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A quarterly electronic publication from the

NASA Scientific and Technical Information (S T I) Program

July 2002

NASA S T I News Other NASA News NCT Program *

...From the S T I Principal Center

S T I Program Plan

 

NASA History Office NCTP Overview

Spinoff

* NASA Commercial 

Technology
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...From the NASA S T I Program's Principal Center

Information Technology Upgrades Approved for NASA CASI 

Following a Phase 1 study and recommendations, NASA approved Phase 2 of a major 

hardware and software upgrade at its contractor facility, the NASA Center for AeroSpace 

Information (CASI). This upgrade will enable the NASA STI Program to change 

dissemination of its STI from primarily paper and microfiche to an all-electronic 

dissemination and to provide services and products that will enhance electronic access to 

government information. Target date for completion of the upgrades is the end of the 

second quarter in FY 03.

NASA STI Program Working With SCIENCE.Gov

The NASA STI Program has been working with representatives of SCIENCE.Gov, which 

will serve scientific and technical information from government agencies to the public as 

part of the President's E-Gov initiative through FIRST.GOV. Currently, three STIsponsored databases are included in SCIENCE.Gov. These are the NASA Technical 

Report Server, the CASI Technical Report Server or ReconSelect, and the NASA Image 

eXchange (NIX). SCIENCE.Gov, which is currently being beta-tested, is due to be 

released shortly.

NASA CASI Completes Work on FY 2001 NASA Performance Report

ASRC Aerospace Corporation, the NASA CASI contractor, recently completed work on 

the FY 2001 NASA Performance Report. ASRC provided assistance with data collection, 

integrating performance data, and report layout for this document. NASA raised its score 

in the FY 2001 evaluation, one of a few Federal agencies to do so. NASA CASI is also 

responsible for similar work on NASA's Spinoff publication.

XML Presentations Given at CENDI Meeting

The STI Program participated in a recent CENDI (Commerce, Energy, NASA, Defense, 

and Interior) meeting held at the National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, Maryland. 

Agenda items discussed were strategies and implementations of XML. Representatives 

from the National Library of Medicine, NASA's STI Program, the Department of Energy's 

Office of Scientific and Technical Information, Congressional Research Service, National 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Institute of Standards and Technology, National Agricultural Library, and U.S. 

Department of Agriculture presented topics. Dr. Michael Nelson of NASA Langley 

Research Center presented the NASA topic, which focused on XML and Open Archives 

Initiative (OAI).

NASA Image Exchange (NIX) Beta Test Under Way of XML Schema

The alpha version of the next generation of the NASA Image eXchange (NIX2) was 

completed with data from NASA Langley Research Center and Glenn Research Center. 

Tools and support are available to all of the other NASA Centers to begin the process of 

integrating their image repositories currently linked to NIX (which uses a WAIS search 

engine). Key features of the new system include metadata centralization, XML Schema for 

multimedia, and virtual local searching. NIX2 will be undergoing a beta test with 

additional Centers in FY 03, prior to full release.

Personnel Changes at NASA Headquarters

The NASA STI Program welcomes Nancy Kaplan as NASA's new STI Program Director. 

NASA Headquarters Code AO (Chief Information Officer) recently announced Kaplan's 

selection as the replacement for Roland Ridgeway, who retired in February 2002. Kaplan 

has worked on information policy and management projects with the NASA CIO for 

approximately 3 years. Prior to her arrival at Headquarters, she worked for 6 years in the 

NASA Langley Research Center Technical Library, where she served as a reference 

librarian and, later, as the manager of the NASA GALAXIE information system. Kaplan 

has a Masters in Library Science from the University of North Carolina.

The STI Program also welcomes Patti Stockman as the new NASA Records Officer. Code 

AO recently announced that Stockman will replace Roland Ridgeway in this function. 

Stockman, a NASA employee of 18 years and records manager at Lyndon B. Johnson 

Space Center (JSC) for over 3 years, worked closely with the JSC STI manager through 

the years and served as the contracting officer for STI procurements at JSC. Last fall, she 

worked in a 3-month rotation in NASA Records Management at NASA Headquarters with 

Ridgeway. In her new position, Stockman works with the STI Program to help determine 

appropriate electronic formats for submission to the National Archives and Records 

Administration (NARA) and updating the STI records retention schedules. 

STI Participates in NASA SRR #70 and Information Quality Guidelines Working 

Group

The STI Program participated in NASA's Strategic Resources Review (SRR) #70 team to 

develop NASA guidelines for ensuring the quality of its disseminated information and 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

administrative mechanisms allowing persons to obtain correction of information, where 

applicable. This is a recent Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requirement for all 

applicable Federal agencies pursuant to Section 515 of the Treasury and General 

Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001 (Pub. Law 106-554). NASA's draft 

is currently being reviewed internally and by the public (via the Federal Register), with 

final draft guidelines to be given to OMB by August 1, 2002. Implementation of these 

guidelines is required by October 1, 2002. The STI Program will also participate in a 

subsequent follow-on team, the Information Quality Guidelines Working Group. For 

additional information, contact Nancy Kaplan at nkaplan@hq.nasa.gov. 

STI Program Presents at Special Libraries Association 2002 Annual Conference

JoAnne Rocker of the STI Program Office presented, "The NASA Scientific and 

Technical Information (STI) Program's Implementation of Open Archives Initiative (OAI) 

for Data Interoperability and Data Exchange," at the Special Libraries Association's 2002 

Annual Conference. The presentation was based on a paper she co-wrote with George J. 

Roncaglia and N. Lynn Heimerl of the NASA STI Program Office; and NASA Langley 

Research Center's Dr. Michael Nelson. The Open Archives Initiative (OAI) is an 

organization created to find ways to improve scholarly communication. The OAI 

developed a harvesting protocol for data exchange. The STI Program Office is exploring 

the harvesting protocol as a mechanism to collect and disseminate NASA-produced 

information to its partners and the public. The paper discussed two projects currently 

under way that utilize the OAI-protocol for harvesting metadata: Technical Report 

Interchange (TRI) project and the NASA Technical Report Servers project. Information 

regarding OAI can be found on its website: http://www.openarchives.org/.
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...S T I Program Plan

In part, the NASA S T I Program Plan states, "The NASA Scientific and Technical 

Information Program is an integral part of NASA's future. The program supports the 

Agency's missions to communicate scientific knowledge and understanding to help 

transfer NASA's research and development to the aerospace and academic communities. 

By ensuring a fast, two-way process of internal and external information exchange, the S 

T I Program helps NASA avoid duplication of research, time, and cost and to make its 

wealth of information available to benefit its customers. Each Center is responsible for 

acquiring, tracking, and producing, or having produced, NASA S T I related to their 

Center mission; and for ensuring that Center S T I reaches the S T I Database [at the 

NASA Center for AeroSpace Information]."

To that end, each NASA Center executes the S T I Program mission and objectives by 

way of a team of individuals that applies professional publishing standards to all 

scientific and technical information passing through its doors. Whether the information 

will result in a document to be distributed through the traditional print and mail process 

or an electronic document available on the Internet-or both-the team is responsible for 

making it happen, going through the process step-by-step with each customer. For 

information about the S T I Program at any NASA Center, visit http://www.sti.nasa.gov.
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NEW NASA HISTORY PUBLICATIONS

We urge everyone interested in the history of NASA to review Faster, Better, Cheaper: 

Low-Cost Innovation in the U.S. Space Program by Howard E. McCurdy. This concise 

hardcover volume is the latest "New Series in NASA History" from the Johns Hopkins 

University Press. McCurdy investigates the sixteen robotic planetary exploration missions 

undertaken since the loss of the Mars Observer spacecraft in 1993. It is available for 

$34.95 from Johns Hopkins University Press. For more information or to purchase go to 

http://www.press.jhu.edu/press/books/titles/ f01/f01mcfa.htm.

The NASA Dryden Flight Research Center History Program recently published Mach 3+: 

NASA/USAF YF-12 Flight Research, 1969-1979 (NASA SP-2001-4525), by Peter W. 

Merlin. This concise volume is the latest in the "Monographs in Aerospace History" 

published as part of the NASA History Series. Merlin, historical archivist at NASA 

Dryden, tells the story of a unique flight research program involving variants of the 

Lockheed Blackbird supersonic reconnaissance airplanes conducted by NASA and the Air 

Force throughout the 1970s. Individuals interested in obtaining a copy of this monograph 

should send a self-addressed 8"x11" flat-rate Priority Mail envelope to the NASA Dryden 

Flight Research Center History Office, Mail Stop 1613, P.O. Box 273, Edwards, CA 

93523. (The flat-rate Priority mail envelope costs about $5.00, which covers the cost of 

mailing the monograph. The monograph is heavy, almost one pound. The flat-rate cost is 

good even after the postal rate increase for First Class mail.)

We are pleased to announce the publication of Uplink-Downlink: A History of the Deep 

Space Network, 1957-1997 by Douglas J. Mudgway (Washington, DC: NASA SP-2001-

4227, 2002). Since the beginning of the space age the critical technical component 

necessary to track the location of a spacecraft, to control its course, and to transmit data is 

the Deep Space Network (DSN). This work is for sale for $82.00 (domestic postpaid) and 

$102.50 (internationally), from the U.S. Superintendent of Documents. By Mail: U.S. 

Government Printing Office, Documents Warehouse, 8610 Cherry Lane, Laurel, MD 

20707, phone: (202) 512-1707 ext: 30273; fax: (202) 512-1657, or through the Website at 

http://bookstore.gpo.gov/. Order stock number 033-000-01241-1. This book may also be 

purchased from the NASA Information Center, Code CMI-1, NASA Headquarters, 300 E 

Street SW, Room 1H23, Washington, DC 20546-0001, (202) 358-0000. Order NASA SP2001-4227.

In an effort to ensure availability of significant works in NASA history, we have reprinted 

in paperback On the Shoulders of Titans: A History of Project Gemini by Barton C. Hacker 

and James M. Grimwood (Washington, DC: NASA SP-4203, 1977, reprinted 2002). It is 

now for sale for $47.00 (domestic postpaid) and $58.75 (internationally), from the US 

Superintendent of Documents. By Mail: U.S. Government Printing Office, Documents 

...From the NASA History Office
Warehouse, 8610 Cherry Lane, Laurel, MD 20707, Attn: Sales Stock, phone: (202) 512-

1707 ext: 30273; fax: (202) 512-1657, or through the Website at http://bookstore.gpo.gov/. 

Order stock number 033-000-01242-0. This book may also be purchased from the NASA 

Information Center, Code CMI-1, NASA Headquarters, 300 E Street SW, Room 1H23, 

Washington, DC 20546-0001, (202) 358-0000. Order NASA SP-4203.

Accompanying the publication Development of the Space Shuttle, 1972-1981, is a soft 

cover reprint of The Space Shuttle Decision, 1965-1972 (History of the Space Shuttle: 

Volume One). Also written by T.A. Heppenheimer, this work was originally published in 

hardcover as NASA SP-4221 in the NASA History Series in 1999. It may be purchased for 

$22.95 from the Smithsonian Institution Press on-line at 

http://www.sipress.si.edu/books/titles_books/1-58834-014-7.html.

Now available in paperback is "Before This Decade is Out..." Personal Reflections on the 

Apollo Program, edited by Glen W. Swanson. Originally appearing in 1999 as NASA SP4223, this work received the Pendleton Prize from the Society for History in the Federal 

Government. This work may be ordered on-line for $24.95 at http://www.upf.com/ 

Spring2002/swanson.html from the University Press of Florida.

Finally, we are pleased to announce the reprint of Wingless Flight: The Lifting Body Story, 

by Dale R. Reed with Darlene Lister. Originally published in the NASA History Series in 

1997 as NASA SP-4220, it is now available in soft cover for $29.95 from the University 

Press of Kentucky on the Website at http://www.uky.edu/UniversityPress/ 

books/wingless.htm. 

FORTHCOMING NASA HISTORY PUBLICATIONS

In early summer 2002, the NASA History Office will publish Asif A. Siddiqi's Deep Space 

Chronicle: Robotic Exploration Missions to the Planets (NASA SP-2002-4524) as one of 

our "Monographs in Aerospace History." This monograph will provide an overview of the 

missions, conducted by the United States, the Soviet Union/Russia, and the other 

spacefaring nations of the world, to the planets of the solar system.

We Freeze to Please: A History of NASA's Icing Research Tunnel by William Leary 

(NASA SP-2002-4226) is the story of a unique facility that has made unparalleled 

contributions to a specialized area of aeronautics research that affects virtually all who fly.

Smithsonian Institution Press has agreed to publish the second edition of On the Frontier: 

Flight Research at Dryden, 1946-1981. Originally published in 1984 as NASA SP-4303, 

this well-regarded book was written by Richard P. Hallion. An on-line version of the 

original book is available at http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/History/Publications/SP-4303/. 

Michael H. Gorn, Dryden's historian, co-authored the revised version. Extensively 

expanded and updated from the original, it will be released early in 2003, the first Field 

Center history to be published by a commercial or university press.
NASA HISTORY BOOKS PUBLISHED BY OUTSIDE PUBLISHERS

We are pleased to announce the publication of Development of the Space Shuttle, 1972-

1981 (History of the Space Shuttle, Volume 2), which was sponsored by the NASA History 

Office. Written by T.A. Heppenheimer, this work was published by Smithsonian 

Institution Press in May 2002. It traces the development of the Space Shuttle through a 

decade of engineering design and development between the political decision to proceed 

with it in 1972 and its first orbital flight in 1981. This work is available from Smithsonian 

Institution Press in hardcover for $36.95. Copies of the book may be ordered on-line at 

http://www.sipress. si.edu/books/titles_books/1-58834-009-0.html.

NEW NASA HISTORICAL INFORMATION ON-LINE

The Space Shuttle at Work (NASA SP-432/ EP-156, 1979) by Howard Allaway and 

National Space Transportation System: Overview (NASA, September 1988). These two 

short publications provide some excellent basic information on the Shuttle. The Space 

Shuttle at Work is available at http://history.nasa.gov/SP-432/sp432.htm and National 

Space Transportation System: Overview can be accessed at 

http://history.nasa.gov/shuttleoverview1988/ overview88.htm.

Magellan: The Unveiling of Venus (JPL-400-345, March 1989) is now accessible at 

http://history.nasa.gov/JPL-400-345/magellan.htm.

NASA Historical Databooks, Volumes III - VI (NASA SP-4012). Covering the time period 

1969-1988, these books are valuable reference works. Some of these files are available in 

text-searchable PDF format and some are in html format. We hope to add Volumes I and II 

to the Web eventually. Volumes III-VI are available at http://history.nasa.gov/SP4012/cover.html on the World Wide Web.

Planetary Geology in the 1980s (NASA SP-467, 1985) by Joseph Veverka. A very solid 

narrative with some images, this work is a useful glimpse into the science of planetary 

geology. The website is http://history.nasa.gov/SP467/sp467. htm.

Managing NASA in the Apollo Era. (NASA SP-4102, 1982). by Arnold S. Levine. The 

web address is http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4102/ sp4102.htm.

The Star Splitters: The High Energy Astronomy Observatories (SP-466, 1984) by Wallace 

H. Tucker. This book is accessible at http://history.nasa.gov/SP-466/sp466.htm.

Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) information and historical annual reports. The 

information is available at http://history.nasa.gov/ asap/asap.html.

Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicle (NASA 

SP-4206) by Roger E. Bilstein. This landmark book is now available on-line at 

http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4206/sp4206.htm, and in a soft cover printed.
On the Moon with Apollo 16: A Guidebook to the Descartes Region (NASA EP-95, 1972) 

by Gene Simmons. This is another useful and interesting volume on human lunar 

exploration. The web address is http://history.nasa.gov/ EP-95/ep95.htm.

Pioneer Odyssey (NASA SP-349/396, revised edition, 1977) by Richard Fimmel, William 

Swindell, and Eric Burgess. This richly illustrated book covers some of the important 

discoveries made by the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft. The web address is 

http://history.nasa.gov/ SP349/sp349.htm.

The 40th Anniversary of the Mercury-Atlas 6 (Friendship 7) mission. This historic mission 

on 20 February 1962 made John H. Glenn, Jr., the first American to orbit the Earth. Check 

out biographies, photos, links to many other relevant sites, and more. The Web address is 

http://history.nasa.gov/friendship7/index.html.
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NASA Commercial

Technology Network 

(NCTN)

The NASA Commercial Technology Program encompasses a national network of 

specialized centers and organizations that assist U.S. businesses and industry in accessing, 

utilizing and commercializing NASA-funded research and technology. The organizations 

work closely with each other to provide a full range of technology transfer and 

commercialization services and assistance. The NASA Commercial Technology Network 

(NCTN) consists of the Commercial Technology Organizations at each of the NASA field 

centers, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the National Technology Transfer Center (NTTC), 

the six Regional Technology Transfer Centers (RTTCs), NASA Tech Briefs, 

UNISPHERE, and other specialized organizations and services. All are dedicated to 

fostering dual-use technology partnerships and the transfer and commercialization of 

NASA-sponsored research and technology.

The NCTN provides access to a wide variety of information resources that can be searched 

and consulted for research and technology, patents, technical expertise, and R&D facilities, 

as well as for technology partnering, licensing, and commercialization opportunities. In 

addition to serving as an integrated information resource, the NCTN is developing into an 

electronic marketplace for NASA-sponsored technology, facilitating communications, 

transactions, and partnerships between NASA and the U.S. private sector.

Visit the NCTN website at http://nctn.hq.nasa.gov for more information on the NASA 

Commercial Technology Program and the members of its network.

...The NASA Commercial Technology Program

An Overview
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About Spinoff

NASA's premier publication, Spinoff, annually features over 40 companies that have 

successfully utilized NASA technology in commercial products and processes. Each year 

NASA distributes tens of thousands of Spinoffs through trade shows, conferences, and 

special requests. The Spinoff web site, located at http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto, contains a 

searchable database, which includes an entry for every article ever featured. If you are 

familiar with companies that have successfully commercialized NASA technology and 

may be interested in this unique opportunity, please contact the Spinoff editors, Ms. 

Michelle Birdsall, (mbirdsall@sti.nasa.gov or (301) 621-0244) or Mr. James Janvier, 

(jjanvier@sti.nasa.gov or (301) 621-0242).

To receive a printed copy of Spinoff, please contact the National Technology Transfer 

Center (NTTC) at (800) 678-6882, or visit the NTTC web site at http://www.nttc.edu.

Spinoff Commemorative Edition

A commemorative edition of NASA's annual premiere publication Spinoff, celebrating the 

40th anniversary of the Agency's Commercial Technology Program, will be released this 

year. This program has contributed to the development of many commercial products and 

services in the fields of health and medicine, industry, consumer goods, computer 

technology, transportation, and environment. Along with the annual spinoff articles, a 

special section will highlight historical technology transfer successes from NASA 

Headquarters and the 10 Field Centers. Hardcopy issues, in addition to a searchable CDROM disc, are scheduled for release in September 2002. 

...From NASA's Spinoff Magazine