Livingston L. Holder Jr. (born 29 September 1956) is a former

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

in the

Manned Spaceflight Engineer Program The Manned Spaceflight Engineer Program was an effort by the United States Air Force to train American military personnel as payload specialists for United States Department of Defense missions on the Space Shuttle program. Background The United St ...

during the mid-1980s. He was assigned to fly as a military payload specialist on the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

, but could not fly in space due to the ''Challenger'' accident in 1986.

Biography

Holder was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, United States and now resides in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...

. He has three sons (Jonathan, Nathan, and Christopher). He holds a B.S. in Astronautical Engineering from the

United States Air Force Academy The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academies, United States service academy in Air Force Academy, Colorado, Air Force Academy Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Colorado Springs. I ...

, and an M.S. in Systems Management from

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

. While serving in the Air Force, Holder was a

Titan III Titan was a family of United States expendable rockets used between 1959 and 2005. The Titan I and Titan II were part of the US Air Force's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fleet until 1987. The space launch vehicle versions contribu ...

launch crew member at Vandenberg AFB,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. He also worked in the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, Special Projects organization,

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

AFS,

, on a classified

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

program. Holder trained and qualified as a Manned Spaceflight Engineer and

payload specialist from 1982 to 1988.
Livingston Holder on astronautix.com He remains active in supporting youth education through the Space Foundation, most recently visiting Alaska schools to share his experiences.
,"Astronaut visits Alaska schools", Juneau Empire
,"Space Foundation Brings Space to Interior Alaska", Space Foundation Holder joined

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

in 1988, where he was the manager of the aircraft and spacecraft segments of the RESOURCE21 Program. Later he managed the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

(ISS) international integration activities with responsibility for the ISS Habitation Module. In 1994 he became the program manager for the

Sea Launch Sea Launch was a multinational—Norway, Russia, Ukraine, United States—spacecraft launch company founded in 1995 that provided orbital launch services from 1999 to 2014. The company used a mobile maritime launch platform for equatorial l ...

program during initial development. He was Chief Engineer and Program Manager of Aviation Information Services (the precursor to Connexion by Boeing).
,"Boeing Airborne Satellite Television System Debuts At National Business Aviation Convention", The Boeing Company From 1995 to 1996, Holder led Boeing's Future Space Transportation organizations, which included Boeing's participation in the

X-33 The Lockheed Martin X-33 was a proposed uncrewed, sub-scale technology demonstrator suborbital spaceplane that was developed for a period in the 1990s. The X-33 was a technology demonstrator for the VentureStar orbital spaceplane, which was pl ...

/Reusable Launch Vehicle Program.
"McDonnell Douglas / Boeing Joint Press Release 29-Nov-94"
"Companies Hope to Build Rocket That Would Take Off and Land Vertically" New York Times
"McDonnell Douglas/Boeing Team wins NASA contract to study new re-usable launch vehicle" McDonnell Douglas press release Holder was the Chairperson for

COMSTAC The Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) is an advisory board within the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It was established in 1984 and provides information, advice, and recommendations to the FAA administrator w ...

at the

US Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the president of the United States a ...

from May 2000 until October 2003.
,"COMSTAC Advisory Committee meeting Washington D.C. October 30, 2002"
,"Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee October 19, 2000 MEETING MINUTES" In 2002, he joined

Andrews Space Andrews Space was founded in 1999 by Jason Andrews and Marian Joh to be a catalyst in the commercialization, exploration and development of space. Originally named Andrews Space & Technology, the company shortened its name in 2003 to Andrews Space ...

as Vice President Space Systems, where he was responsible for the company's space system design, development, and new business activities. He led the company to its first DoD contracts on the

Falcon Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Some small species of falcons with long, narrow wings are called hobbies, and some that hover while hunting are called kestrels. Falcons are widely distrib ...

program, a joint

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adva ...

effort.
"Andrews Space Wins Two DARPA FALCON Contracts" He was also the manager for a joint effort between

Northrop Grumman Corporation Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense company. With 97,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $40 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military technology provi ...

(NGC) and Andrews Space in the NASA funded 2nd Generation Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) program.
"NGC selects Andrews Space to Support Vehicle Concept Development for NASA's Space Launch Initiative" In 2006, Holder joined

AirLaunch LLC AirLaunch was an aerospace design and development company headquartered in Kirkland, Washington. They had hoped to provide launch services for launching payloads into orbits around the Earth. This was to be realized through a method called ai ...

(founded by space entrepreneur Gary Hudson) as Chief Program Executive. Under his leadership, AirLaunch achieved several technical milestones including the largest and heaviest object ever dropped from a

C-17 The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) between the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas. The C-17 carries forward the name of two previ ...

and the largest and longest Vapor Pressurized rocket engine firings in history.
"Operational C-17A used to break another record with AirLaunch in DARAP / Air Force Falcon Small Lunch Vehicle Program" He then started Holder Aerospace, an engineering consulting company in partnership with Curtis Gifford, located in Renton, Washington.
"About the Partners" Holder Consulting Group He is on the board of advisors for Space For Humanity, Space for Humanity. As of 2016, Holder co-founded Radian Aerospace, a space company developing a single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane, the Radian One, and is its Chief Technology Officer.

References

External links

The Boeing CompanyAndrews SpaceHolder AerospaceSpace Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holder, Livingston L. Jr. United States Air Force Academy alumni 1956 births Living people American astronauts

Biography

See also

References

External links