MELBOURNE, FLA. Oct. 19, 2023 –BRPH’s former director of aerospace and principal Art Waite was honored last week with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Space Club Florida Committee. Art retired in 2020 but remains a valued consultant for the firm.
Over the course of his 40+ year career, Art has specialized in planning and design for technically complex aerospace projects at spaceports around the United States, including facilities for hazardous payload processing; booster processing; testing, integration and checkout; and space flight hardware refurbishing and cleaning, as well as modifications to launch complexes and launch service structures.
His vast portfolio of work spanned the early days of the Space Shuttle Program through SLS, with projects at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, including modifications to launch pads 39A and 39B, 17A and B, the Vehicle Assembly Building and Eastern Processing Facility, among many others.
This experience set the stage for improvements to other critical U.S. launch facilities in Wallops Island, Virginia, and Kodiak Island, Alaska, where his unmatched understanding of rocketry led him to masterplan and lead the design and construction of that spaceport.
We’re proud to share a few words from Art on how his passion for space was born and what the Lifetime Achievement Award means to him.
