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"930609.DFC" (254529 bytes) was created on 06-09-93
Enter {V}iew, {X}MODEM, {Y}MODEM, {K}ERMIT, ? for HELP, or {M}enu [V]...
09-Jun-93 Daily File Collection
These files were added or updated between 08-Jun-93 at 21:00:00 {Central}
and 09-Jun-93 at 21:00:14.
=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:930609.REL
6/09/93: HUBBLE CLOSING IN ON AGE OF THE UNIVERSE
Paula Cleggett-Haleim
Headquarters, Washington, D.C. June 9, 1993
Jim Elliott
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
RELEASE: 93-108
Astronomers working with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope today announced
results of a major step to measure the Hubble Constant and the age of the
universe.
The team has discovered Cepheid (variable) stars in its first target, the
spiral galaxy M81, and measured the distance of the galaxy to be 11 million
light years. They quote a 10 percent uncertainty in this result (plus or minus
approximately one million light years). Previous estimates of the galaxy's
distance have ranged from 4.5 to 18 million light years.
Cepheids are pulsating stars that become alternately brighter and fainter
with periods ranging from 10 to 50 days. Astronomers have known for over 50
years that the periods of these stars precisely predict their total luminous
power, which allows their distance to be measured.
The Hubble Constant (H0) is the ratio of the recession velocities of
galaxies to their distances in the expanding universe. The age of the universe
can be estimated from the Hubble Constant and currently is thought to lie
between 10 and 20 billion years. A more precise measurement of the Hubble
Constant is required to narrow this range.
Team member Dr. Wendy Freedman of Carnegie Institution of Washington said,
"In our two observed fields in M81, we have found a total of 32 Cepheids.
Decades of previous work from the largest ground-based telescopes have only
succeeded in measuring periods for two Cepheids. HST's superior resolution and
its ability to schedule observations when and where they are required give HST
a special advantage in this work."
Messier 81 is a large spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. It is
a rotating system of gas and stars similar to the Milky Way galaxy, but
approximately twice as massive. This galaxy achieved prominence 3 months ago
when the brightest northern supernova of this century was discovered.
The astronomers used the Hubble's Wide Field & Planetary Camera to study
two fields in M81. In each field they took 22 20-minute exposures spread over
14 months to find the variable stars and measure their periods and brightness.
The project is one of several so-called "key projects" designated top
priority scientific goals for the Hubble Space Telescope. This extragalactic
distance scale key project aims to discover Cepheids and measure the distances
to galaxies to determine an accurate value of the Hubble Constant.
Dr. Jeremy Mould, Principal Investigator for the team, said, "This is
the first step in a major program of measuring distances of galaxies with the
Hubble Space Telescope. When the telescope is serviced later this year, and the
new Wide Field & Planetary Camera is installed with its corrective optics, we
plan to use the same technique on galaxies up to 50 million light years away,
which will allow us to measure the Hubble Constant, the rate of expansion of
the universe.
"We have 3 years of work ahead of us and, until the project is
substantially complete, I won't speculate on what value of H0 this work will
yield."
Although this HST key project has the explicit goal of getting H0, other
astronomers have used Hubble to search for Cepheids. Previous HST observations
carried out by a different group also demonstrated HST's unique capability by
resolving 27 Cepheids in another galaxy.
The announcement was made at the 182nd meeting of the American
Astronomical Society in Berkeley, Calif. The results are detailed in several
presentations by team members at that meeting and are being submitted for
publication in the Astrophysical Journal.
The team, led by Jeremy Mould (California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, Calif.), consisted of Sandra Faber and Garth Illingworth (Univ. of
California, Santa Cruz); Wendy Freedman, John Graham and Robert Hill (Carnegie
Institution of Washington); John Hoessel (Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison); John
Huchra (Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.); Shaun Hughes (Caltech)
(Univ. of Calif., Santa Cruz); Robert Kennicutt (Univ. of Arizona, Tuscon);
Myung Gyoon Lee (Carnegie); Barry Madore (Caltech); Peter Stetson (Dominion
Astrophysical Observatory, Victoria, British, Columbia); Anne Turner (Univ.
Arizona, Tuscon); and Laura Ferrarese and Holland Ford (Space Telescope Science
Institute, Baltimore).
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=
=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:930609.SHU
KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT 6/9/93
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER SPACE SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT
Wednesday, June 9, 1993
KSC Contact: Bruce Buckingham
-----------------------------STS-57------------------------------
Mission: STS-57/Spacehab/EURECA-Retrieval Orbital Alt. 287 miles
Vehicle: Endeavour/OV-105 Inclination: 28 degrees
Location: Pad 39-B Crew Size: 6
Launch Date/Window: June 20, 9:37 - 10:48 a.m. EDT
Expected KSC Landing Date/Time: June 28, 8:34 a.m.
Expected Mission Duration: 7 days/23 hours (if cryogenics allow)
NOTE: NASA set June 20 as the new date for the STS-57 Shuttle
mission. The countdown is scheduled to begin at 2:30 a.m.
June 17.
IN WORK TODAY:
* Complete securing operations of new high pressure oxidizer
turbopump (HPOTP) to main engine 2
* Main engine 2 leak checks
* Engine 2 heatshield installation
WORK SCHEDULED:
* Helium Signature test
* Flight readiness test
* Launch countdown preparations
* Final helium service of SHOOT payload
WORK COMPLETED:
* Reaction control system helium tank pressurization
* Preliminary HPOTP leak checks
-----------------------------STS-51------------------------------
Mission: STS-51/ACTS-TOS/ORFEUS-SPAS Orbital Alt.: 184 miles
Vehicle: Discovery/OV-103 Inclination: 28 degrees
Location: OPF bay 3 Crew Size: 5
Mission Duration: 9 days/22 hours Target Launch Date: July 17
IN WORK TODAY:
* Install Ku-Band deploy assembly from Columbia
* Orbiter mid-body, forward and aft closeouts
* Holddown post closeouts in mobile launcher platform in VAB
WORK SCHEDULED:
* Test newly installed Ku-band assembly and antenna
* Close payload bay doors for rollover
* Main engine installation
WORK COMPLETED:
* Main landing gear functional tests
* Aerosurface and flight control final cycling and checks
* Remove Ku-Band deploy assembly
-----------------------------STS-58------------------------------
Mission: STS-58/SLS-2 Orbital Altitude: 176 miles
Vehicle: Columbia/OV-102 Inclination: 39 degrees
Location: OPF bay 2 Crew Size: 7
Mission Duration: 14 days
Target launch period: Early/Mid September
IN WORK TODAY:
* Operations to remove fifth cryogenic tank set
* Remove main engines (2 and 3 are out)
* Configure payload bay for SLS-2
* Preparations to install extended duration orbiter (EDO) pallet
* Waste containment system checks and tests
WORK SCHEDULED:
* Install extended duration orbiter pallet
WORK COMPLETED:
* Remove Ku-Band deploy assembly
* Preparations for engine removal
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=
=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:930609.SKD
Daily News/Tv Sked 6-9-93
Daily News
Wednesday, June 9, 1993
Two Independence Square, Washington, D.C.
Audio Service: 202/358-3014
% STS-57 mission status;
% NASA satellite looks at Sun's role;
% Frozen water found on Jupiter's moon Io;
% NASA investigates how stars are born.
As June 20 approaches, technicians at the Kennedy Space Center continue to
prepare the Space Shuttle Endeavour for the upcoming flight. With countdown
scheduled to begin at 2:30 am, June 17, workers plan to conduct the helium
signature test, a flight readiness test and begin launch coutdown preparations.
Today. workers are conducting main engine #2 leak checks and install the
heatshield to main engine #2 as well.
Endeavour and her 6 person crew will carry the ACTS playload and retrieve the
EURECA satellite. The STS-57 mission expected to conclude at the Kennedy Space
Center on June 28 at 8:34 am.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Researchers at the Langley Research Center report that data from a new NASA
satellite are leading them to believe that the sun plays a major role in the
composition of the Earth's protective ozone layer. The data suggests that the
sun's high energy bombardment of the atmosphere may be triggering chemical
reactions which influence the global ozone balance.
This new data was provided by an experiment from NASA's Solar Anomalous and
Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX). Scientist will use the new
information, together with computer models, to help determine how these
electrons affect levels of ozone and other trace chemicals in the atmosphere.
SAMPEX is the first satellite in NASA's emerging stable of small, quickly
mounted Explorer missions. The satellite, launch in 1992, is a collective
effort between NASA and Germany.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Scientist have found evidence of water molecules frozen in the surface ices of
Jupiter's moon Io. This finding was discovered by scientist onboard NASA's
Kuiper Airborne Observatory. The observatory has the ability to conduct
infrared astronomy while flying above 99 percent of Earth's atmospheric water
vapor. "We have finally seen the spectral signature of something for which
we've been looking for years -- water on Io," said Dr. Jesse Bregman of the
Ames Research Center. The absorption lines for water were found in the infrared
spectrum of the Io.
Besides Earth, Io is the only body in the solar system that is known to have
intense volcanic activity. The Voyager spacecraft made this discovery over 10
years ago. Patches of sulfur and sulfur dioxide frosts cover the satellite.
The water ice is combined with more abundant sulfur dioxide ice on Io's
surface. By studying the variation of water ice on Io, scientist would be able
to determine if the water correlates with volcanic activity.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In an effort to discover how stars are born, NASA astronomers have used a new
approach to observe the motion of multiple clumps of interstellar gas that are
on the verge of becoming new stars and planetary systems.
NASA's High Resolution Microwave Survey (HRMS) performed the experiment with
its new instruments. HRMS is searching for radio signals that may be coming
from technological civilizations on planets orbiting distant stars.
HRMS is part of NASA's Toward Other Planetary Systems program. The program is
designed to find and study planets forming around stars.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA TV.
Note that all events and times may change without notice and that all times
listed are Eastern.
Wednesday, June 9, 1993
NOON NASA Today news program.
12:15 pm Aeronautics & Space Report.
12:30 pm Aero Oddities.
1:00 pm Legacy of Gemini.
1:30 pm Mercury: Exploration of a Planet.
2:00 pm Launch Box #3
2:30 pm NASA Biosatellite Program.
3:00 pm Transition Years.
3:30 pm Regaining the Edge.
NASA TV is carried on GE Satcom F2R, transponder 13, C-Band, 72 degrees West
Longitude, transponder frequency is 3960 MHz, audio subcarrier is 6.8 MHz,
polarization is vertical.
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=
=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:930609A.REL
6/09/93: HUBBLE FINDS EVIDENCE OF STELLAR CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
Paula Cleggett-Haleim
Headquarters, Washington, D.C. June 9, 1993
Jim Elliott
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
RELEASE: 93-109
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has discovered a group of stars that
apparently have been canabalized of their cooler outer gas layers by other
passing stars, resulting in stellar "naked cores" with surface temperatures
five times hotter than Earth's sun.
"This is amazing. These objects represent a totally new population of
very blue stars," says Guido De Marchi, of the Space Telescope Science
Institute (STScI), Baltimore, Md., and the University of Florence, Italy. "When
we started wondering what they could be, we realized that they may be among the
first observed stars to have been stripped."
The stars are located deep in the core of M15, one of the densest globular
clusters known. A globular cluster is a "beehive swarm" of several hundred
thousand stars held together by each other's gravity. If the cluster is
exceptionally dense, chances are increased for close encounters of stars, in
which bodies with strong gravitational attraction could strip other stars of
their outer material.
"If our planet were there, we would see 100,000 stars closer than Proxima
Centauri, the closest star to Earth's sun," said De Marchi. "The night sky
would look simply fantastic."
De Marchi and Dr. Francesco Paresce of the European Space Agency, explain
that this could only have happened if stars are so crowded together in the core
they can be stripped of much of their gaseous envelopes by the gravitational
pull of bypassing stars.
This stellar cannibalism could only take place where stars are so crowded
together that chances for close encounters are exceptionally high, they said.
De Marchi and Paresce interpret the existence of this new class of stars as
possible evidence that the center of the globular cluster has contracted to an
extremely dense condition called "core collapse."
This research by De Marchi and Paresce is being announced at a press
briefing today at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Berkeley,
Calif.
The astronomers were surprised to discover about 15 hot blue stars
segregated at the very core of M15. Their surface temperatures are above 60,000
degrees Fahrenheit (the sun's surface is 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit).
This discovery was possible only with the Hubble Space Telescope because
it can resolve stars at the dense core of M15 that are only a blur from the
ground. The observations also required Hubble's sensitivity to ultraviolet
light to distinguish the hot stars from the surrounding cooler stars.
Such very hot blue stars can be made in several ways besides stellar
stripping, such as magnetically stirred-up super massive stars, white dwarfs,
or planetary nebulae. However, the researchers are quick to point out that
none of these scenarios explain why the stars are so concentrated and so
numerous only at M15's core.
"This rules out a number of other hypotheses," says De Marchi. He explains
that all the blue stars lie within a 1 light-year radius at the very core of
the cluster. What's more, 90 percent of them are concentrated at the very
center of this volume, within a 4/10th light-year radius.
Close Encounters Of The Stellar Kind
According to this scenario, the new population of blue stars was once the
cores of red giant stars. Such stars expand to enormous sizes late in their
lives, due to changes in the nuclear "burning" at their cores. If the sun were
the size of a red giant it would engulf the inner solar system out to the
diameter of Mars' orbit.
Red giant stars are so distended that they have a weak gravitational hold
on their outer envelope of cool gas. If a normal main sequence star passes
within a few stellar radii it can rob gas from the red giant. This stripping
process can, in theory, expose a star's core -- the nuclear fusion "engine"
that powers stars.
However, conditions where stars are so crammed together are unusual. For
example, in the Earth's stellar neighborhood the stars are typically a million
times farther apart than the distance between the sun and Earth.
Conversely, due to the relentless pull of gravity, the stars at the core
of M15 have converged so that they are at about 500 times the distance between
the Earth and the sun.
The astronomers used Hubble Space Telescope's Faint Object Camera to probe
the core of M15 (15th object in the Messier Catalog) which is located 30,000
light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. M15 is visible to the naked eye
as a hazy spot 1/3rd the diameter of the full Moon.
Core Collapse
Globular clusters are compact "beehive swarms" of several hundred thousand
stars loosely held together under the mutual pull of gravity. The stars are
deflected by gravity if they pass near each other. During such close
encounters a smaller, less massive star steals momentum from the larger star.
Because of these near-collisions, the massive stars lose momentum and
"fall" toward the center of the cluster, like marbles rolling to the bottom of
a funnel. Given enough time, massive stars should accumulate at the cluster's
center. Theoretically, this could become a runaway collapse where stars
quickly crowd together.
Previous Hubble observations suggest that the cluster probably contains
powerful energy "storage batteries" in the form of double star systems, which
prevent the core from imploding all the way down to a black hole. The rapid
orbits of two stars about each other in tight binary systems create a powerful
reservoir of kinetic energy. A few double stars can stir up the motion of
in-falling stars. This would cause the core to rebound, like squeezing and
relaxing a rubber ball.
Astronomers have long sought evidence for core collapse at the heart of
very dense clusters like M15. To estimate the true stellar density from
ground-based visible light photographs, however, has been difficult. The
Hubble observation does not tell whether the core is still collapsing or
rebounding.
Previous research by a team led by Paresce found that another class of
unusual blue star, dubbed blue stragglers, also dwell at the cores of some
clusters. However, even the "stragglers" are not as hot nor as blue as the new
population of blue stars in M15. Most of the blue stragglers are probably
double stars that gravitationally capture each other. The capture stirs-up the
stragglers' nuclear fuel. The star "resets its clock" to relive a bright and
hot youth.
The researchers plan to use Hubble to peer into the cores of other
globular star clusters to see if this new class of star dwells elsewhere as
well.
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=
=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:930609B.REL
6/09/93: ULYSSES REACHES HIGH LATITUDE
PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109.
Contact: Diane Ainsworth
June 9, 1993
The Ulysses spacecraft has entered unexplored regions of the solar system
as it crossed today into the highest latitude ever achieved relative to the
sun's equator of more than 32 degrees, scientists on the joint NASA-European
Space Agency (ESA) mission reported.
"Ulysses is gathering important new information about the sun and its
environment as it continues to journey farther south toward the sun's southern
pole," said JPL's Dr. Edward Smith, NASA project scientist for the mission.
"About one year from now, Ulysses will be 70 degrees south of the sun's
equator and begin its primary mission of exploring the highest solar
latitudes," he said.
The heliosphere is the region of space carved out of the interstellar
medium by the solar wind, Smith said. While reaching higher latitudes with
respect to the sun than Voyager 1, the Ulysses spacecraft is not traveling
toward the edge of the heliosphere, as are both Voyagers, but rather is heading
back toward the sun.
The spacecraft, launched by the space shuttle Discovery in October 1990,
used a gravity assist at Jupiter in February 1992 to dive out of the ecliptic
plane and set its course in a highly inclined solar orbit. The spacecraft's
trajectory will bring it over the south pole of the sun in September 1994, at
which time Ulysses will climb to its maximum latitude of slightly more than 80
degrees.
The spacecraft and its scientific instruments are in excellent condition,
the flight team reported. Data coverage since launch has been consistently
close to 100 percent, as a result of efforts by the joint NASA-ESA mission
operations team and NASA's Deep Space Network.
Although the most exciting phase of the mission -- the study of the sun's
polar regions -- will not begin until mid-1994, Ulysses has already produced a
wealth of new scientific results. Those results include:
* The first direct detection of neutral helium atoms arriving from
interstellar space.
* The measurement of micron-sized dust grains arriving from interstellar
space.
* The first measurement of singularly charged hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen
and neon ions, entering the heliosphere as interstellar neutral atoms and then
becoming ionized.
* The highest resolution measurements to date of the isotopic composition
of cosmic ray nuclei.
In addition to these discoveries, Ulysses' path through Jupiter's
magnetosphere at the time of the February 1992 flyby enabled mission
investigators to acquire new and highly valuable data concerning this very
complex and dynamic plasma environment, Smith said.
"Among the most exciting results to emerge is the possible entry into the
polar cap of Jupiter's magnetosphere near the time of closest approach (on Feb.
8, 1992)," Smith said, "and the unexpectedly strong influence of the solar wind
deep in the magnetosphere during the outbound passage."
With the Jupiter flyby safely accomplished, the scientific focus is now
directed toward phenomena related to the increasing latitude of the spacecraft.
"Already there is strong evidence that by the end of the summer, Ulysses
will be firmly in the domain of the southern polar magnetic field, having
permanently crossed the boundary separating northern and southern fields,"
Smith said.
Following the flight over the sun's southern pole, Ulysses' orbit will
bring the spaceprobe swinging back toward the sun's equatorial regions, heading
for its second high-latitude excursion in mid-1995, this time above the north
polar region.
"By the end of September 1995, Ulysses will have put our knowledge of the
sun and its environment in a completely new perspective," said Dr. Richard
Marsden, ESA project scientist.
"Only by studying the way the sun influences the space around it in a
global manner can we hope to understand its influence on our local
interplanetary environment."
The European Space Agency, which built the spacecraft along with Dornier
Systems of Friedrichshafen, Germany, oversees Ulysses' in-orbit operations.
NASA, which provided the launch vehicle and the spacecraft's electrical power
source, is responsible for tracking and data acquisition through the Deep Space
Network, and for processing and distributing scientific data.
The mission operations center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
Calif., is staffed by a joint team of ESA/European Space Operations Centre and
NASA technicians. The scientific payload is provided by institutes from
ESA-member states and the United States.
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=
=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:3_6_2.TXT
NOTE: This file is too large {28324 bytes} for inclusion in this collection.
The first line of the file:
SHUTTLE PAYLOAD FLIGHT ASSIGNMENTS
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=
=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:6_2_18_5.TXT
NOTE: This file is too large {27551 bytes} for inclusion in this collection.
The first line of the file:
- Current Two-Line Element Sets #206 -
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=
=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:6_2_2_45_6.TXT
STS-57 TV SKED, REV B
***********************************************************************
NASA SELECT TV SCHEDULE
STS-57
6/09/93
Rev B
***********************************************************************
NASA Select programming can be accessed through GE Satcom F2R, transponder 13.
The frequency is 3960 MHz with an orbital position of 72 degrees West
Longitude. This is a full transponder service and will be operational 24 hours
a day.
Two hour edited programs of each flight day will be replayed for Hawaii and
Alaska on Spacenet 1, transponder 17L, channel 18. The orbital position is 120
degrees West Longitude, with a frequency of 4060 MHz. Audio is on 6.8 MHz. The
programs will begin on launch day and continue through landing airing at
11:01PM Central Time.
This NASA Select Television Schedule of mission coverage is available on
COMSTORE, the mission TV schedule computer bulletin board service. Call
713/483-5817, and follow the prompts to access this service.
------------------------ Thursday, June 17 ----------------------------
L-3 Days
SUBJECT SITE CDT
------- ---- ---
COUNTDOWN STATUS BRIEFING KSC TBD
CREW ARRIVAL KSC TBD
------------------------- Friday, June 18 -----------------------------
L-2 Days
NOTE: TIMES AND BRIEFINGS MAY CHANGE.
COUNTDOWN STATUS BRIEFING KSC 8:00 AM
SPACEHAB PAYLOADS BRIEFING KSC 8:30 AM
SPACEHAB PAYLOADS BRIEFING KSC 12:30 PM
SPACEHAB PAYLOADS BRIEFING JSC 1:00 PM
SPACEHAB PAYLOADS BRIEFING KSC 1:30 PM
------------------------- Saturday, June 19 ---------------------------
L-1 Day
NOTE: TIMES AND BRIEFINGS MAY CHANGE.
COUNTDOWN STATUS BRIEFING KSC 8:00 AM
EURECA BRIEFING KSC 8:30 AM
OACT/SPACEHAB BRIEFING KSC 9:00 AM
GAS BRIEFING KSC 9:30 AM
SHOOT BRIEFING KSC 10:30 AM
PRE-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE KSC 11:45 AM
-------------------------- Sunday, June 20 ----------------------------
FD1
ORBIT SUBJECT SITE MET CDT
----- ------- ---- --- ---
* NASA SELECT COVERAGE BEGINS KSC 04:00 AM
LAUNCH KSC 00/00:00 08:37 AM
NASA SELECT ORIGINATION SWITCHED JSC 00/00:08 08:45 AM
TO JSC
MECO JSC 00/00:08 08:45 AM
1 NASA SELECT ORIGINATION SWITCHED KSC 00/00:13 08:50 AM
TO KSC
1 LAUNCH REPLAYS WILL OCCUR KSC 00/00:13 08:50 AM
APPROX. 5 MIN. AFTER MECO
(T=30:00)
1 POST LAUNCH PRESS CONFERENCE KSC 00/00:53 09:30 AM
1 NASA SELECT ORIGINATION SWITCHED JSC 00/01:28 10:05 AM
TO JSC
2 SPACEHAB ACTIVATION 00/02:30 11:07 AM
(Not Televised)
3 Ku BAND ANTENNA DEPLOY 00/03:15 11:52 AM
(Not televised)
3 MISSION UPDATE JSC 00/03:23 12:00 PM
4 VTR DUMP OPPORTUNITY/CREW CHOICE TDRE 00/05:45 02:22 PM
T=10:00
4 NASA SELECT ORIGINATION SWITCHED KSC 00/06:23 03:00 PM
TO KSC
4 ENGINEERING LAUNCH REPLAYS KSC 00/06:23 03:00 PM
(T=30:00)
5 NASA SELECT ORIGINATION SWITCHED JSC 00/06:53 03:30 PM
TO JSC
6 CREW SLEEP 00/08:30 05:07 PM
7 REPLAY OF FD1 ACTIVITIES JSC 00/10:23 07:00 PM
--------------------------- Monday, June 21 ---------------------------
FD2
NOTE: ADDITIONAL SPACEHAB ACTIVITIES MAY BE DOWNLINKED
THROUGOUT THE DAY.
11 CREW WAKE UP 00/16:30 01:07 AM
14 P/TV02 LEMZ-1 ACTIVATION TDRW 00/21:10 05:47 AM
T=5:00
15 P/TV02 EFE ACTIVATION TDRW 00/22:26 07:03 AM
T=15:00
16 P/TV01 RMS CHECKOUT TDRE 01/00:28 09:05 AM
T=30:00
17 P/TV02 SCG OPERATIONS TDRE 01/01:20 09:57 AM
T=20:00
17 P/TV01 RMS PAYLOAD BAY SURVEY TDRE 01/01:20 09:57 AM
T=18:00
(May be pre-empted by SCG science tv)
18 P/TV02 SPACEHAB ACTIVITIES TDRE/W 01/02:50 11:27 AM
T=20:00
18 MISSION UPDATE JSC 01/03:23 12:00 PM
20 MISSION STATUS BRIEFING JSC 01/05:23 02:00 PM
22 CREW SLEEP 01/08:30 05:07 PM
24 REPLAY OF FD2 ACTIVITIES JSC 01/10:23 07:00 PM
-------------------------- Tuesday, June 22 ---------------------------
FD3
NOTE: ADDITIONAL SPACEHAB ACTIVITIES MAY BE DOWNLINKED
THROUGHOUT THE DAY.
27 CREW WAKE UP 01/16:30 01:07 AM
30 P/TV02 TDS-SE SOLDER ACTIVITY TDRW 01/22:07 06:44 AM
T=10:00
31 P/TV02 TDS-SE SOLDER ACTIVITY TDRE 01/22:17 06:54 AM
T=50:00
34 P/TV06 BELO STATIONS INTERVIEW TDRW 02/03:05 11:42 AM
T=15:00
34 MISSION UPDATE JSC 02/03:23 12:00 PM
34 P/TV02 LEMZ ACTIVITY TDRE 02/03:50 12:27 PM
T=5:00
35 P/TV05 EMU CHECKOUT DOWNLINK TDRE 02/04:55 01:32 PM
OPPORTUNITY
T=59:00
(May not be televised/crew choice)
36 MISSION STATUS BRIEFING JSC 02/05:23 02:00 PM
37 CREW SLEEP 02/08:00 04:37 PM
35 REPLAY OF FD3 ACTIVITIES JSC 02/10:23 07:00 PM
------------------------- Wednesday, June 23 --------------------------
FD4
NOTE: TELEVISION DOWNLINK OF EURECA RETRIEVAL ACTIVITIES
WILL OCCUR ORBITS 44 - 49 AS TDRSS AND GSTDN
COVERAGE ALLOWS. ADDITIONAL SPACEHAB ACTIVITIES
MAY ALSO BE DOWNLINKED.
42 CREW WAKE UP 02/16:00 12:37 AM
44 P/TV02 EFE OPERATIONS TDRE 02/19:00 03:37 AM
T=20:00
44 ORBITER NH BURN (Not Televised) 02/19:24 04:01 AM
45 ORBITER NC4 BURN (Not Televised) 02/20:11 04:48 AM
45 RENDEZVOUS DOWNLINK OPPORTUNITY MIL 02/20:14 04:51 AM
T=14:00
46 Ku BAND TO RADAR MODE (Not Televised) 02/21:15 05:52 AM
46 RENDEZVOUS DOWNLINK OPPORTUNITY MIL 02/21:53 06:30 AM
T=9:00
46 ORBITER NCC BURN (Not Televised) 02/22:20 06:57 AM
47 Ti BURN (Not Televised) 02/23:19 07:56 AM
47 RENDEZVOUS DOWNLINK OPPORTUNITY GDS, 02/23:27 08:04 AM
T=17:00 MIL
47 RMS POISE FOR CAPTURE (Not Televised) 02/23:32 08:09 AM
48 RENDEZVOUS DOWNLINK OPPORTUNITY GDS, 03/01:05 09:42 AM
T=22:00 MIL
48 Ku BAND TO COMM (Not Televised) 03/01:15 09:52 AM
48 P/TV07 EURECA GRAPPLE TDRE 03/01:35 10:12 AM
48 P/TV07 EURECA BERTH (Not Televised) 03/02:00 10:37 AM
49 P/TV07 EURECA BERTH CON'T TDRE 03/02:43 11:20 AM
T=32:00
49 MISSION UPDATE JSC 03/03:23 12:00 PM
50 P/TVO7 VTR DUMP OPPORTUNITY TDRW 03/04:22 12:59 PM
CREW CHOICE
50 MISSION STATUS BRIEFING JSC 03/05:23 02:00 PM
52 CREW SLEEP 03/08:00 04:37 PM
54 REPLAY OF FD4 ACTIVITIES JSC 03/10:23 07:00 PM
------------------------- Thursday, June 24 ---------------------------
FD5
NOTE: TELEVISION DOWNLINK OF EVA ACTIVITIES WILL OCCUR
ORBITS 59 - 65 AS TDRSS COVERAGE ALLOWS. SPACEHAB
ACTIVITIES MAY ALSO BE DOWNLINKED.
57 CREW WAKE UP 03/16:00 12:37 AM
58 P/TV05 EVA PREP DOWNLINK TDRW 03/18:00 02:37 AM
OPPORTUNITY
T=10:00
59 P/TV05 EVA PREP DOWNLINK TDRE/W 03/18:25 03:02 AM
OPPORTUNITY
T=55:00
62 P/TV05 EVA PREP DOWNLINK TDRW 03/23:00 07:37 AM
OPPORTUNITY
T=10:00
62 P/TV05 AIRLOCK DEPRESS TDRE 03/23:40 08:17 AM
T=7:00
62 P/TV05 AIRLOCK EGRESS (Not Televised) 04/00:00 08:37 AM
EVA BEGINS
63 EVA & RMS ACTIVITIES TDRW/E 04/00:22 08:59 AM
T=63:00
64 EVA & RMS ACTIVITIES TDRW/E 04/01:45 10:22 AM
T=56:00
65 EVA & RMS ACTIVITIES TDRW/E 04/03:26 12:03 PM
T=32:00
65 AIRLOCK INGRESS TDRE 04/04:00 12:37 PM
T=5:00
65 MISSION UPDATE JSC 04/04:53 01:30 PM
65 MISSION STATUS BRIEFING JSC 04/06:23 03:00 PM
67 CREW SLEEP 04/08:00 04:37 PM
69 REPLAY OF FD5 ACTIVITIES JSC 04/10:23 07:00 PM
--------------------------- Friday, June 25 ---------------------------
FD6
NOTE: ADDITIONAL SPACEHAB ACTIVITIES MAY BE DOWNLINKED
THROUGHOUT THE DAY.
73 CREW WAKE UP 04/16:00 12:37 AM
75 P/TV02 EFE ACTIVITIES TDRE 04/19:50 04:27 AM
T=10:00
76 P/TV02 EFE ACTIVITIES TDRW 04/21:45 06:22 AM
T=15:00 (May not have Ku coverage)
78 P/TV08 FARE TEST #5 DOWNLINK TDRW 05/00:00 08:37 AM
OPPORTUNITY
T=19:00
78 P/TV02 LEMZ-3 ACTIVITIES TDRW 05/01:03 09:40 AM
T=5:00
80 MISSION UPDATE JSC 05/03:23 12:00 PM
80 P/TV06 CNN INTERVIEW TDRW 05/03:45 12:22 PM
T=15:00
81 MISSION STATUS BRIEFING JSC 05/05:23 02:00 PM
82 CREW SLEEP 05/07:00 03:37 PM
84 REPLAY OF FD6 ACTIVITIES JSC 05/10:23 07:00 PM
87 CREW WAKE UP 05/15:00 11:37 PM
------------------------- Saturday, June 26 ---------------------------
FD7
NOTE: ADDITIONAL SPACEHAB ACTIVITIES MAY BE DOWNLINKED
THROUGHOUT THE DAY.
90 P/TV02 EFE ACTIVITIES TDRE 05/19:00 03:37 AM
T=15:00
92 P/TV02 LEMZ-4 ACTIVITIES TDRE 06/00:00 08:37 AM
T=5:00
95 MISSION UPDATE JSC 06/03:23 12:00 PM
95 MISSION STATUS BRIEFING JSC 06/05:23 02:00 PM
96 CREW SLEEP 06/06:00 02:37 PM
99 REPLAY OF FD7 ACTIVITIES JSC 06/09:23 06:00 PM
102 CREW WAKE UP 06/14:00 10:37 PM
-------------------------- Sunday, June 27 ----------------------------
FD8
NOTE: SPACEHAB ACTIVITIES MAY BE DOWNLINKED THROUGOUT THE DAY.
107 CREW CONFERENCE TDRW 06/22:00 06:37 AM
T=30:00
110 Ku BAND STOW 07/02:20 10:57 AM
(Not televised)
110 MISSION UPDATE JSC 07/03:23 12:00 PM
112 MISSION STATUS BRIEFING JSC 07/05:23 02:00 PM
112 CREW SLEEP 07/05:30 02:07 PM
114 REPLAY OF FD8 ACTIVITIES JSC 07/09:23 06:00 PM
117 CREW WAKE UP 07/13:30 10:07 PM
---------------------------- Monday, June 28 --------------------------
FD9
122 DEORBIT BURN (Not Televised) 07/21:48 06:25 AM
123 LANDING KSC 07/22:56 07:33 AM
POST LANDING PRESS CONFERENCE KSC L+TBD
LANDING REPLAYS KSC L+TBD
------------------------ DEFINITION OF TERMS -----------------------
CAN-DO: Variety of experiments located in two canisters in payload bay
CDT: Central Daylight Time
EFE: Environmental control and life support system Flight Experiment
EURECA: European Retrievable Carrier
EVA: Extra-vehicular activity
FARE: Fluid Acquisition and Resupply Experiment
FD: Flight Day
GBA: GAS Bridge Assembly
GDS: Goldstone Tracking Station
GSTDN: Ground Spacecraft Tracking and Data Network
JSC: Johnson Space Center
KSC: Kennedy Space Center
LEMZ: Liquid Encapsulated Melt Zone
MECO: Main Engine Cut-off
MET: Mission elapsed Time. The time which begins at the moment
of launch and is read: Days/Hours:minutes. Launch= 00/00:00
MIL: Merrit Island Tracking Station
MSB: Mission Status Briefing
NC4: Orbital correction burn
NCC: Orbital correction burn
NH: Orbital height adjustment burn
TI: Terminal Initiation burn
P/TV: Photo/Television Scene
RMS: Remote Manipulator System
SCG: Solution Crystal Growth
SPACEHAB:Commercial module carried in payload bay
STS: Space Transportation System
TDS-SOLDER:Tools and Diagnostic System Solder
TDRE,W: Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, both East and West longitudes
TDRSS: Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System
T=: Time event duration equals
VTR: Video Tape Recorder
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
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HUBBLE CLOSING IN ON AGE OF THE UNIVERSE
Paula Cleggett-Haleim
Headquarters, Washington, D.C. June 9, 1993
Jim Elliott
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
RELEASE: 93-108
Astronomers working with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope today announced
results of a major step to measure the Hubble Constant and the age of the
universe.
The team has discovered Cepheid (variable) stars in its first target, the
spiral galaxy M81, and measured the distance of the galaxy to be 11 million
light years. They quote a 10 percent uncertainty in this result (plus or minus
approximately one million light years). Previous estimates of the galaxy's
distance have ranged from 4.5 to 18 million light years.
Cepheids are pulsating stars that become alternately brighter and fainter
with periods ranging from 10 to 50 days. Astronomers have known for over 50
years that the periods of these stars precisely predict their total luminous
power, which allows their distance to be measured.
The Hubble Constant (H0) is the ratio of the recession velocities of
galaxies to their distances in the expanding universe. The age of the universe
can be estimated from the Hubble Constant and currently is thought to lie
between 10 and 20 billion years. A more precise measurement of the Hubble
Constant is required to narrow this range.
Team member Dr. Wendy Freedman of Carnegie Institution of Washington said,
"In our two observed fields in M81, we have found a total of 32 Cepheids.
Decades of previous work from the largest ground-based telescopes have only
succeeded in measuring periods for two Cepheids. HST's superior resolution and
its ability to schedule observations when and where they are required give HST
a special advantage in this work."
Messier 81 is a large spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. It is
a rotating system of gas and stars similar to the Milky Way galaxy, but
approximately twice as massive. This galaxy achieved prominence 3 months ago
when the brightest northern supernova of this century was discovered.
The astronomers used the Hubble's Wide Field & Planetary Camera to study
two fields in M81. In each field they took 22 20-minute exposures spread over
14 months to find the variable stars and measure their periods and brightness.
The project is one of several so-called "key projects" designated top
priority scientific goals for the Hubble Space Telescope. This extragalactic
distance scale key project aims to discover Cepheids and measure the distances
to galaxies to determine an accurate value of the Hubble Constant.
Dr. Jeremy Mould, Principal Investigator for the team, said, "This is
the first step in a major program of measuring distances of galaxies with the
Hubble Space Telescope. When the telescope is serviced later this year, and the
new Wide Field & Planetary Camera is installed with its corrective optics, we
plan to use the same technique on galaxies up to 50 million light years away,
which will allow us to measure the Hubble Constant, the rate of expansion of
the universe.
"We have 3 years of work ahead of us and, until the project is
substantially complete, I won't speculate on what value of H0 this work will
yield."
Although this HST key project has the explicit goal of getting H0, other
astronomers have used Hubble to search for Cepheids. Previous HST observations
carried out by a different group also demonstrated HST's unique capability by
resolving 27 Cepheids in another galaxy.
The announcement was made at the 182nd meeting of the American
Astronomical Society in Berkeley, Calif. The results are detailed in several
presentations by team members at that meeting and are being submitted for
publication in the Astrophysical Journal.
The team, led by Jeremy Mould (California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, Calif.), consisted of Sandra Faber and Garth Illingworth (Univ. of
California, Santa Cruz); Wendy Freedman, John Graham and Robert Hill (Carnegie
Institution of Washington); John Hoessel (Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison); John
Huchra (Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.); Shaun Hughes (Caltech)
(Univ. of Calif., Santa Cruz); Robert Kennicutt (Univ. of Arizona, Tuscon);
Myung Gyoon Lee (Carnegie); Barry Madore (Caltech); Peter Stetson (Dominion
Astrophysical Observatory, Victoria, British, Columbia); Anne Turner (Univ.
Arizona, Tuscon); and Laura Ferrarese and Holland Ford (Space Telescope Science
Institute, Baltimore).
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
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6/09/93: HUBBLE FINDS EVIDENCE OF STELLAR CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
Paula Cleggett-Haleim
Headquarters, Washington, D.C. June 9, 1993
Jim Elliott
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
RELEASE: 93-109
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has discovered a group of stars that
apparently have been canabalized of their cooler outer gas layers by other
passing stars, resulting in stellar "naked cores" with surface temperatures
five times hotter than Earth's sun.
"This is amazing. These objects represent a totally new population of
very blue stars," says Guido De Marchi, of the Space Telescope Science
Institute (STScI), Baltimore, Md., and the University of Florence, Italy. "When
we started wondering what they could be, we realized that they may be among the
first observed stars to have been stripped."
The stars are located deep in the core of M15, one of the densest globular
clusters known. A globular cluster is a "beehive swarm" of several hundred
thousand stars held together by each other's gravity. If the cluster is
exceptionally dense, chances are increased for close encounters of stars, in
which bodies with strong gravitational attraction could strip other stars of
their outer material.
"If our planet were there, we would see 100,000 stars closer than Proxima
Centauri, the closest star to Earth's sun," said De Marchi. "The night sky
would look simply fantastic."
De Marchi and Dr. Francesco Paresce of the European Space Agency, explain
that this could only have happened if stars are so crowded together in the core
they can be stripped of much of their gaseous envelopes by the gravitational
pull of bypassing stars.
This stellar cannibalism could only take place where stars are so crowded
together that chances for close encounters are exceptionally high, they said.
De Marchi and Paresce interpret the existence of this new class of stars as
possible evidence that the center of the globular cluster has contracted to an
extremely dense condition called "core collapse."
This research by De Marchi and Paresce is being announced at a press
briefing today at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Berkeley,
Calif.
The astronomers were surprised to discover about 15 hot blue stars
segregated at the very core of M15. Their surface temperatures are above 60,000
degrees Fahrenheit (the sun's surface is 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit).
This discovery was possible only with the Hubble Space Telescope because
it can resolve stars at the dense core of M15 that are only a blur from the
ground. The observations also required Hubble's sensitivity to ultraviolet
light to distinguish the hot stars from the surrounding cooler stars.
Such very hot blue stars can be made in several ways besides stellar
stripping, such as magnetically stirred-up super massive stars, white dwarfs,
or planetary nebulae. However, the researchers are quick to point out that
none of these scenarios explain why the stars are so concentrated and so
numerous only at M15's core.
"This rules out a number of other hypotheses," says De Marchi. He explains
that all the blue stars lie within a 1 light-year radius at the very core of
the cluster. What's more, 90 percent of them are concentrated at the very
center of this volume, within a 4/10th light-year radius.
Close Encounters Of The Stellar Kind
According to this scenario, the new population of blue stars was once the
cores of red giant stars. Such stars expand to enormous sizes late in their
lives, due to changes in the nuclear "burning" at their cores. If the sun were
the size of a red giant it would engulf the inner solar system out to the
diameter of Mars' orbit.
Red giant stars are so distended that they have a weak gravitational hold
on their outer envelope of cool gas. If a normal main sequence star passes
within a few stellar radii it can rob gas from the red giant. This stripping
process can, in theory, expose a star's core -- the nuclear fusion "engine"
that powers stars.
However, conditions where stars are so crammed together are unusual. For
example, in the Earth's stellar neighborhood the stars are typically a million
times farther apart than the distance between the sun and Earth.
Conversely, due to the relentless pull of gravity, the stars at the core
of M15 have converged so that they are at about 500 times the distance between
the Earth and the sun.
The astronomers used Hubble Space Telescope's Faint Object Camera to probe
the core of M15 (15th object in the Messier Catalog) which is located 30,000
light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. M15 is visible to the naked eye
as a hazy spot 1/3rd the diameter of the full Moon.
Core Collapse
Globular clusters are compact "beehive swarms" of several hundred thousand
stars loosely held together under the mutual pull of gravity. The stars are
deflected by gravity if they pass near each other. During such close
encounters a smaller, less massive star steals momentum from the larger star.
Because of these near-collisions, the massive stars lose momentum and
"fall" toward the center of the cluster, like marbles rolling to the bottom of
a funnel. Given enough time, massive stars should accumulate at the cluster's
center. Theoretically, this could become a runaway collapse where stars
quickly crowd together.
Previous Hubble observations suggest that the cluster probably contains
powerful energy "storage batteries" in the form of double star systems, which
prevent the core from imploding all the way down to a black hole. The rapid
orbits of two stars about each other in tight binary systems create a powerful
reservoir of kinetic energy. A few double stars can stir up the motion of
in-falling stars. This would cause the core to rebound, like squeezing and
relaxing a rubber ball.
Astronomers have long sought evidence for core collapse at the heart of
very dense clusters like M15. To estimate the true stellar density from
ground-based visible light photographs, however, has been difficult. The
Hubble observation does not tell whether the core is still collapsing or
rebounding.
Previous research by a team led by Paresce found that another class of
unusual blue star, dubbed blue stragglers, also dwell at the cores of some
clusters. However, even the "stragglers" are not as hot nor as blue as the new
population of blue stars in M15. Most of the blue stragglers are probably
double stars that gravitationally capture each other. The capture stirs-up the
stragglers' nuclear fuel. The star "resets its clock" to relive a bright and
hot youth.
The researchers plan to use Hubble to peer into the cores of other
globular star clusters to see if this new class of star dwells elsewhere as
well.
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
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6/09/93: ULYSSES REACHES HIGH LATITUDE
PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109.
Contact: Diane Ainsworth
June 9, 1993
The Ulysses spacecraft has entered unexplored regions of the solar system
as it crossed today into the highest latitude ever achieved relative to the
sun's equator of more than 32 degrees, scientists on the joint NASA-European
Space Agency (ESA) mission reported.
"Ulysses is gathering important new information about the sun and its
environment as it continues to journey farther south toward the sun's southern
pole," said JPL's Dr. Edward Smith, NASA project scientist for the mission.
"About one year from now, Ulysses will be 70 degrees south of the sun's
equator and begin its primary mission of exploring the highest solar
latitudes," he said.
The heliosphere is the region of space carved out of the interstellar
medium by the solar wind, Smith said. While reaching higher latitudes with
respect to the sun than Voyager 1, the Ulysses spacecraft is not traveling
toward the edge of the heliosphere, as are both Voyagers, but rather is heading
back toward the sun.
The spacecraft, launched by the space shuttle Discovery in October 1990,
used a gravity assist at Jupiter in February 1992 to dive out of the ecliptic
plane and set its course in a highly inclined solar orbit. The spacecraft's
trajectory will bring it over the south pole of the sun in September 1994, at
which time Ulysses will climb to its maximum latitude of slightly more than 80
degrees.
The spacecraft and its scientific instruments are in excellent condition,
the flight team reported. Data coverage since launch has been consistently
close to 100 percent, as a result of efforts by the joint NASA-ESA mission
operations team and NASA's Deep Space Network.
Although the most exciting phase of the mission -- the study of the sun's
polar regions -- will not begin until mid-1994, Ulysses has already produced a
wealth of new scientific results. Those results include:
* The first direct detection of neutral helium atoms arriving from
interstellar space.
* The measurement of micron-sized dust grains arriving from interstellar
space.
* The first measurement of singularly charged hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen
and neon ions, entering the heliosphere as interstellar neutral atoms and then
becoming ionized.
* The highest resolution measurements to date of the isotopic composition
of cosmic ray nuclei.
In addition to these discoveries, Ulysses' path through Jupiter's
magnetosphere at the time of the February 1992 flyby enabled mission
investigators to acquire new and highly valuable data concerning this very
complex and dynamic plasma environment, Smith said.
"Among the most exciting results to emerge is the possible entry into the
polar cap of Jupiter's magnetosphere near the time of closest approach (on Feb.
8, 1992)," Smith said, "and the unexpectedly strong influence of the solar wind
deep in the magnetosphere during the outbound passage."
With the Jupiter flyby safely accomplished, the scientific focus is now
directed toward phenomena related to the increasing latitude of the spacecraft.
"Already there is strong evidence that by the end of the summer, Ulysses
will be firmly in the domain of the southern polar magnetic field, having
permanently crossed the boundary separating northern and southern fields,"
Smith said.
Following the flight over the sun's southern pole, Ulysses' orbit will
bring the spaceprobe swinging back toward the sun's equatorial regions, heading
for its second high-latitude excursion in mid-1995, this time above the north
polar region.
"By the end of September 1995, Ulysses will have put our knowledge of the
sun and its environment in a completely new perspective," said Dr. Richard
Marsden, ESA project scientist.
"Only by studying the way the sun influences the space around it in a
global manner can we hope to understand its influence on our local
interplanetary environment."
The European Space Agency, which built the spacecraft along with Dornier
Systems of Friedrichshafen, Germany, oversees Ulysses' in-orbit operations.
NASA, which provided the launch vehicle and the spacecraft's electrical power
source, is responsible for tracking and data acquisition through the Deep Space
Network, and for processing and distributing scientific data.
The mission operations center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
Calif., is staffed by a joint team of ESA/European Space Operations Centre and
NASA technicians. The scientific payload is provided by institutes from
ESA-member states and the United States.
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
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LEWIS RESEARCH CENTER
21000 Brookpark Road
Cleveland, Ohio 44135
NASA's Lewis Research Center occupies 350 acres of land adjacent to the
Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, some 20 miles southwest of Cleveland,
Ohio.
More than 140 buildings comprise the center which is staffed by about 2,800
government employees and some 2,200 on-site contractors. Additional facilities
are located at Plum Brook Station, about 3 miles south of Sandusky, Ohio.
The center was established in 1941 by the National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics (NACA). Named for George W. Lewis, NACA's Director of Research
from 1924 to 1947, the center developed an international reputation for its
research on jet propulsion systems.
Lewis is NASA's lead center for research, technology, and development in
aircraft propulsion, space propulsion, space power, and satellite
communications.
The center has been advancing propulsion technology to enable aircraft to
fly faster, farther and higher, and also focused its research on fuel economy,
noise abatement, reliability and reduced pollution.
The center pioneered efforts in the use of high energy fuels for both air
breathing and space propulsion. Projects demonstrated the practicality of
liquid hydrogen as a fuel leading to its use in the Apollo and the Space
Shuttle programs as prime examples.
Lewis has responsibility for developing the power system to provide the
electrical power necessary to accommodate the life support systems and research
experiments to be conducted aboard the space station. In addition, the center
is supporting the station in other major areas such as auxiliary propulsion
systems and communications.
Lewis is the home of the Microgravity Materials Science Laboratory, a unique
facility to qualify potential space experiments. Other facilities include a
Space Experiments Lab, Zero-Gravity Drop Tower, Powered Lift Facility, Icing
Research Tunnel, wind tunnels, space tanks, chemical rocket thrust stands, and
chambers for testing jet engine efficiency and noise. A major computer complex
supports both the center's scientific and administrative activities.
Individual computer work stations are dispersed throughout the center with
network connections between them. Lawrence J. Ross is Center Director.
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
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FOUR GIANTS OF THE LEWIS RESEARCH CENTER
An article by:
Robert W. Graham
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Lewis Research Center
Cleveland, Ohio 44135
May 1984
History is fascinating to read. But when one witnesses that history, it takes
on a new dimension of excitement and authenticity. Such has been my privilege
at my place of employment - the NASA Lewis Research Center.
Actually, my involvement and recollections go back more than a decade before
the Center was started. The land presently occupied by Lewis Research Center
was once the site of the huge parking lot and grandstands for the world-famous
National Air Races held in Cleveland beginning in 1929 and continuing
throughout the 1930's.
For a Cleveland boy fascinated by aviation, the annual Labor Day pilgrimage to
the Air Races was the highlight of the year.
I remember such notable flyers as Lindbergh, Doolittle, Turner, Hughes,
Earhart, Williams and Whitman. In 1933, I recall seeing a sleek
Wedell-Williams Special exceed 300 mph as a new speed record for a landbased
airplane.
It seems particularly fitting that the site of the National Air Races became
the location selected for the NACA Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory, which
eventually became the Lewis Research Center. This article focuses on four
outstanding leaders who have influenced the history of the Lewis Research
Center, and I have been fortunate to know all but one of them.
These Sketches are the result of the research I did for talks presented in the
Cleveland community about the history of Lewis Research Center. This research
uncovered some interesting information and photographs and rekindled some
personal memories. For me it was an inspiring experience to investigate and
recall experiences of the past associated with these four giants. I am
indebted to George W. Lewis, Jr., for supplying information about his father,
and also to Mike Kusenda for picture of the National Air Races.
Indeed, history is a fascinating, living subject, and I am glad I could share
some of it that has significance to Cleveland and the surrounding communities.
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
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GEORGE WILLIAM LEWIS
George William Lewis was born in Ithaca, New York, in 1882. He attended
Cornell University and graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in
1908. He remained at Cornell 2 more years to receive his Master's Degree. He
then joined the faculty of Swarthmore College in Philadelphia.
After industrial experience with the Clark Thompson Research Company in
Philadelphia, he was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of the newly formed
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1919. NACA was formed
during World War I by an Act of Congress which established a volunteer
committee to advise the Nation in the progress of aviation. The agency had a
very small beginning during World War I when the Army loaned a hangar and two
airplanes for some flight test work at Langley Field, Virginia.
In 1919 when George Lewis assumed the position of Executive Officer of NACA, he
had 20 employees and a very modest laboratory at Langley Field. However, in
his staff were several very brilliant, young engineers including Edward Warner,
Frederick Norton, and an engineering test pilot by the name of Edmund Allen.
These three men made significant contributions to early aviation in this
country. By training, George Lewis was a mechanical engineer and did not have
much background in the new emerging engineering area called aeronautics. (No
one did.) However, he recognized that the unpredictable performance of
airplanes could only be remedied when a thorough understanding of aerodynamics
was developed. In particular, the relation between the means of propulsion and
the flight characteristics of the airplane had to be established.
It can be said that his entire career was devoted, in essence, to building a
scientific basis for aeronautical engineering. As this new branch of
engineering advanced, largely through his efforts, he was able to secure more
adequate equipment for measurement, larger and faster wind tunnels, and special
wind tunnels to study the many aspects of aeronautical engineering problems.
Under his guidance the relatively small NACA stationed at Langley Field,
Virginia, was expanded to other laboratories in the country. First, a
laboratory at Moffett Field, California, called the Ames Laboratory, and
finally, a third laboratory at Cleveland, Ohio, which was devoted exclusively
to flight propulsion. In the development of these new laboratories, George
Lewis insisted that each one have a flight test division. "In order," as he
would say, "to study the scientific problem of flight with a view to practical
solution." (This quotation is from the enabling legislation for NACA.)
While Dr. Lewis was Director of Research for NACA, there were several
developments that he must personally be credited for in terms of the
accomplishment that came out of this organization. In the early 1930's, the
radial air-cooled engine was adopted for most airplanes, but it was handicapped
by excessive air drag due to the exposure of the cylinders of the engine to the
airstream. Through the effort of a team of researchers at Langley, a cowl was
developed which covered the engine in such a manner that only the air necessary
for cooling the engine went into the mouth of that cowl and across the
cylinders while the majority of the air on the outside passed over the
streamlined surface of the cowl. This development resulted in the dramatic
reduction of engine drag. Another practical development which was based on
NACA research was the flapped wing. The flapped wing, as we know today, has
enabled both improved landing and takeoff characteristics of the airplane. The
development of the flap was accompanied by the design of the tricycle-type
landing gear which prevented some of the hazardous noseovers that were common
in the landing of aircraft. The flight proof of these three developments, the
cowled engine cover, the flaps for wings, and the tricycle landing gear, was
accomplished in extensive research and flight test programs under NACA. Dr.
Lewis took personal interest in these developments. I never had the pleasure
of meeting or knowing Dr. Lewis. He died, apparently from overwork, in 1948
just before I joined the Flight Propulsion Laboratory. In recognition of his
great contribution to NACA and to aviation in this country and throughout the
world the Flight Propulsion Laboratory at Cleveland now bears his name. Two of
his sons did work at the Lewis Research Center, and I had the privilege of
being in the same organization for a number of years with George W. Lewis, Jr.
His son attested to his father's openmindedness. He never condemned anyone for
proposing new ideas. He encouraged the pioneers in rocketry to pursue their
ideas even though there was not wide acceptance of their concepts at the time.
Dr. Lewis was a close friend of Charles Lindbergh, and they shared common views
on the progress of the world aviation. Both were alarmed by the military
advances in Nazi Germany during the 1930's. Lindbergh chaired the special
committee that recommended to the Congress that an aircraft engine laboratory
be started.
Dr. Lewis was a brilliant engineer who had great organizational capabilities
and great personal warmth and charm, which endeared him to all who worked with
him. The loyalty of those who worked intimately with him contributed greatly
to the formation of NACA and the laboratories he founded.
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HUGH LATIMER DRYDEN
The second giant who contributed much to the history of the Lewis Research
Center is Hugh Latimer Dryden. He was a native of Maryland and earned his
Bachelor of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees at the Johns Hopkins
University. He received his doctorate in physics before he was 21. Throughout
his academic career, he was identified as an unusually brilliant scholar. And
this scholarship was characteristic of his entire professional career.
Immediately after leaving the Johns Hopkins University he was named Chief of
Aerodynamics Section of the Bureau of Standards where he embarked on a series
of pioneering research experiments in high-speed aerodynamics. These
achievements won him international recognition as a scientist. Within 4 years
he became the first researcher to take aerodynamic data at near the sonic
velocity. He continued some of his pioneering research in the study of
turbulence and boundary layer control. This research contributed much to the
understanding of the frictional flow of fluids over wings or other aerodynamic
shapes, and it advanced the science or aeronautics significantly during the
1920's. His work continues to be referenced by those who are doing research in
turbulence and boundary layers today.
Dr. Dryden became the Assistant Director of the National Bureau Of Standards in
1946, and then in just a few months he became its Associate Director. In 1947
he left the Bureau Standards to become the Director of Aeronautical Research
for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. In 1949 Dr. Dryden was
appointed Director of NACA, the highest position in the government agency. One
of the programs started under his direction was the X-15 rocket propelled
airplane, which proved to be the most advanced aircraft ever flown. It
provided flight experience at speeds in excess of six times the speed of sound
and at altitudes approximating 70 miles.
In 1958 the National Aeronautics and Space Act was signed and the National
Advisory Committee for Aeronautics became a part of the National Aeronautics
Space Administration (NASA). Dr. Hugh Dryden was named Deputy Administrator of
this newly formed agency. In the early days of NASA he was a dominant leader
in the manned space flight program from Project Mercury to Apollo.
In 1960, my wife and I had the pleasure of entertaining Dr. Dryden in our home
for a few days while he participated in a conference ("Conversations About the
Ethical Use of Knowledge") at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. Dr.
Dryden was the principal resource person in the area of space exploration. In
the concluding paragraphs of his prepared remarks, he said the following:
"How can space technology be channeled into peaceful efforts for
enterprises? It is necessary to choose suitable objectives of
research, development and application widely supported by public
opinion throughout the world. The sharing of benefits with other
nations and the free dissemination of the information obtained,
established in this area as in others, is a suitable atmosphere for the
promotion of peace. Support of the efforts of the international scientific
organizations and of the agencies of the United Nations represents a fruitful
avenue to the desired goal. When each of us faces the complexity of the
problem of the ethical use of scientific knowledge, he begins to doubt his
power to make a contribution to its solution. I can only say that one must
place his faith in the combined power of many individuals who sincerely strive
to use their talents and the opportunities provided by their jobs to become
channels through which the highest moral aspirations and ideals of man may be
realized to the greatest possible extent."
Those of us at the Lewis Center who knew and worked with Dr. Dryden while he
was Director of NACA or Deputy Administrator of NASA will remember a kindly,
soft-spoken man, who was devoted to the peaceful uses of science. His example
for scientific brilliance and for personal integrity remains with us as an
inspiration.
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EDWARD R. SHARP
The third giant to influence the history of the Lewis Research Center was
Edward R. Sharp. A native of Virginia, he began his professional career as an
officer in the United States Navy. He served from 1914 to 1919 and retired
with a reserve commission as a Lieutenant Commander. He joined the National
Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in February 1922 as its 54th employee.
Edward R. Sharp, known as Ray Sharp, was not a technical man by training. He
was educated as a lawyer at William and Mary College. As an employee of NACA
he was assigned to the Langley Laboratory in Virginia, and in a short time he
became Chief Administrative Officer, which made him the second in command of
the Laboratory. He served in that position from 1925 to 1940.
In the early 1940's when NACA was expanding, Ray Sharp was sent to Moffett
Field, California, to supervise the building program of the new Ames
Aeronautical Laboratory. He spent about a year in California before being
called back to Langley Field, Virginia, to initiate plans for a new laboratory
to be build in Cleveland, Ohio. He came to Cleveland in 1941 and was appointed
construction manager of the new Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory. He served
as the first manager of the Laboratory when it began operations in 1942. In
1947, his title was changed to Director of the Flight Propulsion Laboratory,
which became the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in 1948.
Ray Sharp established an enviable record as a builder of NACA laboratories. He
was a large man, imposing and handsome in appearance. He spoke with a deep,
soft Virginia drawl, and he was admired and well-liked by the entire staff
while he served as the Lewis Director. He had particularly strong ties to the
technicians and craftsman of the Laboratory and was extremely proud of their
accomplishments. During his tenure as Director of Lewis, he instituted a
strong apprentice program and, although that program is not as large as it once
was, it is still active at the Center in training technicians in many areas of
mechanical, electronic, and electrical support.
As mentioned earlier, Edward R. Sharp was not an engineer by training.
Nevertheless, he soon acquired a technical reputation as an authority on
aviation facilities and testing. For that reputation he received many
technical honors. He was elected President of the Institute of Aeronautical
Sciences, and he was a member of the Association for the Advancement of
Science. In 1947 he received the U.S. Medal of Merit, which was presented on
behalf of President Truman. In the 1940's he received two honorary doctorate
degrees from engineering schools. His talent was not limited to the
administration of the Lewis Research Center. He served the City of Cleveland
in many volunteer ways, including the American Red Cross, the Mayor's Airport
and Harbor Commission, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Community Fund. He
retired as Director of Lewis in 1961.
Dr. Sharp will always be remembered for his outstanding efforts in establishing
two of the NACA, now NASA, Centers -- Ames and Lewis. He was an effective
administrator, and he had the capability to train and assign people to specific
tasks in the technical area. He was extremely proud of the Lewis Research
Center and its staff, and he enjoyed the friendship and admiration of that
staff throughout the time he was associated with the Center. He would
frequently leave his desk in the Administration Building and journey into the
shops and laboratories of the Center and show his interests in what each
individual was doing. He also enjoyed showing "the Lab" to visiting
dignitaries from home and abroad. In my on contact with him, I can remember
trying to get authority to hire a person who was not yet a citizen of this
country but had a particular talent in an area of heat transfer that we wanted
at the Center. And I can remember how he persisted with the Department of
State and NASA Headquarters in getting the necessary approvals, one of which
was from Dr. Dryden, in order to hire this individual. Dr. Sharp's widow still
lives in Lakewood, Ohio, and is an infrequent visitor to the Lewis Research
Center. One of their sons, Bob, worked with me at the Center for approximately
a year and a half. He was an outstanding young researcher and is now a
professor at the University of Michigan.
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ABE SILVERSTEIN
The fourth person in these sketches of significant personalities associated
with the Lewis Research Center is Dr. Abe Silverstein, a native of Terre Haute,
Indiana. He is the only one of these four men who is still living. He and his
wife are residents of Fairview Park, Ohio.
Abe Silverstein joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1929
after graduating from Rose Polytechnic Institute in Indiana, which is now
called the Rose-Holeman Institute. His first NACA assignment was at the
Langley Center where he designed the first full-scale wind tunnel installed at
the laboratory. Using this new tunnel, he was in charge of conducting research
which had a marked effect of the aerodynamic design of World War II aircraft.
In 1943 Dr. Silverstein was transferred to the Cleveland Laboratory as Chief of
the Wind Tunnel and Flight Division with responsibility for the first major
facility, the Altitude Wind Tunnel, at the Lewis Center. This tunnel, which
was designed expressively for some propulsion and engine problems, was large
enough to house a full-scale engine, the cowling, and the integration of the
engine into the wing or airframe. One of the first research tasks performed in
the facility was a study of how to improve the cooling of the engine in the
B-29. This was a high priority project carried out near the close of World War
II. You probably are aware that the B-29 was the bomber which was designated
for the raids over Japan, and it was a B-29 that carried the first atomic bomb.
The Altitude Wind Tunnel was also used in some of the earliest tests of the new
concepts of the turbojet engine and the ramjet. Dr. Silverstein was in charge
of that pioneer research. After World War II, he continued as Chief of the
Wind Tunnel and Flight Division at Lewis and directed the propulsion research
toward the growing interest in high-speed flight. The possibility of cracking
the sonic barrier was considered to be one of the major aerodynamic challenges
of the time. Dr. Silverstein was responsible for the conception, design, and
construction of the Nation's first supersonic wind tunnels devoted to
propulsion research. One of the small prototype supersonic tunnels that he
used in the development of the larger tunnels is still being used effectively
in some research programs, although it is now about 40 years old. There are
two major supersonic propulsion tunnels at Lewis-the 8 by 6 and the 10 by 10.
These dimensions (in feet) prescribe the area of the tunnel throat where the
supersonic velocities are experienced. The large 10 by 10 tunnel can be used
for speeds of approximately three times the velocity of sound. These tunnels
have been in use for more than 30 years. Dr. Silverstein can claim credit for
their installation at the Lewis Research Center.
In 1949 Dr. Silverstein was made Chief of all the research work at Lewis, and
in 1952 he was named Associate Director. Shortly after the conversion of Lewis
from an NACA Center to a NASA Center, Dr. Dyrden, who was the new Associate
Administrator of NASA, asked Abe Silverstein to come to Washington to head the
Office of Space Flight Programs. Under his supervision, the earliest space
probes and man-in-space program were initiated. He was the early architect of
the Moon landing project and gave it the name Apollo. Following the retirement
of Dr. Edward R. Sharp in 1961, Dr. Silverstein returned to Lewis to become its
second Director. He continued as Center Director until his retirement in 1969.
Dr. Silverstein is an exceptionally talented engineer with an uncanny grasp for
the details of research programs and with an extraordinary memory of the
information on those programs. I have been embarrassed by his memory
capabilities on several occasions. In making research reviews to him, I
discovered that he remembered some information that I have given him in
previous reviews with greater precision than I did. Dr. Silverstein directed
Lewis during its most active years when NASA was a growing organization. The
current when capabilities of the Center are in large part the result of his
effective leadership in research during the 1940's, 1950's, and 1960's.
Although retired, his wisdom is still sought by the management of the Center,
and he frequently appears as a consultant at the Lewis Research Center.
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GEORGE C. MARSHALL SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
Huntsville, Ala. 35812
The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) is located on 1,800 acres
inside the U. S. Army's Redstone Arsenal at Huntsville, Ala. The center has
about 3,650 civil service employees. Of this number, more than 65 percent are
scientists and engineers and more than 15 percent are business professionals.
The remainder consists of technicians and administrative and clerical support
personnel.
Marshall was officially dedicated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on July
1, 1960, by the transfer to NASA of part of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency.
The center is named for former Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and
Army World War II Chief of Staff, General of the Army George C. Marshall. The
center's first director was Dr. Wernher von Braun, the noted German rocket
scientist.
Marshall manages three government-owned, contractor-operated facilities for
NASA: the Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans where the Space Shuttle
external tanks are made; the Slidell Computer Complex in Slidell, La., which
provides computer services support to Michoud; and the new Advanced Solid
Rocket Motor development and assembly facility at Yellow Creek, near Iuka,
Miss.
In the past, Marshall has been identified primarily as NASA's launch vehicle
development center. Today, this describes but one facet of the center's
multi-faceted operation. Marshall is a multi- project management, scientific
and engineering research and development establishment, with emphasis on
projects involving investigation and application of space technologies to the
solution of problems on Earth as well as in space. Marshall also plays a key
role in many NASA mission operations.
Marshall had a significant role in the development of the Space Shuttle and
continues to manage the Space Shuttle main engines, the external tanks that
carry liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen for those engines, and the solid rocket
boosters that, together with the engines, lift the Shuttle into orbit.
Additionally, Marshall is managing development of the Advanced Solid Rocket
Motor, planned to replace the current Shuttle Redesigned Solid Rocket Motors in
the late-1990s.
The center has a key role in the development of scientific payloads and
experiments to be flown aboard the Shuttle. Many of these multidisciplinary
payloads are flown on Spacelab, a reusable, modular research facility carried
in the Shuttle's cargo bay.
The center operates NASA's Spacelab Mission Operations Control Center, a
new, state-of-the-art facility from which all NASA-managed Spacelab missions
are controlled.
To prepare crew members for Marshall-managed Spacelab missions, the center
also operates a Payload Crew Training Complex. Here, science crews train in
Shuttle and Spacelab simulators to conduct the research they will perform in
space.
The center managed the development and initial orbital checkout of the
Hubble Space Telescope, now orbiting above the Earth and relaying a wealth of
new knowledge about the universe from distant galaxies to neighboring planets.
Marshall also is managing the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility, a project
with two observatories that will provide detailed, long-term study of x-ray
emissions from the universe and the phenomena that produce them. These include
some of the most violent processes in nature Q the birth and death of stars and
galaxies, spinning neutron stars, quasars and black holes.
Marshall manages two space transfer vehicle systems, the Inertial Upper
Stage (IUS) and the Transfer Orbit Stage (TOS). The IUS, a two-stage rocket,
places spacecraft in high-Earth orbits or on escape trajectories for planetary
missions. The single-stage TOS is intended to boost satellites such as the
Advanced Communications Technology Satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit
and in 1992, was used in launching the Mars Observer spacecraft into an
interplanetary trajectory.
The Marshall center manages one of the three work packages for the space
station, including developing and producing the U.S. laboratory and habitation
modules and the environmental control and life support systems.
The Marshall center is strongly committed to investigating the processing of
materials in space and working in a microgravity environment. These endeavors
promise to increase the understanding of materials and improve Earth-based
processes. Center Director is Thomas J. "Jack" Lee.
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MARSHALL'S ROOTS
SECTION 1
On September 8, 1960, President Dwight David Eisenhower formally dedicated the
George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama as a new field
installation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. <1>
President Eisenhower addressed guests and employees of the new NASA
organization that had resulted from the Army transfer of 4,670 civil service
employees and 1,840 acres of Redstone Arsenal property and facilities worth
$100 million. Mrs. George C. Marshall, widow of the late General for whom the
Center was named, joined the President at the dedication. Dr. Wernher Von
Braun, who became the Center's first director, also participated. <2>
Early Activities in Rocketry
The Marshall Center had been activated on July 1, 1960, as part of NASA, which
had been established on October 1, 1958 by Congressional passage of the
National Aeronautics and Space Act and charged with conducting the nation's
space exploration programs. <3> The nucleus of NASA was the Advisory Committee
for Aeronautics later named the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
(NACA). The committee was founded in 1915 to study the problems of flight and
then recommend practical solutions to basic aircraft design and construction.
NACA's wind tunnel and other research facilities made NACA technical reports
the basis for aviation progress for more than 40 years. <4>
While NACA engineers pursued their work in aeronautics in the early part of the
century, other Americans like Robert H. Goddard, dedicated themselves to new
achievements in the area of rocketry. On March 16, 1926, Goddard launched a
liquid-fueled rocket, which traveled 184 feet in 2 1/2 seconds. <5>
Interest in rocketry was also growing outside the United States. Near the end
of 1923, Professor Hermann Oberth published his famous work "The Rocket into
Interplanetary Space," the genesis for considerable discussions regarding
rocket propulsion. <6> From 1928-30, Oberth experimented with gasoline and
liquid air as a rocket propellant.
He also worked as an advisor to the film company making "Girl in the Moon,"
which increased interest in the potential of rocketry in Germany. <7>
In the spring of 1930, a young Wernher von Braun enrolled at the Berlin
Institute of Technology and in his spare time assisted Oberth in his early
experiments in testing a liquid-fueled rocket stage with about 15 pounds of
thrust. In September 1930 Oberth returned to a teaching post in Romania while
Von Braun continued experiments under the sponsorship of the German Society for
Space Travel. <8> During July and August 1932, the society impressed officers
of the German Army Ordnance by successfully firing a rocket to a height of 200
feet. As a result, the German Army formalized the rocket development program
by placing Captain-Doctor Walter Dornberger in charge of Research Station West
at Kummersdorf. <9>
The V-2
For 5 years Von Braun would serve as chief of the research station, where the
forerunners of the famous V-2, the liquid-fueled A-1, A-2 and A-3 rockets, were
developed.<10> During December 1934 the Germans launched two A-2 rockets to a
height of 1.4 miles on the Island of Borkum in the North Sea. <11> A little
over a year later, in February 1936, the Germans tested an A-3 rocket with
3,300 pound thrust. Three years later they successfully fired and recovered an
A-5 development rocket with gyroscopic controls and parachutes, attaining an
altitude of 7 1/2 miles and a range of 11 miles.<13> Von Braun's success in
German rocketry continued and in 1937 he was named technical director of the
Peenemuende Rocket Center on the Baltic Sea. There Von Braun and his growing
team of specialists would work on the development of the V-2. <14>
The first test of a V-2 failed on June 13, 1942. Success came, however, on
October 3, 1942 when a 5 1/2 ton V-2 traveled 120 miles. <16> On February 17,
1943, the 10th V-2, traveled 121.8 miles. <17> As World War II intensified,
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill received a report on April 15, 1943,
regarding the German experiments with long-range rockets, and on July 7 Adolf
Hitler assigned the highest priority to the German V-2 program. <18> Some
historians would later estimate that by the end of World War II, the Germans
had fired nearly 3,000 V-2 weapons against England and other targets. <19> For
the Germans, success with the V-2 did not mean success against the Allies. But
it did mean that Von Braun and his fellow German rocket specialists at
Peenemuende had established the technological basis for experimentation with
even more powerful rockets.
When Von Braun and his team recognized that the war was ending and that Russian
troops would soon occupy Peenemuende, they decided to evacuate the rocket
development site. Traveling in caravans by any number of means, the scientists
headed south, bluffing their way through German checkpoints and eventually
deciding to surrender to American forces. <20>
Project Paperclip
The United States was interested in the technical capability of the Germans,
and a team of American scientists was dispatched to Europe on August 14, 1945,
to collect information and equipment related to German rocket progress. As a
result, the components for approximately 100 V-2 ballistic missiles were
recovered and shipped from Germany to White Sands Proving Grounds in New
Mexico. Also recovered was an invaluable cache of documentation. During
October 1945, the Secretary of War approved a plan to bring the top German
scientists to the United States to aid military research and development. <21>
Near the end of the year more than 100 Germans who had agreed to come to the
United States under Project Paperclip arrived at Fort Bliss, Texas. <22> Their
assignment was to begin work at nearby White Sands on the V-2 rockets that had
already arrived from Germany.
The first American-assembled V-2 was static fired on March 15, 1946 at White
Sands. By April 1946, the Americans and Germans were ready to begin
flight-testing the V-2. <23> June 28, 1946 marked the first successful launch
at White Sands of a V-2 rocket fully instrumented for upper air-research. The
rocket attained a height of 67 miles. <24> On October 24 rocket number 13 was
launched with a camera that took motion pictures of the earth from an altitude
of approximately 65 miles. <25>
The days at White Sands were both important and exciting for the German team
and their American associates. One V-2 strayed from its path before impacting
harmlessly in Juarez, Mexico. The result was an increased emphasis on safety
as the work progressed at the testing site. At White Sands, the Germans also
experimented with a two-stage rocket called the Bumper Wac, intended to provide
data on upper atmospheric research. On February 24, 1949, a WAC (Without
Attitude Control) Corporal rocket boosted by a V-2 obtained a peak altitude of
more than 240 miles. <26>
The Move to Huntsville
As the decade of the 1940s closed, American leadership called for additional
advances in military rocketry which in turn necessitated a series of changes in
the Army missile program. On July 24, 1950, Bumper Wac Number 8 became the
first missile launched from Cape Canaveral.<27> By September 1949, Fort Bliss
officials had inspected the facilities at the arsenal in Huntsville and
proposed a guided missile center in the area, and the transfer of the White
Sands missiles experts to it. The Secretary of the Army approved and orders
were issued on March 21, 1950. <28>
The facilities in Huntsville had been established in 1941 for the production of
various World War II chemical compounds and pyrotechnical devices. As part of
their move to their new facilities, the Germans joined a growing cadre of
U.S.-rocketry specialists, whose work in Huntsville throughout the decade of
the 1950s would focus on such projects as the Hermes, the Redstone, and
eventually the Jupiter-C that would launch the first U.S. satellite into orbit.
As part of the Hermes Project, the basic V-2 rocket was modified by the General
Electric Company working with the Von Braun team. Although, it did not result
in an operational vehicle, the information that was gathered in the process
contributed directly to the development of the Redstone. <29> Redstone Missile
No. 1 was fired by Army Redstone personnel at Cape Canaveral on August 20,
1953. <30>
The Redstone gained increased attention after June 25, 1954, when an informal
committee of rocket specialists outlined a plan called Project Orbiter to
launch a satellite into a 200-mile orbit using a first-stage Redstone missile
and a second stage missile called "Loki." After a meeting at Redstone Arsenal
on August 3, Project Orbiter became a joint Army-Navy study project. <31>
ABMA Established
Unfortunately for Von Braun and his team in Huntsville, a Department of Defense
advisory group recommended on September 9, 1955, the implementation of another
Navy satellite program, called Project Vanguard. <32> Despite the setback, the
Von Braun team maintained its interest in launch vehicle research that might
lead to placing a man-made satellite in orbit. The Army established the Army
Ballistic Missile Agency at Redstone Arsenal on February 1, 1956, thus taking a
still more important step forward in space capability. The new agency took
with it the Arsenal's Guided Missile Development Division plus the Arsenal's
Redstone Missile mission. <33>
General J.B. Medaris would serve as Commander and Von Braun would direct the
Development Operation Division. <34> Progress continued and on March 14, 1956,
ABMA launched the first Jupiter A rocket at Cape Canaveral.
On April 23, 1956, the Army again indicated its interest in the
satellite-orbiting program when it announced that a Jupiter missile could be
used to orbit a small satellite in 1957. <35> The proposal did not win
approval. Instead, interest still focused on Project Vanguard even after
September 21, 1956 when the first Jupiter-C attained a range of 3,300 miles and
a speed of 16,000. The mission gave sharp indications, some members of the Von
Braun team would say later, that the rocket might have enabled the United
States to have the world's first satellite in orbit. Unfortunately, the rocket
specialists had been under orders not to use a live fully-powered fourth-stage.
<36>
Explorer I
The potential for Jupiter-C to place a satellite in orbit came into sharper
focus in 1957. On October 4, the Soviets launched Sputnik, the first man-made
object ever to orbit the earth. Sputnik was a Soviet spacecraft but it sent a
clear signal to the United States--the nation was now in second place in space
exploration. The message grew louder on December 6, 1957, when Vanguard, the
nation's first attempt to launch a satellite, exploded in flames on the launch
pad. As one newspaper headline later stated, it was time for the Army to come
through. On January 31, 1958, ABMA in cooperation with the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in California, launched a modified Jupiter-C rocket from Cape
Canaveral. The rocket carried Explorer I, the nation's first earth-orbiting
satellite. <37>
Von Braun and his team were responsible for the Jupiter-C space hardware. Soon
their research would begin focusing on the development of new launch vehicles,
the Saturn family, to carry heavier payloads into space. But throughout 1958
the nation's leadership in Washington had to face a series of decisions on how
to manage the U.S. space program. Interest now centered on whether to create a
single agency to handle the nation's space program. The debate also focused on
whether that agency should be a military or a civilian organization. On
February 4, 1958 President Eisenhower directed James R. Killen, Jr. to head a
committee to study and make recommendations on the governmental organization of
the nation's space program. Two days later, the Senate passed a resolution
creating a Special Committee on Space and Astronautics. <38>
The President and Congress had set in motion the events that would culminate in
the creation of NASA on October 1, 1958.
The Transfer to NASA
But the debate was still far from over in the fall of 1958. As pointed out
earlier, a portion of NASA was derived from the former National Advisory
Committee for Aeronautics. But what about the new agency's role in
astronautics--in the development of space launch vehicles? In October 1958 much
of that expertise resided with the ABMA team in Huntsville.
On October 21, 1959, Eisenhower signed an Executive Order indicating that
personnel from the Development Operations Division of ABMA would be transferred
to NASA subject to the approval of Congress. <39> The debate continued and
some of Eisenhower's critics were concerned about the potential transfer of
what they believed to be a military function to a civilian agency. Events
moved fast, however. On March 15, 1960 a presidential executive order
announced that the space complex within the boundaries of Redstone Arsenal
would become the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center. The Army would
continue the growing task of developing and providing military rockets and
missile systems. Marshall would assume responsibility for providing the Saturn
launch vehicles for civilian exploration of outer space. The Center was
activated on July 1, 1960, and the formal dedication ceremonies were held on
September 8. <40> Von Braun and his fellow Germans had received American
citizenship in the 1950's and had made Huntsville their home. As the
German-born and American-born members of the new NASA team in Huntsville now
entered the 1960's, they prepared to face the challenges ahead. By far the
largest would be called, "Saturn," a vehicle that would eventually launch
American astronauts on their way to a manned lunar landing and return to earth.
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MARSHALL'S EARLY YEARS, 1960-1965
SECTION 2
Saturn's role in the Apollo program focused attention on that vehicle and on
the Marshall Center for years. However, the new NASA field center received
additional assignments from NASA in 1960. Among these were Redstone missile
firings for Project Mercury, Juno II vehicles for scientific satellites, and
the powerful F-1 engine. <41>
Mercury-Redstone
On October 7, 1958, NASA formally organized Project Mercury to place a manned
space capsule in orbital flight around the earth, investigate man's reaction to
this new environment, and recover the capsule and the pilot safely. <42> On
January 8, 1959, NASA asked the Army to provide a series of Redstone-type
launch vehicles for Project Mercury development flights. <43> Dr. Wernher von
Braun later wrote, "Our people at ABMA also began to assemble two
Mercury-Jupiter vehicles, but this work was ended in mid-1959 by the NASA
decision to 'man-rate' only the 'old reliable' Redstone, chosen for suborbital
manned space flight because of its demonstrated reliability and flight
stability." <44> For Mercury, the Redstone propellant tank was lengthened by 6
feet and the standard Redstone engine thrust was increased to 78,000 pounds.
<45>
In mid-1960 with Von Braun still at the helm, responsibility for
Mercury-Redstone passed from the Army Ballistic Missile Agency to the Marshall
Space Flight Center where the progress continued. By October, a status report
on Marshall's involvement in Mercury noted that the first two Mercury-Redstones
had been assembled by the Marshall Center with many of the components
fabricated at Marshall. An additional six vehicles had been assembled by the
Chrysler Corporation. The first four of the eight Mercury-Redstone vehicles
had been static fired, and the first Mercury-Redstone was on the launch pad at
Cape Canaveral after a capsule-booster compatibility checkout in Huntsville.
In addition, a unique rocketborne television system designed to provide
scientists and engineers with vital in-flight data on space vehicles had been
prepared at the Marshall Center for the Mercury-Redstone boosters. <46>
The Redstone tests conducted in Huntsville helped pave the way for what the
Marshall Star called "a giant stride toward manned orbital flight," the
December 19, 1960, successful launch of an instrumented spacecraft by a
Mercury-Redstone furnished by the Marshall Center.
Although Project Mercury was under the direction of NASA's Space Task Group at
Langley Field, Virginia, the Marshall Center was responsible for providing and
launching the 78,000-pound-thrust rocket from Cape Canaveral. <47>
The December 19 first flight of the Mercury-Redstone was a booster-spacecraft
test flight. On January 31, 1961, a Redstone lifted a Mercury spacecraft
carrying Ham, the chimpanzee, who was recovered safely after helping NASA test
the spacecraft's life support system. <48> On May 5, 1961, another Redstone
lifted a Mercury capsule carrying Alan Shepard, the first American in space.
<49> Then, on July 21, a Redstone launched a Mercury capsule carrying Virgil
I. Grissom on a flight that marked the end of the Mercury-Redstone Program, and
the next step in the U.S. manned space flight program, the orbital flight of a
more powerful vehicle, the Mercury-Atlas. <50>
Juno II
America's growing interest in space exploration in the late 1950s led to the
desire for launch vehicles able to lift increasingly larger scientific
payloads. The modified Jupiter C (sometimes called Juno I) used to launch
Explorer I had minimum payload lifting capabilities. In fact, Explorer I
weighed slightly less than 31 pounds. <51>
Juno II was part of America's effort to increase payload lifting capabilities.
Among other achievements, the vehicle successfully launched a Pioneer 4
satellite on March 3, 1959, and an Explorer VII satellite on October 13, 1959.
Pioneer IV was a joint project of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, and passed within 37,000 miles of the moon before going
into permanent solar orbit. <52> Explorer VII, with a total weight of 91.5
pounds, carried a scientific package for detecting micrometeors, measured the
earth's radiation balance, and conducted other experiments. <53>
Responsibility for Juno II passed from the Army to the Marshall Center when the
Center was activated on July 1, 1960. On November 3, 1960, a Juno II sent
Explorer VIII into a 1,000 mile deep orbit within the ionosphere. Explorer
VIII was significant in Marshall's history since the Center was involved in the
mission in at least three different ways. First, the Center had responsibility
for the Juno stage of the vehicle. Second, it had responsibility for conducting
the launch from the Launch Operations Directorate at Cape Canaveral. Finally,
Marshall shared responsibility with Goddard Space Flight Center for designing,
preparing, and testing the satellite. <54>
Other launch vehicles later replaced the Juno II as the primary launcher for
the Explorer satellite series. <55> However, another Juno II provided by the
Marshall Center was fired on April 27, 1961, and launched an 82-pound satellite
into orbit to conduct a complex gamma ray astronomy experiment. <56>
The F-1 and Nova
Knowledge that a power plant of tremendous capabilities would be required if
man ever embarked on lunar journeys or sent probes into deep space helped lead
to the start of development in 1959 on the 1.5 million pound thrust F-1 engine
even before a vehicle was designed for it.
In the late 1950's and early 1960's, NASA considered the possibility of
employing Rocketdyne's F-1 on the Nova launch vehicle. Although it was never
built, the Nova was planned as a vehicle of tremendous size. It was considered
capable of a direct flight to the moon and of assembling the components of
future manned expeditions to the planets such as a Venus flyby and Mars
landing. Different configurations were considered for Nova, which was managed
by the Marshall Center after its creation in 1960. One configuration called
for a vehicle with up to five stages, eight F-1's powering the first stage, two
F-1's in the second stage, and a combination of other engines in the remaining
stages. Although the Nova never materialized, the F-1 did and would eventually
be used in the first stage (S-IC) of the vehicle that would launch men on their
way to the moon. <57>
Saturn I
In August 1958, ABMA received authorization to begin research and development
on a booster of 1.5 million pounds of thrust. Initial studies by the Von Braun
team in Huntsville indicated that an engine clustering technique using existing
hardware could furnish large amounts of thrust. <58>
During the following month, Rocketdyne, a division of North American Rockwell
Corporation, was awarded a contract to uprate the Thor-Jupiter engine
ultimately resulting in the powerful H-1 engine, eight of which would be
employed as the power plant for the first stage of the Saturn I. <59> Initial
versions of the Saturn I vehicle, called Block I, had eight H-1 engines each
producing a thrust of 165,000 pounds. The H-1s used in the Block II designs
had a thrust of 188,000 pounds each. <60>
In October 1958, the Army team in Huntsville moved to develop the high
performance booster for advanced space missions. Tentatively called Juno V and
finally designated Saturn, the booster was turned over to NASA in late 1959.
The initial firing of two Saturn first-stage engines came on March 28, 1960,
only a few days after President Eisenhower officially directed that the NASA
facilities in Huntsville would be known as the George C. Marshall Space Flight
Center. <61> After the Center's activation on July 1, the Marshall Center
assumed responsibility for Saturn. Test after test followed throughout the
year, paving the way for a successful 65-second test on December 21 of the
eight-engine Saturn I cluster which generated 1,300,000 pounds of thrust. <62>
Less than a year later, on October 27, 1961, the Marshall Center and the nation
marked a high point in the three-year-old Saturn development program when the
first Saturn vehicle flew a flawless 215-mile ballistic trajectory from Cape
Canaveral. The 162-foot-tall rocket weighed 925,000 pounds and employed a
dummy second stage. <63>
When launched, the first Saturn rocket was the most powerful rocket known in
the world. It proved the principle of building new systems with off-the-shelf
hardware, and demonstrated the validity of the clustered engine concept.
NASA's plans for the Saturn had recommended a liquid hydrogen upper stage for
the initial vehicle. On November 16, 1961, the RL-10 passed its preliminary
flight evaluation testing at the Pratt and Whitney Division of United Aircraft.
<64>
Also
In November, NASA selected the Chrysler Corporation as the prime contractor for
the Saturn I first stage. <65> Douglas Aircraft Company was the prime
contractor for the second stage.
Although NASA spent a portion of 1961 flight testing the first Saturn and
selecting contractors for the vehicles, the agency also focused on acquiring
some of the facilities that it would need as part of the overall Saturn
project. On August 24, NASA announced that 80,000 acres north of Cape Canaveral
would be the site of the nation's new launch facilities for heavy rockets to be
operated by MSFC's Launch Operations Directorate. Later in the year, the
agency announced plans for the Marshall Center to activate the Michoud Plant
near New Orleans as a production plant for Saturn boosters. This was followed
by an announcement on October 25 that NASA had selected the 13,500-acre
Mississippi Test Facility as the site for rocket testing. <66>
NASA's initial development plan for the Saturn program had called for the
Saturn I to serve as a stepping stone to the development of larger Saturn
vehicles ultimately known as the Saturn IB and Saturn V. However, the pace of
the Apollo Program had already made it imperative for NASA to conduct Saturn IB
and Saturn V ground testing and development concurrently with the actual flight
testing of the Saturn I.
The pace for Saturn was fast, and it grew faster at Marshall, and throughout
NASA after President Kennedy's call in May 1961 for a manned lunar landing
before the end of the decade. NASA selected the Saturn V as the vehicle for
the manned lunar landing mission while the Saturn I flights were still in
progress.
The second Saturn I mission, SA-2, on April 25, 1962, continued the experiments
of the SA-1 flight. The primary objective of SA-2 was to gather engineering
data for future Saturn flights. However, the mission also had a secondary
scientific objective called "Project Highwater." This experiment released
nearly 30,000 gallons of ballast water in the upper atmosphere. Release of
this vast quantity of water in a near-space environment marked the first purely
scientific large-scale experiment concerned with the space environment. The
water was released at an altitude of 65 miles where, within only five seconds,
it expanded into a massive ice cloud 4.6 miles in diameter that continued to
climb to a height of 90 miles. <67>
Eight more Saturn I vehicles were flown. Research and development flights
continued with SA-3 on November 16, 1962, and SA-4 on March 28, 1963. SA-5 on
January 29, 1964, however, marked a new SECTION in Saturn I flights, when the
vehicle flew for the first time with live first and second stages. <68> SA-6,
on May 28, 1964, demonstrated the validity of the clustered engine concept, and
the value of what Marshall referred to as the "engine-out" capability. (One of
the engines aboard the vehicle cut off prematurely.) Although this was not
part of the programmed flight, the performance of the remaining seven engines
ensured the successful completion of the mission. <69>
With the launch of SA-7 on September 18, 1964, the Marshall Center declared the
Saturn I operational, noting that the vehicle had placed 39,000 pounds into
orbit. <70> The eighth Saturn I flight on February 16, 1965 placed a Pegasus I
satellite into orbit. "The Pegasus satellite will 'sweep' space, detecting and
reporting collisions with meteoroids. The information will give scientists a
better indication of the distribution, size and velocity of such particles near
Earth," the Marshall Star reported. <71>
The ninth flight of the Saturn I, on May 25, 1965, successfully relied on both
stages built by private industry, and managed by the Marshall Center. That
mission also marked the first night launch of a Saturn and the launch of a
Pegasus II satellite. <72> The July 30, 1965, final flight of the Saturn I
climaxed what MSFC officials described as "a program which started the U.S. on
the road to the moon with 10 straight successes." <73>
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SATURN IB AND SATURN V
SECTION 3
The Saturn I launch vehicle provided NASA with significant new payload lifting
capabilities. However, the Saturn IB vehicle, the second member of the Saturn
family, had even more power, enough for orbital missions with Apollo
spacecraft.
The Saturn IB vehicle was a two-stage rocket. The first stage was called the
"S-IB" and was based on a redesigned first stage for the Saturn I. The second
stage was called the "S-IVB." It was based on the third stage of the mightiest
Saturn vehicle of all, the Saturn V. Standing approximately 224 feet tall with
a diameter of 21.7 feet, the Saturn IB vehicle had a payload capability about
50 percent greater than the Saturn I vehicle. The vehicle weighed
approximately 650 tons when it was fully fueled and lifted off. It weighed
about 78 tons when it was empty. <74> The first Saturn IB vehicle (AS-201)
was launched February 26, 1966. The next four were launched July 5 and August
25, 1966, and January 22 and October 11, 1968. <75>
Saturn V
The nation's space planners faced a series of complex questions in the early
1960s. They had to select the method they would use to send a man to the moon
and return him to earth, and they had to select the launch vehicle for the
mission. They eventually decided to conduct the manned lunar landing using a
lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) technique, and they selected the Saturn V as the
launch vehicle for the mission. Based on the F-1 rocket engine, the
development of which had been underway since 1958, and the hydrogen-fueled J-2
engine, upon which work had begun in 1960, the Saturn V would be much larger
than any vehicle previously attempted. It would include three stages and an
instrument unit to manage guidance and control. The planners expected the
Saturn V to provide the capability for earth orbital missions by using the
first two stages and the capability for lunar and planetary expeditions by
employing all three stages. Overall management responsibility for the vehicle
was assigned to the Marshall Center. <76>
The First Stage, S-IC
During the fall and winter of 1961, MSFC focused attention on acquiring the
contracts for the Saturn V vehicle. The contract to build the largest stage of
the Saturn V, the S-IC first stage, was awarded to Boeing on December 15, 1961.
Boeing engineers, wrote historian Roger Bilstein, worked "elbow to elbow" on
site with Marshall engineers in Huntsville. Five Saturn V first stages (three
for ground tests and two for flight) were fabricated in Huntsville. Boeing
also manufactured the S-IC stage at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans,
"in Marshall's backyard." The stages were test fired at the Mississippi Test
Facility and at Marshall. <77> Five F-1's powered the first-stage, each
developing 1.5 million pounds of thrust. The first stage burned over 15 tons
of propellant per second during its two and one-half minutes of operations to
take the vehicle to a height of about 36 miles and to a speed of about 6,000
miles per hour. The stage was 138 feet long and 33 feet in diameter. <78>
The Second Stage, S-II
On September 11, 1961, NASA announced the selection of North American Aviation
as the contractor for the S-II stage which would be manufactured primarily at
Seal Beach, California. <79> Five J-2's with a combined thrust of 1 million
pounds powered this second stage. The stage burned over one ton of propellants
per second during about 6 1/2 minutes of operation to take the vehicle to an
altitude of about 108 miles and a speed of near orbital velocity, about 17,400
miles per hour. The stage was 33 feet in diameter and 81 1/2 feet long. <80>
The Third Stage, S-IVB
The contract for S-IVB stage, the third stage, was awarded to Douglas Aircraft
Company in December 1961. Final manufacturing would take place at a Douglas
facility at Huntington Beach, California. <81> A single J-2 stage powered the
third stage which had two important operations. After the second stage dropped
away, the third ignited and burned for about 2 minutes to place itself and the
spacecraft into the desired earth orbit. At the proper time during this earth
parking orbit, the third stage was reignited to speed the Apollo spacecraft to
escape velocity of 24,900 miles per hour. In this second sequence, the stage
burned for about 6 minutes. This stage was 58 feet long and 21. 7 feet in
diameter. <82>
The Instrument Unit
The Marshall Center was initially engaged in designing the Saturn V instrument
unit as an in-house project. Later a contract was awarded to IBM for the
instrument unit that was 3 feet long and 21.7 feet in diameter. The unit,
located atop the third stage, controlled all the ignition sequences,
guidance and control, and telemetry functions to keep the vehicle operating
properly. <83>
Managing and Testing Saturn V
At the height of the Saturn program as many as 20,000 contractor companies were
involved in aspects of the Saturn program. <84> Their involvement ranged from
manufacturing the smallest components to static testing complete vehicle
stages. For the Marshall Center, vested with overall responsibility for the
Saturn, the management challenge was enormous. However, the Center's ability
to manage Saturn as a government/contractor endeavor was strengthened by the
hands on experience that Marshall employees accumulated working directly on
Saturn in Huntsville. This was especially true regarding Saturn V testing.
Marshall had inherited the Army's Jupiter and Redstone test stands, but much
larger facilities were needed in Huntsville for Saturn V testing and for
manufacture of the giant stages. From 1960 to 1964, existing test stands at
Marshall were remodeled, and a sizable new test area was developed. The new
stands erected for propulsion and structural dynamic tests were among the
tallest buildings in the state. They made up a comprehensive test complex for
static firings of extremely powerful engines, storage and pumping of cryogenic
fuels, and structural evaluation of inordinately large objects. <85>
During the Apollo era, engineers at Marshall and at other sites filled their
log books with reports on scores of test activities on engines, structures, and
all types of rocket components. However, two particular series of large-scale
Saturn V tests are among those most vividly recalled, perhaps because of the
audible and visual excitement they generated. First, in 1965, came a series of
thundering tests on the powerful Saturn first stage. Then came the awesome
sight of an entire spacecraft and gigantic Saturn launch vehicle configured
together in the 360-foot tall Dynamic Test Stand at Marshall for a series of
bending and vibration tests.
S-IC Testing
The mighty thunder from the 1.5 million pound thrust F-1 engines on the Saturn
first stage marked the series of tests conducted on the powerful S-IC stage in
Huntsville in 1965. MSFC Test Laboratory personnel initiated the tests on
April 9 using the Center's newly constructed S-IC booster static test stand and
control room. This 16-second initial test on April 9 was a single engine test.
<86> However, on April 16, 1965, MSFC Test Laboratory personnel turned the
volume louder when they conducted a 6.5 second static test of all five
Rocketdyne engines of the first stage generating some 7.5 million pounds
thrust. More than 500 measurements of the booster's performance were made.
<87>
And, the S-IC test series continued. At 4 p.m. on August 5, 1965, the giant
non-flight replica booster came to life again and blasted a continuous plume of
flame westward for a 2 1/2 minute full duration firing. Witnessing the
excitement from the roof of the MSFC Central Laboratory and Office building
were Dr. Von Braun and other top-level NASA officials who had left a meeting in
the building to watch the firing. <88> By mid-December 1965, 15 S-IC-T static
firings were completed at Marshall. Three were full-duration firings.
The 15 tests, totaling 867 seconds, conducted on the S-IC stage at Marshall in
1965 had used a ground test version of the booster. Early in 1966, however,
Marshall conducted two static tests on an actual S-IC stage built to fly on the
Saturn V. Marshall conducted a 40-second test on the flight booster on
February 17. The second and final static test on the flight booster was
conducted on February 25. During both tests, the stage's five Rocketdyne F-1
engines burned 15 tons of liquid oxygen and kerosene each second to produce 7.5
million pounds of thrust. <89>
Dynamic Testing
As the S-IC stage tests were ending at Marshall, the Center was gearing up for
a 10-week phase of dynamic testing of the complete Saturn V launch vehicle.
The 365-foot tall rocket with the spacecraft on top--identical in appearance to
one that was being checked out for launch at the Kennedy Space Center, was
subjected to more than 450 hours of shaking to gather data from some 800
measuring points. Forces were applied to the tail of the rocket to simulate
the engines thrusting, and various other flight factors were fed to the vehicle
to test reactions. During some of the shaking tests, the rocket moved as much
as 6 inches at the top and up to 3 inches at the bottom. The tests were
mandatory before the Center could certify that the guidance system would hold
the rocket on course when it was launched. <90>
Although they were among many tests conducted at Marshall and elsewhere to
prepare the Saturn V for flight, the S-IC tests and dynamic tests at Marshall
were significant milestones in the program.
Saturn V Flights
The greatest milestone for Marshall, NASA and the nation came on November 9,
1967, when the first Saturn V, AS-501, lifted off from Launch Complex 39 in
Florida. Von Braun said, "No single event since the formation of the Marshall
Center in 1960 equals today's launch in significance. For MSFC employees --
more than 7,000 strong -- this is their finest hour." <91>
Despite propulsion problems, a Saturn V flight on April 4, 1968, succeeded in
placing a total of more than 264,000 pounds into earth orbit. <92> The
historic Apollo 8 mission, boosted into space by a Saturn V and carrying the
first men around the moon, began on December 21, 1968, and was followed by
Apollo 9 on March 3, 1969, and Apollo 10 on May 18, 1969. <93> But, he
crowning achievement for the Saturn V came on July 16, 1969, when the vehicle
boosted the Apollo 11 astronauts on man's first journey to the surface of the
moon. <94>
Lunar Roving Vehicle
The Saturn V provided the capability for Earth escape and Earth orbital
missions for Apollo and later for Skylab, America's first space station.
Before the decade of the 1960s ended, however, the Center was extending its
capabilities in another direction, as well. The Lunar Roving Vehicle was
designed to transport astronauts and materials on the moon. By 1969, Marshall
was responsible for the design, development and testing of the new vehicle.
Boeing was selected for the contract award, and work began in 1970 on the
open-space vehicle which was about 10 feet long with large mesh wheels, antenna
appendages, tool caddies, and cameras. Powered by two 36 volt batteries it had
four 1/4 horsepower drive motors, one for each wheel, and was collapsible for
compact storage until needed, when it could be unfolded by hand. A lunar rover
was used on each of the last three Apollo missions in 1971 and 1972 to permit
the crew to travel several miles from the lunar landing site. <95>
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SKYLAB AND APOLLO-SOYUZ
SECTION 4
Saturn rockets were used in the Skylab Program and the Apollo-Soyuz Test
Project in the n970's.
Skylab's 3 different three-man crews spent up to 84 days in Earth orbit and
performed a variety of more than 100 experiments. In addition to providing the
four Saturn launch vehicles, the Marshall Center was also responsible for
directing many of the experiments.
Skylab Planning
The idea of an orbiting space station had occupied the minds of science fiction
writers and space flight enthusiasts for years. Dr. Von Braun envisioned a
laboratory in space in a series of articles in Collier's Magazine in the early
1950s. <96>
By 1962 NASA was seriously considering various space station concepts for
long-duration Earth-orbital missions, and by August 1965 the agency created the
Apollo Applications Office, moving America closer to plans for a space station
like Skylab. <97> MSFC focused on designs for a S-IVB orbital workshop where
the astronauts could live and conduct scientific experiments. <98>
On December 1, 1965, George E. Mueller, Associate Administrator for Manned
Space Flight, met with Dr. Von Braun to discuss the Center's concept for the
orbital workshop. Mueller asked him to formulate a program development plan for
the Manned Space Flight Management Council. In effect, historians later wrote,
Mueller gave Marshall the "green light" to begin the orbital workshop program,
later called Skylab. <99>
In the years that followed, the Marshall Center worked closely with McDonnell
Douglas, the prime contractor for the workshop unit, to convert a Saturn IB
stage into a habitable module containing living quarters and support systems as
well as experiment areas. <100>
Skylab Progress at MSFC
An underwater test program at MSFC's Neutral Buoyancy Simulator provided
essential information that Skylab designers needed. Astronauts, technicians,
design engineers, and professional divers in spacesuits and scuba gear
conducted tasks similar to those necessary to activate the space orbiting
workshop. The tasks were performed in the 1.4 million gallon water tank
containing mockups of the Skylab cluster elements. In 1969 Astronauts Edward
Gibson, Joseph Kerwin, and Paul Weitz worked inside the NBS at MSFC,
maneuvering inside and around a full-scale replica of an Apollo Telescope Mount
and Saturn workshop. <101> The Center also supported the Skylab hardware
development effort by creating a one-g "shirtsleeve" mockup in building 4619
for detailed engineering simulations and analysis. <102> Marshall engineers
tackled the problems of zero-gravity showers, toilets, sleeping bags, exercise
equipment and kitchen facilities. They were also involved in developing and
selecting materials used in the crew quarters and as protective thermal
coating. <103>
Skylab Components
An airlock module attached to the forward end of the workshop would enable crew
members to make excursions outside the Skylab. <104> McDonnell Douglas
fabricated the module with close Marshall involvement in design, development,
and test activities. <105>
A docking adapter, attached to the forward end of the airlock module, would
provide the docking port for the Apollo command and service module. <106>
Marshall designed and built the structure for this unit. <107>
The Apollo Telescope Mount would be the first manned astronomical observatory
designed for solar research from earth orbit. <108> Marshall built some of the
parts for the mount in-house and worked closely with several contractors to
develop a very precise attitude control and pointing system that served
the telescope and the entire Skylab cluster. The Center provided a simulation
facility for tests of the attitude pointing control system hardware and
software for real-time mission support. Marshall also supervised systems
integration of the observatory and its instruments. <109>
On November 2, 1971, as Skylab flight hardware manufacturing was nearing
completion, NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher approved the Skylab
Student Project, a joint effort between NASA and the National Science Teachers
Association. MSFC would be the NASA interface with the students. The student
experiments would be added to the list of MSFC Skylab investigations in
materials processing in space and solar physics. MSFC also designed and built
a series of Skylab biomedical experiments. These included the metabolic
analyzer, the bicycle ergometer, the lower body negative pressure device, and
the experiment support system. <110>
As the Skylab launch date approached, MSFC personnel moved into the Huntsville
Operations Support Center (HOSC) for real-time flight support. Mission task
centers were set up in Marshall's laboratories to assist the HOSC team in
resolving any problems that might occur in flight. During the three manned
periods, these support groups were fully staffed for around-the-clock
operations; in the unmanned intervals, a skeleton staff maintained watch.
<111>
Repairing Skylab
The Skylab Workshop/Apollo Telescope Mount combination was launched by a Saturn
V on May 14, 1973. NASA had planned to launch the first of three Skylab crews
the following day. Unfortunately, trouble began approximately 63 seconds after
the May 14 launch. A huge panel protecting the orbital workshop from
micrometeoroids and solar radiation ripped off. Adding to the trouble, one of
the solar arrays for the workshop was torn away and a second array was only
partially deployed. The solar arrays were designed to provide electrical power
to the orbital workshop. The solar arrays for the Apollo Telescope Mount
remained intact. <112>
After the micrometeroid panel ripped off, the air temperature inside the
workshop soon began approaching 130 degrees F. Engineers from Marshall and
throughout NASA were concerned about the condition of food, film, and other
equipment inside Skylab. They were also worried about plastic insulation
material inside the workshop and possible toxic gases if the temperatures rose
too high. <113>
Skylab -- seriously overheating -- was maneuvered through varying nose-up
attitudes that would best maintain an acceptable "holding condition." During
that 10-day period and for some time thereafter, the space station operated on
less than half of its designed electrical system which, in the partially
nose-up attitudes, was generating power at reduced efficiency. <114>
All this meant one thing---the first manned Skylab launch scheduled for May 15
would be delayed until methods could be devised to repair and salvage the
workshop. Teams at Marshall and other NASA centers that had put years of
planning into Skylab began work quickly to save it. A trouble-shooting team
was formed in the Huntsville Operations Support Center from existing support
teams. Other space center and industry personnel joined those already in
Huntsville where some personnel did not leave their posts from dawn Monday
through Wednesday night. The assembled group ranged from design, materials,
manufacturing, and simulation specialists from Marshall to procedures and
stowage personnel from JSC. Also present were sail-making seamstresses with
their stitching machines from New Jersey and the astronauts with a command
module simulator flown in from Houston. <115>
Over the next several days, Marshall considered a variety of repair options.
Eventually three methods were developed, tested, rehearsed, and approved.
Marshall was intensely involved in all three, a parasol sunshade, a twin-pole
sunshade, and a set of metal cutting tools for freeing the jammed solar array.
MSFC, however, had the lead role in developing the twin pole sunshade and the
tools. <116>
Skylab 2 astronauts Charles Conrad and Joe Kerwin arrived at the Marshall
Center from Kennedy Space Center to test solutions as they were developed and
to practice in Marshall's Neutral Buoyancy Simulator. At the Kennedy Space
Center, the astronauts' Saturn IB was kept on immediate standby to carry the
rescuers and their equipment to the Skylab space station. <117>
The First Manned Mission
At 8:00 a.m. on May 25, Skylab 2 was launched from the Kennedy Space Center
with Astronauts Conrad, Kerwin and Paul Weitz headed toward the Skylab I
Workshop that they hoped to repair in orbit. The rendezvous occurred at 3:30
that afternoon. On the following day, May 26, the crew began to deploy the
solar parasol -- a mylar shade folded against a telescopic pole -- through the
solar airlock.
Temperatures began to drop and the crew began to activate the new space station
which was safe and contamination free. <118> On June 7 the astronauts, working
outside of Skylab, used a technique developed at Marshall to successfully cut
the strap that had prevented deployment of the remaining solar array. <119>
As a result of the repair efforts, the mission continued. The astronauts
gathered data on some 80 percent of the planned solar experiments. They also
achieved a major scientific accomplishment, monitoring a solar flare. They
completed 11 of 14 planned Earth resources data runs and conducted a total of
16 medical experiments. The astronauts gathered data from five student
investigations while two others were rescheduled for the second mission. The
first manned Skylab crew splashed down June 22, 1973. <120>
The Second Manned Mission
The second manned Skylab crew was launched on July 28, 1973. In addition to
continuing the Skylab science program, the crew had to replace the parasol
sunshade with the Marshall sail when the temperature inside the workshop
started rising again. On August 6, with Astronaut Alan Bean standing by inside
the workshop, Astronauts Owen Garriott, and Jack Lousma exited the Skylab space
station and successfully erected the Marshall twin-pole solar shield. <121>
By the tenth day of the mission, the crew was putting in about 19 man hours a
day on scientific experiments, but a week to 10 days later they were doing 27
to 30 man hours of experiments each day. Although 26 Earth resources
experiment passes had been planned, 39 were actually accomplished. In
addition, some 206 hours of solar viewing had been planned while 305 were
logged. The medical experiments had included 327 planned runs while 333 were
accomplished. The mission also included the first orbital demonstration of
astronaut maneuvering equipment and orbited a pair of common spiders, Arabella
and Anita, to determine their ability to spin a web without the influence of
gravity, one of the Skylab student experiments coordinated by the Marshall
Center. <122>
The Third Manned Mission
The second manned Skylab mission ended September 25, 1973, after 59 days in
space. A Saturn IB carrying the third Skylab crew lifted off November 16,
1973. Astronauts Gerald P. Carr, Edward G. Gibson and William R. Pogue
continued the Skylab in-flight experiment program, including four EVAs and the
observation and documentation of the newly discovered Comet Kohoutek. The
third crew also served as the source for important new medical data on how man
reacts to weightlessness in space. <123> Their mission ended February 8, 1974,
setting a new endurance record and reflecting man's ability to live and work in
space for extended periods of time.
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
The principal objective of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project was to test compatible
rendezvous and docking systems that were being developed for future United
States and Soviet manned spacecraft and stations. The project was carried out
under an agreement signed in 1972 by President Richard Nixon and Chairman
Aleksey Kosygin. <124>
Five years of technical cooperation among engineers in the United States and
the Soviet Union led to the development of the ASTP international docking
module, and agreements on mission operations, flight control, means for life
support, communications, tracking, safety and crew procedures. Astronauts and
cosmonauts trained together in preparation for 2 days of joint activities on
their docked spacecraft, each group becoming familiar with the other's
spacecraft, flight procedures, and language. <125>
On July 15, 1975, the Russian Soyuz spacecraft lifted off from its launch pad
at a Soviet launch site. The spacecraft carried Cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and
Valeriv Kubasov. Seven and a half hours after the Soyuz launch, the U.S.
Apollo spacecraft was launched with its crew of Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand,
and Donald "Deke" Slayton. Rendezvous and docking of the two ships were
accomplished on July 17 and the ships remained docked for two days, conducting
joint experiments and exchanging national mementoes. <126>
The Saturn IB for the ASTP mission was the last Saturn to be launched. MSFC
officials said later that the successful performance of the Saturn IB for the
ASTP mission was another indication of the launch vehicle's reliability since
the first and second stages of the vehicle had been built in 1967. Both were
taken out of storage for the mission for continuous preflight checkouts and
monitoring prior to the actual launch. <127>
While much of the world focused on the political ramifications of the joint
American-Soviet mission, Marshall Center scientists also used the mission to
gather data from the results of experiments and demonstrations conducted in the
unique environment of space. The ASTP science team included principal
investigators from Marshall as well as scientists from industry and education
who were under contract to the Center. A Marshall-managed Electric Furnace for
ASTP performed perfectly after resolution of an early cooldown problem. Seven
materials processing experiments were conducted in the furnace. <128>
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EARLY WORK ON SPACE SHUTTLE
SECTION 5
The late 1960s and early 1970s were times of change at the Marshall Center.
NASA made plans to conclude the Apollo lunar landing program while preparing
Skylab for launch and initiating work on the Space Shuttle. <129>
As the 1960s ended, President Nixon's Space Task Group was established to make
recommendations regarding America's next decade in space. Although NASA
envisioned an ambitious space program that would include a permanent space
station and a space shuttle, the Task Group's recommendation focused on the
need for the reusable shuttle craft. <130>
President Nixon endorsed plans for the Space Shuttle on January 5, 1972. The
Space Shuttle would "change the nature of what man could be in space," said
NASA Administrator Dr. James C. Fletcher. "By the end of this decade the
nation will have the means of getting men and equipment to and from space
routinely." <131>
Three months later Fletcher announced that the Space Shuttle would be powered
by recoverable, reusable, Solid Rocket Motors in a parallel burn configuration
rather than by pressure-fed, liquid-fueled rockets. The "choice was made in
favor of the solid parallel burn because of lower development cost and lower
technical risks," Fletcher said. <132>
NASA had been weighing decisions concerning the configuration for the Shuttle
for several years. As early as 1970, the agency selected the McDonnell Douglas
Astronautics Company and North American Rockwell for parallel 11-month
definition and preliminary design studies for a reusable Space Shuttle
vehicle. A Space Shuttle Task Team at Marshall managed the McDonnell Douglas
work. <133>
By 1972 the Marshall Center received approval from NASA Headquarters to abolish
the Space Shuttle Task Team and assign some of its members to a permanent Space
Shuttle Program Office. <134> Throughout the first half of the 1970s the
employees in that office, as well as in other offices at Marshall, focused on
selecting the contractors for Marshall's portion of the Space Shuttle work,
identifying the resources needed to do the job, and initiating a development
and testing program for the Marshall-assigned Space Shuttle elements.
Contractor Selections
Marshall was assigned responsibility for three major Space Shuttle elements,
the Main Engines, the Solid Rocket Boosters, and the External Tank. In 1970
NASA let three $6 million contracts for Phase B studies on the Main Engine:
Aerojet-General Corporation, Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell Division of North
American Rockwell (now Rockwell International), and Pratt and Whitney
Aircraft. A definitive contract for the Main Engine was signed with Rocketdyne
in August 1972. Contracts for the Solid Rocket Boosters and the External Tank
were signed in 1973. <135> On September 1, NASA announced that it had signed a
contract with Martin Marietta Corporation for the design, development and test
of the External Tank. <136> Two months later, the agency announced that it
would negotiate with Thiokol Corporation for the design, development, test and
evaluation of the Solid Rocket Motors. <137>
In 1973 NASA also assigned Marshall responsibility for managing the U.S.
portion of Spacelab. Earlier in the year, the European Space Research
Organization (ESRO) announced plans to design, develop and manufacture Spacelab
to be launched by the Space Shuttle. <138>
Shuttle Testing Sites
Throughout the 1970s, the Marshall Center would be responsible for testing the
Space Shuttle propulsion elements. Efforts were in progress as early as 1970
to identify, Saturn-era test facilities that could be converted to Space
Shuttle testing sites. Sites were identified at Marshall, at the Mississippi
Test Facility, at Edwards, California and elsewhere.
On March 3, 1971, NASA announced the selection of the Mississippi Test Facility
as the site for sea level testing of the Main Engines. The Marshall Center
would exercise control of the Mississippi Test Facility which had deep-water
access for transporting large items of hardware along the Pearl River and the
Intra-Coastal Waterway. <139>
In May 1972 the Center reached an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, Huntsville Division, to provide facility design and construction in
support of the Space Shuttle. <140>
In November 1974 a contract was awarded for the modification of the Saturn S-IC
stand at the Marshall Center for structural tests on the External tank. <141>
Also in 1974 MSFC completed a simulation facility which would enable engineers
to test and verify the Main Engine avionics systems using flight-type
hardware. The Main Engine "firings" in the Hardware Simulation Laboratory
(HSL) would be mathematical. The facility would permit evaluation and analyses
of the engine avionics hardware, software, control systems and mathematical
models. <142>
In 1975 MSFC announced that the 405-foot-tall Saturn V dynamic test stand at
Marshall was being modified under a contract between the Army Corps of
Engineers and Universal Construction to provide a Mated Ground Vibration Test
Facility. The structure would be used to test the vehicle in launch and boost
configuration to determine the bending modes and dynamic response during launch
and ascent conditions. The orbiter Enterprise was used later in the tests at
the facility. <143>
Shuttle Main Engines
The Main Engines required the greatest technological advances of any element in
the shuttle program. The three high-pressure engines clustered in the tail of
the orbiter were designed to provide almost a half million pounds of thrust,
for a total thrust equal to that of the eight-engine Saturn I first stage.
Unlike the Saturn engines, the Space Shuttle Main Engines were designed to be
throttled over a range from 65 percent to 109 percent of their rated power.
Thus the engine could be adjusted to meet different mission needs. <144> The
first Main Engine, the Integrated Subsystem Test Bed (ISTB) was completed by
Rocketdyne in March 1975, a month ahead of schedule. It was ignited June 7 and
a main chamber firing was conducted June 24 at Marshall's Mississippi testing
site. <145> The first Main Engine 60-second duration test was conducted at the
same location on December 20, 1975. <146>
1975 also marked the arrival at MSFC of the first Space Shuttle flight-like
test hardware, a ground test hydraulic actuator for the Main Engine. Each of
the orbiter's three Main Engines would use two of the actuators to gimbal the
engine for steering control. <147>
Solid Rocket Boosters
MSFC also spent a major portion of the early 1970s conducting tests on other
Space Shuttle systems. Studies by NASA and the aerospace industry during early
1972 concentrated on the technical and economic aspects of the different kinds
of boosters, with an emphasis on the relative feasibility of a recoverable,
reusable unmanned booster; a manned, reusable, flyback booster; or an
expendable booster. <148> On March 15, 1972, NASA announced its decision to
develop twin Solid Rocket boosters which would be unmanned, recoverable, and
reusable. <149> Each Solid Rocket Booster was designed to burn for
approximately two minutes to produce almost three million pounds of thrust to
augment the Shuttle's main propulsion system during liftoff. The boosters were
also designed to help steer the shuttle during the critical phase of ascent.
<150> As early as September 1972, MSFC announced plans for a series of 20
water-entry simulation tests with a solid-fueled rocket casing assembly. The
tests would provide valuable data for assessment of Solid Rocket Booster
parachute water recovery and aid in preliminary solid rocket motor design. The
rocket assembly -- representing a 77% scale model of the booster -- was from a
previously fired motor. <151> MSFC also conducted drop tests using an a Solid
Rocket Booster scale model and a three-parachute recovery system in 1973 to
determine the feasibility of keeping parachutes attached to the booster rather
than releasing them on impact with the water. The 1/12-scale model, attached
to the parachutes, was dropped from a 200-foot height into the Tennessee
River. <152> In 1975 MSFC engineers were completing tests aimed at refining
the means of towing recovered Solid Rocket Boosters to shore for refurbishment
and reuse. <153>
Another series of tests conducted by Marshall involved static test firings of a
6.4 percent-scale model of the Space Shuttle to gather data for design and
development activities. A series of 24 acoustic tests began in 1974. <154>
External Tanks
The External Tanks were designed to actually contain two tanks, one for liquid
hydrogen and one for liquid oxygen, and a plumbing system to supply propellants
to the Main Engine. <155>
By the end of 1975, fixtures were nearing completion at the Michoud Assembly
for manufacturing the External Tanks which stood 154 feet tall with a 27-foot
diameter designed to hold more than a million gallons of propellant and weigh
more than one and a half million pounds.
Several of the fixtures at the assembly site were more than half the length of
a football field and several stories high. Two fixtures at Michoud, each
supported by massive steel tripods anchored in concrete on each side, were so
huge and imposing that they were nicknamed "Trojan Horses." <156>
Early Payload Testing
MSFC work in testing and integrating Space Shuttle payloads began in 1973 when
elements of a Space Shuttle preliminary bioresearch laboratory simulator
arrived at Marshall and were installed aboard a payload carrier simulator for
testing. The bioresearch laboratory model included mass measurement and
microscopy units, a preparation unit, a centrifuge, a cryogenic freezer for
storage of tissue, and an instrument for freeze-drying tissue. <157> During
April 1975 MSFC was involved in additional testing related to the Space Shuttle
and Spacelab. An early concept for a flexible tunnel for Spacelab flights on
the Space Shuttle was being tested. The prototype tunnel would provide a
pressurized passageway for crew members and scientists to move to and from the
orbiting laboratory without spacesuits. <158> On June 18, 1975, the Center
announced the award of two contracts for parallel studies on space processing
equipment for Space Shuttle and Spacelab missions. The contractors were to
provide preliminary designs for equipment that could be used to process various
materials, such as metals and crystals, in space. <159>
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SOURCE NOTES SECTION 1
1. Eugene M. Emme, ed., Aeronautics and Astronautics: An American Chronology of
Science and Technology in the Exploration of Space, 1915-1960, (Washington,
1961), p. 127.
2. NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center, 1960-1985 Anniversary Report
(Washington, 1985) p. 2, 3.
3. Emme, p. 102, 124.
4. Ibid., p. 3; Marshall Star, 28 September 1960.
5. Emme, p. 21.
6. Ibid, p. 18.
7. Marshall Star, 10 January 1990.
8. Alabama Space and Rocket Center, Biographical Data, Dr. Wernher von Braun,
(Huntsville, 1983), p. 1
9. Emme, p. 29.
10. Marshall Star, 28 September 1960.
11. Emme, p. 32.
12. Ibid., p. 33
13. Ibid., p. 38
14. Marshall Star, 28 September 1960
15. Emme, p. 43.
16. Alabama Space and Rocket Center, A Chronology, 1927-1980,
The German Rocket Team (Huntsville, 1983), p. 2; Emme, p. 44.
17. Emme, p. 44
18. Ibid., p. 45
19 Roger E. Bilstein, Stages to Saturn, A Technological History of the
Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles, NASA SP-4206 (Washington, 1980), p. 12.
20. Ibid., p. 45.
21. Emme, p. 51.
22. Ibid., p. 52.
23. Ibid., p. 53.
24. Chronology of the German Rocket Team, p. 2.
25. Emme, p. 55.
26. U.S. Army, Historical Monograph, Army Ordnance Satellite Program, (November
1958), p. 44.
27. Emme, p. 65.
28. Historical Monograph, p. 46.
29. Bilstein, p. 14.
30. Emme, p. 72.
31. Emme, p. 75.
32. Emme, p. 79.
33. Historical Monograph, p. 49.
34. Chronology of the German Rocket Team, p. 5.
35. Emme, p. 81
36. Chronology of the German Rocket Team, p. 5.
37. Roger E. Bilstein, Orders of Magnitude, A History of NACA and NASA,
1915-1990, NASA SP-4406, (Washington, 1989), p. 44.
38. Emme, p. 95.
39. Emme, p. 114.
40. Bilstein, Stages to Saturn, p. 42.
SOURCE NOTES SECTION 2
41. MSFC Fact Sheet, April 5, 1960.
42. Emme, p. 102, 103.
43. Ibid., p. 106.
44. Wernher von Braun, "The Redstone, Jupiter, and Juno, "(reprint) Technology
and Culture, vol. IV, no. 4, (Fall, 1963): p. 459.
45. Ibid.
46. Marshall Star, 5 October 1960.
47. Ibid., 21 December 1960.
48. NASA, Aeronautical and Astronautical Events of 1961, Report of the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration to the Committee on Science and
Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, 87 cong., 2nd sess., 7 June 1962,
p. 4.
49. Ibid., p. 19.
50. Von Braun, p. 461.
51. Emme, p. 141.
52. Ibid., p. 107.
53. Constance McLaughlin Green and Milton Lomask, Vanguard, A History, NASA
SP-4202 (Washington, 1970), p. 247, 248.
54. Marshall Star, 9 November 1960. Also see NASA News Release, "Explorer VIII
Background Information," 9 June 1961.
55. Linda Neuman Ezell, NASA Historical Data Book, Volume II,
Programs and Projects 1958-1968, NASA SP-4012 (Washington,
1988), p. 64.
56. Marshall Star, 3 May 1961.
57. Science Policy Research Division, Congressional Research Service, Library
of Congress, Serial D, Volume I, United States Civilian Space Programs
1958-1978, Report Prepared for the Subcommittee on Space Science and
Applications of the Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of
Representatives, (Washington, 1981), p. 216.
58. Emme, p. 100.
59. Bilstein, Stages to Saturn, p. 97.
60. MSFC Brochure, "Saturn I Summary." Publication date is
not listed.
61. Emme, p. 121.
62. Ibid., p. 134.
63. MSFC News Release, 1 January 1962.
64. Ibid.
65. Aeronautical and Astronautical Events of 1961, p. 64.
66. MSFC News Release, 1 January 1962.
67. Saturn I Summary.
68. Ibid.
69. Ibid.
70. MSFC Brochure, "Saturn I Highlights." Publication date is not listed.
71. Marshall Star, 17 February 1965.
72. Saturn I Summary.
73. Marshall Star, 4 August 1965.
SOURCE NOTES SECTION 3
74. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Saturn V News Reference, p.
I-4.
75. Bilstein, Stages to Saturn, p. 414.
76. Saturn V News Reference, p. I-5.
77. Stages to Saturn, p. 192-193
78. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Publication, "Saturn Facts."
Publication date is not listed.
79. Stages to Saturn, p.211.
80. "Saturn Facts."
81. Stages to Saturn, p. 160, p. 166.
82. "Saturn Facts."
83. Ibid.
84. MSFC, 25th Anniversary Report, p. 15.
85. Ibid., p. 13.
86. Marshall Star, April 14, 1965.
87. Marshall Star, April 21, 1965; Saturn V News Reference, p.
VII.
88. Marshall Star, August 11, 1965; Saturn V News Reference, p. VII.
89. Marshall Star, March 9, 1965.
90. Marshall Star, April 12, 1967.
91. Marshall Star, November 15, 1967.
92. Marshall Star, April 17, 1968.
93. Marshall Star, January 1, 1969; March 5, 1969; May 21,
1969.
94. Marshall Star, July 23, 1969.
95. MSFC, 25th Anniversary Report, p. 60.
SOURCE NOTES SECTION 4
96. NASA Brochure, "NASA Facts Skylab 1973-74," Publication date is not listed.
97. David S. Akens, Skylab Illustrated Chronology, 1962 *
1973 (George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, 1973), p. 3.
98. Roland W. Newkirk and Ivan D. Ertel with Courtney G. Brooks, Skylab, A
Chronology, NASA SP-4011 (Washington, 1977), p. 47.
99. Ibid, p. 57.
100. MSFC, 25th Anniversary Report, p. 63,
101. Skylab Illustrated Chronology, p. 29.
102. MSFC, 25th Anniversary Report, p. 63.
103. Ibid.
104. Leland F. Belew, ed., Skylab, Our First Space Station, NASA SP-400)
(George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, 1977), p.3.
105. MSFC, 25th Anniversary Report, p. 63.
106. Skylab Our First Space Station, p. 3
107. MSFC, 25th Anniversary Report, p. 63.
108. Skylab Our First Space Station, p. 3
109. MSFC, 25th Anniversary Report, p. 63.
110. Skylab Illustrated Chronology, p. 70.
111. MSFC, 25th Anniversary Report, p. 63.
112. MSFC Factsheet, "Skylab Operations Summary," 21 February
1974
113. MSFC Film Production, "Skylab: Mission Made Possible," No date of
production is listed.
114. MSFC, "Skylab Operations Summary."
115. MSFC, "Skylab, Mission Made Possible."
116. Ibid.
117. Marshall Star, 11 May 1988.
118. NASA, Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1973, NASA SP-4018, (Washington,
1975), p. 148.
119. MSFC, 25th Anniversary Report, p. 63.
120. "NASA Facts Skylab."
121. United States Civilian Space Programs, p. 439.
122. "NASA Facts Skylab."
123. NASA, Pocket Statistics January 1989, (Washington)
124. NASA, "Apollo Soyuz Test Project Press Kit," 10 June 1975,
p. 5.
125. Linda Neuman Ezell, NASA Historical Data Book, Volume III, Programs and
Projects 1969-78, NASA SP-4012 (Washington, 1988) p. 109.
126. Ibid.
127. Bilstein, Stages to Saturn, p. 385.
128. Marshall Star, 30 July 1975.
SOURCE NOTES SECTION 5
129. Ezell, p. 121.
130. NASA, Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1971, NASA SP-4016, (Washington,
1972), p. 62.
131. NASA, Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1972, NASA SP-4017, (Washington,
1973), p. 4,5.
132. Ibid., p. 102.
133. MSFC Press Release, December 22, 1970.
134. Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1972, p. 110.
135. United States Civilian Space Programs, p. 470.
136. NASA, Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1973, NASA SP-4018, (Washington,
1974), p. 246.
137. Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1973, p. 327.
138. MSFC Press Release, December 22, 1970.
139. Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1971, p. 60.
140. Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1972, p. 184.
141. Marshall Star, November 13, 1974.
142. Marshall Star, October 9, 1974.
143. Marshall Star, November 5, 1975.
144. MSFC 25th Anniversary Report, p. 22.
145. Marshall Star, January 7, 1976.
146. Ezell, 123.
147. Marshall Star, April 16, 1975.
148. United States Civilian Space Programs, p. 475.
149. Ibid. p. 475.
150. MSFC 25th Anniversary Report, p. 24.
151. Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1972, p. 309.
152. Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1973, p. 327.
153. Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1975, p. 186.
154. Marshall Star, September 4, 1974.
155. MSFC 25th Anniversary Report, p. 23.
156. Marshall Star, October 25, 1975
157. Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1973, p. 71.
158. Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1975, p. 57.
159. Ibid. p. 113.
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MICHOUD ASSEMBLY FACILITY
P.O. Box 29300
New Orleans, La. 70189
The Michoud Assembly Facility is located in Orleans Parish, La., about 15
miles east of downtown New Orleans. The site is on the Gulf Intra-Coastal
Waterway and has deep water access via the Mississippi Gulf outlet.
The facility occupies approximately 833 acres of land. There are 33
buildings with an area of about 3.5-million square feet. The largest building
within the complex is the main manufacturing building, originally built in
1942.
The primary mission of Michoud is the systems engineering, engineering
design, manufacture, fabrication, assembly and related work for the Space
Shuttle external tank.
Marshall Space Flight Center exercises overall management control of the
facility. A prime contractor, Martin Marietta, provides Space Shuttle
production capability.
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JOHN C. STENNIS SPACE CENTER
Stennis Space Center, Miss. 39529
NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC), located in Hancock County near
Bay St. Louis, Miss., has grown over the past 30 years into NASA's premier
center for testing large rocket propulsion systems for the Space Shuttle and
future generations of launch vehicles. Additionally, the center has developed
into a scientific community actively engaged in research and development
programs involving space, oceans and Earth.
Approximately 14,000 acres make up the operations complex, which includes an
industrial laboratory and specialized engineering facilities to support engine
testing. A significant advantage of the facility is the availability of all
forms of transportation, including a direct water transportation route to the
Gulf of Mexico and through the Intracoastal Waterway to the Kennedy Space
Center in Florida. Surrounding the operations complex is an almost 125,000-
acre acoustical buffer zone held under restrictive easement by NASA to muffle
the loud, low-frequency noise produced during static tests.
Since 1975, SSC's primary mission has been the research and development
and the flight acceptance testing of the Space Shuttle main engines. The data
accumulated from these ground tests, which simulate flight profiles, are
analyzed to ensure that engine performance is acceptable and that the required
thrust will be delivered in the critical ascent phase of Shuttle flights.
Static testing is conducted on the same concrete and steel stands used from
1966 to 1970 to captive-fire all first and second stages of the Saturn V rocket
used in the Apollo manned lunar landing and Skylab programs.
SSC also is involved in several other emerging test programs and activities,
one of which is the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor (ASRM) program. With the onset
of ASRM testing planned for 1996, SSC will be totally responsible for proving
that the Space Shuttle's main propulsion systems are flightworthy.
The center also is gearing up for the Space Transportation Main Engine
(STME) program. SSC will test much of the STME propulsion hardware beginning
with the turbopumps at the center's Component Test Facility. The High Heat Flux
Facility at SSC will test materials in support of the National Aero-Space
Plane. In the future, SSC's role in NASP testing may be increased to include
expansion of the facility for testing the plane's thermal structure.
SSC personnel also are involved in scientific research, remote sensing
technology and applications, and technology transfer. The center has been
designated as NASA's lead center for the commercialization of remote sensing
technology and as such, work with the public and private sectors to expand the
use of remote sensing imagery and technology.
SSC is somewhat unique in NASA in that the center also serves as host to 18
other federal and state agencies and university elements in residence involved
in environmental and oceanographic programs. Approximately 4,100 people are
employed at SSC. Roy S. Estess is the Director.
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Goddard Space Flight Center
WALLOPS FLIGHT FACILITY
Wallops Island, Va. 23337
Wallops Flight Facility, a part of the Goddard Space Flight Center, is one
of the oldest launch sites in the world. Established in 1945, the facility
covers 6,166 acres, including about 1,100 acres of marshland, in three separate
areas of Virginia's Eastern Shore - the island, the main base and the mainland
just west of the island. Wallops Island is about 7 miles southeast of the main
base and is 5 miles long and l/2 mile wide at the widest point. Wallops is
located on Virginia's Atlantic Coast, Delmarva Peninsula, about 40 miles
southeast of Salisbury, Md., and 72 miles north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge
Tunnel.
Wallops manages and implements NASA's sounding rocket program which uses
solid-fueled rocket launch vehicles to accomplish approximately 35 scientific,
suborbital missions each year. Launches are conducted at Wallops and many
other ranges throughout the world.
Wallops manages and coordinates NASA's Scientific Balloon Program using
thin-film, helium-filled balloons to provide approximately 35 scientific
missions each year. Launches are conducted at Palestine, Texas, Ft. Sumner,
N.M., and several other sites throughout the world.
The facility operates and maintains the Wallops launch range and data
acquisition facilities. In addition, mobile launch, tracking and data
acquisition systems are transported to and operated at various world sites to
accommodate sounding rocket, balloon and NASA network mission requirements.
Wallops supports NASA, DOD and other agencies in aeronautical research.
Approximately 150-200 test operations, concentrating on aircraft/airport
interface and aircraft operating problems research, are conducted each year at
the research airport.
Wallops aircraft also are used to support applications and scientific
research missions that are developing new instruments, providing ground truth
data for satellite measurements and conducting field experiments.
Wallops provides support including launching, tracking, aircraft flights and
data reduction to various segments of DOD, other agencies, commercial,
international and educational ventures.
Wallops plans and conducts Earth and ocean physics, ocean biological and
atmospheric science field experiments, satellite correlative measurements and
developmental projects for new remote sensor systems. The main thrust of this
effort is in support of the Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes.
Wallops supports tenants (NOAA, Navy, Coast Guard) that use the land and
facilities available at the site. The support also includes providing fire
protection, utilities, coordination of operations, repairs to buildings, guards
and other related services.
Wallops provides the facilities that are specifically designed for the
management and education programs of the NASA Office of Professional
Development and for other NASA courses and conferences. Wallops Director is
Joseph McGoogan, Director, Suborbital Projects and Operations.
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NASA HEADQUARTERS
300 E Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20546
Headquarters has more than 2,000 employees and administers the total NASA
budget, which for FY 1993 is $14.3 billion. Daniel S. Goldin is the NASA
Administrator.
NASA Headquarters exercises management over the space flight centers,
research centers and other installations that constitute the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Responsibilities of Headquarters cover the determination of programs and
projects; establishment of management policies, procedures and performance
criteria; evaluation of progress and the review and analysis of all phases of
the aerospace program.
Planning, direction and management of NASA's research and development
programs are the responsibility of program offices which report to and receive
overall guidance and direction from an associate administrator.
The Office of Aeronautics directs the agency's aeronautics research and
development programs, including the High-Speed Research Program which is
creating and refining the technology and addressing the environmental
challenges supporting the development of a future U.S. high-speed civil
transport aircraft.
The office also researches advanced technology for subsonic aircraft,
manages NASA's weather-related flight safety research, works to improve
inspection methods for aging aircraft, propulsion research and development of
advanced piloting and air traffic control aids. In addition, it directs
numerous flight research programs using high-performance aircraft such as the
SR-71, F/A-18 and F-16XL. It also manages fundamental aeronautics research in
aerodynamics, fluid dynamics, structural mechanics and human factors issues
such as the interaction of pilots with highly-automated cockpits.
The aeronautics office also manages NASA's portion of the multi- agency High
Performance Computing and Communications program, and NASA's part of the
National Aero-Space Plane (NASP) program. NASP is a national endeavor to
develop and demonstrate technology for advanced vehicles that would take off
horizontally, fly into orbit, then return for a runway landing.
The Office of Aeronautics has institutional management responsibility for
Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif.; Ames- Dryden Flight Research
Facility, Edwards, Calif.; Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.; and Lewis
Research Center, Cleveland. Dr. Wesley L. Harris is Associate Administrator.
The Office of Space Science is responsible for the NASA space research and
flight programs directed toward scientific investigations of the solar system
and astronomical objects using ground-based, airborne and space technologies
including sounding rockets and deep space satellites. This office works
closely with the scientific community through the Space Studies board of the
National Academy of Sciences and other advisory groups.
The Office of Space Science has institutional management responsibility for
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Dr. Wesley T. Huntress, Jr., is
the Associate Administrator.
The Office of Mission to Planet Earth is responsible for NASA's Earth
science and environmental research. Mission To Planet Earth is a
comprehensive, coordinated research program that studies the Earth as a global
environmental system. Comprising ground-based, airborne and space-based
programs, this office includes participation from other federal agencies as
part of the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the international science
community.
The office has institutional management for the Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, Md. Dr. Shelby G. Tilford is Acting Associate Administrator.
The Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications is responsible
for assuring the health and safety of humans in space and to understand the
biological effects of space flight on organisms. It also uses the unique
attributes of the space environment to conduct research and gain new knowledge
in fluid behavior, combustion science, material science and biotechnology. Dr.
Harry Holloway is the Associate Administrator.
The Office of Space Flight operates the Space Shuttle and develops both
manned and unmanned platforms which enable scientific research and advanced
technology development.
The Space Shuttle is NASA's primary space transportation system and the only
space vehicle capable of carrying people and large payloads into Earth orbit
and returning them. OSF is responsible for scheduling Space Shuttle flights,
developing financial plans and pricing structures and providing services to
users. As part of its duties, the Office of Space Flight conducts operations
and utilization of Spacelab, a laboratory dedicated to research in space that
flies in the Shuttle's cargo bay.
The office is working with the Russian Space Agency to plan and execute a
series of joint missions that will involve flying a cosmonaut aboard the
Shuttle and an astronaut aboard the Mir space station, leading up to a mission
with a Shuttle docking to the Russian space station. The office also is
conducting early planning activities for the operation of the U.S. space
station.
The Office of Space Flight also is responsible for institutional management
of the Kennedy Space Center, Fla.; Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville,
Ala.; Johnson Space Center, Houston; and the Stennis Space Center near Bay St.
Louis, Miss. Jeremiah W. Pearson III is Associate Administrator.
The Office of Space Systems Development is responsible for defining and
developing potential future space systems and capabilities, as well as
demonstrating enhancements to improve existing systems capabilities. The
office has responsibility for space station development and operations; large
propulsion systems development including a new space transportation main engine
and the Advanced Solid Rocket Motor and advanced transportation systems program
planning.
A permanently manned space station is essential for advancing human
exploration of space. The space station will be a permanent outpost in space
where humans will live and work productively for extended periods of time. It
will provide an advanced research laboratory to explore space and employ its
resources, and will provide the opportunity to learn to build, operate and
maintain systems in space. The station will be launched in segments aboard the
Space Shuttle and assembled in orbit, with first flight set for 1996. NASA
centers responsible for developing major elements of the space station are the
Marshall Space Flight Center, Johnson Space Center and Lewis Research Center.
The advanced solid rocket motor is being developed to replace the redesigned
solid rocket motor. The ASRM will improve the safety, reliability and the
performance of the Space Shuttle system. Arnold D. Aldrich is Associate
Administrator.
The Office of Advanced Concepts and Technology has a mission to pioneer
innovative, customer-focused concepts and technologies, leveraged through
industrial, academic and government alliances, to ensure U.S. commercial
competitiveness and preeminence in space.
The office's four primary functions are to maintain a highly professional
systems engineering team capable of detailed feasibility and cost analysis of
advanced concepts, to be NASA's front door to businesses which want the
agency's help and expertise in developing new ideas and technologies, to be the
agency's lead in the transfer of technology into the commercial sector and to
further the commercialization of space.
The office also manages the agency's Small Business Innovative Research,
technology transfer, Defense Conversion Act and other innovative technology
development programs including a new experiment in incubating technology
start-up companies. Gregory M. Reck is Associate Administrator.
The Office of Space Communications is responsible for planning, development
and operation of worldwide communications, command, navigation and control,
data acquisition, telemetry and data processing essential to the success of
NASA programs and activities.
Communications systems requirements for Space Shuttle flights; Earth
orbital, planetary and interplanetary space probes; expendable launch vehicles;
research aircraft; sounding rockets; balloons and administrative support are
provided by this office. The office consists of five divisions. Charles T.
Force is Associate Administrator.
The Office of Safety And Mission Quality plans, develops and evaluates
safety, quality and risk management policies and activities in support of NASA
programs. Responsibilities include providing leadership in quality management
for science and engineering programs and working closely with NASA flight,
ground operations and research programs to develop safety, reliability,
maintainability and quality assurance policies and requirements. The office
consists of seven divisions and three safety panels. Frederick D. Gregory is
Associate Administrator.
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AMES RESEARCH CENTER
Mountain View, Calif. 94035
Ames Research Center was founded in 1939 as an aircraft research laboratory
by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and named for Dr.
Joseph S. Ames, Chairman of NACA from 1927 to 1939. In 1958, Ames became part
of NASA, along with other NACA installations and certain Department of Defense
facilities. In 1981, NASA merged Ames with the Dryden Flight Research Center
and the two installations are now referred to as Ames-Moffett and Ames-Dryden
(see separate section on Ames-Dryden).
Ames-Moffett is located in Mountain View, Calif., in the heart of "Silicon
Valley" at the southern end of San Francisco Bay on about 430 acres of land
adjacent to the U.S. Naval Air Station, Moffett Field.
Ames specializes in scientific research, exploration and applications aimed
toward creating new technology for the nation.
The center's major program responsibilities are concentrated in computer
science and applications, computational and experimental aerodynamics, flight
simulation, flight research, hypersonic aircraft, rotorcraft and powered-lift
technology, aeronautical and space human factors, life sciences, space
sciences, solar system exploration, airborne science and applications, and
infrared astronomy.
The center also supports military programs, the Space Shuttle and various
civil aviation projects. These projects and responsibilities will continue to
evolve as NASA's needs change and Ames' capabilities develop.
About 2,200 civil service employees and some 2,100 contractor employees are
employed at Ames' two locations. In addition, approximately 400 graduate
students, cooperative education students, post-doctoral fellows and university
faculty members work at the center.
The Ames staff uses advanced equipment in their search for new technology.
This equipment includes aircraft and spacecraft, wind tunnels, large computer
facilities, flight simulators and entry heating simulators.
The center's laboratories are equipped to study solar and geophysical
phenomena, life evolution and life environmental factors and to detect life on
other planets. Capital investment at the two locations is more than $996
million, and today's estimated replacement value is more than $2.9 billion.
Dr. Dale L. Compton is Center Director.
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Ames Research Center
HUGH L. DRYDEN FLIGHT RESEARCH FACILITY
Post Office Box 273
Edwards, Calif. 93523
The Dryden Flight Research Facility is located at Edwards, Calif., in the
Mojave Desert, approximately 80 miles north of Los Angeles. The facility enjoys
almost ideal weather for flight testing and is located at the southern end of a
500-mile, high-speed flight corridor. Situated adjacent to Rogers Dry Lake, a
44-square- mile natural surface for landing, the facility is in an isolated
area free from problems of population disturbance or hazard.
About 450 civil service and 510 contractor employees are employed at
Dryden. Capital investment at the facility totals about $135 million and
replacement value is $371 million.
The facility's primary research tools are research aircraft. Ground-based
facilities include a high temperature loads calibration laboratory that allows
testing of complete aircraft and structural components under the combined
effects of loads and heat; a highly developed aircraft flight instrumentation
capability; a flight systems laboratory with a diversified capability for
avionics system fabrication, development and operations; a flow visualization
facility that allows basic flow mechanics to be seen on models or small
components; a data analysis facility for processing of flight research data; a
remotely piloted research vehicles facility and a test range communications and
data transmission capability that links NASA's Western Aeronautical Test Range
facilities at Ames-Moffett, Crows Landing and Dryden.
Since 1946, Dryden has developed a unique and highly specialized capability
for conducting flight research programs. Its test organization, consisting of
pilots, engineers, technicians and mechanics, is unmatched anywhere in the
world. This versatile organization has demonstrated its capability, not only
with high- speed research aircraft, but also with such unusual flight vehicles
as the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle and wingless lifting bodies.
The facility participated in the Approach and Landing Tests of the Space
Shuttle orbiter Enterprise and continues to support Shuttle orbiter landings
from space as well as processing them for ferry flights back to the launch
site.
Dryden is flying a specially instrumented F/A-18 to investigate high angle
of attack, or high alpha, flight. Today's high performance jet aircraft can
fly in the high alpha flight regime, but not necessarily efficiently. The
facility's research will create a data base for aircraft designers to
accurately predict high alpha airflow. High alpha technology may result in
airplanes capable of "supermaneuvers" and will help eliminate operational
limitations imposed on aircraft designed without this techno-logy.
Another high alpha program currently in progress at Dryden features the
X-31. An international test organization managed by the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is conducting flight tests to obtain data for
next-generation high performance aircraft. In addition to NASA and DARPA,
program participants include the U.S. Navy and Air Force, Rockwell
International, the Federal Republic of Germany and Deutsche Aerospace.
The facility's B-52 currently is serving as the carrier aircraft for
Pegasus, a winged, three-stage space launch booster. Pegasus will be used to
deliver small payloads into orbit. The B-52 has been used previously to carry
aloft and air-launch such vehicles as the famed rocket-powered X-15 and the
lifting bodies, forerunners of the Space Shuttle.
Dryden's F-15 is continuing flight research on Performance Seeking Control
(PSC). Using digital flight control, inlet control and engine control systems
together, PSC demonstrates improvements in peak engine performance and
maneuvering capabilities. The F-15 also is equipped with a new computer-aided
control system that will allow a pilot to maintain control of a crippled
aircraft using engine propulsion to maneuver. The ultimate goal of the program
is to land the aircraft with only engine power.
Extensive tests of Space Shuttle landing gear assemblies, from normal
conditions up to and including failure modes, will be conducted using a CV-990
transport aircraft. Information from the tests will help in developing crew
procedures for various landing conditions and situations.
Facility researchers are making preparations for the flight test program of
an experimental vehicle of the National Aero-Space Plane Program (NASP). One
of three SR-71 aircraft based at Dryden currently is flying in preparation for
possible experiments for the NASP. Kenneth J. Szalai is Director.
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GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
Greenbelt, Md. 20771
This NASA field center, 10 miles northeast of Washington, D.C., has one of
the world's leading groups of scientists, engineers and administrative
managers. It has the largest scientific staff of all the NASA centers.
With its approximately 13,000 civil service and contract employees,
including its facility at Wallops Island, Va., the center is involved in, among
other things, research in the Earth and space sciences and the design,
fabrication and testing of scientific satellites that survey the Earth and the
universe as well as tracking satellites and suborbital space vehicles.
Because of its versatility, Goddard scientists can develop and support a
mission, and Goddard engineers and technicians can design, build and integrate
the spacecraft. Goddard also is involved in implementing suborbital programs
using small and medium expendable launch vehicles, aircraft, balloons and
sounding rockets.
Controllers in the Payload Operations Control Centers maintain a 24-hour
vigil every day of the year for more than 20 orbiting spacecraft. Spacecraft
being watched include Tracking and Data Relay Satellites which serve as vital
communications links between orbiting spacecraft and Earth through a
Goddard-managed ground terminal in White Sands, N.M. Two major telescopes, the
International Ultraviolet Explorer, launched in 1978 and the widely-recognized
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) launched in April 1990, also are under the
watchful eyes of Goddard controllers.
So is the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), launched in November 1989.
COBE has provided scientists a whole new view of the cosmos. The spacecraft
was designed to study the origin and dynamics of the universe, including the
theoretical cataclysmic explosion known as the "Big Bang."
From the Space Telescope Operations Control Center at Goddard, managers and
engineers control the orbiting HST observatory and maintain an around-the-clock
vigil from an array of consoles. HST has accomplished a number of scientific
achievements and, in spite of a spherical aberration in its primary mirror, has
provided scientists with images of celestial objects in detail never seen
before.
One of the highlights of 1993 will be the first HST servicing mission. The
solar arrays will be replaced and several instruments and gyros will be changed
out.
The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO), launched in April 1991, also is
managed by Goddard. Compton's mission is to study gamma ray emitting objects in
the Milky Way galaxy and beyond. Within its first 3 months of operation, the
Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope, one of four instruments aboard
Compton, detected one of the most luminous gamma-ray sources ever seen. The
source of this radiation was identified with the variable Quasar 3C279 located
in the constellation Virgo, approximately 7 billion light years from Earth.
In spite of their size, Goddard's Small Explorer (SMEX) missions will
investigate some of the most important questions raised in astrophysics and
space physics. The program will conduct focused investigations which probe
conditions in unique parts of space, complement major missions, prove new
scientific concepts or make significant contributions to space science in other
ways. The first SMEX mission, the Solar Anomalous Magnetospheric Particle
Explorer was launched in July 1992.
Goddard also has developed an Explorer Project which provides
moderate-sized missions in quick response to new scientific opportunities. The
Explorer Project includes the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer, launched in 1992 to
study a newly opened window of the electromagnetic spectrum called the extreme
ultraviolet.
The Goddard-managed Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), designed to
collect, for the first time, data sets of the chemistry, dynamics and radiative
inputs of the upper atmosphere, was launched on Discovery in September 1991.
UARS is the first spacecraft to be launched as part of the Mission to Planet
Earth - the NASA element of the U.S. Global Change Research Program.
Future Mission to Planet Earth projects include Earth probes, such as the
Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and the most ambitious science mission ever
undertaken, the Earth Observing System (EOS). The EOS mission, for which GSFC
has the lead role in NASA, addresses pressing global issues, such as the
depletion of atmospheric ozone and long-term global warming.
Acting as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s
agent, Goddard procures the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite
and TIROS series spacecraft and instruments required to meet NOAA's objectives.
Goddard also provides for their launch.
Goddard manages the U.S. portion of many international projects including
two x-ray observatories: the German Roentgen Satellite launched in June 1990
and the Japanese Astro-D launched in January 1993. Geotail, developed for
Japan in support of Goddard's International Solar-Terrestrial Physics Project,
was launched in 1992 to better understand the interaction of the sun, the
Earth's magnetic field and the Van Allen radiation belts.
Much of the center's theoretical research is conducted at the Goddard
Institute for Space Studies in New York City. Operated in close association
with area universities, the institute provides support research in geophysics,
astrophysics, astronomy and meteorology.
The scientific data from these and other space flight experiments are
catalogued and archived at the National Space Science Data Center at Goddard in
the form of magnetic tapes, microfilm and photographic prints to satisfy the
thousands of requests each year from the scientific community. Dr. John M.
Klineberg is Center Director.
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JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, Calif. 91109-8099
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is located at the foot of the San
Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena, Calif., approximately 20 miles northeast of
Los Angeles. JPL, occupying 177 acres of land, is a government-owned facility
employing about 6,000 people. JPL is operated by the California Institute of
Technology under a NASA contract administered by the NASA Pasadena office.
The laboratory is engaged in exploring the Earth and the solar system with
automated spacecraft. In addition to the Pasadena site, JPL manages the Deep
Space Communications Complex, a station of the worldwide Deep Space Network
(DSN) located at Goldstone, Calif., on 40,000 acres of land occupied under
permit from the U.S. Army. The DSN allows for spacecraft communications, data
acquisition and mission control, and for the study of space with radio science;
and in performing basic and applied scientific and engineering research in
support of the nation's interests
JPL was formed in 1944. In 1958, it built and operated the first U.S.
satellite, Explorer 1. Its robotic spacecraft have explored all planets in the
solar system except Pluto.
Current NASA flight projects under JPL management include Voyager, Galileo,
Magellan, Mars Observer, Ulysses and Topex/Poseidon. Major space science
instruments include the new wide field/planetary camera for Hubble Space
Telescope, the NASA scatterometer and the Shuttle imaging radar.
The laboratory designs and tests flight systems, including complete
spacecraft, and provides technical direction to contractor organizations.
In addition to the NASA contract, JPL also performs work for the Departments
of Defense and Energy, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National
Institutes of Health. Dr. Edward C. Stone, Jr., is Director of JPL.
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LYNDON B. JOHNSON SPACE CENTER
Houston, Texas 77058
Johnson Space Center is located on NASA Road 1, adjacent to Clear Lake, and
about 20 miles southeast of downtown Houston via Interstate 45. Additional
facilities are located at nearby Ellington Field, approximately 7 miles north
of the center.
Johnson Space Center was established in September 1961 as NASA's primary
center for design, development and testing of spacecraft and associated systems
for manned flight; selection and training of astronauts; planning and
conducting manned missions; and extensive participation in the medical,
engineering and scientific experiments carried aboard space flights.
Johnson has program management responsibility for the Space Shuttle
program, the nation's current manned space flight program. Johnson also has a
major responsibility for the development of the space station, a permanently
manned, Earth-orbiting facility to be constructed in space and operable within
the decade. The center will be responsible for the interfaces between the
space station and the Space Shuttle and flight operations of both.
Johnson also is responsible for direction of operations at the White Sands
Test Facility (WSTF), located on the western edge of the U.S. Army White Sands
Missile Range at Las Cruces, N.M. WSTF supports the Space Shuttle propulsion
system, power system and materials testing.
Most of the 100 buildings situated on the 1,620 acre Johnson site are
office space and laboratories, with some dedicated to astronaut training and
mission operations.
Among the specialized training facilities are the Shuttle simulators (bldg.
5); Space Shuttle Orbiter Trainer, the Manipulator Development Facility,
Precision Air Bearing Facility and Space Station mockups (Bldg. 9 North); and
the Weightless Environment Training Facility (Bldg. 29). The Mission Control
Center (Bldg. 30), where all human space flights are monitored, is located at
the center of the complex. The Space Station Control Center was completed in
November 1991 and will be ready to support integrated training in mid-1995.
Life sciences, planetary and Earth sciences, robotics, artificial
intelligence and lunar samples are a few of the research areas in the 16
facilities dedicated to space and life sciences.
Engineering facilities include vacuum chambers, an anechoic chamber,
antenna range, avionics testing and various structural and environmental test
areas housed in 22 buildings. Aaron Cohen is Center Director.
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M I S S I O N C O N T R O L C E N T E R
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W E I G H T L E S S E N V I R O N M E N T
T R A I N I N G F A C I L I T Y
( W E T F )
WEIGHTLESS ENVIRONMENT TRAINING FACILITY (WETF)
Building 29
The Weightless Environment Training Facility (WETF) located in building 29,
Johnson Space Center, provides controlled neutral buoyancy in water to simulate
the condition of null gravity. The WETF is an essential tool in the design,
testing, and development of spacecraft and crew equipment; in the evaluation of
body restraints and handholds; in the development of crew procedures; and in
the determination of extravehicular capabilities and workload limits. For the
astronaut, it provides important preflight training in becoming familiar with
planned crew activities and with the dynamics of body motion under weightless
conditions.
The WETF consists primarily of an underground pool that has standard filtering,
chlorinating, and pumping systems. Additional systems that support test
activities include diving equipment, an environmental control system, a
closed-circuit television system, a communications system, an overhead crane
system, and medical support facilities. The full-scale mockup of the Orbiter
can be placed in the facility. Power for the lights and other instrumentation
is provided with voltages of 115 and 208 Vac. Shop air is available for
operation of air tools.
R E M O T E M A N I P U L A T O R S Y S T E M
The Remote Manipulator System (RMS) is located on the full-scale mockup of the
Orbiter and enables the movement of astronauts to a specific work site. The RMS
has been utilized in satellite repair and retrieval missions.
E N V I R O N M E N T A L C O N T R O L S Y S T E M
The Environmental Control System (ECS) provides both air and water through life
support umbilicals to the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) worn for
pressure-suited operations. The system is controlled and monitored at the ECS
console and is also monitored at the test director's console.
The ECS contains a series of switches that monitor preset limits for airflow
and pressure and activate an alarm system if the limits are not maintained. A
backup air supply is capable of supporting suited crew members for
approximately 30 minutes.
C O M M U N I C A T I O N S S Y S T E M
Two-way communications are available between all members of the test team
except the underwater support divers, who are directed by the test director
through underwater speakers. The communications system, housed in the test
director's console and transmitted through an electrical cable in the life
support umbilicals has a prime channel and a backup channel in case of a prime
mode failure. A battery-powered communications system is also available if
both prime and backup channels fail. But it provides only one-way
communications from the test director to the support divers through an
underwater speaker.
B A L L A S T S Y S T E M
A ballast system consisting of front and back weight packs, two arm weight
cuffs, and two ankle weight cuffs is provided for pressure-suited operations.
The weights are adjusted underwater for proper weight distribution to achieve
neutral buoyancy for simulated weightlessness. The weight packs are designed
so that they can be removed in 5 to 10 seconds in case of an emergency.
C L O S E D - C I R C U I T T E L E V I S I O N S Y S T E M
A Closed-circuit television system is in operation during all pressure-suited
test activities. The system consists of two underwater pan-and-tilt units, two
underwater hand-held cameras, and test console-mounted television monitors.
The hand-held camera is carried and operated by support divers.
D R E S S I N G R O O M S
Dressing rooms for use by male and female test subjects to don and doff the
Shuttle Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) are located in Building 29.
Separate dressing rooms are used by the male and female divers.
M E D I C A L S T A T I O N
The station is manned by two trained medical technicians. A medical center
doctor is available for immediate response in the event of an emergency. They
will monitor the crew activities within the WETF by television. An emergency
vehicle is standing-by to transport personnel to the hyperbaric chamber or to
the dispensary if there is a medical emergency.
W E T F
DEPTH ...................................... 25 ft (7.6 m)
LENGTH ...................................... 78 ft (24 m)
WIDTH ...................................... 33 ft (9.8 m)
CONTROLS - - Environmental system, television, test
director and medical
CRANES -- 5 ton (4.5 metric ton) pneumatic hoist
on monorail and 5.5 ton (4.99 metric
ton) circular pneumatic hoist
PURIFICATION SYSTEM
Standard filtering, chlorinating, and
pumping
WATER TEMPERATURE
88 degrees F (31 degrees C)
FOR ADDITIONAL SPECIFIC INFORMATION ON WETF, CONTACT:
Facility Manager,
M. S. Brzezinski
SP52
Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
Houston TX 77058
713/483-5559
NASA/JSC, WEIGHTLESS ENVIRONMENT TRAINING FACILITY (WETF), 1988
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Overview of KSC Educational Services
Kennedy Space Center Aerospace Education Services Project
An aerospace education specialist with a van-load of models, visual aids, and
exhibits is available to visit schools in Georgia and Florida, under what is
commonly called the 'Spacemobile Program.' The specialist acts as a resource
person for educators, sharing aerospace information and providing hands-on
activities for their classroom use. In addition, the specialist is available
to present an assembly program for the student body, or work in the individual
classrooms. Using the equipment and materials in his van, the specialist
provides up-to-date information on NASA's re-search & development programs in
space and aeronautics. For scheduling details call (407) 867-4444.
Curriculum Updating
To update textbook materials and to provide new aerospace-related information,
timely audio-visual materials and publications are available to educators. To
aid the teacher in developing an aerospace-related course, an EDUCATORS
RESOURCES LABORATORY has been established at Spaceport USA, the KSC visitors
center. Here a teacher may copy slides and video tapes, as well as pages from
books and/or other publications dealing with all aspects of aeronautics and
space. Because only that material specifically needed will be copied, the
resultant curriculum will be more relevant for the class and the teacher.
Educational Films
Professional educators and organizational representatives are invited to borrow
films from the Film Library, John F. Kennedy Space Center, Kennedy Space
Center, Florida 32899, telephone (407) 867-7060.
A film catalog is available from the Education and Awareness Office. A number
of the film listings include lesson plan guides. Included in these guides are:
film descriptions, purposes, activities, objectives, vocabulary, and other
information for the teacher's use.
Teacher Workshops
Elementary and secondary school teachers are provided with the opportunity to
gain a greater understanding of aeronautics and space sciences during an
Aerospace Workshop for teachers.
A major thrust of these workshops is a "hands-on" approach where the teachers
obtain classroom activities for their own use. This program encourages and
assists state departments of education, school districts, professional
education associations, and institutes of higher education in conducting
aerospace-related courses and workshops for both the pre-service teacher and
the post-service teacher. For scheduling details call (407) 867-4444.
Educational Activities -- Student Groups
The Education and Awareness Branch of the John F. Kennedy Space Center, in
cooperation with Spaceport USA, provides organized groups of 20 or more
students with a variety of educational opportunities. For two of these, a
conducted bus tour of the Space Center and viewing an IMAX film on a giant 50
by 70-foot screen, there is a nominal per-person charge. All other activities
are free. The Galaxy Theater, capable of seating 500 people and supporting
multimedia production techniques, provides programs on the Space Shuttle,
spaceflight, the upcoming Space Station, and other future NASA plans and
programs. Exhibits, including real spacecraft and rockets, are available for
self-guided investigations. Inquire at the information counter in Spaceport
Central to learn what is playing that day, as well as for up-to-date schedules
on all other activities available at Spaceport USA.
NASA also provides a student activities center, the 'Exploration Station,'
which features hourly educational programs and hands-on science activities for
both primary and secondary grades. All students inside Exploration Station
must be accompanied by an adult. Teachers and other group sponsors should call
(407) 867-2959 for reservations. To avoid disappointment, please make your
reservations early.
Educational Tours - Professional Educators
Groups of professional educators may arrange for an escorted Educators Tour of
the John F. Kennedy Space Center. Call (407) 867-4444.
Counseling and Career Guidance
Career information and/or educational guidance with respect to careers in NASA
and related aerospace industry is available.
Educational Conferences
Chairpersons of professional education conferences who wish to introduce
aerospace-related sessions into their programs should contact the Education and
Awareness Branch at (407) 867-4444.
Youth Programs
The Education and Awareness Branch also provides assistance to directors and
leaders of space-related youth projects such as science fairs and science
clubs. In addition, The Young Astronaut Council, P.O. Box 65432, Washington,
D.C. 20036, conducts the "Young Astronaut" program for students up through
grade nine. NASA and the National Science Teachers Association, 1742
Connecticut Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009, jointly sponsor the Space
Science Student Involvement Program (SSIP). This program provides an
opportunity for secondary school students to propose experiments suitable for
testing in NASA facilities such as wind tunnels, zero gravity simulation
devices, and others. Information on other NASA programs appears periodically
in student newsletters and professional educators journals.
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The first line of the file:
KSC 1989 IN REVIEW
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JOHN F. KENNEDY SPACE CENTER
Kennedy Space Center, Fla. 32899
Located on Florida's central Atlantic coast, the Kennedy Space Center (KSC)
is NASA's principal launch base. It occupies 140,000 (56,568 hectares) acres
of land and water on Merritt Island, the adjacent coastal strand, and the
Indian and Banana Rivers and Mosquito Lagoon by which the center is surrounded.
The NASA holdings include 84,031 acres (34,007 hectares), the remainder is
owned by the State of Florida but controlled by NASA under deeds of dedication.
Robert L. Crippen is Director.
KSC's eastern boundary fronts on the Atlantic Ocean and the center's large
area (about one-fifth the size of Rhode Island) is surrounded by water,
providing ample safety to the surrounding communities during launches, landings
and other hazardous operations.
Only a small portion of KSC is used for space operations; the balance is
managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior as a wildlife refuge and
national seashore.
The center was established in the early 1960s as the launch site for the
Apollo lunar landing missions. KSC pioneered the mobile launch technique in
which space vehicles are built up inside protective structures and moved to
their launch pads a short time before launch, reducing their exposure to the
corrosive sea shore environment to the minimum.
After the Apollo program was concluded in 1972, KSC's Complex 39 was used
for the launch of four Skylab missions and for the Apollo spacecraft for the
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.
The center's facilities were modified for the Space Shuttle program in the
mid to late 1970s. The Shuttle era began with the launch of the STS-1 mission
on April 12, 1981. As of the beginning of 1993, more than 50 Shuttle missions
had been launched and the current forecast calls for the launch of
approximately eight missions per year from KSC's twin pads.
KSC is NASA's prime center for the test, checkout and launch of payloads and
space vehicles. This includes launch of manned vehicles at KSC and oversight
of NASA missions launched on unmanned vehicles from Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station, Fla., and Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in California.
The center is responsible for the assembly, checkout and launch of Space
Shuttle vehicles and their payloads, landing operations and turn-around of
Shuttle orbiters between missions, as well as preparation and launch of
unmanned Scout vehicles from VAFB. KSC also is responsible for the operation of
the KSC Vandenberg Launch Site Resident Office located at VAFB.
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AMERICA'S SPACEPORT
ANTECEDENTS...
The John F. Kennedy Space Center, America's Spaceport, is the doorway to outer
space. From its unique facilities, men and machines have begun the exploration
of the solar system, reaching out to the Sun, the Moon, the planets -- and
beyond. While these spectacular achievements have fired the imagination of
people throughout the world, and enriched the lives of millions, they represent
only a beginning. At America's Spaceport, humanity's long cherished dream of
establishing permanent outposts on the new space frontier is becoming a
reality.
Yet, our leap toward the stars is but an epilogue to a rich and colorful past,
an almost forgotten legacy replete with Indian lore, stalwart adventurers,
sunken treasure and hardy pioneers. For the sands of America's Spaceport bear
the imprint of New World history from its earliest beginnings.
Long before modern man erected his steel and concrete sentinels, the Spaceport
was inhabited by dusky-skinned hunters -- the Paleo peoples -- who crossed the
continent from Asia by way of the frozen Bering Sea some 12,000 to 20,000 years
ago. When Columbus landed at San Salvador (Bahamas) in the fifteenth century,
the KSC area was home to the fierce and often cannibalistic Ais and Timucuan
Indians. By the middle 1800s, these aboriginal tribes had virtually
disappeared, the victims of internal strife, disease and conflict with a new
and formidable foe -- light-skinned people who came from across the open waters
to the east in huge canoes with white wings.
These were the European explorers who came in search of eternal youth, wealth,
territory and religious freedom -- first, the Spanish in 1513, then the French
and later the English. Among these adventurers were such notables as Juan
Ponce de Leon, Hernando de Soto, Pedro Menendez de Aviles and Jean Ribault.
During the centuries that followed, Florida, which sat astride the main sea
route between Europe and the Gulf of Mexico, was bitterly contested by the
European powers. Throughout this swashbuckling era, America's Spaceport
remained a virtual wilderness. But its coastal waters reverberated to the
sounds of musket and cannon as pirates and privateers preyed upon Spanish
treasure ships laden with riches from the mines of Mexico and Peru. Shoals,
reefs and storms also exacted their toll on the treasure fleets, leaving behind
a sunken bonanza now being reaped by modern-day treasure hunters.
By the early eighteenth century, America's Spaceport echoed to the footsteps of
other intruders -- English settlers and their Indian allies (the latter to
become known as the Seminoles) from colonies in Georgia and South Carolina.
Thus, began a new era of conflict and expansion which would continue until the
end of the Second U.S. - Seminole Indian War in 1842.
Against this backdrop, permanent settlement of the Spaceport area began. And
in the years following the American Civil War, small rural towns and
communities sprang up along a 70-mile-long stretch of mainland, rivers and
beaches later to become known as Brevard County. The principal industries were
agriculture, fishing and tourism.
After World War II, however, another kind of industry took root in the area,
one destined to bring explosive growth and international stature. Brevard
County, by virtue of its most prominent geographical feature -- Cape Canaveral
-- had become the focal point of a new era of exploration -- the Space Age.
The first step in the transformation began in October 1949, when President
Harry Truman established the Joint Long Range Proving Ground (currently known
as the Air Force Eastern Test Range), a vast overwater military rocket test
range that then extended 10,000 miles down the Atlantic from Cape Canaveral to
the southern tip of Africa.
The Cape was ideal for testing missiles. Virtually uninhabited, it enabled
personnel to inspect, fuel and launch missiles without danger to nearby
communities. The area's climate also permitted year-round operations, and
rockets could be launched over water instead of populated areas. The first
launch from the Cape was conducted by a military-civilian team on July 24,
l950. The rocket, a modified German V-2 with an attached upper stage, attained
an altitude of 10 miles.
By the late 1950s, the military services had elevated their sights from missile
testing to launching artificial satellites. On January 31, l958, America's
(and the free-world's) first satellite -- Explorer I -- was launched from Cape
Canaveral by a military-civilian team from the Army's Missile Firing
Laboratory. This group, under the direction of Kurt H. Debus, a key member of
the famed Wernher von Braun rocket team, later formed the nucleus of the
Kennedy Space Center.
With the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
in October 1958, the nation turned its attention to the peaceful exploration of
space. Cape Canaveral thundered with the sound of rockets carrying
sophisticated instruments and payloads to explore mankind's newest frontier.
And soon, a new breed of pioneers -- American astronauts -- were soaring
skyward from the Cape to take their first faltering steps beyond the Earth.
But even as the first Americans ventured into space, more ambitious
undertakings were planned. In May 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced
that the U.S. would send men to the Moon and back by the end of the decade.
The program, called Apollo, would require the largest rocket ever built -- the
363-foot-tall Saturn V.
The Cape, which had served so well up to now, was inadequate as a launch site
for the monstrous vehicle, and an adjacent location was selected. Shortly
afterwards, the first steel and concrete structures of America's Spaceport
sprouted from the marsh and scrublands of northern Merritt Island.
Concurrently, NASA's Launch Operations Directorate at Cape Canaveral, an
element of the newly formed Marshall Space Flight Center, was elevated to
independent status in July l962 and renamed the Launch Operations Center. It
was renamed the John F. Kennedy Space Center in November l963, in honor of the
slain president.
Five and a half years later, in July 1969, the first humans departed from the
Spaceport's Launch Complex 39 to walk on the Moon. Following completion of the
Apollo Lunar Landing Program, the facilities of the Spaceport were modified to
support the nation's newest launch vehicle -- the reusable Space Shuttle.
And so it is today. Kennedy Space Center, America's Spaceport, has become the
"gateway to the universe," home port for voyages of exploration undreamed of
centuries ago -- manned by men and women who, like their forebears, still dream
of discovering and settling new worlds.
MISSION
From Redstone to Saturn to Space Shuttle, from the time of the earliest
scientific and applications satellites to the threshold of the Space Station
era, the Kennedy Space Center has been the primary launch base for the nation's
manned and unmanned space programs.
It is here, at America's Spaceport, that the dreams and aspirations of space
planners reach fruition, where the individual parts of a space mission come
together for the first time -- to be melded into a single, cohesive element and
boosted into space.
At Launch Complex 39, where moon rockets were once readied for flight,
engineers and technicians prepare the reusable Space Shuttle for manned
Earth-orbital missions. Unmanned rockets are processed and launched at
complexes on nearby Cape Canaveral.
Cargoes destined for space -- whether a planetary explorer to survey Jupiter
and Saturn, a communications satellite for a private firm, or a military
payload for the Department of Defense -- are assembled and tested in specially
designed and equipped laboratories.
Elements of the Spaceport team have also conducted launch operations for
unmanned polar-orbiting missions at the Western Test Range in California, and
supported Air Force Space Shuttle launch site preparation activities on the
West Coast at Vandenberg AFB.
The history of the Kennedy Space Center is a chronicle of the space age,
written in the blinding glare and thunder of rockets and space vehicles. Its
distinguished record of achievement in the development and conduct of space
vehicle checkout and launch operations is unmatched.
As the future unravels, the people and resources of America's Spaceport will
continue to be a major force in our nation's effort to explore and utilize
space for the benefit of all humanity.
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THE PEOPLE AND FACILITIES OF THE KENNEDY SPACE CENTER
The Kennedy Space Center, and the people who work there, are a very special
type of resource for the United States and the world. The NASA/industry launch
teams, and the people who support them, have skills and capabilities found only
at the national spaceport. Every American manned space flight to date was
launched by the people of Kennedy. This NASA Center is one of just two places
capable of launching Space Shuttle vehicles. The second site, on Vandenberg
AFB in California, belongs to the U.S. Air Force, and is not operational at
present. It is being maintained in case it is needed in the future for Space
Shuttle polar orbit missions. Over the years the NASA/industry teams have also
launched over 300 unmanned space vehicles, primarily Deltas, Atlas-Centaurs,
Atlas-Agenas, and Titan-Centaurs. These lifted off from NASA-operated
facilities on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Vandenberg AFB.
Every person who works at the spaceport is a member of the team, even if their
jobs are not directly involved with launch operations. Most of the hands-on
work is performed by contractors. When fully manned, the Center has a
workforce of (in round numbers) about 2,400 NASA civil servants and 13,000 to
14,000 contractor personnel. The largest contractor organization works in the
area of Shuttle processing and launch operations, the second largest provides
maintenance and support for the Center itself, and the third helps customers
prepare their spacecraft and other payloads for launch. Several other
contractors provide various operational, support and housekeeping functions.
The operation of the launch and support facilities at Kennedy demands unusual,
sometimes unique, personnel skills. But for most NASA and contractor
employees, the same knowledge and abilities that serve them here would work
equally well in many other places.
Some of the more unusual facilities in which people work are the giant Vehicle
Assembly Building, one of the largest enclosed structures in the world; the
Orbiter Processing Facility, filled with complicated equipment used to prepare
Shuttle orbiters for flight; Pads 39A and 39B, from which Shuttles lift off;
Delta and Atlas-Centaur launch complexes on Cape Canaveral; and a host of other
processing and support facilities. These include buildings especially designed
for spacecraft assembly and checkout, and others for hazardous work such as
installing explosive ordnance and loading propellants.
The heart of the Kennedy Space Center is its engineering work force, both
contractor and NASA. People with electrical, mechanical, electronic and
computer engineering degrees have the necessary background to begin work here.
After that, it may take years to learn some of the more unusual jobs.
Many spaceport professionals deal with more routine matters, such as designing
and overseeing the construction of office or supply buildings, setting up and
operating computer systems, or performing materials and structures tests.
The engineering departments do their work along with other groups who might be
found at any industrial facility. Several logistics organizations order
supplies and keep them available in warehouses. Another operates a
facility-wide bus system and supplies vehicles for local use. Writing and
graphics departments produce a variety of publications. A local printshop
prints them. A janitorial force keeps the facilities clean. A guard force
provides security. It is the very different nature of the major function of
Kennedy -- serving as the nation's spaceport -- that makes it such a special
place. Watching a rocket blaze a fiery trail into the sky, hearing the thunder
of its passage, is a fringe benefit not available at very many workplaces.
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CRAWLER/TRANSPORTERS FOR THE SPACE SHUTTLE
The two massive crawler/transporters, first used to move Project Apollo flight
hardware and supporting structures around the Kennedy Space Center, are now
performing the same function in the Space Shuttle era. These unique vehicles
were built in response to a hard and unusual engineering challenge. They were
designed to lift, hold, and move the largest, tallest, and heaviest known
portable structures on earth.
In a sense, the 40,234 kilometers (25,000 miles) per hour maximum speed of a
manned Apollo spacecraft going to the moon began with a one mile-per-hour crawl
-- the top "loaded" speed of the transporter. When carrying an unfueled Saturn
V/Apollo vehicle, mounted on its mobile launcher, the crawler supported a mass
weighing 5.66 million kilograms (12.5 million pounds) that towered 134 meters
(440 feet) into the air. The total assembly resembled nothing so much as a
city skyscraper in motion.
From the beginning, it was apparent that the established techniques of
assembling and checking out a space vehicle on the launch pad were not suitable
for the giant Saturn V. This rocket needed the protected environment of a
building. The assembly was to be transferred to the pad only when almost ready
for flight.
"Mobility" was the key word in the design concepts turned over to spaceport
planners in the spring of 1961, and the key to that mobility was a method of
transporting rockets and mobile launchers weighing 12.5 million pounds.
Mobility would also provide for their quick return to the assembly
building in the event of such natural disturbances as approaching hurricanes.
The responsibility for transforming the mobility concept into real hardware
fell on the shoulders of Donald D. Buchanan, then chief of the Launcher Systems
and Umbilical Tower Design Section. After more than a year of study, Buchanan
and an associate, G. W. Walter, submitted an internal report dated June 11,
1962. The report was based on internal studies and those of numerous
contractors. It dealt mainly with the advantages and disadvantages of three
systems--rail, barge, and tracked vehicle.
Experience with large structures mounted on rails at Complex 34, built earlier
by NASA, had proven rail transport feasible. But it had also indicated it
would be prohibitively expensive for such large loads. Serious engineering
problems involved in using barges caused Buchanan and his group to look at the
third method, at first considered the least likely to be practical. The
studies indicated the crawler/transporter concept was the most reliable, and
posed the least risk in development.
KSC management accepted the transporter concept on June 13, 1962, and NASA
Headquarters approved it the following month.
Two large equipment manufacturers competed for the contract to build two
crawler/transporters. The Marion Power Shovel Co., Marion, Ohio, was awarded
the contract in March, 1963.
The two KSC crawler/transporters, when built, dwarfed the self-propelled
strip-mining shovels from which they were adapted.
The only machines of their size and kind in the world, each is 40 meters (131
feet) long, 34.7 meters (114 feet) wide, and weighs about 2.7 million kilograms
(6 million pounds). The height of its top, the load-bearing surface, is
adjustable by hydraulic jacks, from 6.9 meters (20 feet) above ground to 7.9
meters (26 feet).
A crawler/transporter moves on four double-tracked trucks, each 3 meters (10
feet) high and 12.2 meters (40 feet) long. Each shoe of the crawler belt
weighs about 907 kilograms (2,000 pounds, or one ton). There are 57 shoes per
belt, and eight belts per transporter.
Two main drive diesel engines -- each of 2,750 horsepower -- provide the
propulsive power. These drive four DC power generators (two on each diesel
engine), with each generator producing 1,000 kilowatts of power. There are 16
traction motors, four on each truck, rated at either 187 or 375 horsepower
each.
Two other diesel engines, of 1,065 horsepower each, drive two 750 kilowatt
generators which supply the alternating current to power the leveling, jacking,
steering, lighting, and other onboard equipment systems.
The transporters move over a crawlerway linking the Vehicle Assembly Building
with the two launch pads. It is equivalent in width to an eight-lane highway,
separated by a 15.2 meter (50-foot) median strip. The crawlerway road bed is
about 2.4 meters (8 feet) thick. Topped with 20 centimeters (8 inches) of
Alabama river rock, its lower layers are composed of (from the bottom up)
hydraulic fill, selected fill, graded lime rock, and an asphalt sealer coat.
In operation, the transporter rolls beneath the mobile launcher platform. Its
16 hydraulic jacks (four on each corner) lift the launcher and vehicle from the
pedestals. Then the transporter moves out of the building and carries the
massive load 5,535 meters (18,159 feet) to Pad A, or 6,828 meters (22,440 feet)
to Pad B, where it is placed on another set of pedestals.
A transporter can negotiate curves of 152 meters (500 feet) mean radius, and
the leveling system keeps the entire load stable. During the move up the five
per cent grade from crawlerway to launch pad, the tip of the 56-meter
(184-foot) tall Space Shuttle does not vary from the vertical more than the
diameter of a soccer ball.
The hydraulic system for jacking, equalizing, and leveling the moveable
carrying surface provides fluid at 5,000 pounds per square inch to the 16
primary operating cylinders. Two 150 horsepower electric motors drive four
hydraulic pumps to supply this system.
Four double acting hydraulic cylinders, moving laterally against the crawler
trucks with a stroke of 1.67 meters (5.5 feet), provide the steering.
The cost of the two transporters used at KSC was set at the time of completion
as under 15 million dollars. Both now have hundreds of miles on their
odometers.
The crawler/transporters can be operated from cabs at either end, solving the
problem of turning the giant machines around. They move forward or backward
with equal facility.
Despite their huge size and tremendous power, the transporters are not
excessive consumers of fuel. On a loaded move from the assembly building to
the launch pad, they will burn about 150 gallons of diesel oil per mile.
For the Space Shuttle era, the two transporters were equipped with new operator
consoles, electronic monitoring and fault-reporting systems, and a laser-guided
docking system that enhanced maneuvering ability and positioning accuracy. The
crawler/transporters will continue their extraordinary job of ferrying Space
Shuttle vehicles from assembly building to launch pad during the foreseeable
future.
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MANNED FLIGHT AT AMERICA'S SPACEPORT -- THE FIRST ERA
On October 7, 1958, just six days after NASA was formally organized out of the
old National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the infant agency initiated
Project Mercury, the first American manned space flight program.
Considering that only four American satellite launch attempts out of thirteen
had been successful at the time, this was an undertaking of high ambition. The
task of making the launch systems, rockets and spacecraft safe enough to risk a
human life was a daunting challenge.
One of the most reliable vehicles then available, the Redstone, was chosen
fir2
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6/15/93: ASTRONAUT BLUFORD LEAVES NASA
Ed Campion
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
June 15, 1993
Barbara Schwartz
Johnson Space Center, Houston
RELEASE: 93-113
Col. Guion S. Bluford, Jr., will leave NASA in July and retire from
the U.S. Air Force to join NYMA, Inc., Greenbelt, Md., as Vice President and
General Manager of the Engineering Services Division. NYMA provides engineering
and software support services to the Federal Aviation Administration, the
Justice Department, the Department of Defense and to NASA.
Bluford was among the first group of Shuttle-era astronauts selected in
1978. He has served as a mission specialist astronaut on 4 Space Shuttle
flights, making history as the first African-American astronaut aboard STS-8 in
August 1983. He also flew on STS-61A, the first German D-1 Spacelab mission in
October 1985, and two Department of Defense scientific research missions,
STS-39 in April 1991 and STS-53 in December 1992. Bluford has logged over 688
hours in space.
"I feel very honored to have served as a NASA astronaut and to have
contributed to the success of the Space Shuttle program. I will miss working
with the people at JSC and the team spirit and esprit de corps that comes with
flying crew members in space," Bluford said.
In addition to his flight assignments, Bluford has held numerous
technical assignments at Johnson Space Center, Houston, including working Space
Station Freedom operations, the Remote Manipulator System, Spacelab systems and
experiments, Space Shuttle systems, payload safety issues, and verifying flight
software in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory and in the Flight
Systems Laboratory.
"Guy will be missed, but he leaves a legacy that is important to NASA
and to the nation. There are many young people today who have been inspired to
pursue careers in science and engineering because of his achievements,"
Director of Flight Crew Operations David. C. Leestma said.
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6/16/93: ASTRONAUT MARK BROWN TO JOIN GENERAL RESEARCH CORP.
Mark Hess
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Ju
Barbara Schwartz
Johnson Space Center, Houston
RELEASE: 93-114
Col. Mark N. Brown will leave NASA in July and will retire from the
U.S. Air Force to head up the Space Division Office of General Research Corp.,
Dayton, Ohio.
"It has been a privilege to work with the folks at NASA as both an
engineer and astronaut. Each day has offered new challenges, and I have
thoroughly enjoyed working with the fine people across the agency," Brown said.
Brown joined the Johnson Space Center, Houston, in 1980, working in the
Flight Activities Section of the Mission Operations Directorate. He was
selected to become an astronaut in 1984.
Brown served as a mission specialist on STS-28, a Department of Defense
mission in August 1989, and STS-48, the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite
mission in September 1991.
Since STS-48 in 1991, Brown served as Deputy Chief of Flight Crew
Operations Directorate's Station-Exploration Office. Most recently Brown has
been a member of the space station redesign team working on Option C, providing
crew expertise to the planning process.
"Mark has made significant contributions to the Shuttle program and to
the Space Station program in addition to his accomplishments as an astronaut.
We'll miss him and wish him success in his new career," Director of Flight Crew
Operations David C. Leestma said.
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=
=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:930616.SHU
KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT 6/16/93
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER SPACE SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT
Wednesday, June 16, 1993
KSC Contact: Bruce Buckingham
-----------------------------STS-57------------------------------
Mission: STS-57/Spacehab/EURECA-Retrieval Orbital Alt. 287 miles
Vehicle: Endeavour/OV-105 Inclination: 28 degrees
Location: Pad 39-B Crew Size: 6
Launch Date/Window: June 20, 9:38 - 10:49 a.m. EDT
Expected KSC Landing Date/Time: June 28, 8:33 a.m.
Expected Mission Duration: 7 days/23 hours (if cryogenics allow)
IN WORK TODAY:
* Launch countdown preparations
* Final SHOOT servicing
* Aft confidence test
WORK SCHEDULED:
* Countdown set to begin 2:30 a.m. Thursday
* Crew scheduled to arrive at KSC 3:30 p.m. Thursday
* Close payload bay doors for flight (Thursday)
* Spacehab late stowage operations (Friday/Saturday)
WORK COMPLETED:
* Final ordnance installation
* Aft compartment closeouts
* Basic payload closeouts
-----------------------------STS-51------------------------------
Mission: STS-51/ACTS-TOS/ORFEUS-SPAS Orbital Alt.: 184 miles
Vehicle: Discovery/OV-103 Inclination: 28 degrees
Location: OPF bay 3 Crew Size: 5
Mission Duration: 9 days/22 hours Target Launch Date: July 17
IN WORK TODAY:
* Aft compartment closeouts
* Main engine securing
* Preparations for roll to Vehicle Assembly Building
WORK SCHEDULED:
* Orbiter jackdown, weight and center of gravity checks
* Mate to orbiter transport vehicle
* Rollover to Vehicle Assembly Building (First motion scheduled
for 12:01 a.m. June 19)
WORK COMPLETED:
* Final payload bay cleaning
* Close payload bay doors
* Hydraulic operations for aerosurface positioning
* Strongback removal following payload bay door closing
-----------------------------STS-58------------------------------
Mission: STS-58/SLS-2 Orbital Altitude: 176 miles
Vehicle: Columbia/OV-102 Inclination: 39 degrees
Location: OPF bay 2 Crew Size: 7
Mission Duration: 14 days
Target launch period: Early/Mid September
IN WORK TODAY:
* Preparations to install extended duration orbiter pallet
* Waste containment system checks and tests
* Ball strut tie-rod assembly joint inspections
* Orbital maneuvering system functional checks
WORK SCHEDULED:
* Install extended duration orbiter pallet (Friday)
* Helium system leak and functional checks
WORK COMPLETED:
* Install Ku-Band deploy assembly
* Aerosurface repositioning
* Drag chute installation
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=
=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:930616.SKD
Daily News/Tv Sked 6-16-93
Daily News
Wednesday, June 16, 1993
Two Independence Square, Washington, D.C.
Audio Service: 202/358-3014
% Memorial Services for Slayton at JSC;
% Astronaut Bluford to leave NASA;
% New F-15 arrived at Ames-Dryden yesterday;
% STS-51 mission update.
In memory of the late Mercury Astronaut Donald K. "Deke" Slayton, NASA will
hold a memorial service on Saturday, June 19 at 2:00 pm EDT at the Johnson
Space Center.
Slayton was one of the United States' original seven astronauts selected for
the Mercury program. Slayton, 69, died Sunday from complications of a brain
tumor.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
NASA will soon be saying good-bye to astronaut Col. Guion S. Bluford, Jr.
Bluford will leave NASA to join NYMA, Inc., Greenbelt, MD., as Vice President
and General Manager of the Engineering Services Division.
Bluford made history as the first African-American astronaut aboard the Space
Shuttle Challenger in August 1983, since then, logging over 688 hours in space.
"Guy will be missed, but he leaves a legacy that is important to NASA and the
nation. There are many young people today who have been inspired to pursue
careers in science and engineering because of his achievements," states
Director of Flight Crew Operations David C. Leestma. Bluford plans to leave in
July.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The NASA F-15, which could advance the cruising efficiency and flight
maneuverability of future U.S. aircraft, arrived yesterday at NASA's
Ames-Dryden Research Facility.
NASA will use the new F-15 in the Advanced Control Technology for Integrated
Vehicles program. This research program will test how advanced thrust
vectoring engine nozzle technology can improve the aircraft's performance
during cruising flight or in maneuvering. NASA will also use the modified F-15
to expand digital integrated flight and propulsion control studies.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Technicians at the Kennedy Space Center are planning to roll the Space Shuttle
Discovery to the the vehicle assembly building on June 19. Today the workers
are scheduled to close out the aft compartment and secure the main engine.
Scheduled to launch in mid-July, Discovery will carry the ACTS payload and a
crew of 5. Mission duration is 9 days and 22 hours.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA TV.
Note that all events and times may change without notice and that all times
listed are Eastern.
Wednesday, June 16, 1993
10:00 pm Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission Briefing
Taped 3:00 pm Magellan Science Seminar (JPL) rescheduled from 2:00pm
Thursday, June 17, 1993
9:00 am STS-57 Countdown Status Briefing
noon NASA Today
12:15 pm Aeronautics & Space Report
12:30 pm Best of NASA Today
1:00 pm TDRS, a New Legend
2:00 pm Behind the Scenes at the NASM
3:30 pm STS-57 Crew Arrival at KSC
NASA TV is carried on GE Satcom F2R, transponder 13, C-Band, 72 degrees West
Longitude, transponder frequency is 3960 MHz, audio subcarrier is 6.8 MHz,
polarization is vertical.
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=
=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:930616A.REL
6/16/93: NASA F-15 BEING READIED FOR ADVANCED MANEUVERING FLIGHT
Drucella Andersen
Headquarters, Washington, D.C. June 16, 1993
Donald Nolan
Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, Calif.
A specially-modified NASA F-15 research aircraft, which could
substantially advance the cruising efficiency and flight maneuverability of
future U.S. aircraft, arrived yesterday at the agency's Ames-Dryden Flight
Research Facility, Edwards, Calif.
This research program could substantially advance the cruising
capability and flight maneuverability of future aircraft.
The research program will test how advanced thrust vectoring engine nozzle
technology can improve the aircraft's performance during cruising flight or in
maneuvering. NASA will use the new F-15 in the Advanced Control Technology For
Integrated Vehicles, ACTIVE, program.
"When we add the advanced multi-axis thrust vectoring engine nozzles and
advanced aircraft computing and control systems, this F-15 will be an
exceptional flight research facility," said Dr. James Stewart, Project Manager.
Developed by Pratt & Whitney Government Engines and Space Division, West
Palm Beach, Fla., the new thrust vectoring system will fly for the first time
on the NASA F-15. The nozzles, much lighter than previous exhaust vectoring
systems, could be retrofitted to existing aircraft or used in future aircraft
designs.
NASA will use the modified F-15 to expand digital-integrated flight and
propulsion control system studies. This research will be complex because these
F-15 systems now must control canards (small wings) on the plane's forward
fuselage and a set of innovative engine exhaust-directing nozzles.
The F-15 has an advanced electronic cockpit, fully digital flight
controls, an extensive computer system and originally, was built to carry the
load of a vectoring system.
The nozzles can direct the F-15's engine exhaust in a full circle up to a
20- degree angle. This will permit researchers to study maneuvering qualities
using the nozzles for pitch (up and down) and yaw (side to side) control.
Dryden will install two F-100-229 Pratt & Whitney engines, the vectoring
nozzles and an advanced Vehicle Management System computer to modify the
aircraft to the ACTIVE program configuration.
The first phase of the program is expected to start in late 1993. It is a
joint effort of NASA, the Air Force, Pratt & Whitney and McDonnell Douglas, St.
Louis, Mo.
The F-15, on loan from the U.S. Air Force, was flown to Dryden from the
McDonnell Douglas plant in St. Louis by NASA research pilot Jim Smolka and
McDonnell Douglas pilot Stephen Herlt.
The U.S. Air Force used the F-15 from 1985 to 1991 in a test program to
prove technologies for short take off and landing and "up-and-away" maneuvering
of military aircraft.
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=
=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:930616B.REL
6/16/93: PLASMA MOTOR GENERATOR EXPERIMENT MATED TO DELTA ROCKET
George H. Diller June 16, 1993
KSC Release No. 64-93
NASA's Plasma Motor Generator (PMG) experiment is being mated today to the
second stage of an Air Force Delta II Rocket at Launch Complex 17. PMG is
scheduled for launch as a secondary payload no earlier than Saturday, June 26.
The liftoff time on that day is 9:04 a.m. The primary payload is an Air Force
Navstar Global Positioning Satellite.
There are four PMG elements being mated to the second stage: the Near End
Package which is the control center for the experiment, the Far End Package,
which is deployed attached to the tether and has its own self-contained
experiment electronics and events sequencer, the Plasma Diagnostics Package
which contains an ion spectrometer, and a Small Expendable Deployer System
(SEDS) electronics box which provides the primary electrical system and
telemetry interfaces with the Delta second stage.
Much like SEDS, also flown successfully on an Air Force Delta II, PMG is a
tether satellite, but uses a conductive tether only slightly more than 1,600
feet long. The primary objective is to electrically link both ends of the wire
to the ionosphere - a sparsely populated layer of charged ions - as the PMG
moves through the Earth's magnetic field, generating a current which can be
measured. Xenon gas will be bled at each end of the wire to form an ion plasma
to complete the electrical circuit.
A further objective is to use the naturally induced voltage and current in
the wire to attempt to drive the tether system either forward or backward.
Other voltages and currents will then be transmitted along the wire at various
levels to test the mobility of the system.
The experiment will last three to six hours. Data will be monitored by
investigators as it is received and recorded at NASA's central telemetry
facility located at Hangar AE on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
A potential application of the experiment is to test the feasibility of
using this method to boost the altitudes of satellites in low earth orbits. It
might also be used to allow a spacecraft to dissipate an accumulated electrical
charge. The Johnson Space Center in Houston is lead center for PMG. The Lewis
Research Center in Cleveland is responsible for the Plasma Diagnostics Package,
and the Marshall Space Flight Center in Hunstville is responsible for the SEDS
electronics box.
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=
=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:4_2_7_4.TXT
NASA F-15 BEING READIED FOR ADVANCED MANEUVERING FLIGHT
Drucella Andersen
Headquarters, Washington, D.C. June 16, 1993
Donald Nolan
Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, Calif.
A specially-modified NASA F-15 research aircraft, which could
substantially advance the cruising efficiency and flight maneuverability of
future U.S. aircraft, arrived yesterday at the agency's Ames-Dryden Flight
Research Facility, Edwards, Calif.
This research program could substantially advance the cruising
capability and flight maneuverability of future aircraft.
The research program will test how advanced thrust vectoring engine nozzle
technology can improve the aircraft's performance during cruising flight or in
maneuvering. NASA will use the new F-15 in the Advanced Control Technology For
Integrated Vehicles, ACTIVE, program.
"When we add the advanced multi-axis thrust vectoring engine nozzles and
advanced aircraft computing and control systems, this F-15 will be an
exceptional flight research facility," said Dr. James Stewart, Project Manager.
Developed by Pratt & Whitney Government Engines and Space Division, West
Palm Beach, Fla., the new thrust vectoring system will fly for the first time
on the NASA F-15. The nozzles, much lighter than previous exhaust vectoring
systems, could be retrofitted to existing aircraft or used in future aircraft
designs.
NASA will use the modified F-15 to expand digital-integrated flight and
propulsion control system studies. This research will be complex because these
F-15 systems now must control canards (small wings) on the plane's forward
fuselage and a set of innovative engine exhaust-directing nozzles.
The F-15 has an advanced electronic cockpit, fully digital flight
controls, an extensive computer system and originally, was built to carry the
load of a vectoring system.
The nozzles can direct the F-15's engine exhaust in a full circle up to a
20- degree angle. This will permit researchers to study maneuvering qualities
using the nozzles for pitch (up and down) and yaw (side to side) control.
Dryden will install two F-100-229 Pratt & Whitney engines, the vectoring
nozzles and an advanced Vehicle Management System computer to modify the
aircraft to the ACTIVE program configuration.
The first phase of the program is expected to start in late 1993. It is a
joint effort of NASA, the Air Force, Pratt & Whitney and McDonnell Douglas, St.
Louis, Mo.
The F-15, on loan from the U.S. Air Force, was flown to Dryden from the
McDonnell Douglas plant in St. Louis by NASA research pilot Jim Smolka and
McDonnell Douglas pilot Stephen Herlt.
The U.S. Air Force used the F-15 from 1985 to 1991 in a test program to
prove technologies for short take off and landing and "up-and-away" maneuvering
of military aircraft.
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=
=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:6_2_2_44_14.TXT
NOTE: This file is too large {15861 bytes} for inclusion in this collection.
The first line of the file:
STS-56 MISSION HIGHLIGHTS
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=
=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:6_2_2_45_10.TXT
NOTE: This file is too large {16631 bytes} for inclusion in this collection.
The first line of the file:
STS-57 COUNTDOWN STATUS REPORT 6/16/93
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=
=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:6_2_2_45_6.TXT
STS-57 TV SKED, REV D
***********************************************************************
NASA SELECT TV SCHEDULE
STS-57
6/16/93
Rev D
***********************************************************************
NASA Select programming can be accessed through GE Satcom F2R,
transponder 13. The frequency is 3960 MHz with an orbital position
of 72 degrees West Longitude. This is a full transponder service
and will be operational 24 hours a day.
Two hour edited programs of each flight day will be replayed for Hawaii
and Alaska on Spacenet 1, transponder 17L, channel 18. The orbital
position is 120 degrees West Longitude, with a frequency of 4060 MHz.
Audio is on 6.8 MHz. The programs will begin on launch day and
continue through landing airing at 11:01PM Central Time.
This NASA Select Television Schedule of mission coverage is available
on COMSTORE, the mission TV schedule computer bulletin board service.
Call 713/483-5817, and follow the prompts to access this service.
------------------------ Thursday, June 17 ----------------------------
L-3 Days
SUBJECT SITE CDT
------- ---- ---
* COUNTDOWN STATUS BRIEFING KSC 8:00 AM
* CREW ARRIVAL KSC 2:30 PM
------------------------- Friday, June 18 -----------------------------
L-2 Days
COUNTDOWN STATUS BRIEFING KSC 8:00 AM
SPACEHAB PAYLOADS BRIEFING KSC 8:30 AM
* SPACEHAB PAYLOADS BRIEFING KSC 12:10 PM
* SPACEHAB PAYLOADS BRIEFING JSC 1:30 PM
------------------------- Saturday, June 19 ---------------------------
L-1 Day
COUNTDOWN STATUS BRIEFING KSC 8:00 AM
EURECA BRIEFING KSC 8:30 AM
OACT/SPACEHAB BRIEFING KSC 9:00 AM
GAS BRIEFING KSC 9:30 AM
SHOOT BRIEFING KSC 10:30 AM
* PRE-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE KSC 11:00 AM
* DONALD "DEKE" SLAYTON JSC 1:00 PM
MEMORIAL SERVICE
-------------------------- Sunday, June 20 ----------------------------
FD1
ORBIT SUBJECT SITE MET CDT
----- ------- ---- --- ---
NASA SELECT COVERAGE BEGINS KSC 04:00 AM
LAUNCH KSC 00/00:00 08:37 AM
NASA SELECT ORIGINATION SWITCHED JSC 00/00:08 08:45 AM
TO JSC
MECO JSC 00/00:08 08:45 AM
1 NASA SELECT ORIGINATION SWITCHED KSC 00/00:13 08:50 AM
TO KSC
1 LAUNCH REPLAYS WILL OCCUR KSC 00/00:13 08:50 AM
APPROX. 5 MIN. AFTER MECO
(T=30:00)
1 POST LAUNCH PRESS CONFERENCE KSC 00/00:53 09:30 AM
1 NASA SELECT ORIGINATION SWITCHED JSC 00/01:28 10:05 AM
TO JSC
2 SPACEHAB ACTIVATION 00/02:30 11:07 AM
(Not Televised)
3 Ku BAND ANTENNA DEPLOY 00/03:15 11:52 AM
(Not televised)
3 MISSION UPDATE JSC 00/03:23 12:00 PM
4 VTR DUMP OPPORTUNITY/CREW CHOICE TDRE 00/05:45 02:22 PM
T=10:00
4 NASA SELECT ORIGINATION SWITCHED KSC 00/06:23 03:00 PM
TO KSC
4 ENGINEERING LAUNCH REPLAYS KSC 00/06:23 03:00 PM
(T=30:00)
5 NASA SELECT ORIGINATION SWITCHED JSC 00/06:53 03:30 PM
TO JSC
6 CREW SLEEP 00/08:30 05:07 PM
7 REPLAY OF FD1 ACTIVITIES JSC 00/10:23 07:00 PM
--------------------------- Monday, June 21 ---------------------------
FD2
NOTE: ADDITIONAL SPACEHAB ACTIVITIES MAY BE DOWNLINKED
THROUGOUT THE DAY.
11 CREW WAKE UP 00/16:30 01:07 AM
14 P/TV02 LEMZ-1 ACTIVATION TDRW 00/21:10 05:47 AM
T=5:00
15 P/TV02 EFE ACTIVATION TDRW 00/22:26 07:03 AM
T=15:00
16 P/TV01 RMS CHECKOUT TDRE 01/00:28 09:05 AM
T=30:00
17 P/TV02 SCG OPERATIONS TDRE 01/01:20 09:57 AM
T=20:00
17 P/TV01 RMS PAYLOAD BAY SURVEY TDRE 01/01:20 09:57 AM
T=18:00
(May be pre-empted by SCG science tv
and the MSB)
17 MISSION STATUS BRIEFING JSC 01/01:23 10:00 AM
18 P/TV02 SPACEHAB ACTIVITIES TDRE/W 01/02:50 11:27 AM
T=20:00
18 MISSION UPDATE JSC 01/03:23 12:00 PM
22 CREW SLEEP 01/08:30 05:07 PM
24 REPLAY OF FD2 ACTIVITIES JSC 01/10:23 07:00 PM
-------------------------- Tuesday, June 22 ---------------------------
FD3
NOTE: ADDITIONAL SPACEHAB ACTIVITIES MAY BE DOWNLINKED
THROUGHOUT THE DAY.
27 CREW WAKE UP 01/16:30 01:07 AM
30 P/TV02 TDS-SE SOLDER ACTIVITY TDRW 01/22:07 06:44 AM
T=10:00
31 P/TV02 TDS-SE SOLDER ACTIVITY TDRE 01/22:17 06:54 AM
T=50:00
32 MISSION STATUS BRIEFING JSC 02/00:23 09:00 AM
34 P/TV06 BELO STATIONS INTERVIEW TDRW 02/03:05 11:42 AM
T=15:00
34 MISSION UPDATE JSC 02/03:23 12:00 PM
34 P/TV02 LEMZ ACTIVITY TDRE 02/03:50 12:27 PM
T=5:00
35 P/TV05 EMU CHECKOUT DOWNLINK TDRE 02/04:55 01:32 PM
OPPORTUNITY
T=59:00
(May not be televised/crew choice)
37 CREW SLEEP 02/08:00 04:37 PM
35 REPLAY OF FD3 ACTIVITIES JSC 02/10:23 07:00 PM
------------------------- Wednesday, June 23 --------------------------
FD4
NOTE: TELEVISION DOWNLINK OF EURECA RETRIEVAL ACTIVITIES
WILL OCCUR ORBITS 44 - 49 AS TDRSS AND GSTDN
COVERAGE ALLOWS. ADDITIONAL SPACEHAB ACTIVITIES
MAY ALSO BE DOWNLINKED.
42 CREW WAKE UP 02/16:00 12:37 AM
44 P/TV02 EFE OPERATIONS TDRE 02/19:00 03:37 AM
T=20:00
44 ORBITER NH BURN (Not Televised) 02/19:24 04:01 AM
45 ORBITER NC4 BURN (Not Televised) 02/20:11 04:48 AM
45 RENDEZVOUS DOWNLINK OPPORTUNITY MIL 02/20:14 04:51 AM
T=14:00
46 Ku BAND TO RADAR MODE (Not Televised) 02/21:15 05:52 AM
46 RENDEZVOUS DOWNLINK OPPORTUNITY MIL 02/21:53 06:30 AM
T=9:00
46 ORBITER NCC BURN (Not Televised) 02/22:20 06:57 AM
47 Ti BURN (Not Televised) 02/23:19 07:56 AM
47 RENDEZVOUS DOWNLINK OPPORTUNITY GDS, 02/23:27 08:04 AM
T=17:00 MIL
47 RMS POISE FOR CAPTURE (Not Televised) 02/23:32 08:09 AM
48 RENDEZVOUS DOWNLINK OPPORTUNITY GDS, 03/01:05 09:42 AM
T=22:00 MIL
48 Ku BAND TO COMM (Not Televised) 03/01:15 09:52 AM
48 P/TV07 EURECA GRAPPLE TDRE 03/01:35 10:12 AM
48 P/TV07 EURECA BERTH (Not Televised) 03/02:00 10:37 AM
49 P/TV07 EURECA BERTH CON'T TDRE 03/02:43 11:20 AM
T=32:00
49 MISSION UPDATE JSC 03/03:23 12:00 PM
50 P/TVO7 VTR DUMP OPPORTUNITY TDRW 03/04:22 12:59 PM
CREW CHOICE
50 MISSION STATUS BRIEFING JSC 03/05:23 02:00 PM
52 CREW SLEEP 03/08:00 04:37 PM
54 REPLAY OF FD4 ACTIVITIES JSC 03/10:23 07:00 PM
------------------------- Thursday, June 24 ---------------------------
FD5
NOTE: TELEVISION DOWNLINK OF EVA ACTIVITIES WILL OCCUR
ORBITS 59 - 65 AS TDRSS COVERAGE ALLOWS. SPACEHAB
ACTIVITIES MAY ALSO BE DOWNLINKED.
57 CREW WAKE UP 03/16:00 12:37 AM
58 P/TV05 EVA PREP DOWNLINK TDRW 03/18:00 02:37 AM
OPPORTUNITY
T=10:00
59 P/TV05 EVA PREP DOWNLINK TDRE/W 03/18:25 03:02 AM
OPPORTUNITY
T=55:00
62 P/TV05 EVA PREP DOWNLINK TDRW 03/23:00 07:37 AM
OPPORTUNITY
T=10:00
62 P/TV05 AIRLOCK DEPRESS TDRE 03/23:40 08:17 AM
T=7:00
62 P/TV05 AIRLOCK EGRESS (Not Televised) 04/00:00 08:37 AM
EVA BEGINS
63 EVA & RMS ACTIVITIES TDRW/E 04/00:22 08:59 AM
T=63:00
64 EVA & RMS ACTIVITIES TDRW/E 04/01:45 10:22 AM
T=56:00
65 EVA & RMS ACTIVITIES TDRW/E 04/03:26 12:03 PM
T=32:00
65 AIRLOCK INGRESS TDRE 04/04:00 12:37 PM
T=5:00
65 MISSION UPDATE JSC 04/04:53 01:30 PM
65 MISSION STATUS BRIEFING JSC 04/06:23 03:00 PM
67 CREW SLEEP 04/08:00 04:37 PM
69
