Statement on the passing of George W.S. Abbey, Baker Institute fellow in space policy and former director, NASA’s Johnson Space Center
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The Baker Institute mourns the loss of George W.S. Abbey, who had served as senior fellow in space policy at the institute since 2002. Abbey died at 91 in Houston following an illness.
A visionary pilot and engineer who contributed immeasurably to American spaceflight, Abbey directed NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center from 1996–2001. At the time of his appointment, he had served the agency for more than 30 years, beginning in 1964, when he was detailed to the Manned Spacecraft Center as an Air Force captain. In 1976, he was named director of flight operations, where he was responsible for operational planning and management of flight crew and flight control activities for all manned spaceflight missions. In 1983, he became director of the newly formed Flight Crew Operations Directorate. In 1990, Abbey became deputy for operations and was charged with defining strategies for returning to the moon and landing on Mars.
For his service to NASA, he received numerous awards, including medals for exceptional service and outstanding leadership. He received the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, from President Richard Nixon in 1970 for his support of the Apollo 13 mission.
In 1991, Abbey was appointed senior director for civil space policy for the National Space Council in the Executive Office of the President. He returned to the Johnson Space Center in 1994 as deputy director, two years before becoming its director.
In 2002, Abbey joined Rice University’s Baker Institute as a senior fellow in space policy. In 2007, he established the International Space Medicine Summit at Rice University, an annual conference that brings together leading physicians, scientists, engineers, astronauts, and educators to identify vital space medicine research goals and ways to enhance global collaboration.
“We mourn the loss of our Baker Institute colleague, who will long be remembered at home and around the world as a visionary who led mankind to explore space,” said the Honorable David M. Satterfield, director of Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.
“Though he was a pilot and an engineer by training, he was also a diplomat at his core. Abbey was a strong advocate for international cooperation in space, which he promoted through dialogue with colleagues around the world. He cared deeply about the nation’s International Space Station partnerships and their importance for the U.S. return to deep space.”
On the nation’s plans to return to the moon, Abbey wrote in 2019: “The road is difficult and challenging and the environment both hostile and unforgiving, but the prize is worth winning and the potential return well worthy of the effort.”
Abbey was born in Seattle in 1932. He is survived by his five children, eight grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and nieces and nephews.
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