Craig Sumner
Craig Sumner built a distinguished career in the space industry beginning in 1969 on the Apollo program as a college intern. He worked on the design and build of the Lunar Roving Vehicle, and was one of the few that actually trained the Apollo Astronauts to drive the vehicle on the Moon’s surface. His Vietnam lottery number came up and he joined the United States Air Force, eventually flying C-130s before he was honorably discharged from the USAF in 1976 as a Captain. He returned to Huntsville and back to NASA. He worked payloads and various other pieces of the Space Shuttle program before he finally retired from NASA in 1997 as the Deputy Project Manager for the Space Shuttle External Tank. After NASA, he worked for United Space Alliance and was the Chief Engineer of Space Shuttle Propulsion when he retired alongside the Space Shuttle Program in 2011. After this retirement, he was asked to come back in support of Boeing as a Subject Matter Expert on the Thermal Protection System for the Core Stage of SLS/Artemis, finally retiring for good in 2024!
Craig passed away April 27, 2026.