GRAA NEWSLETTER
P.O. Box 1184, Greenbelt, MD 20768-1184

IMPORTANT DATES

COMMENTS FROM TONY COMBERIATE, GRAA PRESIDENT: Our January speaker was Dr. James R. Irons, Acting Director of Goddard’s Earth Sciences Division of the Sciences and Exploration Directorate and the Landsat 8 Project Scientist. His presentation, entitled “Landsat’s Enduring Legacy,” highlighted the 45-year history of the Landsat Project. Landsat has been a flagship program for Goddard and has enjoyed a string of extremely successful missions. The first Landsat, called the Earth Resources Technology Satellite, was launched in 1972 to demonstrate a capability to image the entire Earth’s land surface with high resolution from a low Earth orbit. Since then there has been at least one operational Landsat in orbit throughout its entire history. The U.S. Geological Survey’s (USPS) Earth Resources, Observation and Science (EROS) facility in Sioux Falls, SD, began to continuously record and process spacecraft data in 1972. Prior to Landsat, Earth surface observation was done by aerial photography with restricted coverage.

Landsat spacecraft operate in a sun-synchronous circular polar orbit that covers the entire Earth every 16 days. The first spacecraft incorporated two instruments: an analog Return Beam Videocon Camera (essentially a TV camera) and a Multispectral Scanner (MSS). Digital images from the MSS were so popular that there was pressure to commercialize the satellites. Consequently, a 1984 federal law transferred Landsat 4 and 5 to the private sector, where EOSAT operated the in-orbit spacecraft and was responsible for building Landsat 6. However, the commercial cost of a ~100mi x 100mi Landsat scene escalated to $4,500, making it prohibitive for users in research and applications. Consequently, in 1992, Congress rescinded the law and returned the responsibility of operating Landsat 4 and 5 and the building of future Landsat spacecraft to the government. The cost to produce a Landsat scene dropped to $600, and in 2008 the government decided to distribute scenes at no cost to users. By 2010, 2.5 million were provided and that number grew to over 17 million in 2016. These scenes are available to the public and are now delivered digitally directly from EROS. The commercial Landsat 6 spacecraft failed to reach orbit, but Goddard has since built and launched Landsat 7 and 8, and will launch Landsat 9 in late 2020.

Jim’s closing thought was that because people can now download thousands of scenes of any particular area for free and because of high performance computing and the cloud, every pixel in an image can be tracked and classified, and any change can be delineated and characterized. We have now reached the point where we can use Landsat data to characterize change over the entire surface of the Earth. Jim recognized a number of key people with whom he has worked who made this Landsat legacy possible.

For hardcore Landsat enthusiasts, a book entitled ”Landsat’s Enduring Legacy” was recently published by the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (of which Jim Irons is a member of the book’s project team) is available for purchase on its website at https://www.asprs.org.

TREASURER’S REPORT: Treasurer Jackie Gasch received tax-deductible donations from: L. Henry Anderson, Dennis Asato, Ronald Barasch, Ronald Browning, John Burris, David Coolidge, James Costrell, Thomas Cygnarowicz, Christopher Daly, Edward Danko, Stephen Dolan, Carroll Dudley, Denise Duignan, Ronald Felice, Dario Galoppo, James Gavura, Eugene Humphrey, Carl Kellenbenz, Edward Lawless, Patricia Mackey, Michael McCumber, John Millman, Thomas Page (in memory of Sybille Page), Karl Peters, Fred Robinson, Steven Smith, Elizabeth Stecher (in memory of Theodore Stecher), Richard Strafella, H. Anne Thompson, Mary Trainor, Thomas Underwood, Lynda Willingham, and Robert E. Wilson.

GRAA NEEDS HELP: GRAA is seeking help with updating and enhancing our website (http://graa.gsfc.nasa.gov). We are looking for a volunteer or two with some web development skills to bring our website up to current standards. Although not mandatory, it would most likely be best for volunteers to live within commuting distance of the Greenbelt campus, especially in order to collaborate with the GRAA Website Curator, James Cameron, of the Information Technology and Communications Directorate. If interested in helping out and, please email either President Tony Comberiate (abcomberiate@verizon.net) or Vice President Arlin Krueger (arjkrueger@gmail.com) for more information.

THOUGHT FOR FEBRUARY: Ye Ed suggests that we all be aware that once we’re over the hill we begin to pick up speed!

RECENT RETIREES: Mark Baugh, Arlene Bigel, Peter Blake, Mablelene Burrell, Viola Compton, Timothy Gehringer, Scott Green, Karen Halterman, Kathy Hartman, Deborah Hinkle, Traci King, Gene Knoble, Jr., Kenneth Li, Jane Liu, James Lohr, Gregory Marr, Michael McCall, Emmett D. Ransone, Marie Rawlings, Helen Saulino, Kenneth Savage, Christopher Savinell, Jr., Ira Skees, Nicholas Speciale, and Brett Weeks.

FROM THE GODDARD ARCHIVES – IT HAPPENED IN FEBRUARY: On February 26, 1998, the Student Nitric Oxide Explorer (SNOE), also known as Explorer 72, was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), CA. It was the first small scientific satellite to be launched in NASA’s Student Demonstration Initiative (STEDI) program. Its scientific objective was a detailed study of variations in nitric oxide in the Earth thermosphere. The spacecraft and its instrument complement were designed, built, and operated entirely at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics of the University of Colorado at Boulder and the project was managed for NASA by the Universities Space Research Association of Columbia, MD. SNOE was equipped with three scientific instruments: an Ultraviolet Spectrometer; a two-channel Auroral Photometer; and a five-channel Solar X-ray Photometer. The spacecraft functioned normally until its Sun-synchronous orbit degraded and it reentered the atmosphere on December 13, 2003.

REMEMBERING OUR FORMER COLLEAGUES:

• Christopher O. Bryan, Sr, of Lincoln, DE, passed away on December 18^th. After serving as a Captain for years in the Prince George’s County, MD, Police Department, he served at Goddard as Chief of Security for several years during the ’70s and just into the early ’80s prior to establishing a law practice in Upper Marlboro, MD, and resigning from the position.
• William J. Campbell, of Davidsonville, MD, passed away on January 15^th. He came to Goddard in 1979 as a Geologist and was initially assigned to the Missions Utilization Office in the Applications Directorate. Later in the ’80s he was assigned to the Space Data & Computation Division of the Earth Sciences Directorate and for most of ’90s and into the new millennium was Head of the Information Sciences & Technology Branch of the Space Data & Computing Division in the Earth Sciences Directorate. In ’05 and until retiring in about ’08 he was assigned to the Computational & Information Sciences and Technology Office in the Sciences & Exploration Directorate.
• Donald G. Henry, of Littleton, NC, passed away on January 6^th. He started working at Goddard in the mid-’60s as a Communications Technician in the NASA Communications Division of the Manned Flight Support Directorate, which in the ’80s reorganized to be placed in the Networks Directorate and again reorganized in the ’90s to be placed in the Mission Operations & Data Systems Directorate. He retired as Communications Manager in the mid- to late-’90s.
• David H. Schaefer, of Silver Spring, MD, passed away on January 14^th. He started working at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in 1949 and began working on Project Vanguard about 1954. Once GSFC was established in 1959, most of the NRL employees working on Project Vanguard transferred to Goddard. In ’64, he was Head of the Computer Section of the Spacecraft Technology Division and in ’67 Head of the Spacecraft Instrumentation Section of the same division in the Office of Space Science & Satellite Applications. From ’72 to ’81 (when he retired and became an Associate Professor at George Mason University), he served in several computer-related and data system development capacities in which he was instrumental in initiating and managing a program to build the first massively parallel computer in the US.
• Robert L. Stilmar, of Midvale, UT, passed away on December 16^th. He was an Electrical Engineer at Goddard who, from ’64 through ’72 was active in preparing for the moon missions. In ’64, he worked in the Manned Flight Operations Division of the Office of Tracking & Data Systems; in ’67, he served in the Manned Flight Engineering Division of the Manned Flight Support Directorate; and in ’72, he was assigned to the Network Operation Division of the Networks Directorate.
• Vigdor L. Teplitz, of Bethesda, MD, passed away on December 14^th. He was a Physicist at Goddard who was assigned early in the 2000’s as University Affairs Officer in the Space Sciences Directorate and later, due to a reorganization, as Chief of the University Programs Office in the Sciences and Exploration Directorate prior to retiring around 2010.
• Claude Ward, of Pocomoke City, MD, passed away on December 16^th. He started his career as a civilian employee of the U.S. Navy in 1953 before transferring to NASA in 1959 as an Electronics Technician. In 1995 he retired as the Head Technician in the Transmitter Facility in the Telecommunications Section of the Operations Division of the Suborbital Projects & Operations Directorate at Wallops Island, VA.