Founded in 1958 a division of Pratt and Whitney, UTC Fuel Cells was spun off as its own subsidiary company, International Fuel Cells, in 1985, renamed UTC Fuel Cells in 2001, and sold to ClearEdge Power in 2013, who then declared bankruptcy in 2014, and were acquired by the Doosan Group and rechristened Doosan Fuel Cell America later that year. Throughout its existence, the facility was located in South Windsor, at 195 Governor’s Highway. In 1966, the company began to work on alkaline fuel cells for the NASA Apollo program, which provided electrical power for onboard systems in the lunar and command-service modules. The company continued to develop and produce fuel cells for the Shuttle orbiter throughout its lifespan.
Joseph Bost was born March 9, 1938, and grew up in Leadville, CO. He attended the University of Colorado at Boulder, graduating with degrees in business administration and chemical engineering, He was hired at Pratt and Whitney in 1962, and came to Connecticut, where he lived the rest of his life. During his tenure at the company, he worked first as an engineer for the fuel cell program, and from 1975 to his retirement in 2001 he served as Program Manager of the Space Shuttle Orbiter Program. He passed away in 2006, and his papers were left to Judith Galaise.
This collection contains materials relating to the design, manufacture, and use of spacecraft fuel cells produced at the UTC Power facility in South Windsor, as collected by UTC Power engineer Joseph A. Bost. The materials comprise photographs, company memoranda and internal documents, blueprints and technical drawings, several printed and bound publications, NASA and UTC publications, and assorted small items and artifacts relating to United States manned spaceflight from the Apollo period through the late Shuttle period, roughly 1966-2001.
Business or Organization Records, Personal or Family Papers
Tags: Apollo Program, Cold War, Fuel Cells, NASA, Space Shuttle Program, UTC Power