Goddard Mourns the Loss of Thomas J. Budney

Thomas J. Budney, 61, Chief Engineer of the Guidance, Navigation and Control Center at Goddard passed away on Tuesday, May 28 of a heart attack.

Budney graduated in 1964 from University of Massachusetts, Amherst with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. Following his military service, he started his aerospace career in 1965 as an attitude control system engineer for NASA's Sounding Rocket program. Tom's expertise in sounding rocket control engineering was a crucial element in some of the breakthrough space science discoveries in this era. In the early 1980's he helped pioneer the development of SPARTAN---a very low cost satellite system that was launched and retrieved by the Space Shuttle. He also served as the Head of the Attitude Control and Stabilization Branch in the Special Payloads division. During his tenure as a Branch Head, he spearheaded the development of low cost control systems for the first five successful Small Explorer (SMEX) missions.

Mr. Budney was an internationally recognized expert in Guidance, Navigation, and Control Systems with a specialty in inertial sensors (gyroscopes). In his duties as Chief Engineer, he served as a key technical expert for numerous NASA satellite programs. Mr. Budney's research included the development of several revolutionary technologies that enable entirely new classes of miniature NASA science spacecraft. These technologies are key to NASA's ST-5 Nanosat program.

Frank Bauer, Chief Guidance, Navigation & Control Center said, "Throughout his career, he was well known as a technical advisor for and career mentor of the junior engineering staff at NASA Goddard. His passionate interest and devotion to nurturing and influencing the development of young engineers, and his determination to get things done right, has been instrumental in the success of Goddard's numerous missions. Mr. Budney led by example and had the outstanding capability to share with his co-workers his sense of how special, important, and fun he felt his work at NASA was. To quote Tom Budney: "Many thanks!""

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation in Tom's memory to the Challenger Center, 1250 Pitt St., Alexandria, VA 22314.