RELEASE 15-110
NASA Names Albany, Georgia, Native Bobby Watkins as Director of the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans
 Bobby Watkins was recently named director of NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Credits: NASA/MSFC |
As a young man, Bobby Watkins stocked shelves, helped keep the books and carried bags of groceries for customers in his family's community grocery store in Albany, Georgia. He didn't know it then, but the experience was preparing him for a career in America's space program.
"Every day at NASA, I use things I learned in that grocery business about treating people with respect and the importance of doing a job well, no matter how small it might seem. I learned about being part of a group that works hard and relies on each another to achieve common goals," Watkins said. "I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up, but I can't imagine a better prep school than my family's store."
NASA recently named Watkins director of the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the facility. The uniquely skilled workforce at Michoud is now building the Orion crew spacecraft and the core stage for the Space Launch System (SLS) – an advanced launch vehicle for a new era of exploration beyond Earth’s orbit to deep space missions, including Mars. In its largest configuration, the 384-foot-tall SLS will be the most capable and most powerful launch vehicle in history.
Michoud is where NASA built the first stages of the Saturn V rockets that launched astronauts to the moon in the 1960s, and where the 15-story-tall external tanks for the space shuttles were manufactured. For SLS, a set of world-class welding and advanced manufacturing tools and techniques have been created and built at the facility, including the Vertical Assembly Center, the largest spacecraft welding tool in the world.
"It's amazing to see the huge core stages and other hardware of SLS being welded and coming together at Michoud," Watkins said. "When you think about the complexity and the technical issues that NASA and our industry partners are confronting and solving every day, it just makes you so proud to be part of this team."
Working in an organization more concerned with the achievements of the team than of the individual is one reason Watkins said he has remained with NASA for nearly 30 years. His career began in 1986 in the Mission Operation Directorate at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, assisting with implementation of a digital communications system for the Mission Control Center. It was his first job after earning a degree in mathematics from Albany State University.
Over the years, Watkins held a number of leadership roles with the Space Shuttle Program at Johnson and at NASA Headquarters in Washington. He was an assistant associate administrator in the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate; served as chief engineer and then chief of staff at Johnson; and, from 2010 to 2015, was director of the Office of Strategic Analysis and Communications at Marshall. He recently completed a one-year detail as director of the Legislative Liaison Division in the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs at NASA Headquarters, and has twice been a member of the agency’s final Astronaut Selection Board.
His work has earned numerous awards, including NASA's Exceptional Achievement, Outstanding Leadership and Exceptional Service medals.
"Looking back, almost all of the different jobs that I have had up to this point have been preparing me for this role at Michoud," he said. "Whether it's understanding how the agency works on a technical engineering level or looking at the business and logistical aspects of what makes a center run."
Michoud is one of the world's largest indoor manufacturing facilities, and its concentration of human and technological resources have drawn other federal agencies and private companies to base operations there. Overall, an estimated 3,300 employees work at Michoud each day. Among Watkins' responsibilities is ensuring the facility meets tenants' needs as well as NASA's, offsetting costs of maintaining the facility for the space program and helping ensure Michoud's capabilities will be available to all when needed in the future.
"There's already an incredible team at Michoud. My job is to make sure we can continue not just with the SLS and Orion, but also for future missions and programs," Watkins said. "We've already been doing a great job attracting tenants to Michoud, but we'll continue increasing our service and capability to attract more. That way, Michoud will be there to meet the needs of the generations to come."
For more information about NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/michoud/index.html
For more information about NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall
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