Maxime Faget

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Maxime "Max" A. Faget was an American engineer. He was the designer of the NASA Mercury capsule, and contributed to the later Gemini and Apollo spacecraft as well as the Space Shuttle. Born in Stann Creek, British Honduras, Faget attended community college in San Francisco, California, and he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University in 1943. After three years as a submariner in the U.S. Navy, he joined the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia as a research scientist. While working for NACA at Langley, Faget worked on the design of the famous X-15 hypersonic spacecraft. In 1958, Faget became one of the 35 engineers who formed the Space Task Group, creating the Mercury spacecraft. Faget based his designs on the aerodynamic work of Harvey Allen from the mid-1950s, and was instrumental in selecting the blunt-body shape that won the Mercury competition over numerous contenders.