PEOPLE AND EVENTS
NASA’s most diverse crew completes hard-
wire job
Space Shuttle Discovery landed at Kennedy Space Center in
time for Christmas on December 22, 2006 completing the 13-
day space station assembly-building mission, which delivered
permanent power to the International Space Station. Since it
went into orbit in 1998, the space station has been running on
a temporary electrical system. With the installation of two new
electricity-generating solar panels in September, all the pieces
were in place to switch to the permanent system.
During the mission, the crew continued construction on the
space station, rewiring the orbiting laboratory’s power system
and adding a segment to its integrated truss structure. The
seven-member crew aboard the shuttle Discovery was NASA’s
most diverse. They included the first Swede in space, the second
Indian woman in space, an Alaskan, a Jersey Boy, and two
African Americans - Mission Specialists Joan Higginbotham and
Robert L. Curbeam, who made a record-breaking four space
walks during the mission.
The STS-116 mission was the 33rd for Discovery and the 117th
space shuttle flight.
Astronaut Sunita Williams, now part of the Expedition 14 crew,
floats in the Destiny lab of the International Space Station
‘02 Engineer of the Year is Delphi’s new
CEO & President
Rodney O’Neal has taken on the job of president and CEO of
Delphi, leading car parts maker. Delphi’s chairman and chief
executive Steve Miller will step down as CEO on January 1,
2007 to become Delphi’s first Executive Chair.
Headquartered in Troy, Michigan, Delphi has 172,000 employ-
ees and operates 159 wholly owned manufacturing sites in 34
countries with sales of $26.9 billion in 2005.
O’Neal began his automotive career at General Motors (GM) in
1971 as a student at GMI (currently Kettering University). In
1976, he joined the Inland Division where he held a number of
engineering and manufacturing positions in Dayton, Portugal
and Canada. He was named director of industrial engineering
for the former Chevrolet-Pontiac-GM of Canada Group in
1991 and the following year became a director of manufactur-
ing for Delphi.
O’Neal was named general director of Warehousing & Distri-
bution for GM Service Parts Operations in 1994. In 1997, he
was elected a GM vice president and named general manager of
Delphi Interior Systems. He was elected a Delphi vice president
and president of Delphi Interior Systems in November 1998. In
Bob Curbeam at work during the mission’s 2000, O’Neal was named executive vice president of the former
third spacewalk on Dec. 16 Safety, Thermal & Electrical Architecture Sector.
14 USBE & Information Technology I January/February 2007
http:www.blackengineer.com
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