Deputy Director of Marshall House Flight Heart has roots in Maury County

Richard “Rick” Burt, initially from Columbia, has been appointed to some of the senior positions in Nationwide Aeronautics and House Administration operations in Huntsville.

Though his work facilities on exploring and discovering past our personal world, the brand new deputy director of NASA’s Marshall House Flight Heart, retains his toes firmly positioned on planet Earth the place he and his spouse name Rogersville. To the. an hour’s drive from the group of Center Tennessee the place he grew up.

In his new position, Burt will assist information the subsequent period of exploration and discovery for considered one of NASA’s largest discipline amenities, with a broad portfolio of human spaceflight improvement efforts, science and know-how. applied sciences that have an effect on nearly each mission that NASA pursues.

Rural life sparks curiosity in science and engineering

His upbringing on a farm in Maury County simply north of Theta Pike offered Burt with the coaching he wanted to achieve success within the pursuit of information and understanding.

Burt and his older brother Danny spent weekends and summers working for his or her father Thomas J. Burt Jr. – honing abilities the longer term NASA scientist would put to good use all through his profession.

“Rising up on the farm, every thing breaks down: the barns, the tractors and the instruments,” Burt mentioned. “You might be at all times looking for an answer to an issue. I used to be on this and what now we have performed to make it work. On the farm you need to be a handyman. There have been many alternatives to have the ability to remedy issues. That is how I received occupied with engineering, math and science.

Burt regularly returns to the group the place he spent his adolescence.

“It was a a lot smaller city once I grew up there,” Burt mentioned. “You knew lots of people on the town. We lived in Colombia at a time when there was no freeway. Whenever you received to Nashville, you took the Nashville Freeway to downtown. There isn’t a prettier a part of the nation than the rolling hills and farmlands of Center Tennessee. This small city is what I actually preferred rising up. There isn’t a different place on Earth extra stunning than Center Tennessee. “

Burt recalled that he was baptized at Zion Presbyterian Church – a Greek Revival model church that’s now situated on the Zion Christian Academy campus.

His older brother – whom Burt credit, together with their father, for instructing him the worth of arduous work and displaying ingenuity in fixing issues – began the household cattle enterprise not removed from the outdated farm. .

“Columbia was fairly small, however you would nonetheless inform it was rising,” mentioned Burt, watching the group’s phosphate mining growth from afar.

As a younger grownup, Burt discovered that he had each a ardour and a expertise for writing mechanical drawings.

A graduate of Columbia Central Excessive Faculty, Burt pursued his pursuits at Columbia State Group School, then transferred to Tennessee Technological College, the place he obtained his bachelor’s diploma in mechanical engineering in 1978.

“It was a leap of religion,” mentioned Burt.

He and his brother who went on to check on the College of Tennessee have been the primary of their household to earn larger schooling levels.

Land a dream job

After graduating from school, Burt spent 12 years working for the Tennessee Valley Authority’s nuclear energy program.

He then joined NASA in 1990 as challenge supervisor for Marshall’s Reusable Stable Rocket Motor. From 1998 to 1999, he led the event, testing and analysis of all shuttle propulsion components as deputy director of the House Shuttle Undertaking Workplace. As chief engineer of the Reusable Stable Rocket Motor Undertaking from 2000 to 2005, he guided technical critiques to get NASA again in flight after the lack of the House Shuttle Columbia in 2003.

Burt has spent years of his profession supporting the House Shuttle program, typically working side-by-side with astronauts ready their flip to pilot the rockets.

“It introduced out the influence and significance of the work,” mentioned Burt. “We solely borrow astronauts from their households on a mission, and it is our job to get them safely again there and residential protected, which makes each mission so protected and profitable. as doable.”

Following his 2006 appointment to the Senior Govt Service – the personnel administration system protecting key management positions in federal companies – Burt was appointed director of the Ares I First Stage, the predecessor rocket program the event of NASA’s new flagship launcher, the House Launch System. .

He headed the Engineering Directorate’s testing laboratory from 2007 to 2011 and served as Marshall’s Chief Safety Officer within the Mission’s Safety and Insurance coverage Directorate from 2011 to 2016, when he was appointed director of this group, overseeing all security, reliability and high quality assurance operations. for the middle.

Burt additionally credit his upbringing in rural south central Tennessee for instructing him tips on how to embrace the spaceflight centre’s twenty first century enterprise technique: danger management.

Danger management identifies and addresses the prices and influence of danger throughout the enterprise, looking for open communications and top-down cooperation among the many whole workforce.

“NASA has an extended historical past of success, however not with out danger and never with out misfortune,” mentioned Burt. “True danger management seems on the dangers related to any troublesome enterprise and compares these dangers to manageable components within the improvement cycle, together with time and price, quick and long run mission objectives, and potential rewards.” success.”

Burt obtained the NASA Excellent Management Medal in 2005 for his assist for the return to flight of the House Shuttle. In 1997, he obtained the Silver Snoopy Award, awarded by the NASA Astronaut Corps for his excellent contributions to the area program. He was additionally honored with House Flight Consciousness, the very best honor bestowed on NASA staff by the company’s House Flight Consciousness Program in 1996.

Now, Burt serves instantly below Jody Singer, the director of NASA’s Marshall House Flight Heart, which heads a workforce of practically 6,000 public service staff and contractors with an annual finances of round $ 2.8 billion.

He takes on the position, like many within the heart, of his residence to forestall the unfold of COVID-19.

A brand new period of exploration

In 2018, Burt obtained an award for his continued dedication to the group. Greater than a decade after his eligible retirement date, Burt mentioned he stays as enthusiastic about his job because the day he first landed the job of his desires.

“It has by no means been boring work, and it’s the pinnacle of the engineering career,” mentioned Burt. “We’ve got a really proficient and really various workforce of each disciple of engineering. We’ve got extremely certified technicians.

“We do not create widgets, we write historical past. We encourage the subsequent technology of scientists and explorers.”

Her work and the work of many others will instantly contribute to NASA’s Artemis program, the company’s sequence of missions to convey women and men to the floor of the moon by 2024. This effort is a stepping stone to the larger objectives of sending astronauts to Mars.

The area launch system will characteristic probably the most highly effective rocket ever constructed, permitting astronauts to start their journey to discover locations far into the photo voltaic system.

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Deputy Director of Marshall House Flight Heart has roots in Maury County