McCaine, Jack, 1923-

From 1962-1979, Houstonian Jack McCaine served variously as project manager, architect, and general engineer for numerous NASA buildings and projects such as Mission Control Center, Buildings 30 and 48, an addition to the Central Heating and Cooling Plant, Building 24 at the Manned Spacecraft Center, and Emergency Power Building 48. The Manned Spacecraft Center became the Johnson Space Center in 1973.

Jack McCaine was born in 1923 in Houston. He attended Texas A&M College prior to WWII and graduated in 1950 from the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture.

He joined the Spacecraft Center Area Office, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1962. From August 1962 - January 1966, Jack McCaine was employed as project manager for the design and construction of the Mission Control Center, Buildings 30 and 48, and an addition to the Central Heating and Cooling Plant, Building 24 at the Manned Spacecraft Center. This project had an extremely tight schedule, being tied to the space program in progress. This was a first--no one had built a Mission Control Center before. He was project manager for design of Project Engineering Facility, Building 45, which is a seven-story office building. He was also manager for design of Test Operations Support Facility, Building 32A. This was an addition to the large vacuum chamber building.

In addition to the above, he handled specification-writing chores for the Area Office, plus various small projects.

From January 1966 to June 1975, he was an architect, with the Engineering Division, Manned Spacecraft Center, which became the Johnson Space Center in 1973.

Some of the projects that he was responsible for include the design of Engineering Building 17, which is a two-story office building, the design of Systems Integration and Mockup Facility, Building 9a. This is the facility (a large, air conditioned hanger) that contained the full-scale mockup of the Shuttle which visitors were allowed to visit. The West end of the facility contained a large air-bearing floor that was a first-of-its-kind.

Jack McCaine was also Project Manager for various projects such as a proposed addition to Emergency Power Building 48. While in his position, he was responsible for facility preparations for Presidential visits, astronaut returns and other events.

He also handled facility modifications for various exhibits, the museum area of Building 2 and updated and maintained construction guide specifications for JSC.

From June 1975 to December 1979, he served as a General Engineer in the Engineering Division, Nasa, Johnson Space Center. In this capacity, he was Manager of the Construction Services Contract. This contract provided day-to-day, on-site services for modifications to buildings and facilities. This included a work order system handling all types of construction tasks and employing 40 to 60 craftsmen plus superintendents, estimating and accounting support. This effort provided construction services for a wide range of tasks and normally had 200+ tasks in the system at one time.