Lee Willis is a K-State alumni, graduating with his mechanical engineering degree before joining the ranks at NASA and rising to his current position as a senior project engineer at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Willis will be the featured speaker and presenter at Space Suits: The Wardrobe for Space, tonight at the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering at Kansas State University.
Willis has been employed by NASA/JSC for over 35 years. In 1982, he moved to Texas to begin his career at NASA, and has been a spacesuit and flight hardware designer, project engineer, project manager and now a system safety engineer with NASA/ Johnson Space Center.
He played an integral role in the design of the LEASAT Salvage Mission’s Satellite Capture Device, the Neutral Buoyancy Portable Life Support System used for astronauts’ underwater training, and designed several Advanced Space Suit components and flight hardware items during his career at NASA.
Willis was lead safety engineer for the VIPER Lunar Rover project and currently works on the safety assurance of flight hardware developments for the International Space Station and the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.
This is not the first time Willis has brought the manifestation of his engineering expertise to KSU. In 1985, Willis facilitated the presentation of what was then NASA’s most advanced spacesuit at the Hale Library.
Wills is a retired Senior Master Sergeant of the United States Air Force Reserve and a decorated Iraq War veteran. He was a member of the 147 Civil Engineer Squadron and served honorably in Baghdad Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2007.
The event is from 6:30-7:30 p.m. and is hosted by the Multicultural Engineering Program's Student Advisory Board.