Matt Grogan

Biography:

Matthew Grogan Biography

Education: Received a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame (Cum Laude 1958), Diploma from General Electric Advanced Technical Course (1959), and an M.S. in Aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology (1960). He completed the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program in 1989.

Awards and Decorations: Manned Spacecraft Center Group, Achievement Award for Lunar Potential Analysis (1969), Apollo 13 Mission, Operations Team Presidential Medal of Freedom (April, 1970), NASA Public Service Medal for the 2 Viking Missions to Mars (Dec 1976).

Experience: After graduation from CalTech in 1960, Grogan joined the Boeing Company in Seattle and did orbital mechanics research leading to the development of a lunar trajectory computer program. He was assigned to the Lunar Orbiter (LO) program in 1965 and was the lead Orbit Determination engineer for the Boeing LO Flight Team at the JPL Space Flight Operations acility in Pasadena, CA for all five LO missions. These successful 30-60 day missions took high resolution photos of the lunar surface to determine Apollo landing sites and to create maps of the lunar surface. The first LO mission launch was Aug 1966 and the 5th mission ended in the fall of 1967. In March of 1968, Grogan joined the Flight Operations Directorate of the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas. He was a member of the NASA team that was responsible for devising the Apollo navigation mathematical formulations and helped develop the precision lunar landing techniques used during Apollo Missions 12-17. Grogan also served a member of the navigation support team in the Apollo Mission Control Building for Apollo 8 through Apollo 15. He participated in navigating the 1st Apollo pinpoint landing on the moon (Apollo 12) and the successful return to Earth of the Apollo 13 crew. In August, 1971, Grogan left NASA to accept a lead position with the Martin Marietta Corporation in Denver, Colorado on the Viking Program. He was named to the Viking Flight Team in 1973 as the Chief of the team that helped devise and implement the strategies for the operations of the 700 person Viking Flight Team at JPL’s Space Flight Operations Facility in Pasadena, CA. He participated in the Viking primary mission starting with the launches of the 4 spacecraft in November 1975 until the end of the primary missions in November 1976. The Viking Flight team successfully landed and operated two automated unmanned spacecraft on Mars in the summer of 1976, as well as simultaneously operating two orbiting spacecraft. Viking extended operations lasted several years beyond the primary mission. From 1977 to 1998, Grogan was involved in a number of technical and management assignments in Denver on civilian and military programs with Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin). These assignments included serving as the Martin Systems Engineering Director  for the USAF Peacekeeper ICBM development, the NASA’s Space Station Phase B Definition Study, and the initial USAF National Test Bed Program at Schriever AFB. Grogan retired from Lockheed Martin in February of 1998. He has served as a volunteer Medicare/Medicaid counselor for the Colorado State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) and as an AARP Income tax counselor since retiring. He plays as much golf as possible when weather and household chores allow!