NICHOLAS GREGORY HEINSOHN
6580 Ocaso Dr., Castle Rock, CO 80108
(720) 939-3382
Senior Program Management/Senior Systems Engineering/Spacecraft Design
30 years of Systems Engineering and Program Management Experience
Results-driven Program Manager with extensive experience leading the programmatic and technical aspects of a variety of programs.Systems Engineering leadership experience on complex systems including class A and interplanetary missions.
Deep Space Systems Inc.Senior Systems Engineer8/10 to Present
Provide senior systems engineering guidance and mentoring to the Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations Team for the Orion Program and Juno spacecraft mission to Jupiter.
MicroSat Systems/Sierra Nevada2/02to8/10
Director of Satellites1/08 to 8/10
Ultimately responsible for the execution of all government satellite programs, including both programmatic and technical leadership, as well as staff management and career development responsibility for project managers, engineers, technicians and support personnel assigned to these programs
Program Manager & Chief Systems Engineer6/04 to 12/07
Plan, direct, control and provideoverall technical conscience for the “Demonstration and Science Experiment Host Spacecraft Bus,”(DSX) a program requiring complete reconfiguration of the spacecraft and several cost and schedule re-baselines; lead the team through successful preliminary and critical design reviews - both of which received an “Excellent” rating by the review boards – while keeping the program ahead of schedule and maintaining a healthy management reserve.
The DSXprogram was singled out by the Director of AFRL Space Vehicles Division as a model AFRL program and has been commended several times for responsiveness and creativity in solving technical issues.
Proposal Manager6/02 to 8/10
Direct effort for several small spacecraft and technology development proposals including: “NASA RSDO Catalog,” “Team Encounter Solar Sail,” “Consumable Structures,” “New Millennium ST-8 Bus,” “Canadian Space Agency’s Smallsat,” “TacSat-3” and “ORBCOMM Demonstration & Quick Launch Mission.”
Senior Systems Engineer2/02 to 8/10
Provide systems engineering design, support spacecraft design efforts and mission architecture studies. Primary areas of focus: spacecraft design, requirements decomposition and allocation, fault protection schemes, management of key resources, mission planning and risk management. Developed a proprietary spacecraft design tool enabling a single systems engineer to produce a complete conceptual design based on top level mission requirements including component selection and critical system sizing such as solar arrays, batteries and propulsion.
Lockheed Martin AstronauticsJune 1983 to January 2002
Spacecraft Systems Engineer & Subsystem Lead4/00 to 1/02
Provided systems engineering oversight to the integration and test team including on-console responsibility through launch of Mars Odyssey Spacecraft.Led and directed a multi-skilled team of subsystem engineers during mission operationsincludingsupport for day-to-day flight operations and strategic planning for mission critical events.Provided spacecraft system designs in support of advanced systems conceptual studies and proposals,authored “Systems Engineering” and “Integration & Test” section of technical proposals, and leda study to develop a strategic plan for next generation avionics systems.
Spacecraft System Design Lead & Product Integrity Engineer12/96 to 3/00
System Design Lead for the Mars Surveyor Project responsible for technical integrity and success of the 2001 Mars Lander.Led the development of mission and system requirements, developed spacecraft design and coordinated system level trade studies to optimize limited resources and provided comprehensive and exhaustive system level test program and ultimately ensured the spacecraft design was robust and met all mission requirements.
Nicholas Gregory HeinsohnPage 2
Payload Accommodation Engineer10/93 to 11/96
Solely responsible for the integration and accommodation of six science payloads on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft,performed trade studies and supported conceptual designs to maximize science return, authored the Interface Control Documents and all Integration Test Procedures and responsible for verification of all interfaces and functional performance of the science instruments.
Senior Group Engineer8/92 to 6/93
Developed and controlled the system budgets, (i. e. mass, power, data rate, CPU utilization), for Earth Observing System Spacecraft, identified and assessed component, subsystem and system issues, developed mitigation strategies to assure a low risk program and implemented an innovative system to control, maintain and communicate spacecraft configuration in a concurrent engineering environment.
Senior Integration and Test Engineer7/90 to 7/92
Directed the build, testing and integration of the Gamma Ray Spectrograph onto the Mars Observer Spacecraft, acted as company liaison to NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and General Electric Astro Space Division.
Lead Systems and Mechanical Engineer6/83 to 6/90
Implemented the assembly and integration of the Faint Object Spectrograph onto the Hubble Space Telescope, responsible for integrity of mechanisms and structure, designed and coordinated fabrication of mechanical modifications and retrofits, supported various analyses, build and test of spare components and replacement of detectors and heat pipes and provided Mechanical and Systems Engineering support to a variety of small programs within Flight Systems.
PROFESSIONAL SKILLS AND AWARDS
Wrote and presented “AFRL's Demonstration and Science Experiments (DSX) Program – Quest for the Common Micro Satellite Bus”
Wrote and presented “Payload Accommodation in the Faster Better & Cheaper Environment” at the 19th Aerospace Testing Seminar
Received Group Achievement Award and certification of Recognition from Jet Propulsion Lab for performance on the Mars Global Surveyor
Received Group Achievement Award and Certification of Recognition from Goddard Space Flight Center for performance on the Gamma Ray Spectrometer
Received Group Achievement Award and Certification of Recognition from Goddard Space Flight Center for performance on the Faint Object Spectrograph
Completed Corporate Systems Engineering Class
Completed Spacecraft Design Class taught by Mike Griffin and Jim French
Completed Systems Engineering Management Course at the Lockheed Martin Evening Institute
Completed the Lockheed Martin Product Integrity Engineering Course
Received several Employee Accommodation Awards
Completed “Project Management Body of Knowledge” from Colorado State University
Top Secret DoD Security Clearance
EDUCATION
University of Colorado - Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering, May/1982
University of Colorado - Masters in Business Administration, Minor in Finance, December/1987