GRAA NEWSLETTER

IMPORTANT DATES

COMMENTS FROM RON BROWNING, GRAA PRESIDENT: Attendees at the January luncheon were treated to a presentation, entitled “Opening Up Space” by Dr. Ajay Kothari, CEO of ASTROX Corporation in College Park, MD. He described results of recent studies on ways to lower costs in reaching low Earth orbit for tourism and payloads. The goal is to bring access to space costs down to $700 per pound for 20,000-pound payloads. Completely reusable vehicles and hypersonic architectures are proposed. Eight new architectures, representing four vertical and four horizontal configurations, were considered. A 170-foot scramjet configuration with a 20-foot by 30-foot payload bay that could accommodate 40 people per flight was selected. Cost projections are based on 100 flights per year and a lifetime of 200 flights per vehicle (which sounds like Space Shuttle projections in the early days). They conducted worldwide surveys to determine level of interest of wealthy people to go into space and the cost threshold they were willing to pay.Two levels were surveyed – 5% and 1.5% of their wealth. The cost goal is $250,000 to $500,000 per person. In concluding his presentation, Dr. Kothari noted that the entire concept will require grants from the U.S. Government to assist in developing system technologies for it to become feasible for repeat business.

FROM THE GODDARD ARCHIVES - IT HAPPENED FEBRUARY: On February 24, 1996, a Delta-II rocket launched the Global Geospace Science (GGS) Polar satellite (sister ship to the GGS Wind satellite) to study the polar magnetosphere and aurora. One purpose of Polar was to gather information to help scientists protect satellites from radiation and other atmospheric dangers. Mission duration was expected to be two years, but operations continued until the program was terminated on April 28, 2008.

TREASURER’S REPORT: Bob Wigand received tax-deductible donations from the following members: Mary Adkins, Michael Barnes (for Mrs. Robert Barnes), Elaine Blazosky, Joseph Bredecamp, Ronald Browning, Michael Calabrese, Joyce Cephas (in memory of Arnold Cephas), Enid Chandler (in memory of Arthur Chandler), Salvatore Costa, Thomas Cygnarowicz, Christopher Daly, Martin Davis, Robert DeFazio, Denise Duignan, William Elsen, Anthony Grandi, Edward Lawless, Thomas LaVigna, Judith and Donald Lokerson, Gerald Longanecker, Donald Margolies, Raymond Melcher, John Millman, James Nagy Bartucz, Naomi Nichols, Matthew Opeka, Thomas Page, Carmie Peavler, Karl Peters, David Provost, Robert Silverberg, Joseph Skladany, Robert Smaldore, Robert (Ed) Smylie, Frank Snow, John Sos, Eloise Tarter, Charles Trevathan, Jean (Mrs. Allen) Tyler, Margaret Wells, Thomas White, Robert E. Wilson, and an anonymous donor.

RECENT RETIREES: John N. Annen, James A. Bangerter, James W. Barcus, Jr., Christopher E. Bock, Michael A. Bundick, Joyce M. Buswell, Thomaseena A. Cox, Milton R. Cromer, Harold G. Domchick, Jr., Olive V. Finney, Fritz Germain, Catherine P. Gormley, Andrew J. Green, Teresa E. Mautino, Karen S. Pope, Carolyn J. Schmidt, Eduardo Torres-Martinez, and Ronald L. Vento.

TRACKING AND DATA RELAY SATELLITE (TDRS) K SCHEDULED FOR LAUNCH: As we go to press, TDRS-K is scheduled to be launched on an Atlas-5 rocket from Kennedy Space Center on January 29^th. TDRS-K is the first of a new generation of communications satellites to be launched in the TDRS System’s replenishment program (the last TDRS was launched in 2002). We wish it complete success during launch and operation.

LANDSAT DATA CONTINUITY MISSION (LDCM) LAUNCH DATE APPROACHES: The LDCM is expected to launch on an Atlas-5 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base on February 11^th. LDCM data will be used for land use planning/monitoring, support to disaster response/evaluations, water use monitoring, and NASA research in the focus areas of climate, carbon cycle, ecosystems, water cycles, biogeochemistry, and Earth surface/interior. We wish it complete success during launch and operation.

REMEMBERING OUR FORMER COLLEAGUES:

•  Edward B. Dalkiewicz, of Berlin, MD, passed away on January 17^th. He was an Engineer at Goddard who, among varied assignments during his career, worked in the Compatibility Test Section of the Network Procedures and Simulation Branch as well as the Computation Systems Section of the Mission Support Systems Branch.

•  Bertram D. Donn, of Greenbelt, MD, passed away from complications of pneumonia at age 93 on December 28^th. He was an Astrophysicist who came to Goddard in 1959 to lead the newly-formed Astrochemistry Section. He later served as Head of the Astrochemistry Branch for many years, during which time his research spanned theory, observation and experiment for such missions as Skylab, Apollo, and the International Ultraviolet Explorer.

•  Thomas B. Gunshinan, of Silver Spring, MD, passed away on December 7^th. He was an Aerospace Engineer who, among varied assignments during his career at Goddard, worked in the Assistance Management and Test Policy Office of the Office of Mission Assurance.

•  John P. Krehbiel, of New Carrollton, MD, passed away on January 3^rd. He was an Electrical Engineer at Goddard and later moved to NASA Headquarters where he was involved in space science program management functions. He was heavily involved with working with Landmuir probes on rockets and satellites (among them the Atmosphere Explorers, Dynamics Explorer 2, and the Pioneer Venus Orbiter) to measure electrons and ion densities in the ionosphere.

•  Fay Satterfield, of Newport, NC, passed away at age 90 on December 8^th. During her entire career she worked at the University of Maryland, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Department of Agriculture, and NASA. At Goddard she was a Payroll Specialist and for some period worked at the GEWA Store.

•  Richard M. Schonbachler, of Linthicum, MD, passed away on January 7^th. He came to the Network Operations Management Section at Goddard in 1982 to serve as a Network Manager in the Network Control Center for the Space Network that was about to become operational. He later supported Space Shuttle missions as a Network Director and, at the time of his retirement, was Mission Manager of the Special Projects and Missions Office of the Space Network Project.

•  Carl L. Walch, of Bowie, MD, passed away on December 17^th from complications of pneumonia. He was a Physical Science Technician who came to Goddard in 1960 from the Navy Yard in Washington, DC, to work on special projects involving numerous satellite missions.

•  Hugh K. Warren, of Columbia, MD, passed away from cancer on December 13^th. Among numerous procurement-related assignments during his career at Goddard were Contracting Officer, Procurement Program Manager for the Space Sciences Directorate, and Head of the Procurement Policy Branch of the Procurement Support Division.

•  Edward J. Werner, of Silver Spring, MD, passed away on January 17^th. He was an Electrical Engineer at Goddard who, among many assignments during his career, worked on several Landsat projects (including being Mission Management Facility Manager for Landsat-D and Observatory Integration and Test Manager for GRO).

EDITOR’S NOTE: Ye Ed could not pass up the opportunity to share a short story from Greg Krehbiel’s website as part of a tribute to his father after he passed away. “One time in Florida when the family was there for a launch, Dad was taking me to the bathrooms. A couple of scary-looking hippy dudes were at a table with a sign that said DOPE FOR SALE. I wanted to walk the other way, but Dad led me right up to the table and said, which one of you is for sale?”

THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH: Senator and Astronaut John Glenn purportedly once quipped in a speech, “As I hurtled through space, one thought that kept crossing my mind was that every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder.”