Frank H. Bauer received his Engineering Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University. His aerospace career spans over 40 years within NASA and private industry. In his current position he serves as President/Sole Proprietor of FBauer Aerospace Consulting Services, providing systems engineering, GN&C, spaceborne GPS/GNSS, formation flying and small spacecraft development expertise and consultation services. Currently, he supports NASA as a Standing Review Board member of the Commercial Crew program and as a discipline expert as part of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center GN&C Technical Discipline team. He also represents the U.S. government on GPS/GNSS Strategy and Policy, including representing the U.S. on international delegations negotiating joint GNSS interoperability strategies.
Mr. Bauer’s primary research interests include spaceborne applications of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and space vehicle formation flying. He was the principal investigator of 4 spaceflight GPS and formation flying experiments including the AMSAT-OSCAR-40 GPS experiment, investigating the use of GPS above the constellation.
His hobbies include astronomy, amateur radio, and flying.
Frank obtained his amateur radio license in 1974 while he was a high school student. Using the callsign KA3HDO, Frank has dedicated his amateur radio activities to several space-related amateur radio initiatives. He is the Vice President of Human Spaceflight Programs for the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT-NA), the Chairman of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) international team and the ARISS-US team program manager. As such, he has led the ARISS international team in the development, qualification, testing, and operation of the ham radio systems on-board ISS. This team has pioneered a ham radio system on ISS that serves the amateur radio community through educational outreach, public outreach, and amateur radio experimentation.
Frank was also responsible for setting up and operating the world-wide retransmission of Space Shuttle Air-to-Ground Communications from the Goddard Amateur Radio Club, WA3NAN. This effort, started in 1983 for Owen Garriott’s ham-in-space mission, provided a critical conduit of information to hams attempting to contact astronaut hams prior to the time when internet connectivity became ubiquitous.