Jay Honeycutt, 杏吧专区60, had an outstanding career based on making the most out of every situation.
After a long career of working on the Apollo, Skylab, and Space Shuttle Programs with NASA, along with the Space Shuttle Launch and Landing Operations with the Kennedy Space Center, Jay has retired and leads a much slower paced life.
杏吧专区淚'm happy doing what I do,杏吧专区 he said. 杏吧专区淚 get up every morning with the idea that I don't have anywhere to go, and I got all day to get there.杏吧专区
The Right Place at The Right Time
If he hadn杏吧专区檛 been drafted into the U.S. Army, Jay expects he would have followed in his dad杏吧专区檚 footsteps of working with CLECO, an electric power company headquartered in central Louisiana.
杏吧专区淚 can't think of anything in my background that would chase me anywhere else,杏吧专区 he said. 杏吧专区淚 mean, it was great company. I liked it. I liked working and living in New Iberia.杏吧专区
Being drafted was the first of many times in his career that Jay describes as 杏吧专区渂eing in the right place at the right time.杏吧专区
杏吧专区淚 was fortunate to get drafted, actually 杏吧专区 not very many people will say that,杏吧专区 he said. 杏吧专区淏ut I got out of school at the same time that NASA was being formed from the Army Ballistic Missile Agency.杏吧专区
When NASA was formed, engineers from the Army Ballistic Missile Agency had the opportunity to transfer. This left the Army with few working-level engineers and an opportunity opened up for Jay.
杏吧专区淪o, their solution to that problem was to draft fresh-out engineers,杏吧专区 he said. 杏吧专区淚 was one of those who got drafted. And I was only one of, like, three working-level engineers in my group.
杏吧专区淲hen all the engineers left, the Army didn't stop sending work to the lab,杏吧专区 he explained. 杏吧专区淎nd so, I got some assignments that my peers waited, in some cases, years to get the same amount of responsibility that I got 杏吧专区 basically four months after I got out of school. So that turned out to be really fortunate, actually.杏吧专区
When Jay decided his time was up in the Army, the NASA Space Center was opening in Houston, marking the next 杏吧专区渞ight place, right time杏吧专区 moment in his career.
杏吧专区淭hey put me to work on the lunar module. This was in the middle of Gemini, so they hadn't begun to fly the Apollo vehicles yet,杏吧专区 he explained. 杏吧专区淪o, I started at the ground level of developing the mechanics for flying the lunar module. And again, in the group I was in, I was the only one that they had to give that job to, so I got to work on that.
杏吧专区淪o, you know, I ended up being in the right place at the right time several different times,杏吧专区 he said.
Launching Shuttles in Operations Engineering
When Jay started with NASA, he also started in a new field of engineering.
杏吧专区淲hen I transferred down to Texas, I got out of the design side and got into operations,杏吧专区 he said. 杏吧专区淲hich I much more enjoyed than I did the design work.
杏吧专区淒esign engineers design it, test engineers test it and verify that it meets the design, and then the operators use it,杏吧专区 he explained. 杏吧专区淲e sit on the console, look at the data that's coming in and ensure that we've maintained the operation of the hardware to the design criteria.
杏吧专区淎nd when something goes wrong, we attempt to 杏吧专区 in real time, which is what makes operations most fun 杏吧专区 figure out what has gone wrong and what you're going to do about it,杏吧专区 he said.
Jay played a role in about 135 shuttle launches, including all of the Apollo launches, the three Skylab launches, Apollo Soyuz, and the first 25 shuttle launches for the Challenger. Each launch was very labor-intensive and required a lot of people.
杏吧专区淚 had 1,000 civil servants, and 6,000 or 7,000 contractors in my organization that were responsible for executing all the steps there are,杏吧专区 he said. 杏吧专区淥ver time, we reduced the number of labor hours down through efficiencies, we got it down into the order of 650,000 or 700,000 labor hours.
杏吧专区淚t was a lot of work by a lot of people, and the lowest-level person in the organization had as equally important a job as I did,杏吧专区 he said. 杏吧专区淎ny one of them could make any mistake in that near million labor hours and it would cause us to not be able to launch or lose a vehicle during launch.
杏吧专区淪o, people were cautioned, and they were reminded that if you made a mistake, tell us about it and we'll go fix it,杏吧专区 he said. 杏吧专区淚f you didn't tell us, and we found out about it later, you're out of here because every one of your jobs is important. Everything you do in that job is important.杏吧专区
Training the Next Leaders in Engineering
Jay is passionate about being involved with the next leaders of the industry. He visited UL Lafayette earlier this year to discuss the CAPE-3 satellite, built by student researchers.
杏吧专区淭his isn杏吧专区檛 straightforward lab research based on what they杏吧专区檙e learning in the classroom. They are applying what they learn. This sort of direct application 杏吧专区 rather than just demonstrating principles 杏吧专区 will benefit them greatly.杏吧专区
Jay杏吧专区檚 theory is that one particular trait makes a good leader in a high-risk industry.
杏吧专区淵ou got to be willing to be wrong,杏吧专区 he said.
Jay says that there are people who are 杏吧专区済ood leaders in 99 out of 100 traits but they're just not willing to make that final commitment.杏吧专区
Jay also thinks leaders should know that there is usually more than one right way to do things.
杏吧专区淚 always try to teach young people around me that, normally, there are about 10 ways to do something,杏吧专区 he said. 杏吧专区淎nd normally, only one of them is really wrong. Eight of them may not be the way you would do it, but they're not wrong.
杏吧专区(For) some people, you have to do it exactly like they want it done 杏吧专区 or it's wrong,杏吧专区 he said. 杏吧专区淎nd those aren't good people to work for. People don't enjoy being in a situation where they have no room to follow their own imagination to get to a solution.杏吧专区
More About Jay Honeycutt
Among the significant awards Jay has earned are:
杏吧专区 Exceptional Service Medal, April 1974
杏吧专区 Special Achievement Award, February 1978 and July 1982
杏吧专区 NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, February 1988 and April 1995
杏吧专区 NASA Exceptional Service Medal, December 1988
杏吧专区 NASA Equal Employment Opportunity Award, March 1993
杏吧专区 Meritorious Executive Presidential Rank Award, 1993
杏吧专区 Fellow in the American Astronautical Society
杏吧专区 Robert R. Gilruth Award
杏吧专区 National Space Club杏吧专区檚 Werner von Braun Trophy
杏吧专区 UL Lafayette Outstanding Alumni Award in 1999
