Glynn Lunney - Career at Rockwell

Career At Rockwell

Upon leaving NASA in 1985, Lunney took a position at Rockwell International, the contractor responsible for the construction, operation and maintenance of the space shuttle. At first he worked in California, managing a Rockwell division that was building satellites for the Global Positioning System; this was his first experience with unmanned spacecraft. In 1990, he returned to Houston as President of the Rockwell Space Operations Company, which provided support for flight operations at Johnson Space Center and employed about 3000 people. For Lunney, this represented a return to his roots in mission operations, which he had left twenty years before.

In 1995, Rockwell joined forces with its competitor Lockheed Martin to form the United Space Alliance, a jointly owned organization created to provide operations support for NASA, as well as to take over some of the functions previously performed by NASA employees. At this point, Lunney became Vice President and Program Manager of the United Space Alliance's spaceflight operations in Houston; he stayed in this position until his retirement in 1999.