GRAA NEWSLETTER
P.O. Box 163, Lanham, MD 20703-0163

IMPORTANT DATES

COMMENTS FROM RON BROWNING, GRAA PRESIDENT: With President Ron Browning “on the road again,” Vice President Tony Comberiate offered up comments stemming from the July luncheon. Dr. David Rosage, Program Director of Goddard’s Office of Education, introduced ten summer interns and four associated mentors to highlight projects the interns are working on this year. Each intern identified their university, major, year, and assigned project. They represented a mix of academic experience, which included several Engineering branches as well as Optical Science and Geographical Science. Their projects include Magnetic Variance, Math Modeling, Remote Sensing, Space Weather Forecasting, and others. The mentors described their research and what mentoring means to them. They all find the experience satisfying and are especially impressed by seeing interns “light up” when introduced to new concepts. GRAA attendees, as they always do, shared their thoughts and experiences with the interns.

GRADUATE STUDENT SEEKS WOMEN ENGINEERS: Emily Margolis, a graduate student in the Department of History of Science and Technology at Johns Hopkins University, also addressed attendees at the luncheon. She is writing a history of women engineers at NASA and is seeking to conduct oral history interviews from women engineers who worked at Goddard between 1960 and 1980. If you fit that time frame, or know someone who does, please do not hesitate to contact Emily Margolis at emilymargolis@jhu.edu.

GRAA BOARD MEMBERS RECEIVE AWARDS: Board member Dick Baker was presented a 25-year membership and service award at the luncheon by Dr. Brendan McAndrew, a Goddard Optical Engineer who was representing the Mid-Atlantic Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Not to be outdone, President Ron Browning has also received a 40-year membership and service award, but opted to have it mailed to him because he was “on the road again” on the luncheon date.

FROM THE GODDARD ARCHIVES – IT HAPPENED IN AUGUST: Fifty years ago, on August 28, 1964, a Thor-Agena B rocket launched Nimbus-1 from Vandenberg Air Force Base (AFB), CA. It was the first of seven Nimbus Earth Observation research satellites that revolutionized weather forecasting; initiated both the ongoing worldwide search and rescue program and the ongoing satellite upper atmosphere ozone watch program; provided the initial data for Earth radiation balance studies related to global warming understanding; and provided many other societal and commercial benefits. The Thor-Agena second stage failed to burn, putting the spacecraft in a highly elliptical orbit (causing a failed first orbit acquisition at the Spaceflight Tracking and Data Acquisition Network site in Alaska). The acquisition process recovered by the second orbit thanks to Dr. Joseph Siry’s manual orbit determination by using Minitrack Network data. The spacecraft and instruments operated properly, taking worldwide day & night cloud photos, but failed after 28 days due to the solar array drive failure (i.e., the ball bearing was not designed for operating in space and froze).

TREASURER’S REPORT: Treasurer Bob Wigand received tax-deductible contributions from the following members: James Andary, Earl Angelo, Frank Carr, Martin and Belle Davis, David Douds, William Elsen, David Evans, David Fromme, Dario Galoppo, James Gavura, Ray Hartenstein, John Hodge, George Hogan, Peter Hui, Alton Jones, Vernon Krueger, Straton Laios, Stephen Maran, Ivan Mason, Karl Peters, Colleen Quinn-House, Barbara Shavatt, Richard Tagler, William Townsend, and Virgil True.

THOUGHT FOR AUGUST: A new word is making its way into the English lexicon. The word is INTAXICATION, which is the euphoria you get from receiving a tax refund. The euphoria only lasts for a brief period as you will soon come to your senses and realize it was your money from the get-go.

REMEMBERING OUR FORMER COLLEAGUES:

•  Walter D. Bradley, of Silver Spring, MD, passed away on July 11^th. He was an Engineer who worked for a myriad of organizations over time, to include the Manned Flight Support Directorate, the Networks Directorate, the Flight Projects Directorate, the Engineering Directorate, and the Mission Operations and Data Systems Directorate.

•  Hope H. Dickson, of New Braunfels, TX, passed away on July 5^th. He was an Engineer who worked early on in the Office of Tracking and Data Systems and later was Head of the Design and Plant Engineering Section in the Networks Directorate.

•  Harold E. Evans, of Pompano Beach, FL, passed away on June 24^th. He was an Engineer who first worked in the Office of Space Science & Satellite Applications and later in the Space Applications & Technology Directorate.

•  Samuel R. Floyd, of Columbia, MD, passed away on June 21^st. He was a Physicist who, over time, worked in the Systems Reliability Directorate, the Office of Flight Assurance, the Space Sciences Directorate, and before retiring in 2012 was the Advanced Technology Manager in the Astrochemistry Lab of the Sciences and Exploration Directorate.

•  Robert L. Haltermann, of Fort Lauderdale, FL, passed away on June 1^st. He graduated from the US Naval Academy (USNA) in 1958 and fulfilling his military service, he came to Goddard as an Engineer and led a team to integrate and launch scientific satellites, to include some of the Orbiting Geophysical Observatories from the Western Test Range at Vandenberg AFB, CA. He then went to the Consumer Product Safety Commission for three years and then went to NASA Headquarters until he retired.

•  William E. Hawkins, of The Villages, FL, passed away on January 14^th. He retired after 25 years of service in the US Air Force and then worked as a Support Manager for ten years in the Network Procedures & Evaluation Division of the Networks Directorate.

•  Emil Hymowitz, of Potomac, MD, passed away on June 14^th. He worked as Project Manager for several satellite projects, to include the Ariel 2 satellite in the Office of Space Science & Satellite Applications and the Astronomical Netherlands Satellite in the International Projects Office of the Space Applications & Technology Directorate.

•  Asa Wayne Mears, of Nassawadox, VA, passed away on June 25^th. During his career at Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) he moved up in responsibility from being a Contract Assistant in 1966 to Contract Specialist, to Head of the WFF Contract Section, to Head of the WFF Procurement Branch, and to WFF Procurement Manager prior to retiring in 1997.

•  Chester H. “Chet” Shaddeau, Jr., of Annapolis, MD, passed away on June 20^th. He graduated from the USNA in 1947 and left military service in 1959. After four years as a contractor supporting the manned space flight program, he joined Goddard as Director of several remote satellite tracking stations (i.e., Lima, Peru; Santiago, Chile; Quito, Ecuador; and Madrid, Spain) during his career at Goddard. He retired from federal service in 1986.

•  Brooks L. Shaw, of Accomac, VA, passed away on July 11^th. He worked as the WFF Airport Manager in the Operations Division of the Suborbital Projects & Operations Directorate.

GRAA MEMBER COMPLETES STEM WEBSITE: Introduced back in 2010 by member Tom Karras, his website project is complete, more powerful than ever, and has a STEM Webtree link highlighted at the bottom of the home page containing many great websites that NASA folks and contractors will easily recognize. We encourage all members to check out Tom’s contribution to the US educational system and do not hesitate to share it with your grandchildren and those of other family and friends. Simply go to: http://www.KidsMathScienceDigitalBook.com. If you have questions or comments, please contact Tom at senecare@aol.com.