Brewster H. Shaw

In January 2006 he returned to the Boeing Company's Houston campus, and was then acting as the Vice President & General Manager of the Space Exploration division which controls Boeing's International Space Station and Space Shuttle programs.He retired from Boeing on August 26, 2011.

In mid-2003, Brewster Shaw left Boeing and became the chief operating officer of United Space Alliance (USA). In that position he had primary responsibility for the day-to-day operations and overall management of USA, the prime contractor for the Space Shuttle Program, and its 10,000 employees in Florida, Texas, Alabama and Russia.

Shaw worked as a manager at NASA until 1996 when he left the agency, retired from the Air Force and went to work in the private sector as an aerospace executive.

Shaw joined Rockwell in 1996 after 27 years with the U.S. Air Force and NASA. The Boeing Company acquired Rockwell in December 1996.

Shaw was the commander of STS-28 Columbia (August 8–13, 1989). The mission included pilot Dick Richards and three mission specialists: Jim Adamson, Dave Leestma and Mark Brown. The shuttle carried classified Department of Defense payloads and a number of secondary payloads. After 80 orbits of Earth the five-day mission concluded with a dry lake bed landing on Runway 17 at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

Shaw left the Johnson Space Center in October 1989 to assume the NASA Headquarters senior executive position of deputy director, Space Shuttle operations, located at the Kennedy Space Center. As operations manager, Shaw was responsible for all operational aspects of the Space Shuttle Program and had Level II authority over the Space Shuttle elements from the time the Orbiters left the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF), were mated to the external tank and solid rocket boosters, transported to the launch pad, launched and recovered and returned to the Orbiter Processing Facility. He was the final authority for the launch decision, and chaired the Mission Management Team.

Following the Space Shuttle Challenger accident in 1986, he supported the Roger's Presidential Commission investigating the accident. Shaw subsequently led the Space Shuttle Orbiter return-to-flight team chartered to enhance the safety of the vehicles’ operations.

Brewster Shaw first served as shuttle commander on STS-61B Atlantis. The mission launched at night on November 26 and returned on December 3, 1985.

Shaw is a veteran of three Space Shuttle missions and has logged 533 hours of space flight. He was pilot of Space Shuttle Columbia in November 1983, commander of Space Shuttle Atlantis in November 1985 and commander of Columbia in August 1989.

Shaw's first trip to space was as pilot on STS-9 Columbia from November 28 to December 8, 1983.

Shaw was selected by NASA to be an astronaut in January 1978 where he served on loan from the Air Force.

He is married and is the father of three children. His youngest son, Brandon (born in 1976), was murdered by carjackers in Austin, Texas in July 1997.

In April 1973 Shaw reported to George Air Force Base, California, for F-4 instructor duties. Shaw attended the USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California, starting in July 1975. Following the completion of this training, he remained at Edwards as an operational test pilot. He served as an instructor at the USAF Test Pilot School from August 1977 to July 1978.

Shaw entered the Air Force in 1969 after completing Officer Training School and attended undergraduate pilot training at Craig Air Force Base, Alabama. He received his pilot wings in 1970 and was then assigned to the F-100 Replacement Training Unit at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona.

Brewster Hopkinson Shaw Jr. (born May 16, 1945) is a retired NASA astronaut, U.S. Air Force colonel, and former executive at Boeing. Shaw was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on May 6, 2006.

Shaw is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Brewster H. Shaw Sr. He was born May 16, 1945, and grew up in Michigan. He graduated from Cass City High School in Cass City, Michigan, in 1963. Shaw received a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1968. He completed a Master of Science degree in Engineering Mechanics in 1969, also at UW-Madison. Shaw joined the Delta Upsilon fraternity while attending UW-Madison.