Charles D. Walker - Career

Career

Following graduation from Purdue University he worked as a civil engineering technician, land acquisition specialist and forest firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service. Subsequently he was a design engineer with the Bendix Aerospace Company where he worked on aerodynamic analysis, missile subsystem design, and flight testing. He also was employed as project engineer with the Naval Sea Systems Command with responsibility for computer-controlled manufacturing systems.

Walker applied for the 1978 astronaut class but was unsuccessful, as he was neither affiliated with a major university nor had a PhD. He saw the new Payload Specialist program as another way to fly in space, and sought a job that might give him the opportunity to serve as one. (Walker learned later that many of his interviewers had hoped to fly in space earlier in their careers, and saw his goal as fulfilling those plans.) He joined the McDonnell Douglas Corporation in 1977 as a test engineer on the Aft Propulsion Subsystem for the Space Shuttle orbiters. He joined the Space Manufacturing (later named Electrophoresis Operations in Space, EOS) team as one of its original members. He shares in a patent for the McDonnell Douglas-developed continuous flow electrophoresis (CFES) device. McDonnell Douglas' main partner was Ortho Pharmaceutical, which hoped to manufacture large amounts of purified erythropoietin in space.

From 1979 to 1986, he was Chief Test Engineer and Payload Specialist for the McDonnell Douglas EOS commercialization project, having told company management that he was interested in flying in space if possible. Walker led the EOS laboratory test and operations team developing biomedical products. His contributions to the program included engineering planning, design and development, product research, and space flight and evaluation of the CFES device. Walker was involved with the program support activities at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and at the Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas. He was responsible for training the NASA astronaut crews in the operation of the CFES payload on STS-4, STS-6, STS-7, and STS-8 shuttle flights during 1982 and 1983. In May 1986, Walker was appointed Special Assistant to the President of McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Company, working in Washington, D.C.

Walker has been an industry member of the NASA Microgravity Material Science Assessment Task Force, the NASA Space Station Office Quick-is Beautiful/Rapid Response Research Study Group, and the NASA Space Station Operations Task Force. He has been a member of the National Research Council's Space Applications Board. Walker was Faculty Course Advisor and lecturer for the International Space university 1988 summer session. He was a participant in the 1988 Center for Strategic and International Studies civil Space policy study. He served on the AIAA steering committee formulating the strategic plan for NASA's office of Commercial Programs. Walker has served as a board member of the Astronauts Memorial Foundation. He was the organizing committee chairman for the 1992 World Space Congress. He has been a national panel member of the NASA/Industry Manned Flight Awareness Program and the NASA/Industry Education Initiative. Walker advised the NASA/Purdue University space life support research center, a NASA/Penn State space commercial development center and a U.S. Department of Education/Ohio State University science education center. He is a board director of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education. Walker has served as the volunteer chairman of the board of directors of Spacecause, and is past president and a current board director of the National Space Society. He is also currently a board director of the Association of Space Explorers. Walker is a professional engineer registered in California. He has authored several papers and book contributions on the EOS electrophoresis program, space development, commercialization, and space history. Walker has also written columns and articles appearing in national newspapers and numerous other publications.

Walker is currently a Senior Manager of Space Programs Business Development and Marketing with the Washington D.C. Operations office of The Boeing Company.