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

COMMENTS FROM TONY COMBERIATE AND ARLIN KRUEGER:

NASA has been in a mandatory telework posture due to COVID-19 for over a year now. NASA centers are planning for on-site ramp-up activities to occur later this year, but are still under mandatory telework for all but mission-essential personnel. As both Goddard and the nation gradually return to what will become our new normal, we have hope for resuming our monthly GRAA luncheons later this year. While we are not yet able to mail hard copy newsletters to members, we do reach 1,386 of our 2,475 (56%) members by email. GRAA members, please inform your snail mail colleagues that we are currently unable to send Newsletters by the United States Postal Service (USPS). They need to send their email address to goddardretirees@gmail.com for regular Newsletter delivery (obituary notices for former colleagues may also be sent to that email address).

Some recent highlights from Goddard missions include: OSIRIS-Rex — completed its final flyby of the asteroid Bennu and will begin its return to Earth on May 10th to arrive in September 2023. The Lucy and DART missions launch windows open in October and November, respectively. The Parker Solar Probe has come within 16 solar radii of the sun. Landsat 9 completed thermal vacuum testing on way to its launch. James Webb Space Telescope completed its final Sunshield folding and is on track to ship in August and launch on October 31st. The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) small explorer is fully assembled and is on track to launch in November. GOES-T is scheduled for launch in December. See https://fpd.gsfc.nasa.gov for more up to date details on Goddard missions. Also, visit https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/twan_index.html to see NASA weekly updates and you can sign up for an email notification from NASA each time a new video is posted.

The Goddard Engineering Colloquium and Scientific Colloquium series continue to meet virtually in WebEx sessions. Videos of past talks are available at https://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov/ and https://scicolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov/. The Scientific Visualization Studio (https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov) translates science findings into readily understood videos. Many are also available on YouTube (search for Goddard SVS) and on the NASA Visualization Explorer App for IOS and Android devices. For current chatter about Goddard look at: https://twitter.com/NASAGoddard. Goddard Press releases are available at: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/all-stories and https://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news.

REMEMBERING OUR FORMER COLLEAGUES:

• Donald “Buck” Glenn Anna, age 86, died on February 24, 2021. He was born and grew up in Belleville, IL. He met his wife, Gladys M. Aufdembrink in 1956 and they married in 1957. He joined the Air Force shortly thereafter and served for four years. After leaving the service, he re-entered the University of Missouri and received his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. After graduation, he moved his family to Maryland in 1963 and started his career with Westinghouse, later joining NASA where he worked for 28 years. He worked on many projects including the Challenger and Earth Orbiting Satellites (EOS) programs and received numerous awards. He retired from NASA in 1994.
• Thomas “Tom” John Griffin, age 65, of Crofton, Md., died on March 3, 2021 at his home due to a sudden cardiac event. Tom attended University of Michigan College of Engineering, receiving both Bachelor’s and Master of Science Degrees in Atmospheric Sciences. Applying his passions, as well as his impressive technical and managerial skills, Tom spent the majority of his career at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. He served in many engineering and management positions for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Project and as the HST Observatory Manager was responsible for the successful development and testing of sensitive gyroscopes and flexible and rigid solar arrays. During the first HST servicing mission in 1993, he was also instrumental in ensuring a successful working relationship between the HST and European Space Agency (ESA) teams. He was also the Manager for the HST Carriers that were critical for safely carrying HST flight hardware and scientific instruments to and from space for five HST servicing missions. During his career, he also served as the Deputy Program Manager for the Physics of the Cosmos Program where he was instrumental in getting the Astrophysics program office started at Goddard. He later served as the Observatory Manager during the development leading up to the Mission Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for the Roman Space Telescope and subsequently became Deputy Project Manager, the position he held at the time of his death.
• Gilbert “Gil” P. Becklin, age 93, of Belle, MO passed away Thursday, March 4, 2021 at his residence. Following his 1946 graduation from Cambridge High School, Gilbert enlisted in the United States Air Force. As a Sgt., Gil worked on Atomic Energy, Radar Systems, 1st signal Radio Maintenance, special weapons, and was an electronic instructor at Boca Raton Florida, Keesler Field, Mississippi, Sandia Electronic Labs in New Mexico, and Kelly Field, Texas. Gilbert was discharged in 1950 and went to work for the Philco Company as a technical representative during the Korean War. He was assigned to the Army Gun laying Radar School in Ft. Bliss as an instructor. In 1955, he went to work for the Firestone Tire and Rubber company in Southgate, CA and then later for the Bendix Corporation as an instructor in radar for the Air Force. Between the years of 1958 and 1962, Gil was assigned to different jobs as an advisor and manager in the space program at satellite tracking stations. In 1962, after a short stint with the Forestry Dept., he was hired at NASA as a computer specialist at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Gil retired from the Compatibility Test Section in NASA’s Networks Directorate in 1984 after 22 years of service. His NASA jobs took him to many places including Woomera Australia, Ascension Island in the South Atlantic, Fairbanks Alaska, Winkfield England, Santiago Chili, and Quito Ecuador.
• Ronald “Ron” Richey Gunton, age 89, died on March 22, 2021. Ron and his wife Jean E. Gunton were married for 68 years. Ron served in the US Navy during the Korean Conflict. After being discharged, he attended and graduated from the University of Evansville, Evansville, IN in 1958 with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. He was recruited by the Naval Ordnance Laboratory (NOL) in White Oak, MD where he worked from 1958 to 1967. At NOL Ron was involved in the design and testing of bomb fuses as well as the mechanical design of the Submarine Rocket (SUBROC) structures. In 1967 Ron accepted a position at GSFC in the Engineering Directorate (700), Spacecraft Integration & Sounding Rocket Division, Mechanical Systems Branch. During his tenure at GSFC from 1967 to 1978, Ron actively supported as the Lead Mechanical Engineer many in and out of house projects such as the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO), Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES A-C), High Energy Cosmic Ray Experiment (HECRE), Advanced Technology Spacecraft (ATS-F), as well as providing engineering support to the Orbital Launch Services (OLS) Project as the Mission Integration Manager for Atlas E and Titan II. In 1989, Ron retired and accepted a position as a support service contractor and continued supporting the systems interfaces between GOES and the Delta and Atlas launch vehicles.
• Cornelis “Casey” de Kramer, age 88, of Olney MD, died on April 4, 2021. Casey and his wife, Mary de Kramer, were married for 60 years. Casey grew up in the Netherlands during World War II and served as an aircraft radio technician in the Dutch Air Force in the early 1950s. At Goddard, Casey worked as a mechanical engineer in the Electromechanical Systems Branch (Code 716) contributing to almost every instrument mechanism on the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) spacecraft. He was considered a subject matter expert in mechanism controls as was his best friend, John Sudey, who also worked in the branch. Casey served on numerous design review boards and also on Tiger Teams created to address technical problems encountered not only within Goddard, but also at other NASA centers. He enjoyed traveling for those reviews, especially when the destination was Europe and if Mary could travel with him. He moved to the Systems Review Office in the early 1990s prior to his retirement from Goddard. After retiring from GSFC, he went to work as a mechanisms and controls consultant for Swales Aerospace.
• Jon Busse, age 84, of Stuart, FL, died on April 5, 2021. Jon attended the University of Arkansas where he majored in Mechanical Engineering. Upon graduation he married Judy Woodside, whom he had met prior to college while serving as an acolyte in St. John’s Episcopal Church in Springfield, Missouri, and went to work at the Point Magu Naval Base in California on the SSM-N-9 Regulus II Missile. He started his career at Goddard in 1961 working on the Aerobee Rocket. His career at NASA spanned 35 years and included the following job titles: Head of Liquid Propulsion section (Sounding Rocket Division - SRD), Head of Propulsion Vehicles Branch SRD, Head of Delta Vehicle Systems, Chief of the Sounding Rocket Division, Project Manager for SPIRE (Shuttle Payloads Integration and Rocket Experiments), Project Manager for Landsat D/D, Director of Flight Assurance, and Director of Engineering for Goddard Space Flight Center, the position he held until his retirement. Jon started his career at NASA shortly after the agency was established and he not only designed rockets, but helped assemble them, launch them and then retrieve and interpret the data. Those rockets were used in many different countries around the world and Jon took trips to Australia, Russia, Canada, South America, The Azores and Africa. During the course of his career he received many awards, including the Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Executive, the highest annual award for Senior Executive Service (SES) members, awarded to him by President Ronald Reagan. His awards also included NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, which he was twice awarded, the Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Executive for career contributions, and also the Goddard Exceptional Performance Award for contributions to the Sounding Rocket Program. Jon loved traveling with his wife and children and traveled to Kenya, Tanzania, South and North Africa, Angel Falls in South America, Asia, Europe, and to Mount Everest Base Camp several times.
• Richard J. Drachman, age 90, of Silver Spring, MD, died on April 6, 2021. He was married to the late Betty Drachman for 54 years and was a physicist, recorder-player, airplane pilot, avid gardener, amateur scholar of Judaism and Constitutional History, and also spoke Hawaiian and other languages. Richard grew up in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, received his bachelor’s, master’s and PhD. degrees from Columbia University, worked at the Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C. from 1956 to 1958, taught physics at Brandeis University from 1959 to 1963, and then worked for over 50 years at the Goddard Space Flight Center, a job he loved. He worked in the Heliospheric Science Division Code 671. He was the author of "Error Estimates in the Variational Many-Boson Calculation" and "Why Positron Physics is Fun" as well as over 100 other published articles with thousands of citations by others of his works.
• Harold William “Bill” Wood, age 91, of Glade Valley NC, died on April 7, 2021. Bill grew up in rural North Carolina and following his high school graduation joined the U.S. Air Force serving during the Korean War. He later earned a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University. In 1955, after graduation, he obtained a job as a research engineer for the National Advisory Council for Aeronautics then subsequently worked for NASA as a Communications and Tracking engineer setting up tracking stations on nearly every continent. He worked at the Langley Air Force Base before moving to Goddard in 1961 where he became the Director of Manned Space Flight. He served a two-year assignment in Australia and then moved to NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. in 1981 as the division director for network operations, subsequently becoming a Deputy Administrator for Tracking and Data Systems there. He was responsible for network operations for the manned space flight program, unmanned space flight program, and the deep space program. Bill retired from NASA in 1986, but worked for another 12 years as a consultant. Under the George H. W. Bush administration he served as a technical advisor for the National Space Council. Bill is survived by his wife of 68 years, Claudia C. Woods, who along with Bill hosted many astronauts when they visited Australia and also hosted the author James Michener in their home there when he was writing his book Space, which was published in 1982. It was Bill who established a tradition of astronauts visiting tracking stations to meet the people who would be responsible for ensuring their safe return to Earth.
• John Langmead, age 77, formerly of Catonsville MD, died on April 14, 2021 from complications of lung cancer at his home in Hemet, CA surrounded by his family; he is survived by his wife Carole Vail Langmead and three sons. John obtained a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Baltimore in 1966 and a master’s degree in applied behavioral studies from Johns Hopkins University in 1990. He worked at GSFC from August 1966 until January 2001 and was the Deputy Project Manager, Resources (DPM-R) for Meteosat. John, who was ordained as a deacon in 1999, applied his business acumen in support of numerous successful rocket launches and also as a pastoral life director at St. Rita Church in Dundalk, MD before moving to California to be closer to his sons.
• Gregory Franklin “Greg” Smith, age 66, died on April 17, 2021. Greg, who lived in Odenton, MD with his wife Jenny Hiroko Smith, had only recently retired. His last day of civil service was January 29, 2021, marking the completion of more than 47 years of service to NASA and the Federal Government. Greg started his Federal service career in 1973 when he entered the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA). After learning and implementing the communications subsystems for the Vandenberg Space Shuttle Launch and Landing Site, Space Division asked Greg to support the NASA Goddard Meteorological Satellites Office in 1987 where he served as an Instrument Manager (IM) for the Energetic Heavy Ion Composition Experiment (EHIC), the Magnetospheric Atmospheric X-Ray Imaging Experiment (MAXIE), and the Remote Atmospheric and Ionospheric Detection System (RAIDS) instruments. Upon his separation from the USAF in 1989, Greg joined NASA and continued on as IM for these instruments. He also became the IM for the Advanced Microwave Sounder Unit - B (AMSU-B) and his aptitude earned Greg a position in GSFC’s 1990 inaugural class of the Project/Program Management Development Emprise (PMDE). In 1995, Greg became the deputy project manager for the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat). He served in this position until 2002 when he was promoted to the role of Chief of the Rapid Spacecraft Development Office (RSDO). Greg adeptly led the RSDO for more than 18 years, personally serving as the Source Evaluation Board (SEB) Chair for 19 main contracts and their extensions and overseeing the procurement of 8 mission spacecraft.

FROM THE GODDARD ARCHIVES — IT HAPPENED IN APRIL/MAY:

On April 4, 1968, Apollo 6 launched from Cape Canaveral, FL on a Saturn V launch vehicle. This mission was the final uncrewed test of the Saturn V rocket. The mission was a demonstration of the Saturn V rocket’s capability to send an Apollo spacecraft to the moon and test the stresses on the Lunar Module during the mission. The launch occurred on the same day that Martin Luther King was killed.

On May 30, 1974 Titan-II launched ATS-6, Applications Technology Satellite-6, which pioneered direct broadcast communications and was a processor to TDRSS. ATS-6 was also used for the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE), a joint NASA and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) program that ran for one year providing informational television programs to rural areas in India, which led to India’s development of its own satellite network.

TREASURER’S REPORT: Treasurer Jackie Gasch received tax-deductible donations from Charles Woodyard, Aleta Johnson’s in memory of Franco Enaudi, and Susan Sparacino’s in memory of Pete Burr and Steve Metcalf.