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

UPCOMING LUNCHEONS: We meet at 11:15 AM on the 2^nd Tuesday of each month at the American Legion Post #136 at 6900 Greenbelt Road. Reservations are required; please contact graalunch@gmail.com (preferred) or call (240) 720-7833 before Thursday, August 4^th.

Aug 9	Jody Davis, Deputy Payload Systems Engineer for the Roman telescope project in Goddard’s Engineering Directorate will present “Roman Space Telescope: Personal Experiences & Engineering Challenges”. As a pilot and mountain climber, she has an active life that includes outreach to students and the public.
Sep 13	C. Alex Young, Associate Director for Science in Goddard’s Heliophysics Science Division, will bring us up to date on Solar missions, including the Parker Solar Probe as it samples the Solar atmosphere

SPECIAL NOTES

This August edition is the first delivery to our non-email members since March 2020 when Goddard access was restricted during the Covid-19 pandemic, and we could send only electronic copies. We request that members send their email address to goddardretirees@gmail.com for the best quality editions.

We plan to send out our 2022 Member Directory next month. Please submit any address changes promptly!

Over the past two years, we have lost a number of our members, notably Alberta Moran, a GRAA founder, and Dave Moulton, our Newsletter editor. You can see all of our past newsletters, videos of recent talks, and other GRAA information on our website goddardretirees.org.

COMMENTS FROM TONY COMBERIATE AND ARLIN KRUEGER

Our July luncheon featured an encore talk titled “Visualizing NASA’ Science Results and Why It Matters,” by Lori Perkins, data software engineer in NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) in Goddard’s Sciences and Exploration Directorate. Lori’s prior talk in September 2021 was plagued with projector problems. Fresh material in this talk included not only SVS’s dramatic Earth Science, and Solar videos, but also the first public Webb images released on that day. Lori explained that these visualizations are designed to be enjoyed by people from all walks of life and to provide insightful information for the NASA and worldwide research community. SVS uses the scientists’ data analysis tools plus Hollywood-class tools used for special effects. Lori’s challenge is to use the right tool for the job to illustrate the scientific data. For example, weather satellites obtain data every 5 -30 minutes, whereas climate scale data are collected daily over months and years. The goal is to offer the public the information they need to understand transient local events as well as long-term global changes.

Examples of SVS products include videos of global rainfall and snowfall changes obtained by the multitude of NASA satellites. Landsat fire data provide critical information to stakeholders across the country and around the world. For example, the California Dixie fire was the size of Rhode Island and, because of the lack of snowpack, was the first to cross the ridge of the Sierra Nevada Mountains (Lake Tahoe area). Landsat images show wildfire intensity, burned areas, new fires, and fire lines to help the recovery effort. Smoke from these fires travels thousands of miles worldwide. Unfortunately, fires are happening more often with unabated global warming.

Lori showed Solar Dynamics Observatory images of a solar flare that resulted in the loss of 40 SpaceX Starlink satellites last February. Ignoring a geomagnetic storm watch, SpaceX launched the small communications satellites into initial low orbits designed to cull faulty units. Atmospheric heating by the flare increased air density and the satellites were lost before they could be boosted into orbit.

Our luncheon coincided with Goddard’s celebration of Webb’s successful deployment and activation. Lori showed hi-res images (available at nasa.gov) of a Deep Field acquired “before breakfast this morning” (compared with 10 days for the famous Hubble Deep Field image), of dying binary stars that produced the Southern Ring Nebula, the detection of water in the spectrum of an exoplanet's atmosphere, of Stephan’s Quintet, a group of 5 interacting galaxies in the constellation Pegasus (one containing a supermassive black hole), and a NIRCam image of the Carina Nebula in our galaxy showing stellar nurseries emerging from dust clouds. Canadian and European partner countries also highlighted Webb images this week. These images will deepen our understanding of how the first stars were made at the birth of the universe.

TREASURER’S REPORT:

Treasurer Jackie Gasch received a tax-deductible donation from Ron Felice, Jackie Gasch, Barbara Hamilton, Tony Comberiate, Jim Cameron, Patricia Mackey, William Duffy and Steven Maran.

FROM THE GODDARD ARCHIVES — IT HAPPENED IN AUGUST:

Fifty years ago on August 21, 1972, Atlas-Centaur launched Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO) Copernicus, which operated 8 years and provided details of the chemical composition of stars and interstellar gases.

REMEMBERING OUR FORMER COLLEAGUES:

Earl Benjamin “Ben” Jackson, 79, of Plano, Texas passed away August 3, 2007. He was in the Sounding Rockets Office in the 1980s and later was the Launch Vehicles Branch Head in the Wallops Operations Division.

Donald L. Cosner, Sr., 98, passed away on 8 January 2021 from COVID. He was a pioneer in American rocketry as one of an elite team of engineers responsible for the Vanguard and Viking rockets. In 1971, he began working in Spacecraft Stabilization and Control at Goddard and spent the remainder of his career focused on near-Earth satellites.

Richard G. Long, 83, of Laurel, MD, passed away September 26, 2021. After serving in the Navy, Rich began working at Goddard in 1962. He setting up tracking stations for the Apollo program and later was the Deputy Project Manager/Resources on the TDRS project and the Hubble Space Telescope until retiring in 1994.

Jeffrey S. Schweitzer, 76, passed away on May 31, 2022. Jeff was a Visiting Scientist at Goddard from 1986 until his death. He was commended for helping to establish an outdoor, remotely operated experimental facility that improved the ability to show competence of applications for planetary missions.

Thomas D. Taylor Jr., 86, passed away on Sunday June 5th, 2022. After serving in the Air Force he helped develop computers to fly on un-manned aircraft and oversaw the flight software for the OAO and ground software for IUE, UARS, and EOS.

Robert F. “Bob” Amoruso, 87, passed away on June 7, 2022, in Annapolis. Bob was the Goddard Manpower Utilization Division Chief in the 1970s and spent his career as a civil servant in several federal government agencies, including EEO. After retiring, he was an HR director for an accounting firm.

George Lieberman, 85, passed away on June 25, 2022. Following several notable fellowship awards from NATO, NASA-Goddard, the CEC Corporation and Hughes, George had a lifelong career in engineering/physics management and research at NIST.

Bill West, 100, passed away on June 30, 2022. He served in the Navy and began his engineering career at the Naval Aviation Ordnance Test Station (NAOTS) on Wallops Island. In 1950 he went to work for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and then joined NASA when it was created in 1958, from which he retired in 1978 as Department Head, Range Engineering Instrumentation Development (Code 569).

Thomas E. McGunigal, 85, passed away on July 1, 2022. Tom joined Goddard in 1959, and was the Program Manager for several, groundbreaking satellite programs, including the Cospas-Sarsat Search and Rescue program, in 1979. He also worked at NASA HQ, NOAA and Spacecom/Contel.

David “Dave” W. Walser, 83, passed away on Thursday, July 7, 2022, from a long battle with COVID-19. After serving in the Navy, Dave was an engineer in both the Cosmic Radiation Branch and the Planetary Systems Branch in the Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics. He retired in 2007 after a 45+ years of service.

Gloria J. Goodman, 77, passed away on July 15, 2022. Gloria was passionate about her career and proud of her work as Business Manager for Hubble Space Telescope. She was the beloved wife of the late Lawrence Goodman, also a Goddard retiree.

Nancy Lee Kelly, 84, passed away on Thursday, July 21, 2022. Nancy was the business administrator at the NASA tracking station on Ascension Island for 7 years. When she returned stateside, she worked at Goddard in Greenbelt.