Posted: Mon, Oct 11, 2004, 2:30 PM ET (1830 GMT)
Max Faget, a legendary aerospace engineer involved in the design of NASA spacecraft from Mercury to the space shuttle, passed away Saturday at the age of 83. Faget was one of the 35 original engineers within NASA's new Space Task Group in the late 1950s and led the development of the Mercury capsule. He was also involved in the study and development of Gemini, Apollo, and the shuttle, retiring from NASA in 1981 after the second space shuttle mission. He was responsible for a number of other spacecraft innovations, including escape towers for capsules. He co-founded Space Industries, Inc., an early private space company, after leaving NASA.

Related Links:

•  Houston Chronicle article
•  collectSPACE article
•  Reuters article
•  OMNI article from 1995 (via SpaceRef.com)
•  NASA press release