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

IMPORTANT DATES

COMMENTS FROM TONY COMBERIATE, GRAA PRESIDENT: Our October luncheon speaker was William “Bill” Wrobel, Director of the Wallops Flight Facility (WFF). His presentation, entitled “Wallops Flight Facility – A Unique National Asset,” described the evolution of WFF from its beginning 75 years ago to the national multi-user/multi-tenant facility it is today. Wallops Island was commissioned as part of the Langley Research Center in March 1945 to test supersonic aircraft and launched its first rocket three months later. In the 1950s and 1960s, Wallops focused on early human spaceflight tests, including Rhesus monkey experiments on Mercury capsules. Early NASA meetings at the Facility hosted space pioneers including George Low, Neil Armstrong, Wernher von Braun, and Arthur C. Clarke. Since the ’70s, its focus has been on science and technology missions as well as serving as a multipurpose test site and launch facility for sounding rockets, aircraft, balloons, and space missions, including resupply missions to the International Space Station (ISS).

WFF is a one-of-a-kind, agile, low cost, multidimensional facility, but its people also go where the science is, including places like Poker Flat, AK, Kwajalein Atoll, and Palestine, TX, where balloon flights were resumed this year. Plans to support operations in Australia and South America are expected to occur in the near future.

WFF is a 6,000 acre facility consisting of the mainland area, the island, and the marshland. It is an ideal remote location for housing world-class development and test facilities, control centers and data processing with a launch area nearby. It is staffed by some 285 NASA civil servants and 800 contractors and has an annual budget of $350 million per year. As a national asset, it is utilized by a number of other agencies, universities, the US Navy, the US Air Force and other Department of Defense users. The Navy conducts aircraft carrier landing and takeoff training on a part of the WFF runway that has been modified to look and feel like an actual aircraft carrier. The facility supports the Service Combat Systems Command, the National Weather Service, and the Coast Guard as well as the State of Virginia and Northrop Grumman.

Besides its extensive launch capability, the WFF portfolio includes Aegis radars, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), small satellites, cubesats and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). Two new buildings that were just dedicated on October 10^th are a Mission Operations Control Center and an Island Fire Station. Other new facilities are a Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) Payload Processing Facility and UAS Airfield.

WFF is attracting an increasing number of new users, including the Air Force, which will offer flight opportunities using retired Minuteman motors; several small, emerging rocket developers; the NRO, with three launches starting next year; and Antares class payloads.

WFF is also leading a $5.3 million project to upgrade and renovate the Bermuda downrange tracking and command station, which should be completed in November.

Bill invited GRAA members to visit WFF any time and encouraged us to attend the upcoming Antares launch scheduled for November 15^th at 4:49 am. He guaranteed an up-close and personal experience we will unlikely ever forget. The mission will resupply the ISS with 7,000 pounds of food and experiments. If you can’t travel to WFF, you may be able to observe the launch from the DC area if the sky is clear.

Bill emphasized that one of his most important goals as WFF director is to use this incredible facility to transfer knowledge to the next generation through the many hands-on opportunities for access to space that it provides.

REMEMBERING OUR FORMER COLLEAGUES:

• James S. Burneskis, of Bowie, MD, passed away on September 26^th. Although he retired as a Captain in the US Naval Reserves, he worked at Goddard for about six years as a Computer Analyst. In ’82, he served as Head of the ADP Section in the Institutional Procurement Division of the Management Operations Directorate and later served as Branch Head of the Center ADP Procurement Branch of the same division and directorate until he retired in ’88. Sally Burneskis, his wife, worked as a Financial Analyst on several projects at Goddard for 25 years and retired in ’94.
• Jean E. Hubbard, of Frederick, MD, passed away on October 19^th. She came to Goddard in ’68 and was assigned to the Manned Flight Support Directorate as a Secretary. In ’73, she was reassigned to the Technology Information Division of the Administration & Management Directorate, in ’76 to the Facilities Engineering Division, and in ’79 to the Technology Information & Administration of the same directorate. In ’86 the directorate’s title was changed to the Management Operations Directorate and she retired in ’87.
• James M. (Mike) Stevens, of Shallotte, NC, passed away on October 8^th. He came to Goddard soon after its inception employed by Bendix Corporation, but by ’63 he became a civil servant in the Manned Space Flight Support Division of the Office of Tracking & Data Systems and in ’72, the title changed to the Networks Directorate. In ’83, he took on the role of Head of the Launch Integration & Management Group and later the same year was selected as NASA Representative to Australia and moved to Canberra for three years. When he returned home from that assignment, he worked at NASA Headquarters until retiring in ’94.

GODDARD PLANS 60TH ANNIVERSARY EVENTS DURING 2019: Deanna Trask and Robert Garner, of Goddard’s Office of Communications, attended the October GRAA Luncheon to provide attendees information about NASA’s 60th Anniversary. Events at Goddard in early 2019 include an All Hands meeting with the Center Director and an “Antiques Road Show” style event and on May 1^st (when the Center was named Goddard Space Flight Center), a Town Hall meeting and a GEWA Happy Hour at the Barney and Bea Rec Center will occur.

Volunteers are needed for a public open house on September 21st. Retirees are invited to participate in these events. An oral history project is looking for stories from Goddard pioneers. Please contact Deanna Trask at her email address (deanna.m.trask@nasa.gov) for further information.

Please keep in mind that GRAA is planning special anniversary luncheons in April and May 2019.

FROM THE GODDARD ARCHIVES – IT HAPPENED IN NOVEMBER: On November 19, 2010, the Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite (FASTSAT) spacecraft was launched by a Minotaur 4 rocket from Kodiak Island, AK. While Marshall Space Center and Ames Research Center also managed instruments on this mission, three atmospheric instruments were built and managed by GSFC in partnership with the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. The instruments were: 1) MINI-ME, a low energy neutral atom imager to detect neutral atoms formed in the plasma population of the Earth’s outer atmosphere to improve global space weather productions; 2) PISA (Plasma and Impedance Spectrum Analyzer); and TTI (Thermosphere Temperature Imager). FASTSAT was decommissioned in May 2013 following 30 months of successful mission operations.

TREASURER'S REPORT: Treasurer Jackie Gasch received tax-deductible donations from Joseph Bredekamp, Edward Danko (in memory of John M. (Mike) Stevens), Ellen Herring, Robert & Aleta Johnson (in memory of Alton D. (Buddy) Payne, Jr.), John Lahzun, David Manges, Raymond Melcher, and Susan Sparacino (in memory of Alton D. (Buddy) Payne, Jr.).

RECENT RETIREES: Linda A. Miner, Gaynell Johnson, Nancy L. Palm, David F. Pickett, and Michael A. Xapsos.

THOUGHT FOR NOVEMBER: Light travels faster than sound, which is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.