Mickey Fitzmaurice, NOAA SARSAT Systems Engineer
Over the last 24 years Michael “Mickey” Fitzmaurice has worked as a satellite and ground systems engineer with the United States Naval Research Lab (NRL), NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite Data Information System (NESDIS). A majority of his career has been involved with the build, launch and operation of NASA and NOAA’s Low Earth Orbiting Satellites (LEOs-Tiros, HST, TRMM, LAWS, etc.), various Space Shuttles and NOAA’s Geosynchronous Orbiting Environmental Satellites (GOES). After completing his undergraduate studies in Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland in 1986 and graduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in 1990, Mr. Fitzmaurice worked on the first two servicing missions of the Hubble Space Telescope. His current role as the NOAA SARSAT program’s technical leadfor space systems has him managing the build and activation of a MEOSAR tracking station in Hawaii in support of the US Search & Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking (SARSAT) program. The US SARSAT program is a founding partner of global Cospas-Sarsat program which has saved over 27,000 lives worldwide since its inception in 1982.