Henry M. Cathey, Jr.
Henry Cathey is an Engineer with New Mexico State Universities, Physical Science Laboratory. He has spent the past four years as the Engineering Group Supervisor for PSL at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.
He received his Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
He received his Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering, with a concentration in Space Systems, from the George Washington University in Washington, DC.
He has worked extensively in the areas of thermal analysis and in the design of electronics packaging. He has designed radio receivers, spectrophotometers, colorimeters, and numerous spaceflight electronic boxes.
Henry performed thermal analyses for portions of the X-Ray Timing Explorer (XTE), the Tropical Rainfall Mission (TRMM), NASA’s first Discovery mission the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft, and for the first Hubble Space Telescope Repair Mission.
Currently he is the Balloon Vehicle and Recovery Systems Manager for the Ultra Long Duration Balloon (ULDB) program. His balloon related activities are the continuation of his thermal and performance analysis efforts relating to scientific balloons, the development and characterization of a new materials and balloon designs for long duration missions, providing thermal analysis support for balloon flight operations, the development of a Fuel Cell power system to be used on long duration balloon flights, and a feasibility study for a Martian balloon.
