Cianbro Chairman and CEO Peter Vigue is pleased to announce a stellar new addition to the Cianbro Board of Directors. Former combat pilot and space shuttle commander Frederick (Rick) Hauck was appointed by a vote of the Board earlier this week. “Rick is a gentleman with tremendous experience, beginning with the Navy and then as an astronaut, and has significant relationships both nationally and globally,” says Vigue. “He also has extensive business experience.”
Captain Hauck got an opportunity to learn about Cianbro from co-founder Bud Cianchette when the two men were neighbors in Falmouth, Maine. “I’m thrilled with my appointment to the Cianbro Board,” Hauck says. “I learned from Bud and his wife about how Cianbro has prospered over the decades with great integrity and a focus on the value of the individual. So, when Pete Vigue asked me to join, I jumped at the opportunity.”
In 1962 Rick Hauck received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Tufts University and a commission in the U.S. Navy. He received a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from MIT in 1966. As a Navy pilot he flew 114 combat and combat support missions in Southeast Asia From 1971 to 1974, Hauck served as a project test pilot for automatic carrier landing systems in a variety of Navy jet aircraft and was team leader for the aircraft carrier trials of the F-14 Tomcat.
NASA named Hauck to its astronaut corps in 1978. His first flight assignment was as co-pilot aboard Challenger in 1983, on the seventh launch of the space shuttle. History’s first space salvage mission took place in 1984, when Captain Hauck and his four crewmembers launched aboard the space shuttle Discovery to rescue two communications satellites that were stranded in useless orbits.
During the hiatus following the loss of Challenger Hauck was asked by the NASA Administrator to serve as the NASA Associate Administrator for congressional, public, and international relations. When NASA was ready to return to flight in 1988, Hauck was selected to command a crew of five veteran shuttle astronauts to test the redesigned spacecraft. Discovery lifted off on September 29, 1988, for that four-day mission.
Hauck left NASA in 1989, to become Director of Navy Space Systems in the Pentagon. When he retired from the Navy in 1990, he entered the space insurance business as President of AXA Space, a division of the global AXA insurance group chartered to underwrite the financial risk of launching and operating commercial communications satellites. He retired in 2005 after serving an additional 12 years as President and CEO of AXA Space.
Hauck was chair of the NASA External Independent Readiness Review Team for the Second Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission. He was a member of the External Program Assessment Team for NASA’s 2nd Generation Reusable Launch Vehicle Program. He has chaired a National Research Council (NRC) study for NASA regarding the vulnerability of the space shuttle to micrometeoroids and orbital debris, and an NRC study titled Safe on Mars regarding the measurements that must be made robotically before the first human mission to Mars. In the wake of the space shuttle Columbia tragedy and subsequent return to flight of Discovery he was a featured guest and news analyst on NBC and National Public Radio.
Mr. Hauck is a member of the Advisory Council of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. From 2005 to 2009 he served on the NASA Advisory Council and is currently a member of the Council’s Exploration sub-committee. He serves on the boards of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation and the Space Foundation.
Hauck is a Fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the American Astronautical Society. He has been inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame and is a National Associate of the National Academies. He was granted an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree by Tufts University and was awarded Distinguished Service Medals by both NASA and the Department of Defense.
Rick Hauck is married to Susan Cameron Bruce. Together they have five children and seven grandchildren.
Peter Vigue says, “Rick Hauck not only has a great wealth of experience, he also has high ethical and moral standards. And we at Cianbro feel that’s important not only in dealings with our clients and partners, but also with regard to our many team members. Rick will add significant value to our company.”