it down, then load it onto a flatbed truck and take it up to KSC where all of the debris was being studied.

Then as the result of one of the many reorganizations at KSC, I was reassigned to work on the Shuttle ground support equipment, a job I didn’t like, so I looked for a job elsewhere and found an opening in the Payload Integration Office. It didn’t take long for me to discover that I would have a long wait to get my desired GS-14 if I remained in that office, so again I looked for and found a job with the Advanced Technology Development office in the Headquarters Building and almost immediately got my promotion to a GS-14. I stayed in that job until I retired on January 3rd, 2001.

In that job I had several assignments:

Electronic Commerce Manager – (June 1993 to January 2001)
Manager, Center Directors Discretionary Fund (CDDF) – (July 1999 to January 2001)

  • Served as Manager of the Center Directors Discretionary Fund. In this capacity solicited new technology development proposals, coordinated the selection of new research proposals, and managed the funding and cost planning schedules for each CDDF research project.
  • Served as Electronic Commerce Manager and Webmaster for the office web site, designed all web pages and graphics, and maintained the webserver
  • Coordinated and acted as the focal point for all electronic commerce initiatives at KSC
  • Represented the Center as a member of the agency-wide “NASA Commercial Technology Management Team”
  • Served as the System Computer Security Official for the office
  • Served as Property Custodian for all computer equipment in the office
  • Developed skills with word processing, graphic design, spreadsheets, database programs, and HTML/web page design and functionality on the PC and Macintosh computer

Accomplishments:

  • Designed, developed, and implemented KSC’s second externally accessible web site, which grew to over 6,000 pages
  • Became a leader in the development of the NASA Commercial Technology Network, being sought out by other NASA Centers for his expertise

Technology Discipline Manager – (April 1991 to June 1993)
Advanced Systems & Technology Office

  • Served as Manager of Electronic & Instrumentation Technology Development at the Center responsible for planning, advocacy, funding, and project management of the center-wide program to develop and apply operations and electronics engineering technologies to ground operations efficiency, system reliability, and system safety of current and future space systems
  • Served as Manager of Human Factors Engineering Technology Development responsible for improvements in safety, reliability, maintainability, productivity, schedule efficiency, and the work environment at Kennedy Space Center
  • Responsible for review, approval, and funding of Small Business Innovation Research proposals
  • Reviewed and evaluated technology concepts being developed at other Centers for implementation at KSC

Other jobs I had at KSC are listed below:

Shuttle Payload Operations Manager – (August 1990 to April 1991)
STS Management & Operations Directorate/Payload Processing Office

  • Managed Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle advanced planning effort for the Assured Crew Return Vehicle
  • For specific missions, provided advance Shuttle commitment, identified unique payload requirements, and represented NASA at inter-center payload meetings and reviews

Convoy Commander – (January 1980 to August 1990)
Shuttle Management & Operations/Off-site Landing and Processing Division

  • Served as Lead Convoy Commander responsible for operational management and readiness of the post-landing convoy at all continental United States landing sites
  • Managed the overall operational convoy effort at both the primary and secondary landing sites at Kennedy Space Center, Edwards Air Force Base, CA, and White Sands Space Harbor, NM
  • Managed the activation and validation of convoy vehicles and equipment for operational readiness, planning, scheduling, and managed post-landing convoy simulations and tests
  • The position required a comprehensive knowledge of engineering concepts, practices, and procedures critical to Shuttle tests and operations and the ability to make on-the-spot decisions which were binding on the Ground Operations Manager and Landing Recovery Director
  • Managed and directed large contingents of resources and personnel
  • Responsible for the safety of the Shuttle vehicle, the Shuttle astronauts, and the ground crew during post-landing operations

Accomplishments:

  • Developed and implemented the Shuttle post-landing convoy procedure for Kennedy Space Center, including the integration of all Fire, Crash, and Rescue operations and Medevac operations
  • Considered to be the de facto expert on convoy operations for the Space Agency
  • Developed the only Convoy Commander training procedure and trained other Convoy Commanders
  • After the Challenger incident, developed and revised the post-landing convoy procedures for all landing sites to incorporate new safety and procedural requirements

Electrical Engineer/Operations Engineer – (May 1967 to January 1980)
Shuttle Management & Operations

  • During the early Shuttle Program, served as Operations Engineer assigned to the Shuttle Operations Directorate managing the activation, validation, and readiness of the Shuttle vehicle, facilities, and ground equipment
  • Managed the detailed Shuttle Orbiter daily test schedules and test activities in the Orbiter Processing Facility, the Vehicle Assembly Building, and at the launch pads
  • Served as NASA Test Director for various Shuttle operations, including Orbiter/External Tank mate and Orbiter mate/demate from the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
  • Prior to the Shuttle Program, worked as a systems engineer on various NASA programs including the Mars-Viking Project (landing on Mars in 1976)
  • Responsible for the electrical system of the Mars Lander test and checkout at the factory, then transferring to Titan-Centaur electrical systems checkout at the launchpad for the Project
  • Worked as an electrical engineer assigned to flight hardware checkout on the Apollo-Soyuz Program, the Skylab Program, and the Apollo Program