Speakers for October 2025 Meeting
October 14, 2025
*** Videos, slides and photos posted ***
Video and slides from these presentations have now been posted on our Events page.
Come join us for the upcoming October meeting where the topic will be the 20th Anniversary of Katrina. We have two guest speakers. Dave Throckmorton, Deputy Center Dir of Stennis Space Center at the time of Katrina, will share his experiences involving Katrina at both Stennis & Michoud. UPDATE: Kim Ward, Virginia Air and Space Science Center Gallery Engagement Manger, will be talking to us about volunteer opportunities at the NASA Langley Visitor Center.
Dave Throckmorton served a 41-year career with NASA, beginning as a Co-op Student at NASA Langley in 1966. Following his graduation from Virginia Tech, with a BS in Aerospace Engineering, he became a full-time Langley employee, assigned to the Aerothermodynamics Branch, Space System Division. Subsequently, he received an MS in Aerospace Engineering from George Washington University via LaRC’s graduate education program. He spent the early years of his career performing hypersonic wind-tunnel tests of candidate configurations for the Space Shuttle Orbiter, and when the Shuttle program began operations, was one of NASA’s principal interpreters of entry flight data from the Orbital Flight Test missions of the Shuttle Columbia. He was Principal Investigator (PI) for the Shuttle Infrared Leeside Temperature Sensing (SILTS) experiment, one of three entry technology experiments with PIs within the Aerothermodynamics Branch, which flew on Columbia as elements of the agency’s Orbiter Experiments Program.
He was Assistant Head of the Aerothermodynamics Branch from 1984-1994. While in that position, in 1988-1989, he served a Detail Assignment as Director of Base Technology in the National AeroSpace Plane Joint (NASA/DoD) Program Office at Wright Patterson AFB, OH. He was Manager of Langley’s Space Transportation Programs Office, from 1994-2000, responsible for management of LaRC activities supporting the Space Transportation business line, including technology development and technical support for: the Space Shuttle Program, X-33 and X-34 flight test demonstrator projects, and NASA’s Advanced Space Transportation Technology Program. Dave left LaRC in 2000, to become Deputy Director of Engineering at the Marshall Space Flight Center. In that position, he provided leadership for a multidisciplinary workforce engaged in design, development, and testing in support of the broad array of NASA space flight programs including Space Shuttle main engines, external tank, reusable solid rocket boosters; International Space Station environmental control and life support systems, and science experiment payloads. In 2003, in the wake of the Columbia tragedy, Dave was moved to the position of Deputy Director of the Stennis Space Center. Following his retirement from NASA in 2007, he returned to Hampton Roads, and over the next year served as Chair of NASA’s Independent Standing Review Board for the Orion Project. Dave then spent a several years as an independent consultant, providing business development and management consultation services to a variety of commercial clients. In 2012, he became a Northrop Grumman employee, serving as Program Manager for Northrop’s participation in LaRC’s TEAMS2 (Technology, Engineering, and Aerospace Mission Support) contract. And in 2016, became the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) Vice President for Research, where he remained until his actual retirement in 2023.
Kim has over 27 years of experience as a classroom educator for students in elementary and middle school grades. She has nearly 10 years of experience as a Science Coordinator for an area elementary school, managing the curriculum and instruction for nearly 250 students, assisting over 20 classroom educators, and acting as the liaison to area high school educators. She joined the VASSC Team in 2024 as VASSC educator and has subsequently taken on the role as Gallery Engagement Manager in 2025. In her current role, she helps place volunteers into unique roles at the Center to expand community involvement and guest relations. Kim hopes you will consider joining the team of volunteers at VASSC.
