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

IMPORTANT DATES

COMMENTS FROM TONY COMBERIATE, GRAA PRESIDENT: We concluded our celebration of Goddard’s 60th Anniversary this month with a presentation from Christopher Scolese, Center Director, entitled “Bringing the Universe Into View Since 1959.” Chris began with a short movie clip depicting the general attitude toward space in 1959. He then traced Goddard’s impact on the space age decade by decade. During the 1950s, the focus was on understanding our planet and featured the Vanguard Project and atmospheric payloads. In the 1960s, Goddard launched a large number of spacecraft that studied the Earth, the Sun, the Universe, and also provided communications for all NASA missions. A photo of the Center that Chris displayed from that timeframe showed a small central cluster of buildings erected on what was, a few years earlier, an empty field. Highlighted missions from the 1970s included Landsat, Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS), and the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE). Goddard added the Wallops Flight Facility in the 1980s and for the first time had a launch site on its own land. The Tracking & Data Relay Satellites (TDRS), Television Infrared Observation Satellites (TIROS), Dynamics Explorer (DE), Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), Solar Maximum Mission (SMM), and the Shuttle Small Payloads highlighted the launches in that decade. The 1990s started with Goddard missions like the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) studying the universe and ending with an increased focus on better understanding our planet with the Earth Observation Satellite (EOS) Program and the TERRA Satellite launch. In addition, Goddard resumed managing Landsat spacecraft after a commercial attempt proved unsuccessful.

Chris shared his experience as acting NASA Administrator in 2009 of launching four Space Shuttle missions, including one to service the HST. Until that time, acting administrators were not allowed to launch humans. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was certainly the highlight of the 2010s for Goddard. The Goddard payload has completed thermal vac testing and after spacecraft integration will undergo final acoustics, vibration, and some deployment tests before being packed and shipped for a launch in March of 2021. Current Goddard endeavors include Cubesats, eighteen operational Heliophysics missions, including the Parker Solar Probe, Planetary Missions including the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which is conducting a whole sky search for nearby exoplanets, several Earth Science Missions, including the Plankton_Aerosol_Cloud_ocean_Ecosystem (PACE) Satellite and ICESAT-2, which recently released its first set of science data. OSIRIS-REx has arrived at the asteroid Bennu and is preparing to take and return a sample to Earth. The Lucy mission now being developed will be the first mission to visit Jupiter’s Trojan Asteroids. In preparing for NASA’s upcoming missions to the Moon and Mars, Goddard is examining four lunar samples, where its main roles will be robotic servicing in space and on the Moon and providing RF and Optical communications. The Goddard campus recently added the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, TX, which stages all of NASA’s balloon flights. Chris answered several questions about Goddard and his future. His biggest concern for Goddard’s future is the stability of funding for science missions and Goddard’s aging physical plant. He closed his presentation by emphasizing that the Center continues to provide, as it has for 60 years, its most important benefit – turning dreams and hopes into reality for the good of all mankind.

TREASURER'S REPORT: Treasurer Jackie Gasch received tax-deductible donations from Donald Crosby, Danny Dalton, Peter Kenny, Terence O’Neill, Karl Peters, and Thomas Underwood.

THOUGHT FOR JULY: The first conclusive proof of global warming apparently occurred on a cold, crisp day early last month in Iowa. A farmer decided he best check his crops and a short time later determined that 150 acres of his corn crop had already popped!

REMEMBERING OUR FORMER COLLEAGUES:

• Richard E. Hartle, of San Diego, CA, passed away on February 19^th. After receiving a B.S. degree from the University of Michigan in ’59, he continued his studies at Pennsylvania State University, earning an M.S. in Nuclear Engineering in ’61 and a Ph.D. in Physics in ’64. He then spent three years doing postdoctoral work at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA, from ’64 to ’67. He then transferred as a Theoretical Physicist to Goddard and was initially assigned to the Laboratory for Planetary Atmospheres. Beginning in the heyday of the Apollo Missions, he enjoyed a long career at Goddard, rising to be Head of the Planetary Atmospheres Branch from ’91 to ’95, assuming a variety of roles, participating in multiple research projects, and authoring/co-authoring over 120 scientific publications. In the ’70s Richard became Head of the Planetary Aeronomy Branch and beginning in the ’80s was assigned to the Laboratory of Planetary Atmospheres in the Applications Directorate. In ’85 he became Assistant Chief of the Laboratory for Atmospheres in the Space & Earth Sciences Directorate and remained in that position until becoming Senior Staff Scientist in ’96 for the Laboratory for Atmospheres in the Earth Sciences Directorate. His later assignments included extensive research and study of solar winds, the planetary atmospheres and ionospheres of Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn (and its moons), plasma physics, and gas dynamics using measurements on major NASA satellites. Richard retired from Goddard in 2012, but continued to serve as a NASA consultant for several more years.
• Arthur H. Jackson, of Davidsonville, MD, passed away on June 9^th. He came to Goddard as an Electrical Engineer in ’81 and was initially assigned to the Network Procedures & Evaluation Division of the Networks Directorate. In ’83 he was reassigned to the Analysis, Integration & Test Division of the same directorate and in ’85 was reassigned as Assistant Head of the Systems Test Branch of the Networks Division and then in ’87 was promoted to Head of the Systems Test Branch when the organization’s title changed to the Mission Operations & Data Systems Directorate. In ’91 he was reassigned to the Space Network Project Office of the same directorate where he continued to serve until retiring in early ’97.
• Virgil True, of Clatskanie, OR, passed away on February 12^th. He graduated from high school at age 16 and attended two years of business school until enlisting in the Marine Corps in 1943. He fought on Okinawa in WWII, after which he earned an Electrical Engineering degree on the GI bill. He spent 42 years as a civil servant, first with the Naval Research Laboratory, then as a civilian employee of the Navy at two sites in CA. However, most of his years were spent working for Goddard. His initial assignment at Goddard was in ’65 in the Manned Flight Operations Division of the Tracking & Data Systems Directorate, which then in ’67 changed its title to the Manned Flight Support Directorate. Around ’72 he was assigned to the Networks Operations Division of the Networks Directorate, but moved off-site to a tracking station in Hawaii and then in later years to a tracking station in New Mexico. Virgil apparently elected to retire in the early ’90s.

FROM THE GODDARD ARCHIVES – IT HAPPENED IN JULY: On July 16, 1969, a Saturn 5 rocket launched Apollo 11 to the Moon from Cape Canaveral, FL. The 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing will be celebrated on July 20th. The primary objective of Apollo 11 was to complete a national goal set by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961 – to complete a lunar landing and return to Earth. While we normally only publicize Goddard spacecraft, the Center played a significant role from launch to recovery on this particular occasion. All communications and recovery support was essentially Goddard’s responsibility and utilized 29 ground stations, four ships, and eight aircraft. Goddard also provided scientific instruments which are still in use 50 years later. The landing mass of the Lunar Module was 10,873 pounds (4,932 kilograms); the mission duration was 8 days, 3 hours, and 18 minutes; and the crew size was three (Commander Neil Armstrong, Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin, and Command Module Pilot Michael Collins). Apollo 11 served as a truly successful and amazing mission for NASA and the country as a whole!