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# LSU’s rocket man
- URL: https://www.redeyebr.com/lsus-rocket-man/
- Published: 2026-08-28T02:38:14.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-28T02:38:14.000Z
- Description: Before Elon Musk, there was Max Faget, a lead engineer for NASA. He designed space capsules that let the U.S. lead the world in space exploration.
- Author: Mukul Verma

SpaceX launches rockets and astronauts into orbit, but its engineers are building on a foundation laid decades ago by LSU graduate Maxime “Max” Faget, who helped design the spacecraft that carried America to the moon and the nation’s first reusable spacecraft, the Space Shuttle.

After earning his mechanical engineering degree, Faget became the principal designer of the Mercury spacecraft. Mercury’s success paved the way for Project Gemini, where Faget and his NASA team designed a two-person capsule and perfected the docking maneuvers that would prove essential to Apollo. He later helped design the Space Shuttle and served as director of engineering and development at NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center.

For all his accomplishments, Faget never forgot LSU.

“He loved everything about LSU,” his son Guy recalled [in a story ](https://www.lsu.edu/eng/news/2019/05/faget50years.php?ref=redeyebr.com)published by the LSU College of Engineering. “One thing he wasn’t shy about was bragging about LSU sports.”

In June 2000, Faget suffered a heart attack while watching LSU play in the College World Series championship game. When he arrived at the hospital, the first thing he asked his daughter, Ann Faget, was, “What’s the score?”

She reported back after every inning. LSU won that day, capturing its fifth College World Series title and putting LSU’s rocket man in a very “good mood,” his daughter said.

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