LCS grad soars at NASA, retires after 38 years

(Photo contributed) Kevin Petersen, a 1969 Le Mars Community School graduate, prepares for a flight in a F-18 at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif. Petersen retired this month as the center's director after a 38-year career with NASA. He started as an engineer and rose through the administrative ranks to lead the center. [Click to enlarge]

A man who started his journey in the math and science classrooms of Le Mars Community High School finished his career this month at the top of NASA's center for experimental flight research.

Kevin Petersen, a 1969 LCS grad, retired from Dryden Flight Research Center as the director after serving nearly 38 years.

Petersen's interest in math and science was piqued while sitting in the desks of LCS.

Glendon Peterson, of Le Mars, Petersen's high school physics and trigonometry teacher, remembers him as "a very good student" and an inquisitive one at that.

"He wanted to know the why's, how things worked," the now-retired teacher said.

After graduation, Petersen, the son of Virginia and the late Robert Petersen of Le Mars, landed at Iowa State University, studying aerospace engineering.

In his second year there, Petersen got a letter that changed his life.

It was an invitation from NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, for him to work as part of a student cooperative program. NASA is the U.S. government's space science agency.

"It was a great opportunity," Petersen said in a phone interview. "It turned out to be the opportunity of my career."

Starting in 1971, Petersen spent three summers working at the Dryden Flight Research Center, in Edwards, Calif.

Petersen described those summers as an internship or training program "so you really know what you're getting into."

"It basically confirmed my interest in aeronautics and aerospace technology," he said.

NASA scooped him up full-time when he graduated in 1974.

He started as an engineer on flight research programs. In the 1980s, he was promoted to supervise a group of about 30 people. He continued to climb in management, and in 1993, he was named acting deputy center director.

Six years later, he was named center director, managing the entire Dryden center including 1,100 people. For a decade, Petersen managed the well-being and safety of the center, and worked to shape its future.

A 38-year career at NASA can't help but have a little excitement.

The agency claims to be the first to fly "the newest, the fastest, the highest," and Petersen can attest.

"The first time a new vehicle flies is always memorable," he said.

He was there when the X-29A, a forward-swept wing fighter, made it's successful first flight.

"It was the first time we've flown a vehicle with wings that swept forward instead of sweeping aft, like on most airplanes," Petersen explained.

He saw Helios, a large craft powered strictly by the sun, fly higher than 96,000 feet.

And he saw the innovative engines of the unpiloted X-43A aircraft take it to record-breaking speeds.

"Normal jet engines can't fly above 2,000 mph," Petersen said. "We flew it (the X-43A) at Mach 7 and then Mach 10."

That's equal to about 7,000 mph.

"You'd go from California to Iowa in about 15 minutes," he said.

The flight was a trial run to show the engine technology was possible,

"To fly what others only imagine," Petersen said. "That's been one of our visions for the center for the last five or six years."

Dryden Flight Research Center has a history, he said, of taking concepts coming from people's minds and putting them in the air, cutting edge technology.

The technology for practical applications of the X-43A is still 20 years out, Petersen said, noting that the military will probably lead the way, but high-speed applications in commercial flight could follow.

"Often the things that we worked on at Dryden, the applications would be 10-20 years down the road before they'd show up in a commercial application."

One example, Petersen said, is the "winglets" at the end of many commercial airplanes's wings. These small vertical surfaces help the plane decrease fuel consumption and increase the craft's range.

"That technology was first flown at Dryden back in the '80s," Petersen said.

As center director, he focused some of his career on preparing Dryden for the years to come.

"Some of the areas we most recently got into involves high-altitude unmanned vehicles. That's kind of the next round of technology, vehicles with no pilot in them," Petersen explained.

These vehicles can fly at very high altitudes, up to 60,000 feet, and fly for 30 hours at a time. They can be used for science purposes like monitoring the ice caps and doing research on climate change. These vehicles are valuable for NASA, Petersen said, especially in the current times when environmental concerns are strong.

Dryden researchers are also part of developing Orion, the next shuttle planned to bring astronauts to the moon. They are preparing the launch abort systems test. This system allows the crew capsule to escape a launch failure.

"I think the center is well-positioned for future," Petersen said.

Before Petersen retired, coworkers pulled an April Fools prank on him. On April 1, Petersen was pulling into his normal parking spot at Dryden when, to his surprise, it was already filled -- with a NASA test fighter plane.

"It was one of the planes I'd worked on early in my career," Petersen said with a laugh.

As an engineer and administrator, Petersen didn't spend much of his career in the air. He did get the chance to fly in an F-18, a ride that included going supersonic and twisting through a few roll maneuvers.

"That was a thrill," he said.

Now that he's retiring, Petersen is looking for his thrills in more of a relaxing way -- spending some time in Hawaii with his wife Linda, then visiting family, including his mother, Virginia Petersen, in Le Mars.

After a high-flying career, he's ready for some to slow down a bit. Still, he said he wouldn't change much about his path from Le Mars to NASA.

"I always viewed my career as a very fortunate opportunity to have," Petersen said. "It's hard to imagine a more satisfying career."