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"6_2_17_2.TXT" (7114 bytes) was created on 05-06-92
GET AWAY SPECIAL...the first ten years
THE CONCEPT
To tell the Get Away Special story is to tell more than
50 stories in one, for each payload came from the
excitement, dreams, and efforts of groups of individuals.
There were students who built their first space experiments;
experienced scientists with projects that could lead to new
materials; companies testing products for living and working
in space; and others, such as artists and medical
professionals, who turned their thoughts to experimentation
in space for the first time. Finally, there is the story of
the NASA and contractor personnel who conceived the program
and worked together to make it happen.
In the mid l970s, the Customer Services Division at
NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. began manifesting
(assigning) major payloads aboard Shuttle missions. It soon
became apparent that most missions would have a small amount
of capacity left after the major payloads were installed.
NASA's discussions of how to best utilize this capacity led
to the Small Self-Contained Payloads Program, now familiarly
known as the Get Away Special Program or, simply, the GAS
Program.
In October l976, John Yardley, Associate Administrator
for the Office of Space Flight at NASA Headquarters,
announced the inception of the GAS Program. The next day,
Mr. R. Gilbert Moore purchased the first GAS payload
reservation.
Over the next few months, NASA worked to define the
program's boundaries. Three payload options evolved: a
2 1/2-cubic-foot container for payloads up to 60 pounds,
costing $3000; a 2 1/2-cubic-foot container for payloads
61 to 100 pounds for $5000; and a 5-cubic-foot container
for 200-pound payloads for $10,000.
Early in l977, NASA assigned the GAS Program to the
Sounding Rocket Division at the Goddard Space Flight Center
in Greenbelt, Maryland. Later renamed the Special Payloads
Division, its personnel had, at that time, accumulated
twenty years of hands-on engineering experience in flying
sounding rocket payloads. Their expertise was ideal for a
small payloads program. A handful of engineers began
meeting weekly to define the hardware and procedures
necessary for the GAS Program. This was the beginning of
the GAS team.
In the ten years to follow, which included the flying
of 53 payloads the GAS team kept its enthusiasm for the
program---largely because of the experimenters' high level
of enthusiasm and endless ability to conceive and design
thought-provoking experiments. The originators of the GAS
Program could not have envisioned the innovativeness of some
of the customers' payloads. Customers' requirements for
these experiments sometimes prompted the GAS team to develop
new equipment and procedures to meet their experimenters'
needs.
Readers intrigued by these experiments will no doubt
wonder about their results. An unusual feature of the GAS
Program is that experimenters are not required to furnish
postflight reports to NASA. NASA feels that GAS customers
can best speak for their own experiments. The following
payload descriptions have been compiled from preflight press
releases and discussions with GAS experimenters. Generally,
payload results are mentioned only when they illustrate
lessons that were learned. Readers can, however, review the
payloads and their results in more detail by obtaining
papers presented by the experimenters at NASA's Annual Get
Away Special Experimenter's Symposiums. Symposium
proceedings are available from:
The National Technical Information Service
Springfield, Virginia 22161
The proceedings of each symposium are assigned a
conference publication number, as listed below:
GAS Experimenters' NASA Conference
Symposium Publication No.
l984........................2324
1985........................2401
l986........................2438
1987........................2500
STS-3 Columbia, March 22, 1982
Flight Verification Payload
Before GAS customers could prepare realistic
payload designs, they needed an accurate description of the
environment inside a GAS container. Early in the program,
the GAS team proposed flying a Flight Verification Payload
(FVP) for this purpose. The FVP would record the vibration,
pressure, and microgravity inside a GAS container, as well
as the internal and external temperature levels.
Along with its environmental data, the FVP proved
invaluable in an unforseen way. For the first time, the
team had to design a GAS payload and provide for its
integration and installation in the Space Transportation
System(STS). Having put the FVP through these operations,
such procedures were considerably eased for future GAS
customers.
STS-4 Columbia, June 27, l982
G001 Utah State University
STS-5 Columbia, November 11, l982
G026 German Materials Processing
STS-6 Challenger, April 4 l983
G005 Japanese Snowflakes
G049 Air Force Cadets
G381 Exposing Seeds to Space
STS-7 Challenger, June 18, l983
G002 German Students
G009 Purdue University Students
G012 New Jersey Students
G033 Cal Tech Students
G088 Soldering in Space
G305 Space UV Radiation Test
G345 Ultraviolet Film Test
STS-8 Challenger, August 30, l983
G346 Cosmic Ray Upset
G347 Ultraviolet Film Test
G348 Atomic Oxygen Test
G475 Snowflakes in Space
STS-41-B Challenger, February 3, l984
G004 Space Paks
G008 Utah Students
G051 GTE's Metalarc Lamp
G309 Cosmic Ray Upset II
G349 Atomic Oxygen Experiment
STS-41-G Challenger, October 5, l984
G007 Radio Signals From Space
G013 Halogen Lamps
G032 Shooting BBs at Waterballs
G038 Space Art
G074 Improving Spacecraft Fueling
G306 Trapped Ions in Space
G469 Cosmic Ray Upset II
G518 Utah Payloads Fly Again
STS-51-D Discovery, April 12, l985
G035 Waterball Collisions
G471 Capillary Pumped Loop
STS-51-B Challenger, April 29, l985
G010 Northern Utah Satellite
G308 CLOMR Satellite
STS-51-G Discovery, June 17, l985
G025 Liquid Sloshing Test
G027 Ceramic Technology
G028 Manganese-Bismuth Alloy
G034 El Paso High Schools
G314 UV Radiation Environment
G471 Capillary Pumped Loop
STS-61-A Challenger, October 30, l985
G308 GLOMR's Deployment
STS-61-B Atlantis, November 26, l985
G479 Canadian Vapor Disposition
STS-61-C Columbia, January 12, l986
EMP GAS Bridge Environment
G007 Radio Transmission Test
G062 Penn State/GE Payload
G310 Air Force Vibrating Beams
G332 Houston High Schools
G446 Chemical Analysis Tests
G449 Medical Laser Tests
G462,3,&4 Cosmic Background
G470 Moth in Space Project
G481 Transporting Art Supplies
"6_2_17_3.TXT" (2645 bytes) was created on 10-23-92
NASA REOPENS RESERVATIONS QUEUE FOR GET AWAY SPECICALS
HQ 92-174/GET AWAY SPECIAL RESERVATIONS REOPENED
Jim Cast
Headquarters, Washington, D.C. October 20, 1992
Dolores Beasley
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Release: 92-174
NASA today announced that the Small Self Contained Payloads (SSCP)
program, popularly known as the Get Away Special (GAS) program, is now
accepting new applications for payload reservations.
The program offers standard canisters to customers wanting to carry out
scientific research on Shuttle flights on a space-available basis for a nominal
fee. Since the first Get Away Special payload flew on Space Shuttle Columbia
10 years ago, 87 GAS payloads have flown on 18 missions, representing customers
from industry, educational institutions, domestic and foreign governments, as
well as from individuals.
Reopening the reservations queue for GAS payloads follows NASA
Administrator Daniel Goldin's signing of an updated policy on small self
contained payloads. The updated policy was published in the Federal Register
on Sept. 9.
The announcement was made at the Shuttle Small Payloads Symposium being
held at the Sheraton Greenbelt Hotel in New Carrollton, Md. The symposium is
being sponsored by NASA's Office of Space Flight and the Goddard Space Flight
Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Under the revised policy, prices for standard services would be $27,000
for an SSCP payload weighing 200 pounds (90.72 kg) and a volume of 5 cubic feet
(.142 cubic meters), $14,000 for a payload weighing 100 pounds (45.36 kg) and a
volume of 2.5 cubic feet and $8,000 for a payload weighing 60 pounds (27.22 kg)
and a volume of 2.5 cubic feet (.071 cubic meters). These prices compensate
for the impact of inflation from fiscal years 1975 through 1991.
NASA soon will publish in the Federal Register a related policy whereby
domestic educational institutions will have an option to qualify for reduced
SSCP prices. Domestic educational institutions would pay $10,000 for an SSCP
payload weighing 200 pounds and a volume of 5 cubic feet, $5,000 for a payload
weighing 100 pounds and a volume of 2.5 cubic feet and $3,000 for a payload
weighing 60 pounds and a volume of 2.5 cubic feet.
SSCP experiments must be of a scientific research and development nature
and are flown on a space- available basis on Space Shuttle missions. Most
recently, 9 GAS experiments from 5 countries flew on the STS-47 Spacelab J
mission in September.
The SSCP project is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Program
management is located at Headquarters' Office of Space Flight.