Greg Paxton came to NASA 10 years after working with electronics systems in the United States Navy for more than seven years. He also worked for the United States Army where he developed software for and maintained fixed- and rotary-wing simulators and support systems at Ft. Rucker, AL for the Directorate of Training, Doctrine and Simulation.
At NASA Greg has operated three scientific payloads on-orbit, including SAGE III Meteor-3M for 10 years. In his role with SAGE III on ISS, he designs, develops, and implements operations software, plans and procedures for ground testing, on-orbit testing, and operation of scientific payloads.
Greg works with engineers, scientists, management, and a variety of other developers.
“It’s exciting to work with people that are all very good at what they do,” he said. “I also simply enjoy the work. Planning, writing software, and resolving difficult issues make it a joy to come to work on Monday morning.”
One of Greg’s most memorable accomplishments so far was the successful launch and commissioning of SABER on the TIMED mission.
“When I arrived one month prior to launch, it was a steep learning curve with a lot of hard work, but we were able to get the payload commissioned on time. SABER has been collecting excellent scientific data for over 10 years now,” he said. “It is really satisfying being a part of something like that.”
Greg is currently the Ground Systems Lead for the SAGE III payload on the ISS and would like to be part of developing and building a multi-mission operations center at Langley Research Center.