Terry Hendricds of Recent retire from Blue Origin LLC

Biography:

Dr. Hendricks has recently re-retired from Blue Origin LLC (2024), where he served as
the Director - Thermal Control Systems and Technical Program Director in the Advanced
Development Program and Space Systems Development business unit, after briefly
retiring from NASA–Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) / California Institute of Technology
in 2021. He is an IEEE Life Senior Member and an ASME Fellow. He has over 40 years
of professional expertise in thermal & fluid systems; terrestrial & spacecraft power
systems; energy recovery, energy conversion and storage systems; nano-scale and micro-
scale heat transfer; and project management. The Blue Origin groups that he managed
and directed designed, developed, and tested components and systems for Blue Ring
spacecraft, Lunar spacecraft targeted for Lunar returns, the New Glenn rocket, and fission
power and auxiliary power systems for Lunar power systems.
He received his Ph.D. and Master of Science in Engineering from the University of Texas
@ Austin and Bachelor of Science (Summa Cum Laude) in Physics from the University
of Massachusetts @ Lowell. His extensive expertise is embodied in 3 book chapters
published by Taylor and Francis and Elsevier; and over 100 reports, conference papers,
and journal articles in the Journals of Electronic Materials; Energy; Materials Research;
Heat Transfer; Thermophysics and Heat Transfer; and International Heat & Mass
Transfer. He has also served as technical reviewer in all of these journals. Among his
numerous technical awards and NASA recognition awards, he was inducted into the
University of Texas at Austin Mechanical Engineering Academy of Distinguished
Alumni in 2019.
While at JPL, he was responsible for designing spacecraft thermal and propulsion
systems, solar power systems, radioisotope power systems, thermal management and
thermal energy storage systems critical to NASA missions. During Dr. Hendricks tenure
at JPL, among his many duties he was a Technical Group Supervisor for Thermal Energy
Conversion Systems and Applications group. He was also the Project Manager leading
and managing complex, multi-disciplinary projects to:
1) Develop next-generation aircraft energy recovery technologies using advanced heat
exchangers, integrated with advanced thermoacoustic generators and heat pipe
technologies;
2) Develop Solar Array Dust Mitigation technologies;
3) Develop a thermoelectric power system design for unmanned aircraft (UAV) engine
energy recovery applicable to different UAV platforms; and
4) Characterize and quantify pyroshock-driven dynamic effects on Radioisotope
Thermoelectric Generator power output, thereby reducing risk on Mars 2020 spacecraft.
Prior to JPL, he was the Energy Recovery Program Director at Battelle Memorial
Institute and Senior Program Manager at U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory, where he managed U.S. DOE and Army projects in
hybrid power system development, automotive & industrial waste energy recovery,
military energy recovery, and advanced heat transfer.
Dr. Hendricks holds 9 patents and is a Registered Professional Engineer in California and
Texas.