Chester M. Lee

All of us in the SPACEHAB family have suffered a great loss with the death of our beloved friend and colleague Chet Lee.

Captain Chester M. Lee, a Navy officer who played key roles in the Polaris missile program, the Apollo space program, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the U.S. Space Shuttle program, and commercial space development, died Wednesday February 23 in Washington, D.C., due to cardiac arrest following heart surgery. He was 80.

Chet joined SPACEHAB in 1987 as Vice President for Operations. In 1996, he became President and Chief Operating Officer. From 1998 until his death, he served as Chairman of SPACEHAB's Astrotech unit and Special Advisor to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Shelley A. Harrison. Chet also served as an informal advisor to many others at SPACEHAB. His good counsel and broad perspective were available for the asking, and always provided with a dose of humor and good cheer. His dedication and enthusiasm will be missed.

The New York Times, Washington Post, and Associated Press have paid tribute to Chet with obituaries recognizing the historical significance of his career, which stretched from World War II to the Cold War, détente, and the post-Cold War period, from aerial warfare to nuclear deterrence to the peaceful uses of outer space. In nominating Chet for a Distinguished Graduate Award last year, his Naval Academy class had this to say: "Throughout his naval career in war and peace Captain Lee consistently distinguished himself not only by his courage, dedication and skill at sea, but also by his wisdom and leadership in significantly contributing to the development of the Combat Information Center (CIC) concept and by his contributions to the Navy's missile capabilityÖ. During his twenty-two year career with NASA he provided leadership in positions of great responsibility."

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-VA), a former Secretary of the Navy, offered a tribute to Chet in the Senate on March 8, not only because Chet was a long-time Virginia resident but also because he had such an impressive record of public service. "Chet Lee was a tireless public servant, a devoted husband, father, and grandfather and mentor to countless is the aerospace community. I am proud to have had Chet as a constituentÖ. I ask my colleagues to pay tribute today to Captain Lee's memory and to honor him for his contributions to this great country," the Senator said.

The Navy: WWII

Born in Derry, Pennsylvania, Chet was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy's class of 1942. The bombing of Pearl Harbor prompted the Navy to commission him early, and order him to instruction in radar engineering, in January 1942. From 1942 to 1947, he served as a radar officer, gunnery officer, and executive officer on the USS Salt Lake City, USS Drexler, and USS John R. Craig. Chet was among the few survivors of the sinking of the Drexler by a kamikaze attack in June 1945 off Okinawa.

During the war, Chet not only operated radar systems but also refined and advanced them, at the same time educating his superiors on radar capabilities and applications. Aboard the Salt Lake City, for example, he was able to set up an elementary Combat Information Center and demonstrate the concept of a CIC, by tracking and plotting various vessels entering and departing Pearl Harbor.

Polaris: The Cold War

After the war, Chet went to work on guided missiles for the Navy, attending Guided Missile School at Fort Bliss in Texas, then serving in the Navy Contingent at the Joint Long-Range Proving Ground, Cape Canaveral. In December 1953, he became an instructor at the General Line School, where he developed the school's first guided missile course. From November 1956 to March 1958, Lee headed the Test and Evaluation Branch of the Special Projects Office for the Polaris missile program, a critical national security initiative. He later served as commanding officer of the USS Gyatt, technical advisor aboard the USS George Washington for the first launch of Polaris, and commander of the Navy's Destroyer Division 132.

NASA: Apollo

Chet retired from active duty to join the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1965, initially coming on board as Chief of Operational Planning at NASA headquarters. He was involved in the Apollo program from the beginning, serving as Assistant Mission Director for Apollo 1 through the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. He was present in the blockhouse in 1967 when a launchpad fire killed three astronauts in their capsule. Chet served as Mission Director for Apollo 12 through Apollo 17, NASA's last moon landing.

NASA: détente

In 1973, Chet became Program Director for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, a U.S.-Soviet rendezvous and docking mission, the first international human space flight in history. "I consider it a major step in space progress," Chet told a journalist before the 1975 flight. "We all know how expensive space exploration is, and there are limits to the resources we can devote to it. The universal docking system opens up the possibility of joint operations on a cost-sharing basisÖ. With this project we have established as foundation," he continued. "We have learned how to work together, and we have acquired a wealth of experience. It's logical that both sides will want to continue the partnership. If we're going to accomplishÖreally advanced space explorationÖit is practically mandatory." In speech just before the flight, he told the National Space Club that ASTP "provides the opportunity to keep our momentum going in the interval before the Shuttle starts flyingÖ. ASTP has also provided a window ñ however small ñ into a part of the Soviet society. With this window and resulting knowledge and understanding, there is some contribution to the détente."

NASA: The Shuttle

Chet served as NASA's Shuttle Program as Director of Operations. In this position, he was responsible for maintaining the Shuttle manifest and constructing a Shuttle launch pricing policy, among other things. He concluded his tenure at NASA as assistant associate administrator for policy planning and Department of Defense affairs, with the rank of SES-5, which equates to the naval rank of vice admiral.

Other accomplishments

Chet was a member of the U.S. Naval Institute, the USNA Alumni Association, and the USNA Athletic Association as well as a winner of a big N for football. He also belonged to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the American Astronautical Society. During his Navy career, Chet received a Letter of Commendation and the Bronze Star with Combat V. For his accomplishments at NASA, he received two Distinguished Service Awards and two NASA Exceptional Service Awards along with several other Meritorious Service and Commendation Awards.

As New York Times reporter Eric Nagourney noted, throughout his space career Chet "had the uneasy task of straddling two worlds: the bureaucratic, often political milieu of NASA headquarters in Washington and the non-frills environment in which astronauts and their craft were prepared for voyages." Those of us who have had the privilege of knowing and working with Chet know that he not only mastered this task but even developed a bit of a flair for it.

Chet's daughter Virginia told the Times that if her father had ever been given the opportunity to fly on a space mission himself, "he would have done it. Absolutely."

Survivors include his wife, Rose M. Lee of McLean; a sister, Mary H. Lee of Latrobe, Pennsylvania; a son, David J. Lee of Springfield, Virginia; daughters Nancy Lee Cusher and Virginia A. Lee of McLean; and 10 grandchildren. Another daughter, Suzanne Nosik, is deceased.

Chet's family asks that, in lieu of sending flowers, friends might consider choosing to honor Chet by contributing to a memorial scholarship fund that SPACEHAB is setting up in his name. (For more information, contact Julie Mazzotti at SPACEHAB headquarters, phone 202-488-3500, extension 212.)