Since 2022, he has focused his efforts on overseeing the development of deep-space flight trajectories for the several commercial asteroid survey and mining missions currently planned by AstroForge.
HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA, January 08, 2024 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Clyde Colin Helms has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Leveraging more than four decades of excellence in aerospace within the satellite and launch industry, Mr. Helms has earned distinction as a principal engineer for AstroForge, Inc. Since 2022, he has focused his efforts on overseeing the development of deep-space flight trajectories for the several commercial asteroid survey and mining missions currently planned by AstroForge.
Mr. Helms started his career in 1978 with Rockwell International as a member of the technical staff for the space shuttle operations and ground at Kennedy Space Center, later becoming a test engineer with McDonnell-Douglas for Space Shuttle payload integration at KSC in 1983. He continued his career with McDonnell-Douglas Astronautics at Huntington Beach first as Payload Assist Module flight software engineer and secondly as cognizant engineer for Delta-II guidance computer manufacturing restart. In 1991 he transitioned to a role in systems engineering, integration and testing for the International Space Station where he bridged the transition as a systems engineer from Space Station Freedom to the International Space Station integration and test program. In this capacity he designed and built key test equipment for the integration of Space Station elements.
In 1996 he transitioned to a role of ground software manager for Delta IV/EELV proposal effort. Following the EELV proposal award in 1998 he joined Boeing North American advanced systems at Seal Beach, CA, as research and development engineer for the Teledesic and Ellipso satellite programs.
Following the termination of these programs in 2002, he served as a senior engineer for research and development for Boeing Phantom Works where he became a major contributor to Phase A and B proposals for the DARPA Orbital Express program. Following the proposal win, he continued with the Orbital Express program developing the mission operations and planning system and, as part of an onsite mission operations team, conducting the autonomous rendezvous and proximity operation demonstration from Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque.
At the conclusion of Orbital Express, he was assigned chief engineer for shared ground IPT at Boeing Satellite Systems International in El Segundo, CA. In that capacity he was responsible for mission assurance for DirecTV Satellites, NASA TDRS satellites, and SkyTerra/MSV mobile communication satellites. At the same time, he performed mission assurance functions for the NRO/National Systems programs. In 2013, he was elected by his peers as a Boeing Associate Technical Fellow in recognition of his broad expertise and many industry contacts. In 2014 he was assigned to the Mexico Mobile Communications satellite program as gateway chief engineer responsible for the design and construction of two in-country mobile satellite gateways. He retired from Boeing Satellites in late 1996 and started the technical consulting partnership, Freelance Rocket Science, performing studies for customers such as DigitalSats, SeraData, AR Space Systems and publishing papers on low-thrust mission design, asteroid rendezvous, and the Rocket Launch business.
To prepare for his professional journey, Mr. Helms earned a Bachelor of Science in physics from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1977. He also completed coursework towards a master's degree in digital communications. He has been a long-time member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
Among his professional accomplishments, Mr. Helms was awarded the "Astro" by the Flight Director for his crucial contributions to the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Orbital Express Space Operations Architecture program. He is particularly proud of his early work as a flight software specialist for the Space Shuttle orbiter and to have contributed to the development of the initial Shuttle launch operations procedures as wells as test of flight and ground software in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. He was on-console for the Space Transportation Systems 1 launch, the first orbital spaceflight of NASA's Space Shuttle program as well as STS-2 and 3, and present for the ill-fated launch of STS 58-L, the Challenger disaster.
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