President

Fiscal Year

2002

Activities

autics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2002 Activities

x-x-xxx-HQ
a Aeronautics

and

Space Report

of the 

President

Fiscal Year

2002

Activities

National Aeronautics

and Space Administration Washington, DC 20546

F iscal Year 1997 Activities
bAeronautics and Space Report of the President 

The National Aeronautics and Space Act of

1958 directed the annual Aeronautics and

Space Report to include a “comprehensive

description of the programmed activities and the

accomplishments of all agencies of the United

States in the field of aeronautics and space

activities during the preceding calendar year.”

In recent years, the reports have been prepared

on a fiscal-year basis, consistent with the

budgetary period now used in programs of the

Federal Government. This year’s report covers

activities that took place from October 1, 2001,

through September 30, 2002.
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

TABLE OF CONTENTS c

National Aeronautics and Space Administration . . . . . . . . 1

Department of Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Federal Aviation Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Department of Commerce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Department of the Interior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Federal Communications Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Department of Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

National Science Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Department of State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Department of Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Smithsonian Institution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

A-1 U.S. Government Spacecraft Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

A-2 World Record of Space Launches Successful in 

Attaining Earth Orbit or Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

B Successful Launches to Orbit on U.S. Launch Vehicles 

October 1, 2001–September 30, 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

C U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights 

1961–June 30, 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

D U.S. Space Launch Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

E-1A Space Activities of the U.S. Government—Historical Budget Summary . . . . . . 140

E-1B Space Activities of the U.S. Government—Budget Authority in Millions of

Equivalent FY 2002 Dollars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

E-2 Federal Space Activities Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

E-3 Federal Aeronautics Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Glossary and Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

d
Fiscal Year (FY) 2002 brought advances on many fronts in support of NASA’s new

vision, announced by Administrator Sean O’Keefe on April 12, “to improve life

here, to extend life to there, to find life beyond.” NASA successfully carried out

four Space Shuttle missions, including three to the International Space Station

(ISS) and one servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). By the end

of the fiscal year, humans had occupied the ISS continuously for 2 years. NASA

also managed five expendable launch vehicle (ELV) missions and participated in

eight international cooperative ELV launches.

In the area of space science, two of the Great Observatories, the Hubble

Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, continued to make spectacular observations. The Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey carried out

their mapping missions of the red planet in unprecedented detail. Among other

achievements, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Shoemaker spacecraft made the first soft landing on an asteroid, and the Solar and Heliospheric

Observatory (SOHO) monitored a variety of solar activity, including the largest

sunspot observed in 10 years. The education and public outreach program stemming from NASA’s space science missions continues to grow. In the area of Earth

science, attention focused on completing the first Earth Observing Satellite series.

Four spacecraft were successfully launched. The goal is to understand our home

planet as a system, as well as how the global environment responds to change.

In aerospace technology, NASA conducted studies to improve aviation

safety and environmental friendliness, progressed with its Space Launch Initiative

F iscal Year 2002 Activities

1

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS

AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

NASA
Program, and explored a variety of pioneering technologies, including nanotechnology, for their application to aeronautics and aerospace.

NASA remained broadly engaged in the international arena and concluded

over 60 international cooperative and reimbursable international agreements

during FY 2002.

In FY 2002, the Office of Space Flight continued to support NASA’s mission to understand and protect our home planet, explore the universe and search

for life, and inspire the next generation of explorers by providing safe and reliable

access to space for crew and a variety of payloads. NASA’s space flight missions and

our astronauts are the most visible face of NASA and play a key role in inspiring

the public. The Space Shuttle provides transportation to the ISS, where scientific

research is constantly underway. NASA’s Earth and space science missions, as well

as other external missions, launch aboard expendable launch vehicles and the

Space Shuttle. Our Advanced Systems programs enable us to look beyond lowEarth orbit to a time when humans can explore our solar system and beyond.

NASA successfully accomplished four Space Shuttle missions during FY 2002.

One mission was a spectacular and highly successful fourth servicing mission to the

Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The servicing not only repaired the telescope, but

also improved its capabilities, allowing us to look even deeper into the universe.

Three of the missions delivered crew, supplies, and assembly hardware to the ISS. At

the end of the fiscal year, the ISS had received 14 Space Shuttle dockings and had

continuous human presence on board for 2 years. The Expedition Four crew broke the

U.S. record for time in space with a stay of 196 days. 

The three Space Shuttle missions to the ISS in FY 2002 focused on assembling the truss, which provides the primary structure and a distribution system for

many of the key utilities essential for onorbit operations, and Station logistics. Wires, cables, and cooling lines will snake through the truss, circulating energy,

information, and fluids throughout the ISS. Canada’s Mobile Servicing System

will move its robotic arm along tracks attached to the truss.

The first Space Shuttle launch in FY 2002 was in December 2001. Major

elements of the STS-108 flight (ISS Utilization Flight 1) of the Space Shuttle

Endeavour were a new ISS crew, the fourth flight of an Italian-built Multipurpose

Logistics Module (MPLM), and an ExtraVehicular Activity (EVA) to install therAeronautics and Space Report of the President 2
mal blankets over two pieces of equipment at the bases of the Space Station’s solar

wings. The ISS Expedition Four crew (ISS Commander Yury Onufrienko and

Flight Engineers Daniel Bursch and Carl Walz) replaced the Expedition Three

crew (ISS Commander Frank Culbertson, Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, and

Pilot Vladimir Dezhurov), who were launched to the Station in August 2001. 

The Space Shuttle Columbia was used in March 2002 as the foundation for

the latest HST servicing mission (STS-109), the fourth since HST was launched

in 1990. Two astronaut teams accomplished five demanding and spectacular EVAs.

They installed additional durable solar arrays, a large gyroscopic assembly to help

point the telescope properly, a new telescope power control unit, and a cooling

system to restore the use of a key infrared camera and spectrometer instrument that

had been dormant since 1999. The telescope’s view of the universe has been dramatically improved with the addition of the newest scientific instrument—the

Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The spacewalks and specific tasks to

upgrade Hubble’s instruments were more intricate and challenging than astronauts

had encountered in previous servicing missions, and its successful repair is a

notable achievement for the U.S. space program.

In April 2002, the Space Shuttle Atlantis expanded the ISS on mission

STS-110 (ISS Assembly Flight 8A), installing the initial section of a framework

that eventually will hold systems needed to provide power and cooling for future

research laboratories. Atlantis’s mission was one of the most complex ISS assembly

flights NASA has accomplished. It included four EVAs and operations with both

the Shuttle’s robotic arm and the Station’s robotic arm. The Station’s Canadarm2

robotic arm was used to hoist the 13-ton truss section, called the S-Zero (S0)

Integrated Truss Structure, from Atlantis’s payload bay and attach it to the ISS. The

flight marked the first time that the Station’s arm was used. This was also the first

Space Shuttle flight in which all spacewalks originated from the ISS’s airlock.

The next mission, STS-111, aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in June,

delivered the Expedition Five crew (ISS Commander Valery Korzun and Flight

Engineers Peggy Whitson and Sergei Treschev) to the ISS and returned the

Expedition Four crew, who had been in space since December 2001. During

docked operations, the crew transferred several thousand pounds of logistics and

equipment to the ISS. There were three successful spacewalks during which the

Mobile Remote Servicer Base System was removed from Endeavour’s cargo bay

F iscal Year 2002 Activities

3
and installed on the Mobile Transporter on the ISS. Endeavour delivered replacement parts for a faulty wrist joint on the ISS’s robot arm, Canadarm2. The suspect

parts were successfully replaced on this mission, enabling use of this key piece of

ISS assembly hardware.

At the end of FY 2002, after 2 years of continuous occupation, the ISS had

seven research racks on orbit with 25 investigations underway, representing U.S.

and international partner research from government, industry, and academia. This

work represents approximately 1,000 hours of crew time dedicated to research,

leveraging almost 90,000 hours of experiment run time.

Basic research is being conducted in biology, physics, chemistry, ecology,

medicine, manufacturing, and the long-term effects of space flight on humans.

Several commercial experiments are also being conducted on bone loss treatments,

plant growth, pharmaceutical production, and petroleum refining. Some of the

first ISS experiments are still ongoing, and some earlier experiments have already

returned to Earth. Detailed postflight analysis continues on these experiments.

Additionally, a significant component of the research has involved hundreds of

primary and secondary school students who loaded experiments, assigned Earth

photography targets, followed science activities via the Internet, and used the

results in their classroom studies. 

NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe continued to increase the Agency’s

emphasis on research, which is the ISS’s main mission. In September 2002, he

named Dr. Peggy Whitson the first NASA ISS Science Officer.

During FY 2002, NASA continued work on the Space Shuttle Safety

Upgrades Program. This program’s goal is to improve flight crew safety, to protect

people both during flight and on the ground, and to increase the overall reliability of the Shuttle system. The Cockpit Avionics Upgrade (CAU) design will

significantly improve crew performance margins in safety-critical, high-workload

scenarios and mitigate risk of crew error throughout all critical flight operational

phases. The CAU project completed its Preliminary Design Review in April 2002

and is proceeding toward project implementation at the end of FY 2002. The

Space Shuttle Main Engine Advanced Health Monitoring System (AHMS) is

proceeding on schedule for its first flight in mid-2004. AHMS will provide realtime vibration monitoring of the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) and

improved engine anomaly response capabilities.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 4
The Space Shuttle Supportability Upgrade Program delivered and flew the

Device Driver Unit (DDU) and the Modular Memory Unit (MMU) in FY 2002.

The DDU, which flew aboard Columbia on STS-109 in March 2002, eliminates

spurious outputs during power-up and power-down and simplifies crew procedures

in the orbiter cockpit. The MMU, which flew aboard Atlantis on STS-110 in

April 2002, replaces the old magnetic tape units in the orbiter with solid-state

technology. The MMU is lighter in weight, uses less power, and provides greater

storage and faster data transfers.

In March 2002, the Space Shuttle program began an assessment to identify

upgrades and supportability investments that may be required to maintain the

Space Shuttle fleet capability to fly safely through 2020. Evaluating and prioritizing upgrade candidates were scheduled to take place after the end of FY 2002.

As a result of the 2020 assessment, the upgrades program has been restructured, and the new name for the program is the Service Life Extension Program

(SLEP). The primary objective of the SLEP is to reduce risk and to keep the Space

Shuttle safe and viable until a new human space flight transportation system is

available. The program is a well-integrated prioritization process aligned with

NASA’s goals, the Integrated Space Transportation Plan, and customer requirements. It addresses systemwide investments in safety, supportability, obsolescence,

infrastructure, and ground systems. The prioritization process criteria include

safety, reliability, maintainability, supportability, performance, and cost reduction.

The first half of FY 2003 will be used for detailed review of potential improvement

projects, each of which will be reviewed based on the nature of the identified issue

and its attendant risk, the systems engineering impacts of the proposed improvements, the alternative strategies and solutions, and the cost and schedule

projections and reserve strategies.

As part of NASA’s implementation of the President’s Management Agenda,

NASA began considering competitive sourcing of Space Shuttle operations during

FY 2002. To obtain a private-sector perspective, NASA commissioned the RAND

Corporation to lead an independent task force of representatives from the business

community to identify and evaluate possible business models for future Space

Shuttle operations. The RAND study found that there is a very tight linkage

among the Space Shuttle, the ISS, and the Space Launch Initiative programs. Any

major decision on one program could have a profound effect on the others. In

F iscal Year 2002 Activities

5
addition, a decision on the future of the Space Shuttle program could significantly

alter the options available to address future human space exploration and any

potential military space requirements. The RAND Study Task Force offered

numerous other findings and recommendations, including the following: • Safe operations must remain the top priority. • Market demand for Space Shuttle exists, but is very limited. • The transfer of civil service personnel to a private-sector company has limited viability. • Liability concerns affect Space Shuttle asset ownership, but not operations. • The Space Shuttle program remains structured as a development program

in a form that is not conducive to independent operation by a private firm.

NASA began to factor the study findings and recommendations into its deliberations as the Agency sought to develop a preliminary Space Shuttle competitive

sourcing plan at the end of FY 2002.

Of the 15 U.S. expendable launch vehicle launches in FY 2002, 5 were

NASA-managed missions. The first launch of the Atlas V launch vehicle ushered

in a new family of Atlas vehicles for use by commercial, civil, and national defense

for the next decade. All of the U.S. launches successfully deployed their payloads;

however, communication with the NASA Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR)

spacecraft was lost weeks after the spacecraft deployment. A spacecraft anomaly

investigation was initiated and was underway at the end of the fiscal year. 

NASA was involved with eight international cooperative Expendable

Launch Vehicle launches in FY 2002. Six of the eight launches were Russian-provided Soyuz and Progress launches to the ISS. The remaining two launches carried

NASA scientific spacecraft aboard Russian (Rockot) and Ukrainian (Zenit)

launch vehicles as part of an international scientific collaboration.

NASA and the national defense organizations involved in space launch

continued to build on their collaborative relationship by sharing launch vehicle

technical information and resources for technical penetration into current and

evolved launch vehicle systems.

In the area of Space Communications, NASA’s Space Network, Ground

Networks, Deep Space Network, and Wide Area Network successfully supported

all NASA flight missions and numerous commercial, foreign, and other U.S.

Government agency missions. Included were four Space Shuttle missions, the

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 6
launch of Earth Observing System (EOS) Aqua on a Delta booster, and the launch

of NOAA-M. Over 15 ELVs were supported, including Delta, Atlas, Titan, Sea

Launch, Ariane, H-IIA, and Pegasus. Space Communications successfully supported 30 sounding rocket campaigns from Wallops Flight Facility’s (WFF) Poker

Flat Research Range and other remote sites. 

The Consolidated Space Operations Contract completed the 45th month of

a 5-year basic period of performance. Operations support continued at the Johnson

Space Center (JSC), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Goddard Space Flight Center

(GSFC), Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), and Kennedy Space Center (KSC).

The first of three second-generation Tracking and Data Relay Satellite

(TDRS) satellites, TDRS-H, was transitioned into operations. TDRS-I was

launched in March 2002, and preparations were made for the launch of TDRS-J.

The Data Services Management Center at White Sands Complex (WSC) was transitioned to operations, providing cost savings and centralized scheduling capabilities

for the Space Network and Ground Network. Other cost-saving initiatives completed by Space Communications in FY 2002 included Data Services Automation at

WSC, Mission Data Storage Consolidation at JSC, and Operations Support Team

Automation at JSC. Several Wide Area Network services for the Space Shuttle and

ISS were reengineered to reduce operations costs, including replacing a domestic

communications satellite circuit between WSC and GSFC with a terrestrial circuit.

Space Communications implemented a 5.4-m Ka/S-band antenna at WFF to support Ka-band technology testing and interoperability demonstrations with the U.S.

Air Force. Commercialization continued in FY 2002 with expanded contracts with

Space Data Services (Norway) and Honeywell/DataLynx, as well as issuance of a

subcontract to a Satellite Applications Center in South Africa. 

Office of Space Flight personnel also implemented several initiatives

involving educational institutions, including the transition of selected mission

services operations for the Wide-field Infrared Explorer (WIRE) and Fast Auroral

Snapshot Explorer (FAST) spacecraft to universities (Bowie State and UCBerkeley) and the establishment of a Space Communications contractor

“storefront” presence at Prairie View A&M, University of Texas-El Paso, Oakwood

College, and Alabama A&M. Each storefront involves setting up a mentoring

environment near or on selected university campuses, where students are then

trained and hired to perform engineering work under the supervision of one of

F iscal Year 2002 Activities

7
NASA’s contractors. In FY 2002, Space Communications conducted international

telemedicine demonstrations between the University of Mississippi Medical

Center and doctors in Japan. Space Communications also received a Federal

Energy and Water Management Award at the Merritt Island Launch Annex.

Throughout FY 2002, NASA continued to define potential human and

robotic exploration architectures and technologies through the efforts of an interagency planning team. NASA’s Exploration Team (NEXT) updated a family of

strategic research and technology roadmaps that establish future directions,

options, and opportunities for Technology for Human and Robotic Exploration

and Development of Space (THREADS). NEXT also implemented a series of

highly focused technology concept validation activities ranging from new planetary mobility applications, to advanced multibandgap solar arrays, to highly

redundant and reconfigurable wireless avionics boards. Finally, NEXT developed

new concepts and investigated prospects for applications of a wide range of emerging technologies for future human and robotic exploration and development of

space. These studies have changed the way NASA approaches exploration and

will be continued in FY 2003.

In partnership with NASA’s Office of Space Science and Office of

Aerospace Technology, the Office of Space Flight’s Advanced Systems Office continued to identify and define common Agency space exploration goals and fund

space research initiatives such as propulsion, communications, and space power.

The Office of Space Science (OSS) ended calendar year 2001 with the successful launch of the TIMED (Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics

and Dynamics) mission in December. TIMED is studying a region of Earth’s 

atmosphere that has never been the subject of a comprehensive, long-term scientific investigation. As we entered FY 2002, the Microwave Anisotropy Probe

(MAP) completed its 3-month journey and arrived at its L-1 destination, half a

million miles from Earth. MAP is a NASA Explorer mission that is measuring the

temperature of the cosmic background radiation over the full sky with unprecedented accuracy. This map of the remnant heat from the Big Bang will provide

answers to fundamental questions about the origin and fate of our universe.

On February 5, 2002, NASA launched the High-Energy Solar

Spectroscopic Imager (HESSI), which is a mission to study solar flares and the

gamma rays they emit. Just over 1 month after launch, HESSI made its debut by

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 8
observing a huge explosion in the atmosphere of the Sun. The solar flare was equal

to 1 million megatons of TNT and gave off powerful bursts of x rays. The new solar

flare satellite was renamed RHESSI—the Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Solar

Spectroscopic Imager—in honor of the late NASA scientist who pioneered the

fields of solar-flare physics, gamma-ray astronomy, and cosmic-ray research.

A pair of spacecraft, the Mars Global Surveyor and the Hubble Space

Telescope (HST), teamed up to provide astronomers with a ringside seat to the

biggest global dust storm seen on Mars in several decades. The Martian dust storm,

larger by far than any seen on Earth, raised a cloud of dust that engulfed the entire

planet for several months. The Sun-warmed dust raised the atmospheric temperatures by 80 degrees Fahrenheit while the shaded surface chilled precipitously. The

Mars Odyssey 2001 spacecraft successfully achieved orbit around Mars following a

6-month, 286-million-mile journey. (Following aerobraking operations, Odyssey

entered its science-mapping orbit in February 2002 and began characterizing the

composition of the Martian surface at unprecedented levels of detail.)

In March 2002, the HST got its fourth and most challenging servicing to

date from the STS-109 astronaut crew. The result of their extraordinary efforts was

a Hubble that was more scientifically robust than at any other time of its 12-year

life. It gained new, more efficient solar arrays, a new power control unit, a resuscitated Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS), and a

powerful new resource called the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The first

results from this new instrument were released on April 30, 2002, and made news

around the world. The remarkable images let us see deep into the universe with

unprecedented detail. One image of the Tadpole galaxy had a bonus: a background

that showed approximately 6,000 other galaxies—twice the number of galaxies that

are visible in the now-famous Hubble Deep Field image.

Our Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) spacecraft returned to

life and full operations in March 2002, when the team developed an innovative

new guidance system. The system used a complex new set of procedures that let

controllers use electromagnets in the satellite to push and pull on Earth’s magnetic

field. Experts had speculated about such an approach as a fallback for failing satellite guidance systems, but it had never been employed to steer a satellite with the

exacting accuracy needed for scientific observations.

F iscal Year 2002 Activities

9
The Chandra X-Ray Observatory, launched aboard the Space Shuttle

Columbia in July 1999 during STS-93, continued its impressive performance and

delivered data and images, which have enhanced our current understanding of

black holes on many fronts. Chandra took the deepest x-ray images ever and found

the early universe teeming with black holes. It probed the theoretical edge of a

black hole known as the event horizon and captured the first x-ray flare ever seen

from the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy. The

Chandra observations, together with ultraviolet observations, are a major advance

in our understanding of how the universe evolved over the last 10 billion years.

The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Shoemaker spacecraft

achieved the first soft landing on an asteroid—the culmination of a yearlong

orbital mission at the asteroid Eros during which it returned enormous quantities

of scientific data and images.

The Sun-Earth Connections program accomplishments in 2002 included the

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), which continued to observe the largest

sunspot in 10 years—a sunspot with a surface area as big as that of 13 Earths. This

area proved to be a prolific source of stormy solar activity, hurling clouds of electrified gas known as coronal mass ejections (CME) toward Earth. SOHO also

provided the first clear picture of what lies beneath sunspots: swirling flows of electrified gas that create a self-reinforcing cycle, holding the sunspot together.

July 2002 began with the loss of the Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR)

Discovery mission that was to visit and study at least two comets. A failure review

team was formed, and the team members began analyzing data to determine the

cause of the loss. 

Slowly rising from the Northwest region of Manitoba, Canada, near a small

gold-mining town called Lynn Lake, a massive NASA balloon began a journey on

August 25, 2002, that took it to the fringes of space. The balloon carried a solar

and heliosphere experiment called Low Energy Electrons (LEE) that weighed

1,500 pounds (690 kg). Aside from the fact that this balloon established a new

record for balloon volume (50 percent greater than NASA’s standard balloon

designs), this flight should help establish a new platform for science such as ultraviolet and x-ray astronomy. With a focus on precollege education and the public understanding of science,

NASA’s Space Science Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) program is now one

10Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 
of the largest programs in astronomy and space science education ever undertaken.

E/PO activities are embedded in every OSS flight mission and research program.

NASA’s Aerospace Technology Enterprise sought to improve air and space

travel, space-based communications, and high-performance computing through

fundamental research and technology development during FY 2002. The

Enterprise’s technical accomplishments were organized around three of its strategic goals: revolutionize aviation, advance space transportation, and pioneer

technology innovation.

Its first strategic goal was to revolutionize aviation by enabling its safe, environmentally friendly expansion. In FY 2002, Aerospace Technology examined

aviation accident trends and identified technologies that would improve the safety

of the national airspace system. In cooperation with the Federal Aviation

Administration (FAA) and the aviation industry, Aerospace Technology looked

into accidents and incidents involving hazardous weather, controlled flight into

terrain, human-performance-related causal factors, and mechanical or software

malfunctions. Aerospace Technology identified and assessed the situations and

trends that led to accidents and then developed information technologies for

building a safer airspace system.

These safety technologies included a self-paced, computer-based training

program to help pilots detect, avoid, and minimize exposure to icing. The program

explains the effects of icing on aircraft performance and describes how to detect

and recover from icing-related wing and tail stalls (loss of lift). Pilot testimonials,

animation, case studies, interactive demonstrations, and ice accretion images from

NASA’s icing research aircraft and icing research tunnel enhance the presentation. U.S. and European airline operators, Cessna Aircraft Company, Transport

Canada, United Express, the Ohio Civil Air Patrol, and the U.S. Army Safety

Center received copies of the program, which is also available online. Originally

released on videotape in 2000, a computer-based training program for pilots of

larger aircraft became available on compact disc in FY 2002 with additional training exercises and content for student pilots. The Agency collaborated with the

FAA, the Air Line Pilots Association, and the University of Oregon on this effort.

Several weather-related safety technology demonstrations took place in

FY 2002. One, a forward-looking, turbulence warning system, completed its 20th

flight in NASA’s commercial-transport-size research aircraft. The system’s perF iscal Year 2002 Activities

11
formance has been excellent, demonstrating an 81-percent probability of detecting severe turbulence more than 30 seconds before it happens and a nuisance

alarm rate of only 11 percent.

In addition, Aerospace Technology demonstrated software designed to help

airlines schedule flight crews for long-haul flights. Aerospace Technology based this

scheduling-assistant software on neurobehavioral, subjective, and operational

measurements collected during commercial long-haul flights. The software predicts

the effects of acute sleep loss, cumulative sleep loss, and circadian desynchrony

(disruption of the normal 24-hour cycle) on waking performance. Airlines can also

use this software to minimize practices that lead to in-flight fatigue.

In FY 2002, the first tests of a low-emission aircraft engine combustor sector

(a segment of a full combustor design) produced a nitrogen oxides reduction of 67

percent below 1996 International Civil Aircraft Organization standards. This

result is just 3 percentage points short of NASA’s goal of a 70-percent reduction,

40-percent fewer nitrogen oxides emissions than current commercial aircraft

engines, and 17-percent fewer than the combustor design Aerospace Technology

demonstrated last year.

A new ceramic thermal barrier coating increases the ability of turbine

blades in aircraft engines to tolerate high temperatures. At higher temperatures,

fuel burns more completely and with fewer emissions. Turbine blades located

directly behind the engine’s hot combustor section must withstand these high temperatures. In FY 2002, NASA’s coated test blades withstood temperatures 300  ̊F

higher than standard blades. They survived 1,200 cycles (100 hot hours) at surface

temperatures of 2,480  ̊F. This new coating will significantly increase the ability of

both high-pressure turbine and combustor liner components to withstand high

temperatures.

The Enterprise completed two feasibility studies in FY 2002. One considered using fuel cells to power a state-of-the-art aircraft and predicted that such an

aircraft would have a 54-nautical-mile range with a 140-pound payload. Fuel-cell

technology developments currently on the horizon may allow a fuel-cell-powered

craft to exceed the payload and range of current piston-powered aircraft. The

second study considered using liquid hydrogen to fuel a transport aircraft at today’s

state of the art, at 2009, and at 2022 technology levels, and it predicted that by

2022, hydrogen-powered transport aircraft could have a 52-percent lower gross

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

12
weight at takeoff, lower nitrogen oxides emissions, and no carbon dioxide emissions while maintaining the same payload and range as conventionally powered

aircraft.

System-level noise assessments are critical to determining which technologies have the highest potential for reducing community noise. In FY 2002, a beta

version of the Advanced Vehicle Analysis Tool for Acoustics Research software

showed great promise in providing these assessments. The software had all the prediction capabilities of NASA’s Aircraft Noise Prediction Program and ran on the

Linux operating system. It also corrected for propagation of jet noise, could predict

noise from advanced high-bypass ratio engines and airframe subcomponents, and

accounted for wind and temperature gradient effects on noise propagation. With

these enhancements and its physics-based modeling capability, the software could

allow designers to treat the various airframe and engine noise sources as an interrelated system and find the best set of components for noise mitigation.

In FY 2002, Aerospace Technology conducted a simulation of the interoperability of two new graphical traffic automation tools: the Surface Management

System and the Traffic Management Advisor. Both proved their worth to FAA

tower controllers, including the traffic management coordinator from Dallas/Fort

Worth International Airport. In the simulation, the coordinator used the tools to

decide when to switch a runway from departures to arrivals. The coordinator found

that the tools’ timelines showing predicted arrivals and departures were the most

helpful aid in determining when to change the runway configuration and in balancing departures.

The Traffic Flow Automation System, a decision-support tool for predicting

traffic loads, was developed and evaluated in FY 2002. As much as a minute earlier than current tools, this tool tells FAA controllers how much air traffic will be

entering their sector of the sky. The software, running on a Unix-based computer

cluster, processed all of the air traffic in the national airspace system’s 20 Air Route

Traffic Control Centers simultaneously. The new tool predicts sector loading more

accurately than the current tool and is 15 to 20 seconds faster.

New technologies to increase small aircraft safety in nearly all weather conditions can greatly increase the capacity of the Nation’s air system. The Small

Aircraft Transportation System project will develop such technologies. In

FY 2002, the project partners (NASA, the FAA, and the National Consortium for

F iscal Year 2002 Activities

13
Aviation Mobility) began work to develop, evaluate, and demonstrate four new

operating capabilities for small aircraft.

The Aerospace Technology Enterprise’s second strategic goal was to

advance space transportation by creating a safe, affordable highway through the air

and into space. FY 2002 produced solid achievements in the development of space

launch technologies. The Enterprise achieved all of its annual performance goals.

The Space Launch Initiative Program, after extensive analyses, narrowed architecture designs and conducted stringent systems engineering evaluations to ensure

that selected designs will be viable and that NASA’s future technology investments are relevant to those designs.

In FY 2002, the Space Launch Initiative program narrowed its potential

architecture designs—from hundreds to the 15 most promising—and aligned technology development investments to support them. Stringent systems engineering

evaluations ensure that designs are viable and that technology investments are relevant. The Enterprise has created an advanced engineering environment to

analyze and validate data in order to ensure that the Government is a smart buyer.

Interrelated technology projects focus on such innovations as long-life rocket

engines, robust thermal-protection materials, and sophisticated diagnostic software. Aerospace Technology has completed designs for a crew transfer/return

vehicle and has several options for near-term development.

Propulsion is one of the keys to improving space access. In FY 2002, the

Enterprise tested flight engine prototypes and components. A new liquidoxygen/kerosene engine may afford quick turnaround and be fully reusable. An

integrated vehicle health-management system demonstrates the potential to use

model-based reasoning software to monitor the condition of the entire space

launch system in every phase of operation.

In FY 2002, the Space Transfer and Launch Technology program completed

critical tests and established partnerships with industry and academia. Materials scientists improved airframe materials, and research engineers established design

requirements for the rocket-based combined-cycle engine. The X-43C vehicle’s preliminary and systems-level requirements will provide the project’s baseline goals, a

decision that moves NASA closer to procuring X-43C demonstrator vehicles.

Aerospace Technology awarded two University Research Education and Technology

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

14
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

15 Institute grants: the Universities of Maryland and Florida will each receive $5 million annually for work in airframe and propulsion technologies research.

In FY 2002, research engineers demonstrated a 10-kilowatt ion engine

designed for use in nuclear electric propulsion systems. Such an engine, with its

nearly constant propulsion, could greatly reduce trip times for interplanetary missions. The high-power ion engine with titanium ion optics increased power by a

factor of four and produced a 62-percent greater specific impulse than the state-ofthe-art ion engine.

The Aerospace Technology Enterprise’s third strategic goal was to pioneer

technology innovation to enable a revolution in aerospace systems. In FY 2002, the

Enterprise developed engineering tools and computational architectures to reduce

system design and analysis time, link geographically distant researchers in collaborative environments, speed software verification, provide adaptive capabilities for

flight control systems, reduce mission risk, and streamline mission operations.

Several demonstrations in FY 2002 showed the potential of advanced engineering tools to reduce system design and analysis time and to streamline mission

operations. Engineers rapidly redesigned a crew return vehicle (to bring back

Station crews in emergency conditions) using a flight-simulation environment

while pilots provided real-time feedback on handling qualities. A high-performance computing algorithm allowed mission designers to generate a database of

reusable launch vehicle concepts without extensive numerical simulation. This

cut the time required to evaluate vehicle concepts from several months to a week

and reduced design cycle time to less than one-third that of state-of-the-art techniques. An adaptive grid generator for computational fluid dynamics analysis

decreased computation time by a factor of 15.

Aerospace Technology developed a collaborative workspace to streamline

mission operations for the Mars Exploration Rover. The workspace allows dispersed scientists, engineers, and mission operators to interactively develop mission

plans and monitor mission status. Collaborative engineering environments could

substantially reduce the time needed to conduct tests and plan mission operations.

The Enterprise conducted a successful proof-of-concept demonstration for a

goal-oriented autonomous architecture tool. This software allowed prototype Mars

rovers to plan their own paths and determine ideal instrument placement. The

software also reduced the number of command cycles needed to direct the rover to
reach objects of scientific interest. An intelligent flight-control system using adaptive neural networks—an artificial brain that learns from experience—improved

aircraft performance and reconfigured the control system to maintain vehicle stability when failures occurred. Such intelligent systems will result in safer, more

efficient flight.

In FY 2002, the Enterprise developed technology to make possible highdata-rate space communications from small ground stations in order to provide

advanced aircraft with simplified high-lift systems using active flow control and to

demonstrate nanotechnology applications for chemical sensors and high-strength

composites. The 622-megabit-per-second space communications link provides

direct access to scientific data from satellites in low-Earth orbit using only a small,

portable ground station. The ground station uses a digital modem and is about onefourth the size of the ground station presently required. This affordable way for

users to communicate directly with spacecraft substantially reduces the time and

expense needed to acquire and distribute data. These small ground stations can

also supplement the existing space communications infrastructure to increase coverage or redundancy.

In FY 2002, Aerospace Technology demonstrated that an active-flow-control technology could improve lift and stability on advanced aircraft. Active flow

control allows aircraft to use simpler high-lift systems that can reduce noise and

allows transport-sized aircraft to access smaller airports. Because these systems are

typically lighter, they can also reduce fuel use and emissions. In addition, a simulation demonstrated how flow-control technology could affect aircraft stability.

This flow-control system used a porous wing, sections of which could reconfigure

to maintain stability when other aircraft components failed. The porous wing may

one day replace conventional control surfaces to reduce weight and improve safety.

Nanotechnology (the science of manipulating materials on an atomic or

molecular scale) may change our lives in a multitude of ways. NASA is engaged in

nanotechnology research with potential applications to aeronautics and aerospace.

For example, in FY 2002, Aerospace Technology demonstrated that it is possible

to fabricate ultrasensitive chemical sensors from carbon nanotubes by attaching

nucleic acids and other probe molecules to the nanotube’s tip. When specific

chemicals bonded with the probe molecule, a measurable change occurred in the

nanotube. Potential applications for nanosensors include the search for life on

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

16
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

17 other planets, medical diagnostics such as detecting cancer cells, and the detection

of biological and chemical threats to the Nation’s security.

In FY 2002, the Enterprise also aligned carbon nanotubes in a polymer

matrix by extrusion. This is an important first step in developing carbon-nanotube-based composite materials. Nanotube fibers are usually produced in tangled

bundles. Materials scientists believe that carbon-nanotube-based composites with

their fibers aligned in a single direction may be stronger than steel by a factor of

100 at one-sixth the weight. If these materials can be developed, they will significantly reduce the weight of aircraft, launch vehicles, and spacecraft.

NASA’s Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) remained dedicated to understanding the total Earth system and the effects of natural and human-induced

changes on the global environment. From the vantage point of space, NASA provides information about Earth’s land, atmosphere, ice, oceans, and life that is

obtainable in no other way, providing unique insights into our environment as

only NASA can. NASA continued to use the measurements from satellite systems

to study the interactions among these Earth system components to advance the

discipline of Earth system science and contribute sound scientific knowledge for

the development of environmental policy and economic investment decisions that

serve our society and improve life here. In addition to purely scientific contributions, NASA continued to develop innovative technologies and science-based

applications of remote sensing for solving practical societal problems in agriculture

and food production, natural hazard mitigation, water resources, regional planning, and national resource management in partnership with other Federal

agencies, industry, and State and local governments.

ESE science activities in FY 2002 focused on the completion of the first

Earth Observing Satellite (EOS) series and characterization of the forces acting on

the Earth system and its responses. The Earth Science Enterprise successfully

launched four spacecraft in FY 2002. Jason-1, a joint mission with France, makes

precision ocean topography measurements begun by TOPEX-Poseidon and is now

employed in weather and climate forecasts. The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas

Experiment (SAGE III), launched in a joint mission with Russia, measures ozone

and aerosols in the upper atmosphere. The Gravity Recovery and Climate

Experiment (GRACE), a joint mission with Germany, uses a microwave beam

between twin satellites to make precise measurements of Earth’s gravity field,
allowing for improvement in ocean topography and enabling inferences about the

distribution of mass in Earth’s interior. Aqua, launched in May 2002, acquires precise atmospheric and oceanic measurements to enable the study of the global water

cycle, leading to the next generation of climate and weather forecasts. NASA’s

unique space-based observations of the variability inherent in the Earth system

have enabled Earth scientists both to extend their view of previously observed

global environmental parameters and to extend their measurements over a progressively longer period of time using state-of-the-art observational techniques. For

the first time, NASA Earth scientists have demonstrated new global environmental observations that were not previously available. Particular advances in FY 2002

have occurred in the areas of sea ice, ocean biology, and polar ice sheets.

The extent of ice in the Arctic has been shown to have decreased by several percent per decade from 1979 to 2000, while in the Antarctic, sea ice has been

shown to have increased slightly over roughly the same period. Moreover, the

thicker perennial ice cover in the Arctic has been observed to be decreasing by a

factor of three, which has the potential to impact ocean circulation significantly. 

In the area of ocean biology, ESE gathered new data sets from two different

satellite instruments and plans to combine them to improve NASA’s knowledge of the

phytoplankton distribution in the ocean. This microscopic organism serves as the base

for the marine food chain and plays an important role in the exchange of carbon

between the biosphere and the atmosphere. The exchange that takes place affects the

buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that can, in turn, affect climate. 

New results from aircraft-based remote-sensing campaigns over polar ice

sheets in Greenland and Antarctica provided ESE with the ability to make a quantitative assessment of changes in ice cover, especially at the margins between ice

sheets and the ocean. Quantitative knowledge of the behavior of ice sheets is

important for testing climate models and improving our ability to provide assessments of potentially hazardous changes in sea level and sea ice distributions. In

FY 2002, ESE completed development of the first space-based laser altimeter for

ice sheet topographic mapping for launch in FY 2002.

NASA continued to provide global observations of some of the primary

drivers of global change, including global distributions of radiatively and chemically active trace gases and aerosol particles, top-of-the-atmosphere observations

of solar irradiance, and global observations of land cover and land use change.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

18
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

19 Particular highlights of FY 2002 achievements were made in the studies of

atmospheric aerosols and in land cover.

The most comprehensive evaluation of the global distribution and properties of atmospheric aerosols became available in FY 2002. Using data from several

NASA spacecraft, including two instruments from the Terra spacecraft launched

in 1999, the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) satellite launched

in 1997, and the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument

launched in 1996, an unprecedented database was created. These data also are

combined with ground-based data that can help scientists understand the impact

of atmospheric aerosols on the solar radiation that reaches Earth’s surface and thus

impacts local weather, agricultural productivity, and air quality.

Scientists used high-resolution land cover studies carried out with the

Landsat series of satellites to study how land use and changes in land cover may

impact regional and local economies. In the past year, several such studies focused

on the Mojave Desert region, rangelands in the U.S. Southwest, and metropolitan

and nonmetropolitan Michigan were completed and published. These data also

form the basis for studies of how land use change can impact the distribution of

carbon between the atmosphere and the biosphere and thus provide a rigorous

basis for future approaches to accounting for carbon emission and uptake. 

Understanding how the Earth system responds to natural and humaninduced change is paramount in ESE’s efforts to accurately model potential future

climate change. NASA continued to provide the observational and modeling

tools needed to characterize and generalize these response and feedback processes

that will play such a large role in determining the future of our planet. Particular

areas of substantial advances in FY 2002 have been made in NASA’s studies of

clouds, oceans, and the atmosphere.

One of the major uncertainties in climate change models is the way they

represent clouds. In FY 2002, NASA made great progress in linking satellite and

in situ measurements of clouds with their effects on atmospheric radiation. In particular, data from several cloud and radiation instruments aboard the Terra

spacecraft have been useful in mapping the global distribution of clouds and their

impacts on atmospheric radiation, especially for thin cirrus clouds that have been

difficult to observe in the past. Detailed in situ observations of clouds were made

during a NASA-led campaign carried out in Florida in the summer of 2002. One
aircraft platform, NASA’s WB-57F, used a suite of more than two dozen instruments to make what is the most comprehensive measurement of cloud-particle

properties ever made. 

Earth’s oceans have been one of the most undersampled regions of the

global environment because of the difficulty associated with making repeated

measurements in the open ocean, away from coastal regions and islands. In

FY 2002, the results of several years of observations of Earth’s oceans became available and incorporated into models. Accomplishments of particular interest include

the completion of more than a decade of observations of sea surface height measured with the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite and the launch of its successor, Jason-1,

as well as the completion of 3 years of observations of the wind field at the ocean

surface, which drives ocean circulation, that came from the SeaWinds instrument

aboard NASA’s QuikScat satellite. These data have been utilized in ocean data

assimilation models, increasing NASA’s knowledge of the processes by which

ocean circulation affects climate, including the processes by which the Pacific

Ocean transitions from an El Niño to a La Niña state.

The exchange of material and energy between Earth’s troposphere and stratosphere has an important impact on Earth’s climate. In FY 2002, satellite and

theoretical studies carried out by NASA have improved humankind’s knowledge

of the processes by which water is transported from the troposphere into the stratosphere and the role that high-altitude cirrus clouds can play in this process. 

Although Earth science is a global science, and global-scale changes are of

great scientific interest, what may be most strongly perceived by individuals, governments, and industry are changes at much smaller spatial scales, especially local

and regional scales. Similarly, although changes in the mean state of Earth are

important and of interest, changes in extreme events (such as droughts, floods, and

fires) may be of greater impact because of the role they play in the sustainability of

ecosystems, communities, and economic sectors. NASA has made particular

advances in precipitation studies and coastal studies in FY 2002.

Until recently, surprisingly little has been known about the extent of precipitation over much of Earth’s surface, especially tropical regions over Earth’s

major oceans. However, the precipitation in these regions has major impacts on

several elements of the Earth system, including atmospheric circulation and

oceanic conditions. In FY 2002, data from several years of operation of the

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

20
Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite were available, and as a

result, uncertainty about the global rainfall distribution on the tropics has been

reduced by a factor of two, and NASA’s knowledge of the variation in precipitation from year to year has been dramatically enhanced. Further, through data

assimilation techniques that include TRMM precipitation data and QuikScat

ocean surface wind data, short-term prediction models that account for the track,

intensity, and precipitation of tropical cyclones have been improved. 

The coastal regions of the world are becoming ever more populated and,

therefore, more vulnerable to negative environmental impacts, especially those

associated with flooding from severe storm events. NASA satellite observations

are playing an increasing role in documenting the natural and human-induced

changes taking place along coastal regions and in coral reefs. Data from Landsat,

SeaWiFS, and NASA’s EO-1 technology satellite are all being used to map coral

reef areas. Data from these satellites, especially SeaWiFS and EO-1, are being used

to provide information on turbid coastal waters, especially the documentation of

the amount of suspended sediments. These observations are playing an increasing

role in studies of local water pollution. NASA’s altimetry observations over the last

decade have monitored sea level rise and its distribution globally.

The greatest benefit to society from NASA’s Earth Science Enterprise rests

in the improved predictive capability that comes from the synthesis of knowledge

of Earth system variability, natural and human-induced forcings, and Earth system

processes, together with the use of modeling tools and computational systems that

enable environmental prediction. NASA’s unique contribution to the Nation’s

efforts center on the use of new kinds of environmental data, modeling approaches,

and data-assimilation systems for improving modeling capability. As new capability

is developed, it is NASA’s goal to transition this capability to operational agencies

within the Government, most notably (but not exclusively) the National Oceanic

and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Particular areas of accomplishment

for NASA in FY 2002 in the area of environmental prediction include weather

forecasting, seasonal climate prediction, and long-term climate prediction.

Data from NASA’s TRMM and QuikScat satellites are now being regularly

used in weather prediction by NOAA and other national meteorological agencies.

Reductions in the uncertainty of hurricane-track forecasts have been demonstrated through the use of these data and can lead to reductions in the size of the

F iscal Year 2002 Activities

21
region for which evacuation orders may be issued in advance of the predicted landfall of a storm. The reduction in societal impact (including cost) of such reduced

evacuation areas associated with the improvement in forecasts is significant.

In order to accelerate and expand the application of NASA’s Earth science

results, data, and technology to practical problems that confront the U.S. and

Earth, the Applications Program developed an Applications Strategy: 2002–2012.

This Strategy defined the conceptual approach and strategic direction for the

Program. A cornerstone program planning accomplishment was the identification

of 12 national applications with agency partners such as NOAA, FEMA, and

USDA, which provide focus for the program implementation.

A major achievement in expanding the capability of scientific Earth observation has been the success of the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) in meeting its

objectives of flight validating breakthrough technologies applicable to Landsat

follow-on missions. Specifically, EO-1 has validated the use of multispectral imaging capability to address traditional Landsat user communities, hyperspectral

imaging capability to address the Landsat research-oriented community with backward compatibility, a calibration test bed to improve absolute radiometric

accuracy, and atmospheric correction to compensate for intervening atmosphere. 

Laser diodes are critical to the development of future Earth science laserbased instruments for global measurement of ozone, water vapor, winds, carbon

dioxide, altimetry, and trace gas constituents. During FY 2002, a first-ever demonstration of a specialized laser system was achieved. This accomplishment is a key

to enabling the development of an eye-safe Differential Absorption Lidar system. 

The Biological and Physical Research Enterprise (BPRE) seeks to exploit

the rich opportunities of the microgravity environment and space flight for fundamental research and commercial development, and to develop efficient and

effective technologies and methods for protecting human health in space. BPRE

continued to implement its ground and flight research programs at seven NASA

Centers and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as well as through the participation of

15 Commercial Space Centers (CSC), a National Space Biomedical Research

Institute, and a National Center for Microgravity Research on Fluids and

Combustion. BPRE also relied upon an extensive external community of academic, commercial, and Government scientists and engineers for the

implementation of its programs. Ground-based research precedes flight research

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

22
and employs such NASA equipment as drop towers, centrifuges, and bed-rest facilities. The flight research programs used the full spectrum of platforms, including

free-flying satellites, the Space Shuttle, and now the ISS.

During FY 2002, three experiment racks, two “arctic freezers,” and the

Microgravity Science Glovebox were added to the research facilities. In addition,

48 research and technology development experiments were conducted. The BPRE

research portfolio (42 of these experiments) consisted of 11 human life sciences,

24 physical sciences, and 7 space product development experiments. In all, it was

a safe and highly productive year.

BPRE achievements included successful research on a method to reduce the

risk of kidney stones in flight, successful tests of a drug to reduce the light-headedness and inability to stand that can affect space travelers returning to gravity,

and suggestive new findings on the spinal cord and how reflexes change in space.

Taken together, these and approximately 20 other ongoing investigations continue

to expand our understanding of many physiological changes associated with space

flight, the risks of space flight, and the best methods for controlling these changes

and risks. NASA researchers used historical data to identify cataract risks from

space radiation and developed a statistical concept for defining the uncertainties

in space-radiation cancer risks, a concept that will allow for new research

approaches to risk assessment and mitigation to be evaluated.

Also in FY 2002, BPRE achieved several milestones in support of a radiation protection plan for improved astronaut health and safety. Under the auspices of

the ISS Multi-lateral Medical Operations Panel (MMOP), the international partners

agreed to mission termination dose limits. The National Council on Radiation

Protection and Measurements has issued new recommendations on dose limits

that are being incorporated into the NASA medical requirements for astronauts.

During this past year, NASA increased the pace of ISS research to include

research in fluid physics, combustion science, materials science, and biotechnology. Each ISS research investigation exploited the space environment to explore

questions that could not be explored on Earth. For example, researchers continued

to be excited by results from experiments on colloids in space. Colloids are mixtures of very small particles suspended in a liquid; paint and toothpaste are both

usually made of colloids. Physicists studying colloids in space continued to explore

the processes by which particles in colloids arrange themselves into regular patF iscal Year 2002 Activities

23
terns (crystal lattices). NASA researchers hoped that colloid experiments in space

will provide the critical information necessary for using colloids to make new

materials on Earth, establishing the new field of colloid engineering. These

processes are thought to be particularly important for developing three-dimensional photonic materials, optical switches, and components for future computers.

Researchers report that they have been able to observe significant phenomena that

have never been observed on Earth.

One of the first materials science experiments on the ISS—the Solidification

Using a Baffle in Sealed Ampoules (SUBSA)—was delivered by STS-111 for mission UF2 (May 2002) and deorbited on STS-113 in November 2002. SUBSA was

conducted during Expedition Five inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox. The

Glovebox is the first dedicated facility delivered to the Station for physical science

research in microgravity, and this experiment is the first one operated inside the

Glovebox. The goals of this experiment are to identify what causes the motion in

melts processed inside space laboratories and to reduce the magnitude of the melt

motion so that it does not interfere with semiconductor production.

Early in 2002, NASA successfully demonstrated its Avian Development Facility

on Space Shuttle flight STS-108. The Avian Development Facility is designed to

incubate 36 quail eggs in flight. Eighteen of the eggs are exposed to microgravity

(very low levels of gravitational forces), and 18 are spun in a centrifuge to simulate

gravity. Researchers can use the developing quail embryos as models for exploring the

effects of the space environment on development. The initial flight of the facility

was focused on examining the growth and development of the balance system in the

inner ear, as well as on the development of the skeleton. 

NASA also chartered the Research Maximization and Prioritization

(ReMaP) Task Force to help identify research priorities for BPRE. The task force

provided an interim report in July 2002 and presented its final report to the NASA

Advisory Council in September. ReMaP evaluated research productivity and priorities for the entire scientific, technological, and commercial portfolio of BPRE.

The findings and recommendations in the ReMaP report provide a framework for

prioritizing a productive research program for BPRE and for the ISS. The report

identifies two overarching programmatic goals. The first involves research

enabling human exploration of space; the second involves basic research of intrinsic scientific interest.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

24
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

25 In FY 2002, the CSC consortia attracted commercial funding in cash and

in kind by a factor of 2.7 as they received from NASA. Thirty-five new industrial

partners were reported, easily surpassing the goal of 10. The companies identified

are active in a variety of fields including technology development, human interest

proteins, paper products, education, and computer systems. Two products were

brought to market in FY 2002: the Space Rose fragrance product discovered on

STS-95 by the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics (WCSAR)

as an ingredient in “Impulse Body Spray” and the variant “Moon Grass” marketed

by Lever Faberge (part of Unilever), launched in January 2002 in the United

Kingdom. Meanwhile, Flow Simulation Services, a Solidification Design Center

affiliate of CSC in Albuquerque, NM, began marketing software that will enable

improved process design for particulate molding processes. The software ARENAFLOW is initially being marketed to the metal casting manufacturing industry, but

future applications are being pursued in food and pharmaceutical production,

aerosol drug delivery, and other biotech applications.

BPRE outreach programs continued to involve students and educators in

space research opportunities in both formal and informal learning environments.

During the past year, five National Education Conferences, with a total attendance of over 70,000 teachers, featured BPRE-sponsored workshops and

demonstrations. Additionally, BPRE was a full participant in each Conference’s

“One NASA” exhibit. Displays illustrated current research through demonstrations of hands-on activities connecting space research to classroom curricula.

Numerous educational publications were distributed.

NASA’s Office of External Relations continued its international activities,

expanding cooperation with NASA’s partners through new agreements, discussions in multilateral fora, and support for ongoing missions. NASA concluded over

60 cooperative and reimbursable international agreements for projects across all of

NASA’s Strategic Enterprises. These agreements included ground-based research,

aircraft campaigns, and satellite missions in the fields of space and Earth science.

Significant international agreements signed during this fiscal year included a

Memorandum of Understanding between NASA and the Norwegian Space

Center, signed November 14, 2001, for a variety of cooperative space activities,

including sounding rocket activity, space science, Earth science, and satellite data

acquisition and tracking. Another key agreement, signed July 5, 2002, established
arrangements for NASA and the Institute for Space and Astronautical Sciences of

Japan to conduct balloon-borne experiments with a superconducting magnet spectrometer to search for antinuclei and measure antiprotons and other components

of cosmic rays. In addition, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA)

extended the existing Memoranda of Understanding for the HST and for the

Ulysses mission.

NASA participated in numerous international meetings designed to review

ongoing cooperation or foster new cooperation. These included the Committee on

Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) annual plenary meeting and meetings of the

United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and its subcommittees. Throughout the year, NASA engaged in discussions with current and

potential future partners at the senior management level, hosting visitors from

around the world and visiting foreign space officials.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

26
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

27

DEPARTMENT OF

DEFENSE

DOD

During FY 2002, the Department of Defense (DOD) engaged in a wide variety of

aerospace activities. In terms of environmental monitoring, the National Polarorbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), a tri-agency

program among NASA, DOD, and the Department of Commerce (DOC) that

converges the DOD and DOC/NOAA polar-orbiting weather-satellite programs,

continued to progress. In FY 2002, the NPOESS Integrated Program Office (IPO)

awarded the Shared System Performance Responsibility contract to Northrop

Grumman Space Technology (formerly TRW), and the program moved into the

Key Decision Point-C (KDP-C) Acquisition & Operations phase. The NPOESS

Preparatory Project (NPP), an IPO/NASA joint mission to provide a crucial earlyflight and risk-reduction opportunity for several major NPOESS sensors, also

continued to progress in FY 2002. NPP is planned for an FY 2007 launch.

DOD, NASA, NOAA, and other Federal agencies continued to make good

progress in FY 2002 on implementing activities for the Space Weather

Architecture Transition Plan. DOD continued to participate in the NASA initiative Living with a Star, a systems approach to studies of Sun-Earth connections. 

The Global Positioning System (GPS) constellation consists of a total of 28

satellites providing unprecedented levels of accuracy in support of national security, worldwide transportation safety, and scientific and commercial interests. In

2002, development efforts continued on the GPS modernization program to add

new military signals (known as the M-code) to Block IIR and IIF satellites, a

second civil signal on IIR satellites, and a third civil signal (L5) on IIF satellites.

Flexible power will enable the warfighter to adjust power levels between the new

military code (M-code) and the current military signal (PY Code). Flex power will
give warfighters the flexibility to change power requirements as mission operations

dictate while providing significant additional antijam capability. In 2002, the Air

Force continued concept exploration of GPS III, the next generation of GPS systems. 

Of the 15 U.S. ELV launches in FY 2002, 4 were DOD-managed missions.

The Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program had a successful first

launch for Atlas V on August 21, 2002. Other significant launches included classified payloads for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) on a Titan IV in

early October and an Atlas II in late October 2001, as well as a Titan IV Milstar

launch in January and a NOAA-M Titan 2 launch in late June 2002. 

The NASA/U.S. Air Force (USAF) Reusable Launch Vehicle Development

120 Day Study, out-briefed in February 2002, was chartered by the Secretary of the

Air Force and the NASA Administrator to investigate requirements and concepts

for a new generation of Reusable Launch Vehicles to meet our national needs. This

effort addressed concepts of operation, operational requirements, and technical

requirements from both the NASA and Air Force perspectives. The study set the

stage for cooperation between the two organizations on upcoming efforts such as

the Operationally Responsive Spacelift Analysis of Alternatives.

Construction began in June 2002 on a backup Space Based Infrared System

(SBIRS) operational ground station at Schriever Air Force Base (AFB), CO. The

first Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) payload completed integration in 2002 and was

on track for delivery in summer 2003; the first Geostationary Orbit (GEO) satellite is planned for delivery in March 2006, with a planned launch in October 2006.

The Attack and Launch Early Reporting to Theater (ALERT) missile warning

mission was assumed by the SBIRS Mission Control Station at Buckley AFB, CO,

and ALERT was deactivated on September 25, 2002, after operational acceptance

of the Interim Mission Control Station Backup. The facility was turned over to the

Missile Defense Agency for use in the Ballistic Missile Defense System test bed.

The DOD Space Test Program (STP) continued to actively foster existing

and new partnerships between DOD and NASA. The $223.5-million Coriolis

satellite mission is a technical risk-reduction experiment for NPOESS. It was

acquired under NASA’s Rapid Satellite Acquisition process. 

STP had three successful Shuttle/ISS missions during 2002, with a total of

five experiments flown. In December 2001, STS-108 hosted the Ram Burn

Observation (RAMBO) Experiment and Shuttle Ionospheric Modification with

28Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

29 Pulsed Localized Exhaust (SIMPLEX) experiment. These experiments flew again

on STS-110 in April 2002. RAMBO used an operational satellite to view Shuttle

engine firings to optimize band selection for SBIRS and improve the fidelity of

DOD plume models. SIMPLEX observed ionospheric disturbances created by

Shuttle engine burns via ground radar sites and supported plume technology,

plume signature, and space weather modeling. In June 2002, RAMBO was again

successful on STS-111 with a total of four Shuttle engine burns viewed. In 2002,

STP actively explored how it could cooperate with NASA in building experiment

pallets called EXPRESS for the ISS. Funding limitations prevented any concrete

agreements from being reached, and discussions will continue in 2003.

In late FY 2002, STP was working with DOD, NASA, the commercial

sector, and the Federal Communications Commission to obtain a 1-year radio frequency license extension for the Picosat experiment. Picosat was launched in

September 2001, as part of NASA’s Kodiak Star mission, from the Kodiak Island

Launch Complex on an Athena booster. 
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

30
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

31

FEDERAL AVIATION

ADMINISTRATION

FAA

During FY 2002, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) continued its critical mission to ensure a safe, secure, efficient, and environmentally friendly civil air

navigation and commercial space transportation system. The year, however, saw

some significant changes in the FAA’s research and development (R&D) program.

In the wake of the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the focus of aviation security R&D was dramatically readjusted to meet the challenges of the new

environment, and responsibility for aviation security R&D moved to the newly

created Transportation Security Administration within the Department of

Transportation. 

To accomplish its efficiency goal, FAA researchers have worked on developing new technologies and procedures to reduce system delays, improve

performance in bad weather, provide air-traffic services to a wider range of aircraft,

apply satellite-based navigation and positioning technology, and increase system

flexibility and adaptability. 

A recent estimate by the FAA identified weather as causing 69 percent of

flight delays and approximately 30 percent of accidents. On March 27, 2002, the

FAA reached a milestone in ensuring the safety of the flying public: the Current

Icing Potential (CIP) weather-safety product became fully operational at the

National Weather Service Aviation Weather Center in Kansas City, MO. This

product, which generates around-the-clock support, provides information on current in-flight icing conditions and is used for planning flights, determining route

changes, and selecting altitudes. The CIP, developed by the National Center for

Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO, with funding from the FAA’s Aviation

Weather Research Program, is derived from radar and satellite data, surface obser-
vations, numerical models, and pilot reports. Users can access CIP information on

the Internet via the Aviation Digital Data Service (ADDS) Web site. Using the

ADDS Flight Path Tool, the user can select a flight route and view a cross-section

display that allows selection of flight altitudes that minimize the possibility of

encountering icing en route. CIP provides the user with information on icing

“potential” (likelihood of icing) and is updated on an hourly basis. 

The FAA also completed the development and implementation of a newly

improved version of the Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) numerical weather model.

The RUC20, with its 20-kilometer resolution, provides improved aviation and surface weather forecasts. It features increased horizontal resolution and 50 vertical

levels. This version improves the overall accuracy of weather data being fed into

aviation-weather applications. The smaller grid spacing used by the RUC20 provides better resolution of variations in terrain elevation, land-water boundaries,

and other land-surface discontinuities. This type of detail leads to improved forecasts of regional and local precipitation and surface wind phenomena important

for aviation operations. The RUC20 assimilates satellite cloud data to improve its

cloud, icing, and precipitation forecasts. It also handles convective and nonconvective clouds more effectively. The enhancements in the RUC20 for aviation

operations will result in more realistic frontal structures, including areas of potentially hazardous turbulence and icing, and more accurate forecasts of surface winds,

temperature, and precipitation. RUC forecasts of jet-level winds and temperature,

critical for U.S. flight routing and air-traffic management, are also improved with

the RUC20. The RUC20 produces new analyses and short-range forecasts on an

hourly basis. The RUC20, developed by researchers from the National Oceanic

and Atmospheric Administration’s Forecast Systems Laboratory, with funding

from the FAA’s Aviation Weather Research Program, is operated by the National Weather Services’ National Center for Environmental Prediction. 

The FAA’s Free Flight Program encompasses two Phases. Between 1998 and

2002, the Free Flight Phase (FFP) 1 program deployed a number of tools, such as User

Request Evaluation Tool (URET), Traffic Management Advisor (TMA), and Surface

Movement Advisor, products of the R&D program. FFP2 began in FY 2000 as a vehicle for further deployment and enhancement of URET, TMA, and Collaborative

Decision Making. FFP2 also has a mandate to pursue research into new automation

tools. During 2002, the FFP2 research program had several successes.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

32
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

33 • Direct-To, developed by NASA Ames Research Center, is a decision-support tool for the radar controller (R-side) that will provide advisories for

traffic conflicts and direct routes. It includes an interactive trial planning

function that allows the controller to quickly visualize, evaluate, and enter

route and altitude changes. In FY 2002, the FAA and NASA conducted

operational evaluations of Direct-To in the FAA Technical Center’s

Integration and Interoperability Facility with the FAA’s Air Traffic Conflict

Probe Team and the Air Traffic Display System Replacement (DSR)

Evolution Team to further refine the FAA’s operational concept.

• Problem Analysis, Resolution and Ranking (PARR), developed by the

MITRE Center for Advanced Aviation System Development, is an extension of the FFP 1 URET. The Initial PARR Assisted Resolution Tool (ART)

will provide the radar associate controller (D-side) with a set of tools to support the development of strategic resolutions to URET-predicted

aircraft-to-aircraft and aircraft-to-airspace problems. In FY 2002, the FAA

conducted controller-in-the-loop simulations of initial PARR/ART to further refine the operational concept of use for ART. 

• Traffic Management Advisor-Multi-Center (TMA-MC) is an extension of

the FFP 1 Traffic Management Advisor tool to a multifacility environment.

The purpose of TMA-MC is to assist traffic-management coordinators in

planning and managing streams of traffic into selected airspace, as well as

into selected Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facilities that

receive traffic from two or more en route centers. The FAA and NASA

Ames Research Center jointly managed the research and development of

TMA-MC, which is focused on the Northeast corridor, with the goal of

improving the arrival flows into Philadelphia International Airport, as well

as identifying the requirements for TMA-MC at the New York airports. 

• During Fiscal Year 2002, a TMA-MC test bed was established in the FAA

Technical Center’s Free Flight Technology Integration Laboratory (FFTIL).

Functional demonstrations and simulations were conducted both at NASA

Ames Research Center and in the FFTIL test bed. In addition, in preparation for the TMA-MC field evaluation planned for Fiscal Year 2003,

researchers established data feeds from Boston, Cleveland, New York, and

Washington Air Route Traffic Control Centers to laboratories at both
NASA Ames Research Center and the FFTIL for continued development

and testing of the TMA-MC prototype. The FAA also conducted the first

Host Computer System/TMA-MC National Airspace System noninterference demonstration in the FFTIL.

• In 2002, researchers successfully prototyped and evaluated the Slot Credit

Substitution (SCS) tool in conjunction with participating airlines. SCS

allows airlines greater flexibility in swapping aircraft between “slots” that

have been allocated to them in the ground-delay program. 

The adverse environmental byproducts of aviation—primarily noise and

emissions—are major constraints on the growth of aviation. Public concerns about

the environmental effects of aircraft and airport operations, as well as increasingly

strict requirements embodied in laws and regulations, can severely constrain the

ability of the aviation system to meet the Nation’s need for mobility, increased

trade/market access, and sustained economic growth. The FAA’s environment and

energy program seeks to develop superior decision-support tools and ensure that

response strategies protect both the environment and aviation’s economic health.

On June 20, 2002, the FAA and NASA signed a new Memorandum of Agreement

(MOA) to leverage each other’s aircraft noise-reduction technology investments.

This MOA aims to form the basis upon which the FAA and NASA will build programs to achieve the joint long-term national goal of containing objectionable

aircraft noise within airport and compatible land-use boundaries. In August 2002,

the FAA executed a new interagency agreement with NASA in the amount of

$18,161,000 to commit to the tasks outlined in the MOA focusing on advancing

the technology readiness level of high-impact technologies. 

During FY 2002, the FAA released an enhanced version of the Emissions

and Dispersion Modeling System (EDMS). EDMS assesses the air-quality impacts

of airport emission sources, particularly aviation sources, which consist of aircraft,

auxiliary power units, and ground-support equipment. The Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA) accepts this model as a “Preferred Guideline” model,

and it is crucial for the FAA to perform the air-quality analyses of aviation emission sources for airport expansion projects. This new version incorporates

enhancements resulting from a landmark aircraft plume study conducted by the FAA, in coordination with the Department of Transportation’s Volpe National

Transportation System Center, the University of Central Florida, and the National

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

34
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

35 Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The study provided the first-ever

measurements of aircraft plume rise and spread from aircraft engine exhaust. The

results allow a significantly enhanced model of aircraft plume behavior, which

enables more prediction of local concentrations of pollutants, and greatly increase

the accuracy of current aircraft engine exhaust dispersion modeling. 

The FAA also completed a first-time review and analysis of all available

data and research findings on particulate matter emissions from aircraft engines.

The effort enabled the FAA to develop a first-order approximation methodology

to estimate these emissions.

The FAA’s aircraft safety technology R&D program addresses the many hazards that face all aircraft, as well as special hazards endemic to select portions of

the civil aircraft fleet.

Bonded composite doublers offer airline maintenance facilities a cost-effective way to extend the lives of aircraft safely. Instead of riveting multiple steel or

aluminum plates to repair an aircraft, it is now possible to bond a single boronepoxy composite doubler to the damaged structure. During the FY 2002,

researchers at the FAA’s Airworthiness Assurance Nondestructive Inspection

Validation Center (AANC) completed an experimental project in which they

installed composite repair doublers on inservice commercial aircraft. The project

validated a family of generic composite patches used to repair various types of

damage to metallic structures caused by dents, dings, lightning strikes, corrosion,

and certain cracks in nonpressurized areas. Researchers also identified necessary

guidance data needed to ensure the continued airworthiness of composite

doublers.

In conducting this program, the AANC focused its attention only on the

DC-10/MD-11 aircraft and worked collaboratively with FedEx, Boeing, and

Textron Specialty Materials. This project built upon research conducted with

Delta Airlines to validate the use of a composite reinforcement on an L-1011 doorframe corner. Future users of this technology are all of the airlines and

maintenance depots that currently apply metallic repairs. Industry interest in using

composite doubler repair has grown considerably since the results from this study

have shown that the finished doublers are lighter in weight, corrosion-resistant,

stronger, and faster to install than a typical riveted aluminum plate repair.
At the request of the FAA’s Seattle Aircraft Certification Office, investigators from the AANC recently completed an experiment to asses the reliability of

a sliding probe eddy-current procedure for its effectiveness in finding second- and

third-layer cracks in certain Boeing 737 lap splice joints. Lap splice joints are an

area on the fuselage of an aircraft where two sheets of aircraft skin overlap and are

riveted together. The findings will be taken into consideration in the development

of revised and new lap splice inspections.

One of the current activities of the Engine Titanium Consortium is the

development of improved ultrasonic inspection capability for nickel alloys used in

jet engines. The Consortium is an FAA-funded group consisting of General

Electric Aircraft Engines, Honeywell, Iowa State University, and Pratt &

Whitney. As a result of this effort, researchers have demonstrated a significant

improvement in inspection sensitivity. Billets of both Waspaloy and Inconel 718

were inspected. These are the primary nickel alloys used in critical rotating jetengine components. The program goal was to develop a fourfold improvement in

inspection sensitivity over conventional practice for billets up to 10 inches in

diameter. The researchers substantially exceeded this goal. 

In FY 2002, the FAA continued its Operational Loads Monitoring Program,

which includes data collection for both flight and landing loads on civil transports.

During the year, the FAA Operational Loads Monitoring team provided specialized data and analysis for operational loads to the Aviation Rulemaking Advisory

Committee, which is developing recommendations for the certification criteria for

the A-380 airplane. Agency researchers also merged sink-speed data at touchdown

(collected during video landing-parameter surveys at the New York John F.

Kennedy International, Honolulu International, and Heathrow International airports) into a single database and presented the data to the Advisory Committee so

that it could assess whether or not to increase the limit load design sink speed of

25.475 above the stated 10-feet-per-second level for the new generation of super

heavy widebody airplanes. 

Ice accretions, which disrupt the normal, smooth airflow over the wing, can

seriously affect the aerodynamic efficiency of an aircraft wing. The severity of

these aerodynamic effects (loss of lift, increase in drag) depends not only on the

ice accretion, but also on the aerodynamic characteristics of the wing cross section

(airfoil). Recent accidents and incidents in icing conditions have underscored the

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

36
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

37 need for a systematic study of the sensitivity of different airfoil types to ice accretion and of the most critical ice shape locations for different types of airfoils. In

response to these and related concerns, the FAA has sponsored a long-term

research investigation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The

program includes aerodynamic testing in the university’s wind tunnel and in

NASA’s low-pressure turbulence tunnel at the Langley Research Center in

Hampton, VA, as well as extensive computational fluid dynamics investigations.

An important conclusion of the investigation is that the severity of the aerodynamic consequence of the ice is strongly dependent on the geometry of the airfoil

as reflected in its pressure distribution and lifting characteristics. 

Because the possibilities for expanding existing airports or building new

ones is limited, FAA researchers are developing and evaluating new technologies

that will result in new safety standards, criteria, and guidelines for those who use,

design, construct, operate, and maintain this Nation’s airfields. As part of this

effort, in FY 2002, the FAA began a research effort to investigate operational problems resulting from the installation of in-pavement Runway Guard Lights (RGLs)

at entrances to the runways at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. Specifically,

pilots exiting the runways at locations where flashing yellow RGLs were located

reported seeing considerable reflected light from the recessed fixtures, to the

extent that several pilots halted short and informed air traffic controllers that they

were concerned about possibly entering a construction area. Researchers determined that changing the flash pattern of the system, thus eliminating the random

flashing appearance created from the rear side of the installation, would be the

most beneficial solution. As a result of the evaluation, it was determined that the

United States should change its specification for the system and standardize the

inset runway guard light configuration as a transverse array of simultaneously flashing yellow lights in place of the current configuration.

The FAA requires that human factors be systematically integrated at each

critical step in the design, testing, and acquisition of new technology introduced

into the national aviation system. Through research in areas such as selection,

training, workload, and communication, the agency is identifying the most effective procedures to be used in combination with new technology applications and

a more capable workforce to make the global air transportation system of the future

safer and more efficient.
FAA researchers and National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA)

representatives conducted a beta test of JANUS, a technique for analyzing causal

human factors in operational errors. As a part of this process, the FAA and NATCA

signed a national Memorandum of Understanding for the beta test and validation

processes. Researchers trained in the use of the JANUS taxonomy collected data

from 79 operational errors at towers, TRACONs, and Air Route Traffic Control

Centers (ARTCCs). Additionally, support was provided to the Runway Safety

Program during review of the runway incursion at Linate Airport in Milan, Italy.

Researchers used air traffic control (ATC) voice transcripts and other available

information to identify and classify potential human and contributing factors using

the JANUS technique. The FAA completed a draft version of JANUS for ground

operations, and data from existing FAA databases are currently being used to assess

the sufficiency of the available human factors information.

The FAA, working with the Department of Transportation’s Volpe National

Transportation Systems Center, developed a prototype CD-ROM training tool for

tower controllers. This interactive CD is based on the highly successful booklet

“Runway Safety: It’s Everybody’s Business.” The tool contains “learn-by-doing” modules on memory, communications, attention and perception, teamwork, and fatigue.

It also contains information on the limitations of short-term memory and the effects

of distractions, the effects of expectation and selective attention on information processing, common errors in controller-pilot communications and how to avoid them,

effective teamwork strategies that can help mitigate the effects of individual errors,

and techniques for avoiding and managing the effects of fatigue.

In FY 2002, the FAA finalized reports for the congressionally directed shift

work and fatigue studies. The Civil Aerospace Medical Institute published and distributed to 20,000 FAA controllers a pamphlet describing the results of the survey

and a multimedia CD containing instructions and hints on how to cope with shift

work and fatigue. The agency also published three Office of Aviation Medicine

technical reports on shift work and fatigue. Researchers made presentations of data

from survey, field, and laboratory studies to the Annual Scientific Meeting of the

Aerospace Medical Association and the Annual Convention of the American

Psychological Association. To view these technical reports online, go to

http://www.cami.jccbi.gov/AAM-400A/Abstracts/2002/FULL%20TEXT/0208.pdf

and http://www.cami.jccbi.gov/AAM-400A/Abstracts/2002/FULL%20TEXT/0213.pdf.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

38
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

39 FAA researchers and certification specialists began testing a new computerized decision-support tool to help agency certification specialists and aircraft

designers ensure that aircraft flight-deck technologies are user-friendly. This decision aid has been designed to assist certification and design personnel in

identifying, assessing, and resolving potential design-induced human performance

errors that could contribute to aviation incidents and accidents. In addition to

enhancing the speed, accuracy, and repeatability with which certification engineers can access relevant regulatory and human factors information to make their

decisions, this tool was designed to help designers identify possible design changes

to alleviate human performance issues and help researchers identify gaps in current

human factors knowledge. This PC-based software has been designed with three

major databases addressing regulatory information, flight-deck components, and

human factors considerations. In the current version, the information in the databases focuses on flight-deck displays. In the next version, which will be completed

in 2003, the databases will be expanded to address flight controls. 

The FAA and aviation community are developing surface map displays that

will provide real-time information regarding traffic positions on the airport tarmac.

Human factors researchers completed a draft report entitled Human Factors

Considerations in the Design of Surface Map Displays. This document captures all the

human factors issues relevant to the design and development of surface map applications and will support Aircraft Certification in their review and evaluation of

surface map displays. The report was used as a source of material for human factors

guidance in the development of the RTCA SC-181 draft revision of the Minimum

Operational Performance Standards for the Depiction of Navigational Information on

Electronic Maps (DO-257). 

Electronic flight bags (EFB) are quickly becoming multifunction devices supporting an array of applications beyond those of a traditional flight bag, from

electronic messaging to displaying current weather. In order to help FAA evaluators, system designers, manufacturers, and users understand the human factors

considerations that may be associated with EFBs, Human Factors Consideration in the

Design and Evaluation of EFBs, Version 2.0, was developed at the Volpe NTSC. This

publication supports FAA EFB Advisory Circular (AC 120-76) and covers human

factors system considerations and four EFB functions: electronic documents, electronic checklists, flight performance calculations, and electronic charts.
The Human Factors Design Guide for Acquisition of Commercial Off-the-Shelf

Subsystems, Non-Developmental Items, and Developmental Systems is a comprehensive compilation of human factors standards, principles, and guidelines integral to

the procurement, design, development, and testing of FAA systems, facilities, and

equipment. The FAA is updating this important human factors reference tool.

Soon to be released as a design “standard,” the guide will provide a single, easy-touse source of human factors design criteria oriented to the needs of the FAA

mission and systems. The new document, called the Human Factors Design

Standard, revises and expands upon the previously published material. It broadens

the focus to include both air traffic and airway facilities systems and has been modified into a set of standards instead of a set of guidelines, providing a common

source of FAA-specific design requirements. Chapter 5: Automation Guidelines is

now online at http://www.tc.faa.gov/ act-500/hfl/index.html.

The 2002 Access to Egress Study was the largest cabin-evacuation study ever

conducted by the FAA. A total of 2,544 people participated in various group trials

to determine passageway configuration, hatch disposal location, and aircraft evacuation through a Type III exit (over the wing). Findings indicated that hatch

disposal location slowed egress in some access aisle width configurations but not in

others. Waist size, gender, and age all affected individual exit time. The findings

are consistent with prior research showing that passageway configuration has only

minimal effects on emergency egress as long as ergonomic minimums involving

hatch removal are respected. In contrast, differences in the physical characteristics

and level of knowledge of individual participants produced large differences in

emergency evacuation performance. The results of this research can be found

online at http://www.cami.jccbi.gov/AAM-400A/Abstracts/2002/FULL%20TEXT/

0216_low.pdf.

The FAA’s cabin safety researchers completed an Evacuation Slide Study

research program to determine the most favorable methods for the evacuation of

infants using inflatable emergency evacuation slides and the Type III (overwing)

exit. Researchers conducted simulated emergency evacuations from the Civil

Aerospace Medical Institute Aircraft Evacuation Facility using a Type I exit fitted

with a Boeing 737 evacuation slide. Agency researchers analyzed the results with

respect to speed of egress relative to the effects of the carrying and boarding positions. They also analyzed participant responses to a questionnaire regarding

40Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

41 comfort and safety. For speed of egress, the study demonstrated that jumping onto

the slide facilitated faster egress times than sitting to board the slide. Results also

suggested that appropriate carrying and boarding positions for small children

would be those most comfortable for the parent and those providing support for

the child’s head and neck. In some trials, the researchers instructed the participants on how to carry the dummy or to pass the dummy to another participant who

had already exited. Results confirmed the expectation that passing an infant to

another participant would produce slower egress than carrying the infant. The

results also suggested that the appropriate carrying position would depend on the

size of the infant. These research results will support cabin evacuation training and

procedures development for improved infant evacuation.

The FAA’s Office of the Associate Administrator for Commercial Space

Transportation (AST) licenses and regulates U.S. commercial space launch activity, ensures public health and safety and the safety of property, and protects

national security and foreign policy interests of the United States. AST also

licenses operation of non-Federal launch and reentry sites and facilitates and promotes commercial space launches by the private sector. 

During Fiscal Year 2002, there were eight commercial launches that were

licensed by AST. Six orbital launches included the first Atlas V launch vehicle

built by Lockheed Martin with services provided by International Launch

Services. The remaining orbital launches were two additional Atlas launches, two

Boeing Delta II launches, and one Sea Launch Zenit 3SL launch from a Pacific

Ocean launch platform. Two Orion-Terrier suborbital launches by Astrotech took

place from Australia. AST also issued a license for the first launch of Boeing’s

Delta IV launch vehicle. AST issued an advisory circular, Licensing Test Flight

Reusable Launch Vehicle Missions, and a Supplemental Notice of Proposed

Rulemaking on Licensing and Safety Requirements for Launch. The Air Force and the

FAA released a draft Memorandum of Understanding for Resolving Requests for

Relief from Common Launch Safety Requirements.

A report requested by Congress, the Liability Risk-Sharing Regime for U.S.

Commercial Space Transportation, was delivered to Congress and released to the

public. The report concluded that the current liability risk-sharing regime is adequate, appropriate, and effective for the U.S. launch industry. Other reports

released by AST include FAA and Industry Guide to RLV Operations and Safety
Approval; 2002 U.S. Commercial Space Transportation Developments and Concepts; Vehicles, Technologies, and Spaceports; and the 2002 Commercial Space Transportation

Forecasts. The forecasts, prepared by the FAA and its Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee, projected an average worldwide demand of

20.5 launches per year to geosynchronous orbit and 6.3 launches per year to nongeosynchronous orbits between 2002 and 2010. AST also hosted its fifth annual

commercial space transportation forecast conference. Reports and other documents can be found on the FAA/AST Web site at http://ast.faa.gov.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

42
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

43

DEPARTMENT OF

COMMERCE

DOC

In FY 2002, the Department of Commerce (DOC) engaged in a wide variety of

activities that furthered U.S. interests in aeronautics and space, including satellite

operations and licensing, technology development, trade promotion, and civilian

and commercial space policy support.

A Department-wide activity of note was participation in the Space Policy

Coordinating Committee (PCC), established by the National Security Council. The

Office of Space Commercialization (OSC), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration (NOAA), and the International Trade Administration (ITA)

assumed active roles in interagency space matters under the Space PCC. Commerce

has two Space PCC representatives: ITA Assistant Secretary for Trade Development

Linda M. Conlin and NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and

Information Service Assistant Administrator Gregory W. Withee. President George

Walker Bush’s National Security Policy Directive 15, signed in June 2002, initiated

a review by the Space PCC of all U.S. space policies. Staff representatives from

OSC, ITA, and NOAA participated in both the remote-sensing and space-transportation working groups, which were tasked to revise relevant U.S. Government

policy. In these efforts, the bureaus worked closely to emphasize and articulate the

key contributions of commercial interests to U.S. national and economic security. In

further support of this effort, ITA arranged briefings to U.S. industry by the National

Security Council to gain industry support for the new policies.

NOAA reported space-related activities across its organization in FY 2002.

In the area of geostationary satellites, two Geostationary Operational

Environmental Satellites (GOES)—GOES-8 or GOES-East, stationed at longitude 75o W (launched in April 1994), and GOES-10 or GOES-West, stationed at
longitude 135o W (launched in April 1997)—continued to provide the kind of

continuous monitoring necessary for intensive data analysis during severe weather

conditions such as hurricanes, tropical storms and depressions, tornados, and

floods. These satellites transmit full-disc views of the majority of the Western

Hemisphere that provide a constant vigil for the atmospheric “triggers” for severe

weather conditions. When such conditions develop, the components of GOES

satellites are able to monitor storm development and track storms’ movements. In

addition to satellite operations, NOAA continued to provide space-weather monitoring and forecasts to protect spacecraft and power grids. NOAA’s newest

environmental satellite, GOES-12, launched last year and currently being stored

in orbit, has successfully completed testing and is ready to replace one of the country’s older weather satellites when needed.

NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service

(NESDIS) made preparations to strengthen Pacific geostationary satellite coverage

by preparing to use GOES-9 when failure occurs in the aging Japanese

Geostationary Meteorological Satellite (GMS)-5. Launched in 1995, GMS-5 is

past its useful life and is encountering imaging problems and fuel shortages.

GOES-9, also launched in 1995 and currently in storage mode, does not meet U.S.

weather-forecasting requirements but does have sounding and limited imaging

capabilities, which will supply data comparable to that of GMS-5. In preparation

for this operation, the Japan Meteorological Agency is providing upgrades to an

antenna at NOAA’s Fairbanks Command and Data Acquisition Station and related

operations costs. These efforts have led to a subsequent agreement that provides

continuity of satellite services not only for Japan, but also for U.S. civilian and military assets and U.S. territories in the western Pacific. The agreement with Japan

contains a provision for Japan to back up U.S. satellite coverage in case of an unexpected U.S. failure and will lead to a mutual backup agreement in the future.

Special satellite coverage was also provided for the firefighting community,

land managers, and air-quality-monitoring personnel during the extremely serious

outbreak of wildfires in the Western United States this year. Efforts included

switching channels on the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

(AVHRR) to get better daytime infrared (IR) data for the Western United States

and integrating detections from GOES AVHRR and Moderate Resolution

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

44
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

45 Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) automated algorithms to provide a twicedaily product and a new Geographic Information System (GIS) Internet site.

NOAA played a critical role in handling data from the Defense

Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), a Department of Defense (DOD) program run by the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC). The Air

Force Weather Agency (AFWA) sent DMSP data to NOAA’s National

Geophysical Data Center’s Solar Terrestrial Physics Division (NGDC/STP) to be

archived. The data from the DMSP satellites were received and used at operational

centers continuously. Each DMSP satellite had a 101-minute, Sun-synchronous,

near-polar orbit at an altitude of 830 kilometers above Earth’s surface. The DMSP

visible and infrared sensors collect images across a 3,000-kilometer swath, providing global coverage twice a day. The combination of day/night and dawn/dusk

satellites allows monitoring of global information such as the movement of clouds

every 6 hours. The microwave imager (MI) and sounders cover one-half the width

of the visible and infrared swath. These instruments cover polar regions at least

twice per day and the equatorial region once per day. The space environment sensors record along-track plasma densities, velocities, composition, and drifts.

Currently, data from four satellites (three day/night, one dawn/dusk) are added to

the archive each day. Satellites now record a similar view of actual events for scientists to study. The DMSP has a unique capability to detect low levels of visible

near-infrared radiance (VNIR) at night. With these data, it is possible to detect

clouds illuminated by moonlight, plus light from cities, towns, industrial sites, gas

flares, and ephemeral events such as fires and lightning-illuminated clouds. 

In April 2002, The GOES-12 Solar X-ray Imager (SXI) met all of its

NOAA and U.S. Air Force (USAF) requirements and was ready to enter operation. This accomplishment created significant enthusiasm in the scientific and

space communities because solar flares are readily located in SXI images. NOAA’s

Space Environment Center (SEC), which is part of NOAA’s Office of Oceanic

and Atmospheric Research, has developed software to support the automated location of bright regions; this capability, in conjunction with data from the GOES

full-disk integrated X-Ray Sensor (XRS), provides flare location. The GOES-12

SXI takes one image per minute of the outer atmosphere, or corona, of the Sun.

Over 100,000 pictures were downloaded during the postlaunch test period as part

of the telemetry stream to NOAA’s SEC in Boulder, CO. Other SEC achievements
included ongoing support of satellite requirement workshops, as well as support for

various solar models including Solar2000, the Chen Interplanetary Magnetic Field

(IMF) Prediction Model, the Wang-Sheely Model, the Time Empirical Ionospheric

Correction Model, and the Relativistic Electron Forecast Model, in addition to

the ongoing provision of Space Weather Alerts.

Complementing the geostationary satellites, NOAA operated two polarorbiting satellites known as Advanced Television Infrared Observation Satellites,

constantly circling Earth in an almost north-south orbit, passing close to both

poles. One satellite crosses the equator at 7:30 a.m. Eastern time, the other at

1:40 p.m. Eastern time. Operating as a pair, these satellites ensure that the data for

any region on Earth are no more than 6 hours old. Together, they make nearly

polar orbits 14.1 times daily.

NOAA-M, NOAA’s polar-orbiting environmental satellite, was successfully

launched on June 24, 2002. NOAA-M has a new orbit that provides improved

product capabilities; it also has new solid-state recorders that allow for improved

product capabilities. Renamed NOAA-17 upon reaching Earth orbit, the satellite

is performing functions critical to virtually all of NOAA’s missions, such as

weather, climate, oceans, fisheries, and ecosystem monitoring. NOAA-17 sent its

first images of Earth from space 2 days after launch.

NOAA’s NESDIS also evaluated and awarded a potential $4.5 billion contract to TRW for the National Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite System

(NPOESS), which will have a first launch in 2009. The contract is for the

Acquisition and Operations phases and will combine the Nation’s military and

civilian environmental satellite programs into a single, NOAA-led national

system that will significantly improve weather forecasting and climate prediction.

This is the largest NOAA (and Department of Commerce) contract award to date.

NOAA’s NESDIS initiated an agreement with the European Organisation

for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) on access to data

from EUMETSAT’s Meteosat Second Generation (MSG). Under this discussion,

NOAA’s NESDIS and its U.S. affiliates will have access to the full set of MSG

image data, subject to negotiated terms on use and redistribution of the data.

Signature of the agreement is expected in early 2003. MSG-1 was launched successfully in August 2002, representing a significant advancement in geostationary

Earth-observing capabilities.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

46
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

47 NOAA’s NESDIS and EUMETSAT continued this collaboration under the

Initial Joint Polar System agreement, as well as their cooperation as partners in the

NPOESS. NOAA participated in the development of an operational altimetry

program between the U.S. and Europe, which led to letters of intent among

Centre Nationale d’Etudes Spatiale (CNES), EUMETSAT, NASA, and NOAA

for pursuit of Jason-2/Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM) collaboration.

Jason-2/OSTM, when launched, will represent the transition of ocean altimetry

from research to operations.

NOAA’s National Ocean Service (NOS) continued to use the Global

Positioning System (GPS) and remote-sensing technology to meet its mission of

mapping the national shoreline, producing airport obstruction charts, and monitoring and analyzing coastal and landscape changes. As part of these efforts,

NOAA’s NOS is investigating the use of Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR)

technology for the NOAA shoreline-mapping program. Accurate elevation data

referenced to the ellipsoid are collected with LIDAR at or below Mean Lower Low

Water (MLLW) and is transformed via the NOAA’s NOS VDatum transformation

tool to a desired tidal elevation. This process has the potential to eliminate black

and white infrared film collection at the MLLW tidal stage. Historically, the

MLLW tidal datum line was very difficult to capture. LIDAR technology increases

data collection windows and automates tidal datum-line construction.

Along these lines, NOAA’s NOS persisted in its work on advancing centimeter-level positioning accuracy of GPS through its national Continuously

Operating Reference Stations (CORS) program. It added 109 new stations to the

national CORS network during FY 2002. At the end of the fiscal year, the network

contained 338 sites. NOAA’s NOS completed upgrading the sampling rate of all

nationwide differential GPS from 30 seconds to 5 seconds to better serve those

involved in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) development and/or kinematic applications. As part of further efforts to better serve those in the GPS and

GIS communities, NOAA’s NOS hosted a CORS Industry Forum in April 2002.

The Forum presented the current status of the CORS program and solicited input

from existing and prospective partners to determine the future direction of CORS.

NOAA’s NOS and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Technical Center

in Atlantic City, NJ, undertook a joint effort to establish a T1 Internet connection

to download GPS data from approximately 50 sites contained in the Wide Area
Augmentation System/National Satellite Test Bednetwork. Last year, four Wide

Area Augmentation System sites with 1-second data became part of the CORS

network. NOAA’s NOS plans to bring 30 more sites into the network. In cooperation with NOAA’s National Geographic Data Committee, NOAA’s NOS has

also established an alternate collection site for CORS data to ensure continued

operations. 

Last year, NOAA’s NOS developed the On-line Positioning User Service

(OPUS) as a means to provide GPS users with facilitated access to the National

Spatial Reference System. OPUS allows users to submit their GPS data files to

NOAA’s NOS, where the data will be processed to determine position. Each submitted file is processed with respect to three CORS sites; results are e-mailed back

to users within a few minutes. The first full year of operations has been very successful. User feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and OPUS submissions

are now averaging about 3,000 per month. Several improvements and new features

are currently under development for OPUS.

NOAA’s NESDIS also supported improved Search and Rescue SatelliteAided Tracking (SARSAT) response capabilities in the expanded Central

American network by collaborating with the U.S. Air Force to establish points of

contact in Central America to receive search and rescue distress alerts from

NOAA satellites. The new contacts, established in Panama, Ecuador, and

Honduras (on behalf of Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa

Rica) will improve search and rescue operations in that region. By the conclusion

of FY 2002, the international COSPAS (a Russian acronym meaning Space

System for Search of Vessels in Distress) SARSAT program had led to approximately 14,000 rescues worldwide.

A number of key milestones in NOAA’s efforts to promote the commercial

remote-sensing industry occurred in FY 2002. NOAA, in consultation with its

interagency partners, approved one new license, two foreign agreements, and two

amendments. In May 2002, the Secretary established the Advisory Committee for

Commercial Remote Sensing. The Committee will advise the Secretary of

Commerce, through the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and

Atmosphere, on a broad range of issues including operational monitoring, compliAeronautics and Space Report of the President 

48
ance and enforcement, the licensing of more advanced systems, and industry internationalization. The Committee held its first meeting in September 2002.

NOAA, OSC, and ITA’s Office of Aerospace continued to represent commercial interests as part of the Remote Sensing Interagency Working Group. Led

by the Department of State, the group is charged with coordinating policy for the

export of U.S. remote-sensing satellite systems and negotiating government-togovernment agreements covering the safeguarding of those systems’ technology.

The group held consultations on remote-sensing satellite cooperation with several

countries including Canada and France.

As a key partner in the NASA Synthetic Vision System Program, NOAA’s

NOS continued to provide essential data and information to be incorporated into

this system. NASA is working with industry to create a virtual-reality display

system for the cockpit. This program could offer pilots a clear, electronic picture of

what is outside their windows, regardless of the weather or time of day.

NOAA’s NOS also provided data it collects and maintains within the

Aeronautical Survey Program. Additionally, it continued to derive specialized data

to support the Synthetic Vision System Program. These data include obstruction

data, runway positional information, digital terrain models, and orthorectified

imagery. NOAA’s NOS has collaborated with the FAA Aviation Systems

Standards, the University of Florida Geomatics Department, and Optech, Inc., to

test the feasibility of using an Optech 33-kHz Airborne Laser Terrain Mapper for

FAA programs (Aviation Systems Standards-Flight Check/National Aeronautical

Charting Office-Flight Edit) and NOAA’s NOS Aeronautical Survey Program. 

The Safe Flight 21 program, which is led by the FAA, also remained an

active priority for NOAA’s NOS. This is a joint Government/industry initiative

designed to demonstrate and validate, in a real-world environment, the capabilities of advanced surveillance systems and air-traffic procedures that will move the

national airspace system forward in the 21st century. The role of NOAA’s NOS is

to provide accurate runway and taxiway data cross-referenced with the National

Spatial Reference System. It provides orthorectified imagery and then generates a

highly detailed digital map of the test airports. The data sets include runways, taxiways, vehicle roads, signs, centerline paint stripes, all movement areas, and other

detailed information to help air-traffic controllers safely move aircraft and ground

vehicles around the airfield. 

F iscal Year 2002 Activities

49
In the area of international cooperation and activities, NOAA also assisted

in negotiating inputs into the World Summit on Sustainable Development

(WSSD) Implementation Plan to recognize the value of Earth observations and

their applications to sustainable development. NOAA assisted in development of

a WSSD-recognized Type II partnership, Earth Observation Education and Training, under a CEOS lead, to facilitate education and training in satellite-based

Earth-observation techniques, data analysis, interpretation, use, and application—

as an outcome of the WSSD. NOAA assisted in the development of a

U.S.-proposed Geographic Information for Sustainable Development partnership.

NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher participated in key WSSD events.

NOAA’s NESDIS continued its active participation with CEOS and the

Integrated Global Observing Strategy (IGOS) while preparing to assume the

Chairmanship of CEOS and the Co-Chairmanship of IGOS in November 2002.

NOAA participated in the Array for Real-time Geostrophic Oceanography

Ocean Profiling Network, an international effort using sophisticated space and in

situ systems to collect and share information on the temperature, currents, and

salinity of the world’s oceans. This information will be used to better predict the

influence of events such as El Niño and La Niña on our seasonal climate. Since

weather and climate are linked to the ocean, data from the floating observing systems will increase our knowledge of long-term temperatures as well as help us to

better prepare for major climate events—such as hurricanes and El Niño—that

affect human safety, food production, water management, and transportation.

Each float is programmed to sink a mile into the ocean, drifting at that depth for

about 10 days, then slowly rise, measuring temperature and salinity through the

layers as it makes its way to the surface. At the surface, data is transmitted to a

communications satellite, and the probe begins another cycle. Each float is

designed to last 4 to 5 years.

In providing support to Afghanistan humanitarian relief efforts and assistance in military response, NOAA’s NESDIS expanded access to climate products,

converting several offline products to online access such as the Afghanistan

Climate Web Page and CD-ROM. NESDIS assisted in reestablishing the

Afghanistan Climate Service by providing paper copies of unclassified

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

50
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

51 Afghanistan weather records and weather summaries to the World Meteorological

Organization.

The DOC also engaged in a variety of non-NOAA aerospace activities.

The Technology Administration engaged in a number of space-related activities

through the Office of Space Commercialization (OSC) and the National Institute

of Standards and Technology (NIST). OSC continued to serve as the principal

coordinating unit within the Department of Commerce on space-related issues,

coordinating positions with and disseminating information to various bureaus with

separate space-related responsibilities and authorities, including NIST, NOAA,

the ITA, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration

(NTIA), and the Bureau of Industry and Security, formerly the Bureau of Export

Administration.

In October 2001, OSC partnered with George Washington University’s Space

Policy Institute to hold a workshop entitled “Space Economic Data: Classification,

Collection, Access, and Use.” Held at DOC headquarters in Washington, DC, the

workshop assembled representatives of industry, Government, and academia to discuss the current state of space economic data and options for potential improvement.

The DOC Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy delivered welcoming remarks,

followed by an introductory issue overview by a senior representative of the White

House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Federal agencies providing

presentations included DOC (Bureau of Economic Analysis), the FAA (Office of

Commercial Space Transportation), and the Department of the Interior (U.S.

Geological Survey). Private-sector organizations offering presentations included the

Brookings Institution, the RAND Corporation, Eurospace, and companies involved

in research and investment. The event generated considerable comment and analysis regarding options for improving space economic data collection and dissemination.

In November 2001, OSC collaborated with the Space Transportation

Association and the Space Enterprise Council (administered by the U.S. Chamber

of Commerce), to hold a second innovative workshop entitled “Market

Opportunities in Space: The Near-Term Roadmap.” Held at the Washington, DC,

headquarters of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, this workshop brought together

representatives from a variety of public- and private-sector organizations and was

designed to examine near-term options for private investment and entrepreneurial

initiative in space commerce. Market opportunities included biotechnology, phar-
maceuticals, materials processing, power generation, media, advertising, sponsorship, cargo delivery, and passenger travel. Following a welcome by the U.S.

Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer, DOC

Under Secretary for Technology Phillip J. Bond provided introductory remarks.

The Under Secretary highlighted DOC’s goal of promoting U.S. space industry

growth, concentrating on both emerging and established markets. U.S.

Government presenters included representatives from the U.S. Senate Committee

on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; the White House OSTP; and DOC

(ITA). The composition of presenter panels also reflected OSC’s commitment to

invite viewpoints from the investment community, space and nonspace companies, and entrepreneurial as well as established firms. The event stimulated new

dialogue about the involvement of nonspace organizations and companies in commercial space activities and generated considerable media coverage.

During the remainder of FY 2002, the DOC prepared reports concerning

space economic data and space market opportunities, drawing both on the autumn

2001 workshops and additional research, with the expectation of publication early

in FY 2003. As a follow-on project to the space market opportunities workshop,

OSC also commissioned the Aerospace Corporation, a highly regarded engineering and consulting group, to prepare the first-ever overview of commercial

suborbital vehicle development programs and potential markets.

Following up on the efforts of the Interagency Working Group on the

Future Use and Management of the U.S. Space Launch Bases and Ranges, led by

the White House, OSC collaborated with the USAF and the FAA Office of the

Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation to ensure full consideration of the needs of commercial users of the two major Federal space launch

facilities. This project resulted in the signing of an interagency MOA in February

2002, which was subsequently implemented, with FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee playing a key role.

OSC assisted the FAA Office of the Associate Administrator for

Commercial Space Transportation with the preparation of its report to Congress

evaluating the U.S. liability risk-sharing regime for commercial space transportation. As required by the Commercial Space Transportation Competitiveness Act

of 2000, OSC represented industry interests by providing its views and recommendations for the report, which was published in April 2002.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

52
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

53 Through OSC and NOAA, DOC continued to promote the interests of

commercial, scientific, and Government users of GPS as a key member of the

Interagency GPS Executive Board. OSC played a critical role in defending the

GPS radio spectrum from encroachment by ultrawideband emitters and other

potential interference sources, working with the NTIA as well as civil and military

Federal agencies. OSC also continued to host the offices and meetings of the

board, to engage in international and domestic outreach missions to promote GPS

as a global standard, and to participate in the GPS modernization program.

As part of the Department of State’s ongoing negotiations with the

European Union regarding the compatibility and interoperability of GPS and the

Galileo satellite navigation system, OSC continued to represent U.S. industry

interests during bilateral negotiations with the European Commission on satellite

navigation. OSC also participated in bilateral consultations with Japan led by the

Department of State to affirm the two nations’ mutual commitment to promote

and use GPS as an international standard for satellite navigation and timing.

In FY 2002, NIST performed a broad range of measurements and standardsrelated research, technology transfer, and industry support in the areas of

aeronautics and space. In support of the aerospace industry and with the sponsorship of the FAA, the Transportation Security Administration, and the Boeing

Company at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, NIST has been developing efficient techniques and methodologies for measuring aircraft radiation shielding.

Shielding reduces interference between aircraft navigation systems and other radiation sources like external radiation and onboard laptops and mobile phones.

Aircraft hull shielding determines the test level needed to ensure safe operation for

internal electronics, but shielding data are costly to obtain and often difficult to

interpret. NIST developed new measurement techniques to enable fast, reliable in

situ measurements in production facilities and aircraft hangars that are typically

heavily cluttered, as demonstrated by successful measurements of a Boeing 737-

800 aircraft by NIST scientists at the Boeing manufacturing plant in Reston, WA.

These techniques eliminate the need to place an aircraft in an unobstructed area

or special facility for shielding tests, thus reducing hull shielding test costs and

allowing simpler, less expensive internal electronics testing.

NIST initiated work with the Microwave Instrument Technology Branch of

NASA GSFC on problems of calibration and validation of microwave radiometers
54 for remote sensing. In FY 2002, NIST staff helped perform tests at GSFC on the

Conical Scan Millimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer and identified several suggested improvements. A long-term focus of the joint effort will be to develop a

compilation of standard terms and recommended measurement practices for

microwave remote sensing, particularly for calibration and validation of

microwave radiometers. An initial Web site (http://www.boulder.nist.gov/stdterms)

was developed and brought online as an international forum for the standardization of radiometry terminology.

NTIA and NIST completed a joint effort to use time-domain measurements

to characterize ultrawideband (UWB) emissions of commercially available UWB

devices for simulated interference studies. This work could be helpful to the Transportation Security Administration and the FAA in reducing potential interference between UWB broadcast signals and global positioning systems. With funding from NASA, NIST continued to collaborate with GSFC to

develop cryogenic transition-edge-sensor microcalorimeter x-ray detectors for use

by the future Constellation-X mission. NIST developed new surface micromachining microelectromechanical (MEMS) fabrication techniques and developed

an 8x8 array of microcalorimeters. NIST continued to develop new prototype

arrays using both alternative surface-MEMS structures and bulk-MEMS structures

to address issues of robustness when arrays are thermally cycled. In addition, NIST

demonstrated a superconducting multiplexer system for readout of these detectors

and for a separate millimeter and submillimeter imaging effort.

NIST continued to provide radiometric calibration support for the NASA

Earth Observing System (EOS) program to ensure the accuracy of the sensors used

in global remote sensing. NIST-calibrated radiometers were deployed to EOS users’

sites to assess the accuracy of radiation sources used to calibrate EOS satellite sensors. NIST also provided the radiometric calibration of the Marine Optical Buoy

for NOAA, which furnishes accurate data necessary to calibrate and validate satellite ocean color measuring instruments such as SeaWiFS and MODIS. NIST has a

multiyear effort to improve calibration techniques for radiometers used for remote

sensing. These new developments should provide greater measurement accuracy in

satellite applications such as locating resource position and measuring Earth’s temperature, the wind speed over the ocean, and sea salinity. In further calibration

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

55 work, NIST’s synchrotron ultraviolet radiation facility was used as a source of soft

x rays and vacuum ultraviolet light to calibrate mirrors, detectors, and spectrometers used in spacecraft that study solar flares and astronomical bodies, as well as the

NASA Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment.

In 2002, NIST deployed a transportable Thermal-infrared Transfer

Radiometer (TXR) it developed to calibrate ship-based radiometers, which in turn

validate satellite measurements of sea-surface temperature. The TXR was to perform measurements of the radiance of two calibration targets used for the NOAA

GOES Imagers and to measure the radiance of blackbody sources used to calibrate

a space-flight instrument currently flown for the Department of Energy. The TXR

was developed to perform onsite calibrations of critical remote-sensing instruments, which establish the traceability of measurements performed by the

remote-sensing community to NIST’s highly accurate and validated radiometric

scales.

NIST partnered with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on the

Condensate Laboratory Aboard the Space Station (CLASS) project to develop

measurement instruments involving Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs) that will

achieve their full potential in a microgravity environment. NIST demonstrated

the wave-coherence of a BEC and demonstrated a temporal interferometer

exploiting this coherence. NIST’s expertise in Bose-Einstein condensation was

recognized in 2001 by the Nobel Prize in Physics. Additional NIST efforts related

to microgravity included work supported by the NASA Microgravity Research

Program and conducted in collaboration with researchers at the University of

Alabama in Birmingham to study the interaction of fluid flow with crystal growth.

NIST also continued its NASA-funded research on microgravity-based fires and

fire suppression. NIST studied flame extinction in microgravity in order to

improve methods for ensuring fire safety during long-duration space missions.

With NASA funding, NIST continued to collaborate with JPL, the

University of Colorado, and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics on

the development of an atomic clock system for the International Space Station.

The key advance in 2002 was the movement from general concept development

to actual design of all the various components for the system in anticipation of the

preliminary design review. The experiment was designed to test certain aspects of
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

56 relativity theory and demonstrate the viability of operating a primary frequency

standard in space.

NIST continued to provide the tools, methodologies, standards, and

measurement services needed by aerospace parts manufacturers and assemblers to

maintain their accurate and traceable use of the SI unit of length, mass, and time,

as well as their derived units (force, acceleration, sound pressure, and ultrasonic

power). As one small example, NIST provided calibration services in areas of electrical measurements and microwave parameters to numerous aerospace

corporations such as Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin Astronautics,

McDonnell Douglas Corporation, Northrop Grumman, and TRW Space and

Electronics. NIST also provided standards and calibrations for antennas used with

a variety of satellites, spacecraft, and radar systems. In addition, NIST performed

calibrations of length standards for U.S. aerospace companies to ensure that the

dimensions of their manufactured parts conformed to design specifications. 

NASA and NIST collaborated on a project exploring the technical

challenges to efficient low-temperature, high-magnetic-field technology.

Investigations into the behaviors of nanocomposite materials helped researchers to

evaluate their potential use in future satellite launches for magnetic refrigeration.

NIST also worked with the NASA Glenn Research Center to broaden the use of

advanced ceramics by aerospace designers. NIST developed object-oriented finiteelement software to enable virtual measurements of the thermal conductivity of

ceramic thermal barrier coatings used to extend the operating temperature and life

of jet turbine blades.

NIST integrated a miniature pulse tube cryocooler into the Get Away

Special canister provided by NASA for the December 2001 flight aboard the

Space Shuttle. It performed flawlessly and achieved its designed low temperature

of 90 kelvin. This miniature pulse tube cryocooler is designed for cooling infrared

sensors in future space applications. NIST, with support from Kirtland Air Force

Base, helped develop microscale heat exchangers for use in compact cryocoolers

that would be used for cooling infrared detectors on satellites. For this program,

NIST completed the development of a test microscale heat exchanger, which was

found to be 97.5 percent effective. NIST also continued to provide technical guidance to Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin in their research and
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

57 development of cryocoolers for the Spaced Based InfraRed System in low-Earth

orbit. Such satellites can track incoming missiles and would become one component of the National Missile Defense System. In addition, NIST participated on a

panel to guide NASA in the development of cryocoolers to achieve 6 kelvin for

use in future space programs, including the Next Generation Space Telescope to

replace the Hubble Space Telescope in about 2010.

In partnership with the Applied Physics Laboratory at the Johns Hopkins

University, NIST invented a new technology known as parallel cantilever biaxial

micropositioning. This technology supports very accurate beam steering used in

deep space communications to and from a variety of spacecraft.

The NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) helped hundreds

of U.S. aerospace parts and systems manufacturers increase sales and productivity

and reduce costs by adopting lean manufacturing methods and other competitive

processes. One example is Sonic Machine & Tool, Inc., a 35-employee machine

shop in Tempe, AZ, that manufactures aerospace parts for large clients in the aerospace industry. The Arizona MEP helped Sonic implement lean manufacturing

practices in its new facility. These practices generated about $1 million in additional annual sales and created 15 new jobs at the company. The Colorado MEP

helped Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation, a 115-employee company

in Westminster, CO, that designs and manufactures complete spacecraft and space

systems, cryogenic subsystems, and communication and antenna systems, to adopt

lean manufacturing processes to become a supplier to Boeing. The Colorado MEP

assisted with the implementation of those practices, and Ball Aerospace and

Technologies found that they increased production by 33 percent, reduced a 7-day

product cycle to a 2-day cycle, minimized inventories, and increased antenna production from 45 to 60 units a day, while simultaneously improving quality.

Through a cost-sharing agreement with the NIST Advanced Technology

Program, Acellent Technologies, Inc., started developing the foundation of a revolutionary breakthrough technology in the field of structural health monitoring

with its integrated family of SMART technology products—SMART Layers,

SMART Suitcase and Diagnostic/Application Software. NASA Marshall Space

Flight Center and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are key partners in this

research, which will benefit new and aging aircraft in the areas of improving public

safety, reducing life-cycle costs, improving maintenance scheduling, and substan-
tially reducing costs for analysis and evaluation. In another such agreement, NIST

awarded GSE, Inc., an ATP award to develop a new diesel engine design that will

tolerate the low cetane rating and physical properties of JP5, JP8, and Jet-A-fuel.

When commercialized, the engine could be made in a wide range of sizes for civilian and military aviation. 

The ITA’s Office of Aerospace conducted a number of aeronautical activities in FY 2002. The Office of Aerospace contributed significantly to the research

activities and development of recommendations by the Commission on the Future

of the United States Aerospace Industry in FY 2002. Congress established the

Commission to study issues associated with the future of the industry in the global

context, particularly in relation to national security. An Office of Aerospace staff

member served as co-leader of the study team responsible for global market and

trade issues. In that capacity, he led the collection of data and testimony on related

topics, interviewed public- and private-sector officials, organized fact-finding trips

to Asia and Europe, and prepared draft analyses and recommendations for consideration by the Commissioners. All five public meetings in FY 2002 were hosted in

the Commerce Department Auditorium, and the Deputy Secretary and two

Deputy Assistant Secretaries from Commerce testified before the Commission.

Other DOC bureaus, including the Bureau of Industry and Security and the Technology Administration assisted the Commission via the Office of Aerospace

on an as-needed basis.

The Office of Aerospace continued to play a critical role in the U.S.

Government team seeking resolution to aircraft noise- and emissions-related disputes between the United States and the European Union (EU). The primary

dispute centered on the EU regulation that restricted the registration and operation in the EU of aircraft modified with noise-suppression technology, including

aircraft engine “hushkits” and replacement engines. The Office of Aerospace and

other agency representatives participated in bilateral discussions with EU officials

under the mediation of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)

Council President to press for the withdrawal of the regulation and European

implementation of aircraft noise-related policy guidelines endorsed by the ICAO.

Through extensive technical discussions, the U.S. Government team persuaded

European officials to remove the most objectionable elements of new European

aircraft noise legislation adopted in March 2002 to replace the EU “hushkit” regAeronautics and Space Report of the President 

58
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

59 ulation. Accordingly, the United States agreed to withdraw its complaint in ICAO

about the hushkit regulation against 14 of the 15 EU member states. However, the

U.S. Government continued negotiations with Belgium regarding the repeal of a

Belgian decree adopted in April 2002 that perpetuates discriminatory aspects of

the EU hushkit regulation. The U.S. Government also initiated negotiations with

French officials about new restrictions at French airports that would have a significant impact on U.S.-based airlines and cargo carriers. The U.S. Government

continued to monitor the adoption of national aircraft noise- and emissionsrelated regulations in other European countries.

Following successful efforts in 2000 and 2001 to have the Czech Government

approve a 1-year tariff waiver for imports of large civil aircraft, helicopters, and certain spare parts, the Office of Aerospace again worked closely with other U.S.

agencies for the renewal of the tariff waiver through December 31, 2003. The U.S.

Department of State, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), and

the U.S. Embassy in Prague joined efforts in convincing Czech officials to eliminate the tariff differential between U.S. and EU aircraft by renewing the tariff

waiver. Without the waiver, the Czech Republic levies a 4.8-percent tariff on U.S.

aircraft, while no tariff is assessed on EU aircraft. The Czech Government confirmed its intention to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade in Civil

Aircraft Agreement (which, among other things, binds tariffs on aircraft and parts

to zero) as part of any future multilateral trade negotiations. The Office of

Aerospace is encouraging as many countries as possible to agree to sign the WTO

Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft as part of their WTO access process. 

The Office of Aerospace continued to monitor and address European government loans to Airbus for the development of the A380 super jumbo jet. In

January, a U.S. interagency team, led by USTR and the DOC, held consultations

with the EU in Brussels. U.S. officials expressed concern about government loans

and stated that they are a subsidy unless they are provided on a commercial basis

and are compatible with the WTO. The EU responded that any government loans

would be compatible with the 1992 U.S.-EU Large Civil Aircraft Agreement,

which allows for direct government loans up to 33 percent of total aircraft development costs. During the consultations, the EU provided some, but not all,

information about the loans as required in the 1992 Agreement. 
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

60 The Office of Aerospace and the Civil Aviation Administration of the

People’s Republic of China Department of Planning successfully carried out the

2002 Aviation and Airport Subgroup Work Plan under the U.S.-China Joint

Commission on Commerce and Trade. Delegations of Chinese from various disciplines in the aviation community participated in a number of training programs

and conferences sponsored by the FAA or hosted by industry associations such as

the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE), the National Business

Aviation Association, and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. The

United States hosted an Aerospace Product Literature Center and represented 14

U.S. companies at the China Air Show 2002, November 4–7, in Zhuhai, China.

The Office of Aerospace’s events have fostered an increasingly stronger relationship between U.S. and Chinese aerospace industries.

Office of Aerospace staff participated in U.S. Government negotiations

with EU officials to press for the removal of provisions in draft legislation establishing the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in FY 2002, which would

link aircraft safety to international trade considerations. Senior DOC officials also

raised these concerns during bilateral meetings with European Commission officials. Due in part to U.S. Government intervention, the legislation adopted in

June 2002 establishing EASA to regulate civil aircraft safety in the EU and other

European states did not include the objectionable provisions. The Office of

Aerospace continued to monitor progress in the establishment of the agency to

avoid any disruption in transatlantic trade or discrimination against U.S. interests. 

In FY 2002, the Office of Aerospace continued to assist the U.S. aerospace

industry’s competition in the global marketplace through several international

trade promotion and marketing activities. The Office of Aerospace sponsored

Aerospace Product Literature Centers at major international exhibitions and air

shows in the People’s Republic of China, the United Arab Emirates, and the

United Kingdom. More than 2,000 trade leads were generated through this program. The Office of Aerospace worked closely with the overseas posts to maximize

the exposure of small- and medium-sized U.S. companies to the export market at

these events.

In August 2002, the Office of Aerospace organized and managed an aerospace executive trade mission to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. More

than 20 U.S. business representatives participated in the mission, which featured
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

61 high-level meetings with Vietnamese Government and industry aerospace officials. In October, the Office of Aerospace organized and managed an airport trade

mission to Johannesburg and Durban, South Africa. U.S. business representatives

visited numerous airports and met with high-level South African Government and

industry officials. Both trade missions arranged one-to-one meetings for each of

the participants, and several participants identified local representatives, agents, or

distributors, or negotiated sales contracts during the mission.

Along with the AAAE, the Office of Aerospace cosponsored the 8th

Annual Eastern European Airport and Infrastructure Conference and Trade Show

in Salzburg, Austria. This event attracted more than 150 U.S. airport businessmen

and 30 foreign delegations. This continuing program is designed to promote the

export of aviation- and airport-related U.S. products and services by providing

direct contacts and meaningful dialog between aviation-related companies and

key international aviation and airport officials. The Office of Aerospace and

AAAE also cosponsored a similar event in Bangkok, Thailand, demonstrating a

variety of U.S. airport products and services to the Asian market.

The Office of Aerospace supported the visit of the Under Secretary of

International Trade, Grant Aldonas, to the Farnborough Air Show, arranging meetings with Government and industry officials in a setting that fosters cooperation.

The Farnborough Air Show was the largest international aerospace trade event for

2002; it attracted about 1,200 exhibiting companies and 130,000 trade visitors. 

The Office of Aerospace, in coordination with the ITA’s Advocacy Center

and overseas offices, provided advocacy to support U.S. companies in international aerospace competitions. The competitions included commercial sales for

aircraft, helicopters, airport construction, commercial space projects, and air-traffic management projects. 

The Office of Aerospace coordinated the official signing ceremony for the

sale of four Boeing 777 aircraft worth $680 million to Vietnam Airlines. With

Secretary of Commerce Donald L. Evans overseeing the event, the signing of this

historic contract marked the first major commercial transaction between the

United States and Vietnam since the approval of the historic U.S.-Vietnam

Bilateral Trade Agreement.

In September 2002, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and

Security and the Department of State’s Office of Defense Trade Controls published

concurrent notices in the Federal Register revising the export licensing jurisdiction
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

62 and requirements for space-qualified and related items that are designed, manufactured, and tested to meet the special requirements for use in satellites or

high-altitude flight systems. These notices were designed to clarify confusion

resulting from the 1999 transfer of satellites and “related items” from the

Department of Commerce’s Commerce Control List to the Department of State’s

U.S. Munitions List. 
DEPARTMENT OF THE

INTERIOR

DOI

In the area of satellite operations, the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) U.S.

Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Aeronautics and Space

Administration (NASA) continued their partnership to manage the Landsat 5

and 7 satellites; the USGS has full responsibility for Landsat mission operations

(http://landsat7.usgs.gov). Landsat 7, launched in 1999, has collected over 300,000

scenes for the U.S. archive, as well as nearly 280,000 scenes for the network of

international ground stations. Landsat 5, launched in 1984, is nearing its

100,000th orbit and is operating far beyond its design life. The Landsat ground station at the USGS Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center is

the primary U.S. receiving station for Landsat 7 and the only North American

ground station for Landsat 5 data.

The USGS and NASA continued a joint two-step procurement strategy for

the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) under which the private sector will

provide data to the U.S. Government that ensures continuity with the Landsat 7

mission. The LDCM will be a commercially developed, built, launched, operated,

and owned system that will deliver multispectral digital image data for global coverage of Earth’s land masses on a seasonal basis through a data purchase

arrangement (http://ldcm.usgs.gov). Contracts were awarded to DigitalGlobe and

Resource 21 in March 2002 to develop a mission concept for a complete LDCM

system. The request for proposals to implement the program is being developed

with substantial input from the contractors’ first phase results. The winning contractor for the implementation phase will deliver data to the U.S. Government

over a 5-year period starting in 2007, with an option for a 5-year extension.

F iscal Year 2002 Activities

63
64 A new NASA-USGS partnership for the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1)

Extended Mission was established in November 2001. NASA operates the flight

segment and the polar receiving stations, and the USGS EROS Data Center now

performs image data capture, data processing, product generation, and distribution

of Hyperion and Advanced Land Imager data (http://eo1.usgs.gov). Hyperion is the

world’s only civil spaceborne hyperspectral sensor. The EO-1 Extended Mission is

an outgrowth of a highly successful 1-year NASA technology demonstration mission that confirmed the ability of several new technologies to lower the cost and

increase the performance of future Earth science missions. The EO-1 Extended

Mission has collected over 5,000 paired Hyperion and Advanced Land Imager

scenes so far.

In the area of planetary exploration, USGS scientists continued to assist in

data analysis for the NASA Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey missions as

part of the science team mapping global subsurface ice deposits and mineral species

on Mars. They are making important scientific and cartographic contributions to

the site selection for two future Mars Excursion Rovers. These multicamera rovers

will be about the size and weight of a riding lawn mover, as opposed to Mars

Pathfinder’s Sojourner rover, which was about the size of a microwave oven. USGS

investigators also continued their work with the Cassini spacecraft; they are

responsible for the orbital imaging of Saturn and the descent to and surface imaging of its moon Titan, should the probe survive.

In FY 2002, the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center at the

USGS EROS Data Center (http://edcdaac.usgs.gov) produced and distributed over

1.7 million satellite image products from the MODerate resolution Imaging

Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and

Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instruments on NASA’s Terra satellite, with a

data volume of over 168 terabytes. USGS installed a direct reception and processing system for rapid turnaround of MODIS data. Improvements in data reception

and processing now permit users to receive MODIS data for the United States

from an FTP server just 4 hours after imaging occurs. The data provide daily coverage of the United States at low spatial resolution (250 to –1,000 kilometers) and

in 36 spectral bands, facilitating data applications for emergency response, wildland fire mitigation, and field data-collection activities.
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

65 The USGS is cooperating with NASA, the National Imagery and Mapping

Agency (NIMA), and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to archive and distribute digital elevation model (DEM) data from the Shuttle Radar Topography

Mission (SRTM). The USGS offered initial data for the United States at 30-meter

and 90-meter resolution to the public on a Web-based, seamless server in

September (http://srtm.usgs.gov). Over the next 2 years, NIMA will process data

for the USGS to distribute at 90-meter resolution covering Earth’s land areas

between latitude 60° N and 56° S on a continent-by-continent basis.

The USGS EROS Data Center now archives and provides public access to

a second series of high-resolution intelligence satellite photographs declassified

through Executive Order 12951 (http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov). The photography

includes 19,000 frames acquired by the KH-7 surveillance system from 1963 to

1967 and 29,000 frames acquired by the KH-9 mapping system from 1973 to 1980.

The photography (black-and-white, color, and some color-infrared and stereo coverage) was added to the more than 800,000 previously declassified intelligence

photographs that were taken between 1959 and 1972. These newly released photographs extend the record of land surface changes at least a decade before the

advent of the Landsat satellite program and are useful for historical and environmental research.

The USGS is developing The National Map, a seamless, Web-enabled set of

current public-domain geographic base information that serves as a foundation for

integrating, sharing, and using other geospatial data easily and consistently. As part

of The National Map, USGS scientists are creating a layer of the best available, current, geometrically registered Landsat 7 data for the entire United States. The data

can be used to provide reference information for Web browsers and map applications at a scale of 1:100,000 or smaller. The first installment of scenes for the

conterminous United States was complete and ready for public access at the end of

FY 2002. The Landsat database, which is made using three of the eight Landsat 7

spectral bands, will be kept current with data no more than 1 year old. Over time,

the archive will provide a valuable historical reference to determine landscape baseline conditions and to measure change.

Users enthusiastically endorsed the utility of the new USGS Global

Visualization (GloVis) Web-based image browser (http://glovis.usgs.gov). GloVis
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

allows a user to browse the entire USGS archive of Landsat Thematic Mapper

(TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) data. GloVis users select a

region and specify filter criteria such as dates and maximum cloud cover; then they

can view dozens to hundreds of images of that region.

During FY 2002, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) used high-resolution

satellite remote sensing and global positioning systems (GPS) to support BIA and

tribal initiatives to map land use, inventory natural resources, conduct environmental assessments, support Safety of Dams program initiatives, and map and inventory

irrigation systems. Application specialists used digital orthophotography, National

Aerial Photography Program (NAPP) aerial photography, National Elevation

Dataset data, digital raster graphics, and high-resolution IKONOS satellite data as

backdrops for modeling inundation zones associated with the potential catastrophic

failure of earthen dams. BIA personnel also collected GPS data on high-priority

dams under BIA jurisdiction. In addition, they developed inundation maps for input

to Emergency Action Plans for seven dams during the reporting period.

The BIA used commercial GPS receivers to collect data for 2,276 ditch

miles and 20,483 associated structures in BIA-managed irrigation systems. In addition, digital aerial photographs with GPS coordinates were collected for all

structures. These data sets were combined to map irrigation system and structure

condition on seven major BIA irrigation projects on Indian reservations in the

Western United States. Aerial photographs and satellite data were also key components in the mapping process in both the irrigation and Safety of Dams projects.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) used a wide variety of remotesensing technologies in FY 2002 to inventory and monitor public lands in support

of rangeland health issues; fire detection, behavior, and management; wildlife

habitat evaluation; refinement of soil survey techniques; hazardous materials

inventory; and energy and mineral leasing activities.

The BLM and the Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources

Conservation Service have completed soil surveys for almost half of a 445,000-acre

area of BLM land in the Mojave Desert, CA. As part of the project, BLM scientists developed a new Landsat TM band ratio image-processing technique for

making preliminary soil survey delineations prior to field mapping; aerial photography has traditionally been used for this task.

66
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

67 In FY 2002, the BLM cooperated with the USGS to complete digital

orthophotoquad (DOQ) coverage of all BLM lands. The BLM is making DOQ

data for Utah and NAPP color-infrared aerial photography of Wyoming available

to the public over the Internet. BLM field office specialists and managers were

trained to use DOQs and other digital cartographic data to map off-highway vehicle routes to support BLM Resource Management Plans. BLM resource specialists

were also trained to use color-infrared aerial photographs to assess riparian areas;

they applied the tool over the entire Anvik River drainage based on BLM criteria

for proper functioning condition.

The BLM investigated the use of airborne hyperspectral data and Light

Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) surveys to assess fire fuels and map invasive

weeds in Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in Oregon, as well as in two study

areas near the Snowstorm Mountains in Nevada. The data also provide a high-resolution spatial and spectral database to support resource management plans.

The BLM used interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) and

Landsat TM data, as well as 1:40,000-scale color-infrared aerial photographs, to

evaluate the long-term effects of ice roads that were built in the Arctic 25 years

ago for oil exploration and drilling. Remote sensing and field investigations

revealed little current evidence of these old roads, suggesting that the environmental impacts are almost fully healed.

The California Central Valley Project Improvement Act Biological

Opinion requires that data on wildlife habitat change be used in water-related

negotiations between Irrigation Districts and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) image analysts continued to examine such areas of

change using multitemporal Landsat TM data for the Central Valley acquired in

1993 and 2000. They updated and improved 1993 databases of land use/land cover

through this process. They also updated year 2000 information for approximately

60 percent of Federal water district areas within the Central Valley Project

Improvement Act area.

BOR analysts used Landsat TM, Indian Remote Sensing Satellite multispectral and panchromatic data, and USGS DOQs to map irrigated land and/or

agricultural crops in the Colorado River Basin, the Sevier Basin in Utah, the

Klamath River Basin in Oregon, and the Central Valley of California. Water managers use irrigation status and crop type data with crop water use coefficients and
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

68 locally varying climate data to calculate water use for agriculture. Landsat TM data

and field verification were used to map riparian communities in the Lower

Colorado River Basin to estimate water use by natural vegetation.

The National Park Service (NPS) used data from the Landsat, French

Systeme Probatoire d’Observation de la Terre, and IKONOS satellites, along with

conventional aerial photographs and digital orthophotographs, to map and monitor land cover, vegetation, cultural features, and other specific features in many

national parks. LIDAR data were used to monitor coastal change at several park

units, including Assateague Island and Cape Cod. High-resolution IKONOS data

were used to monitor land-use change at several units in the Midwest. The NPS

Pacific Island Network partnered with other Federal and State agencies to acquire

Landsat and IKONOS data for applications such as mapping, change detection,

and long-term resource monitoring. Approximately 400 GPS receivers were used

for mapping and navigation to support a variety of NPS resource management and

park maintenance applications. National park units used land-cover data from the

interagency Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Program for temporal ecosystem and change-detection studies and to provide context for analysis of higher

spatial resolution imagery.

DOI scientists and resource specialists continue to use Precision

Lightweight GPS Receivers (PLGR) to access the Department of Defense Navstar

GPS Precise Positioning Service, primarily at the field-office level in wildland

areas that are out of reach of traditional differential GPS service. The DOI currently operates approximately 1,250 PLGRs, as well as a variety of other types of

commercial GPS units. DOI bureaus are replacing some PLGR units, where

appropriate, with alternative commercial systems.

The USGS, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and NASA

are collaborating to use Landsat data from five dates (1972, 1980, 1986, 1992, and

2000) and other data to study changes in land use and land cover over the past 30

years for the conterminous United States. They assessed the rates, causes, and consequences of change in each of the 84 ecoregions covering the conterminous

United States. Results from eight eastern ecoregions spanning the Atlantic coastal

zone through Appalachia show that the characteristics of change vary significantly

from ecoregion to ecoregion. Rates of land-cover change are highest in forested

plains, predominantly due to an expanding timber industry. Piedmont regions
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

69 exhibit substantial urbanization, but the spatial extent of change is lower than

those estimated for the plains. Appalachian regions show the lowest rates of landcover change, though pockets (such as the southern Blue Ridge) are urbanizing.

Vegetation scientists from USGS, the University of Alaska-Fairbanks,

Russia, Norway, Greenland, Iceland, Denmark, and Canada produced the first true

vegetation map of the entire arctic biome north of the treeline that had sufficient

detail for global modeling efforts. The map was produced at a final scale of

1:7,500,000 using spatial data analysis, manual image interpretation, and digital

image classification and modeling of NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution

Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite data and derived Normalized Difference Vegetation

Index (NDVI), a standardization measure of vegetation “greenness,” data.

The BLM and the USGS are continuing the Southwest ReGap project that

uses multitemporal Landsat ETM+ data to map vegetation for five Southwestern

States—Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. BLM scientists partnered with the Colorado Division of Wildlife to classify vegetation using Landsat

TM data by watershed for approximately 75 percent of the State of Colorado.

USGS scientists used AVHRR data and AVHRR-derived NDVI data to

extend a database of 10 different measures of vegetation growth for the State of

Alaska to cover the period from 1991 to 2000. These data are used for a variety of

land-management and resource-monitoring activities in Alaska, such as predicting

the annual survival rate of caribou calves, based on summertime (June 21) NDVI

values, and examining the relationships between climate gradients, interannual

weather patterns, NDVI, biomass, and plant phenology. All data are available from

the Alaska Geospatial Data Clearinghouse at http://agdc.usgs.gov. In a similar activity, USGS scientists cooperated with the National Drought Mitigation Center at

the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to use AVHRR data to create a Phenological

Metrics Database of the conterminous United States for 1989 to the present.

The USGS completed a land-cover/land-use database to document the

temporal and spatial extent of urbanization for part of Anchorage, AK. Land-use

and land-cover information was obtained by interpreting aerial photographs from

1973, 1985, and 1988–90, as well as 2000 IKONOS high-resolution satellite data.

The database is being used for environmental analyses of water quality, urban

growth, impervious cover, and loss of wildlife habitat.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

70 BLM specialists analyzed AVHRR data to show the probability of increase

of cheatgrass, a widely occurring invasive plant species in the Great Basin, including portions of Nevada, Utah, Idaho, California and Oregon. This information

helps demonstrate the role of cheatgrass increase in relation to areas altered by fire.

The U.S. Forest Service and the BLM also used the cheatgrass data to refine Fire

Frequency Condition Classes in western rangeland ecosystems. BLM used historical and current aerial photographs to identify change over time in canopy cover

and extent of pinyon-juniper communities in western Utah to support fire fuels

management.

In FY 2002, the 8-day repeat capability of Landsats 5 and 7 was used to

monitor major wildfires in the Western United States, including the RodeoChedeski fire (the largest fire in Arizona history), the Biscuit fire in Oregon, and

the Haman fire in Colorado, and also to aid in postfire damage assessment. USGS

analysts assisted the BIA Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation Team and the

White Mountain Apache Tribe to prepare Landsat and IKONOS high-resolution

satellite image products to support mitigation efforts on the Fort Apache Indian

Reservation following the Rodeo-Chedeski fire. The products included Landsat

image mosaics from October 1999 (prefire), June 21, 2002 (during the height of

the fire), and July 7, 2002 (at approximate time of containment); IKONOS

images; and burn-severity maps made from July 7, 2002, Landsat data.

The NPS continued to work with the USGS and the BOR to map vegetation and wildland fire fuels while obtaining uniform baseline data on the

composition and distribution of vegetation types for 270 U.S. national park units.

The pace of mapping continued to increase in FY 2002. The NPS Fire Program

also worked with USGS scientists to produce fire history and burn-severity maps

for a variety of park units.

At the request of the EPA, the USGS engaged in a rapid-response project with

NASA and JPL to assess environmental impacts of the September 11, 2001, attack on

the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2001/ofr-01-

0429/). Work began immediately following the attack and continued into FY 2002.

JPL scientists acquired data over the WTC from the aircraft-based hyperspectral

Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) beginning on

September 16, 2001. The data were processed overnight; the next day, USGS and

JPL scientists determined the locations and temperatures of hot spots in the WTC
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

71 debris pile and sent information to the White House. The high temperatures and

extent of the fires were a concern because of possible adverse chemical reactions in

various materials in the debris. Based on this information, firefighters changed their

strategy on September 18 in response to the fire extent and the recognition that

temperatures exceeded 800 °F, with some over 1,300 °F. USGS scientists collected

field samples around the WTC site between September 17 and 19. USGS scientists

analyzed these samples and prepared preliminary maps of materials from the

AVIRIS data, including the presence of asbestos, and delivered results to WTC

emergency response teams on September 27. Although only trace levels of

chrysotile asbestos have been detected in the dust and airfall samples studied to

date, the presence of up to 20 percent by volume of chrysotile in material coating

the steel beams in the WTC debris, along with the extent of potential areas indicated in the AVIRIS mineral maps, indicates that asbestos can be found in localized

concentrations. The study also found that the WTC dust was quite alkaline, having

a potential of hydrogen (pH) as high as 11.8, which is a probable reason for the

burning and stinging sensations experienced by people in the WTC area.

The USGS collaborated with the National Cancer Institute and Colorado

State University to identify populations exposed to elevated nitrates in drinking

water in the Platte River Valley (Colorado and Nebraska), who may be at risk for

methemoglobinemia, a blood disease that affects infants and also causes increased

risk of certain cancers and adverse reproductive outcomes in adults. Human health

scientists have been hampered in their study of the relationship between agricultural chemical exposure and health outcomes by the lack of information on

historical environmental exposure to agricultural chemicals for rural populations

in particular. USGS scientists used historical Landsat data to map land-cover types

associated with high nitrate concentrations (such as cattle feedlots and corn

crops). They combined these maps with other geospatial data to estimate nitrate

exposure levels for populations using private wells. Results will be used to evaluate

cancer incidence in relation to estimated nitrate exposure through drinking water.

Scientists from the USGS, the University of California-Davis, the Valley

Fever Center for Excellence (Department of Veteran Affairs), and the University

of Arizona used Landsat and other data to produce a map of Organ Pipe Cactus

National Monument in Arizona depicting soils that are favorable hosts for the soilborne pathogen that causes valley fever. The disease is an important public health
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

72 issue in the arid Southwestern United States because of rapid population growth,

increasing numbers of individuals with suppressed immune systems, and the continued stationing of military personnel in the region. This map will help land

managers mitigate the effects of valley fever by locating new public-use facilities in

areas where the occurrence of the soil pathogen may be low.

Wind-induced dust coming from sources in the Southwestern United States

is not a major contributor to global dust flux, but it has important negative local

and regional effects on air quality, human health and safety, and ecosystem dynamics. Since 1999, USGS scientists have used NOAA Geostationary Operational

Environmental Satellite (GOES) satellite data and a ground-based automated digital camera to detect, monitor, and analyze the location, size, frequency, duration,

and transport patterns of large dust storms in the central Mojave Desert

(http://TerraWeb.wr.usgs.gov/projects/RSDust/). USGS scientists detected and monitored the arrival of two very large dust plumes in Las Vegas, NV, on

April 15, 2002. Large, rapid increases in levels of PM10 (a measure of particulate

matter less than 10 micrometers in size) occurred in the area when these plumes

arrived. Besides showing that the very unhealthy air quality on that day was a

direct result of regional (not local) dust sources, USGS scientists also computed

the amount of airborne dust in the greater Las Vegas valley to be approximately

1.2 million tons.

USGS scientists used radar data from European Remote Sensing satellites

(ERS) and InSAR techniques to map ground deformation caused by magma accumulation in Earth’s crust, strain along earthquake faults, groundwater changes, and

other processes that are common near active volcanoes. They found evidence for

magmatic inflation at several Alaskan volcanoes. They used InSAR data to image

the spatial extent and volume of lava flows at Okmok volcano in Alaska by constructing precise DEMs that represent volcano topography before and after the

1997 eruption. Comparable high-resolution DEMs are not easily obtainable from

conventional sources such as optical photogrammetry or LIDAR sensing.

The USGS, JPL, the Scripps Orbit and Permanent Array Center, and the

Southern California Earthquake Center unveiled the Southern California

Integrated GPS Network (SCIGN), the largest continuous GPS network in the

Western Hemisphere. The Keck Foundation, NASA, the NSF, the USGS, and

several local counties and agencies provided funding. The SCIGN is a new type of
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

73 earthquake monitoring network; rather than recording ground-shaking like other

networks, SCIGN uses GPS to track the slow motion of Earth’s plates and to

detect small movements of Earth’s surface through 250 stations in one of the

world’s most seismically active and highly populated areas. This network supports

earthquake hazard assessments that help motivate people to prepare for

earthquakes.

USGS scientists combined InSAR data from ERS satellites with SCIGN

GPS data to measure, more accurately than ever before, the tectonic squeezing

across Los Angeles that is responsible for earthquakes like the 1987 M-6

Whittier Narrows and M-6.7 Northridge shocks. They discovered that large

regions of metropolitan Los Angeles are rising and falling by up to 11 centimeters (4.3 inches) every year, and that a large portion of the city of Santa Ana is

sinking at a rate of 20 millimeters (0.79 inch) per year. The satellite data show

that the ground surface of the 40-kilometer (25-mile)-long Santa Ana basin

drops during the summer due to widespread pumping, and then rises in the

winter due to regional groundwater recharge. Scientists also discovered three

distinct subsidence regions due to groundwater pumping in the Coachella

Valley—in the cities of Palm Desert, Indian Wells, and La Quinta. InSAR data

were also used to identify the location of faults that restrict groundwater flow

and map the margins of the groundwater aquifers.

In FY 2002, USGS scientists continued a successful partnership with

NASA and local governments to produce high-resolution topographic data for the

Puget Lowland of Washington State. The consortium more than doubled the

existing coverage of dense multiple-return LIDAR data, reaching a total coverage

of 10,000 square kilometers, or more than half of the Puget Lowland area. Using

these data, the consortium discovered three new young fault scarps beneath the

forest cover and confirmed that surface-rupturing earthquakes have occurred on

each fault. Scientists also used the data to make geologic and geomorphic maps,

investigate landslide hazards, describe beach processes, understand the effects and

mechanisms of continental glaciation, and study forest ecosystems.

A tornado struck La Plata, MD, in April 2002. Local emergency response

teams used Landsat, ASTER, and EO-1 data to measure the extent of the tornado

track and make a preliminary damage assessment.
Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) specialists continued to use IKONOS 1-meter-resolution, pan-sharpened multispectral

stereo satellite data to monitor five active western coal mines on a quarterly basis

for regulatory purposes, including reviewing coal mining permits, making topographic measurements, and ensuring that mine operators comply with regulations.

OSMRE specialists orthorectified the data with high-accuracy GPS ground control and generated digital elevation model products from the IKONOS stereo pairs

on a photogrammetric workstation. They monitor over 500 square kilometers’

worth of surface coal mines quarterly.

OSMRE specialists also evaluated the utility of IKONOS data for regulatory

enforcement in a 500-square-kilometer area of the Appalachian region. The

OSMRE Technical Innovation and Professional Services Program trained 12 State

and Federal employees to generate orthoimagery and topographic data by photogrammetric processing of aerial and satellite imagery; it also deployed 12

photogrammetric workstations in five States for stereo viewing and processing of

imagery. OSMRE analysts used aerial photography at a scale of 1:24,000 to 1:2,400

covering 800 square kilometers in Appalachian and western regions for topographic mapping at active mine sites.

In FY 2002, the OSMRE expanded the use of GPS for surface mine reclamation verification, technical assistance projects, and Abandoned Mine Land

(AML) reclamation designs. Mine inspectors employed GPS, in tandem with

mobile tablet computers, to verify large western surface mine jurisdictional boundaries, and to field-verify locations of mine features such as hydrologic structures,

surface depressions, and reclaimed topography. AML specialists and contractors

used GPS receivers to locate and inventory abandoned mine features nationwide

and to map subsidence complaints and acid mine drainage discharges. 

BLM researchers are applying data from hyperspectral sensors to locate coal

bed methane gas seeps and are applying data from thermal-infrared sensors to

locate actively burning coal seams. It is important for the BLM to locate these features for public safety and to ensure the efficient use of public resources.

USGS scientists mapped salt crusts in Death Valley, CA, using AVIRIS data

and a new least-squares spectral band-fitting software algorithm. They identified

eight different saline minerals, including three borates that have not been previously reported in Death Valley. Borates and other saline minerals provide a basis

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

74
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

75 for making remote chemical measurements of desert groundwater systems. Such

data aid in understanding how saline minerals indirectly reflect groundwater compositions and processes, and they will facilitate studies on how desert groundwater

systems change through time in response to climatic and other variables.

USGS scientists completed an initial evaluation of ASTER data of the

Cuprite, NV, mining district for geologic mapping and mineral resource

investigations. Research concluded that data from the nine ASTER sensor

bands in the visible and near-infrared wavelength regions can be used to map

minerals typically associated with mineral deposits more completely and efficiently than using conventional field-mapping methods alone. Additional

rock-composition information was obtained of the Mountain Pass, CA, area

from analysis of spectral emittance data recorded in the five thermal-infrared

ASTER bands. These positive results led to successful ASTER applications in

Morocco and Mexico, where USGS scientists worked with their counterparts

from the Moroccan and Mexican Geological Surveys. Post-field-mapping

evaluations in these countries indicated that the ASTER rock-composition

image maps provided accurate primary information.

The USGS released the newest of the 11-volume Satellite Image Atlas of

Glaciers of the World series. This major work on the glaciers of North America

reviews historical and ongoing changes in the glaciers of Canada, the United

States, and Mexico, primarily using data from Landsats 1, 2, and 3. Long-term

monitoring of glacier fluctuations can provide an important indicator of changes

in regional and global climates. The volume was a collaborative effort among the

USGS, the National Park Service, U.S. and Canadian universities, the

Geological Survey of Canada, and the United Kingdom International

Glaciological Society.

USGS scientists developed a methodology to use Landsat 7 data in conjunction with USGS mass balance measurements at South Cascade Glacier,

WA, to estimate the annual storage or release of water by glaciers and perennial

snowfields in the North Cascade Mountains. The method uses satellite data

from late summer to determine the spatial distribution of snow and ice. This

information is analyzed with other spatial data to determine the vertical distribution of snow and ice within a drainage basin, which is then combined with
76 the measured mass balance, as a function of elevation, to estimate the glacial

storage or release.

The USGS and the BLM used Landsat 7 data for the Bering Glacier ecosystem in Alaska to map the retreat of the glacier terminus as it undergoes large-scale

calving into Vitus Lake, to determine the surface-flow velocities of the glacier, and

to map the reestablishment of terrestrial vegetation after the glacier’s surge of

1993–95. Scientists also used these data to monitor the level of Berg Lake and the

integrity of the ice dam that forms the southern shore of the lake in order to assess

the potential hazard presented by an outburst flood.

The worldwide decline of coral reefs due to natural forces and human activities is of great concern because reefs protect coastlines from erosion, provide

shelter and food for economically valuable fisheries species, and bring recreational

dollars to local economies. USGS scientists developed remote-sensing techniques

to map and monitor sea floor habitat and to monitor both the shallow (1- to 5-

meter) and deeper (5- to 40-meter) reefs off the Hawaiian Island of Molokai (http://Terraweb.wr.usgs.gov/projects/CoralReefs/). During FY 2002, they used

Scanning Hydrographic Operational Airborne Lidar Survey bathymetry to map

potential coral habitats. They also used shipborne dual-frequency acoustics to

investigate the mapping of sea floor cover types in deeper waters. Finally, they used

high-resolution 1:20,000-scale aerial photographs and Landsat TM data to detect

and map suspended sediment deposited on reefs by on-land runoff after a large

storm. This analysis helped to determine how such sedimentation affects algae

growth and the general health of reefs.

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) continued to support satellite

altimetry research by University of Colorado scientists for applications such as

improving estimates of sea surface height and ocean currents, particularly for the

large Loop Current eddies in the Gulf of Mexico. Accurate measurement of ocean

currents is important for monitoring offshore oil and gas operations and for estimating oil-spill trajectories. In FY 2002, data from the Navy GEOSAT Follow-On

and Jason-1 altimetry satellite missions were added to ongoing analysis of data

from the TOPEX/Poseidon and ERS-2 satellites. MMS specialists continued to

collect GPS data to help delineate offshore boundaries in the U.S. Virgin Islands

in support of Territorial Submerged Lands jurisdictions.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

77 In FY 2002, USGS scientists regularly used GPS and thermal-imaging

technologies to support scientific research conducted in the Great Lakes basin.

GPS surveys provided precise geographic coordinates of wetland plant-sampling

transects along the U.S. shore of Lake Ontario, supporting binational wetland

research in the International Joint Commission’s reevaluation of the water-level

regulation plan for Lake Ontario. All collection sites within the Finger Lakes

region and tributaries to Lake Ontario in upstate New York were geo-referenced

with GPS in studies characterizing the fish community structure, biodiversity, and

ecosystem health.

USGS scientists collaborated with University of Minnesota researchers to

use GPS to track sea lampreys in northern Lake Huron via telemetry and relate

their daily movements to a river plume that was also being monitored. The study

assessed how adult sea lampreys use a newly discovered migratory pheromone

excreted by larval sea lampreys to select streams for spawning. This research may

provide a new cost-effective, environmentally safe method for controlling the

exotic sea lamprey that annually causes millions of dollars’ worth of damage to the

Great Lakes fishery.

Since 1975, the USGS has chaired the Civil Applications Committee

(CAC), which is chartered under the signatures of the National Security Advisor

to the President, the Director of Central Intelligence, and the Director of the

Office of Management and Budget to facilitate the use of classified National

Systems data for applications central to civil agency missions, such as mapping,

charting, and geodesy; environmental monitoring, studies, and analyses; resource

management; homeland security; natural hazards; and emergency response applications. The CAC Executive Steering Group was established in FY 2002 under the

Chairmanship of the Deputy Secretary of the Interior to provide a forum for senior

administration officials in the civil, defense, and intelligence communities to discuss and resolve key national policy issues that impact civil community access to

and exploitation of data from National Systems.

During FY 2002, the CAC interacted with several individuals and organizations on important national issues, including the following: the National

Security Space Architect, to identify civil requirements related to concepts for

future remote-sensing systems; the Federal Law Enforcement Working Group, to

consult on law-enforcement applications of remote sensing; and the Office of
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

78 Homeland Security, on the use of National Systems data to support the homeland

security activities of civil agencies.

The Global Fiducials Library is an archive of National Systems data covering environmentally sensitive locations worldwide to meet near-term mission goals

and perform long-term monitoring of natural and anthropogenic processes and

critical indicators associated with causes or effects of environmental change. The

Global Fiducials Library, which became operational in 1998, continues to expand

based on recommendations for additional sites from CAC members.
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

79

FEDERAL

COMMUNICATIONS

COMMISSION

FCC

All Federal Communications Commission (FCC) accomplishments during

FY 2002 were related to communications and Earth-observation satellites. The

FCC formulates and regulates the rules to facilitate the U.S. domestic satellite

industry; it also authorizes licenses for all stations and satellite launches.

Internationally, the FCC coordinates satellite placement with other countries.

FCC’s specific accomplishments for FY 2002 are outlined below.

The FCC authorized a number of communication satellite launches. On

October 26, 2001, the FCC granted authority to launch and operate a Direct

Broadcast Satellite, DirecTV-4S, and the satellite was successfully launched on

November 27, 2001. On January 16, 2002, the FCC granted EchoStar Satellite

Corporation authority to launch and operate a new spot beam Direct Broadcast

Satellite, EchoStar 7; it was successfully launched on February 21, 2002. Also,

FCC granted EchoStar Satellite Corporation authority to launch and operate a

new spot beam Direct Broadcast Satellite, EchoStar 8, on June 20, 2002; it was

successfully launched on August 22, 2002. The FCC Authorized PanAmSat to

launch and operate its Galaxy III-C satellite using the C/KU band on

May 30, 2002, and the satellite was successfully launched on June 15, 2002. On

April 15, 2002, the FCC authorized Loral Cyberstar, Inc., to incorporate two additional Ku-band beams into the design of its Orion F2 geostationary satellite.

The FCC granted a number of Special Temporary Authorizations for satellite networks. On October 18, 2001, the FCC granted permission to Intelsat to

deploy the Intelsat 602 satellite temporarily from longitude 62o E to longitude 
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

80 64 ̊ E. On May 29, 2002, the FCC granted the authorization to PanAmSat to conduct inorbit testing of Galaxy III-C. On May 31, 2002, the FCC authorized

PanAmSat to use the downlink beam on PAS-5 for commercial purposes; it had

previously been used to monitor the satellite’s Asian beams. On October 15, 2001,

the FCC authorized PanAmSat to move the PAS-6 satellite from longitude 68.5 ̊

E to longitude 72 ̊ E; the satellite operates in a traditional Ku band. The FCC

authorized PanAmSat to move Galaxy III-R from longitude 95 ̊ W to longitude

95.15 ̊ W on August 30, 2002, so that Galaxy III-C could assume its orbit location

at longitude 95 ̊ W. Also, on September 16, 2002, the FCC granted a Special

Temporary Authorization for PanAmSat to move the PAS-9 satellite from longitude 58 ̊ W to longitude 45.15 ̊ W.

On October 9, 2002, the FCC granted authorizations to 70 Mobile Earth

Terminals to provide aeronautical, land mobile, and maritime services in the upper

and lower L-bands via Inmarsat satellites. The FCC granted these authorizations

to Comcast Corporation doing business as Comcast Mobile Communications;

Comcast General Corporation; Stratos Mobile Networks (USA) LLC; Comcast

Corporation; Marinesat Communications Network, Inc., doing business as Stratos

Communications; Honeywell, Inc.; Deere & Company; Sita Information

Computing Canada, Inc.; and IDB Mobile Communications, Inc.

During FY 2002, the FCC was also active in international satellite coordination. In the first quarter of FY 2002, the FCC reached Operator-to-Operator

Coordination Arrangements with the Canadian, Brazilian, and Dutch satellite

operators for 18 U.S. satellite systems. The FCC reached Administration-toAdministration Coordination Agreements with Canadian, Japanese, Russian, and

U.S. Government satellite operators for 64 U.S. satellite systems. 

In the second quarter of FY 2002, the FCC reached Operator-toOperator Coordination Arrangements with the Brazilian and Indian satellite

operators for four U.S. satellite systems. The FCC reached Administration-toAdministration Coordination Agreements with Brazilian satellite operators for

four U.S. satellite systems.

In the third quarter of FY 2002, the FCC reached Operator-to-Operator

Coordination Arrangements with the Canadian, Indian, and Chinese satellite

operators for eight U.S. satellite systems. The FCC reached Administration-to-
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

81 Administration Coordination Agreements with the Chinese, Japanese, Swedish,

Malaysian, Spanish, Saudi Arabian, Laotian, Dutch, Russian, Australian,

Luxembourg, Brazilian, and French administrations for 201 U.S. satellite systems.

In the fourth quarter of FY 2002, the FCC reached Operator-to-Operator

Coordination Arrangements with the Australian satellite operators for 90 U.S.

satellite systems. The FCC reached Administration-to-Administration

Coordination Agreements with the Brazilian and Australian administrations for

16 U.S. satellite systems.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

82
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

83

DEPARTMENT OF

AGRICULTURE

USDA

In FY 2002, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agencies used remote sensing to accomplish numerous operational and research activities. Several agencies

applied these data, including the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), Forest

Service (FS), National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), and Natural

Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Following are brief summaries from

these four agencies, describing how remote sensing was used to accomplish various

departmental goals and objectives.

The FAS Production Estimates and Crop Assessment Division was the focal

point within USDA for assessing the global agricultural production outlook and

conditions that affect world food security; it also served as the USDA Imagery

Archive. The FAS satellite remote-sensing program remained a critical element in

the Department’s analysis of global agricultural production and crop conditions,

providing timely, accurate, and unbiased estimates of global area, yield, and production. Satellite-derived early warning of unusual crop conditions and

production enabled more rapid and precise determinations of global supply conditions. FAS exploited many global imagery datasets, including global Advanced

Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Local Area Coverage (LAC), High

Resolution Picture Transmission (HRPT), and Global Area Coverage (GAC)

from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The ability to

exploit 10-day global composites from the spot-vegetation sensor was added this

year. FAS had standing orders for Landsats 5 and 7 imagery acquiring 8- to 16-day

coverage for selected path/rows. All operational imagery was delivered within 12

days of acquisition. Due to budget constraints, use of Space Imaging IKONOS and
84 DigitalGlobe QuickBird satellites was extremely limited. In addition, FAS and

NASA entered into a project to monitor global lake and reservoir height variations. One goal of this project was to use radar altimeters to provide information

on global water supply. Information on the FAS remote-sensing program can be

found on the Internet at http://www.fas.usda.gov/pecad.

During FY 2002, the FS Remote Sensing Application Center (RSAC)

processed Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data to produce active fire maps for the entire United States twice daily. The maps provided

the interagency fire community with a synoptic view of the wildfire situation that

aided with the strategic allocation of firefighting resources and assets throughout

the country, as well as provided information for the general public. This service has

been provided on a daily basis since July 4, 2001. This is a collaborative effort with

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the University of Maryland, and

the Forest Service Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory.

RSAC acquired MODIS imagery of the Western United States from a

receiving station located at the RSAC facility in Salt Lake City, UT. Imagery of

the Eastern United States was acquired by GSFC. RSAC used a fire-detection

algorithm developed by the University of Maryland to identify active fire locations. These locations were overlaid on a cartographic base map that showed State

boundaries, topography, major cities, and interstates. The maps were then posted

on the Internet (http://www.fs.fed.us/eng/rsac/fire_maps.html), where they were

accessible to national fire managers and the general public. During the 2002 fire

season, the RSAC Active Fire Map Web site averaged 3,000 visitors per day and

distributed approximately 3.5 gigabytes of maps daily. The peak usage occurred on

June 21, 2002, when over 25,000 visitors accessed the Web site.

During FY 2002, FS, through its RSAC, continued to work with NASA

Ames Research Center (ARC) and GSFC on a number of fire-related technologies.

ARC work included advanced sensor design and image processing from airborne

platforms, as well as unpiloted aerial vehicle development and mission profiling for

tactical wildland fire mapping. At the request of FS, ARC provided emergency airborne thermal imagery over fires in southwestern Oregon and northern California

during July and August 2002. This request came at a time when requests for airborne thermal imaging exceeded the capabilities of FS airborne assets. GSFC work

involved preliminary designs of both air-to-ground and air-to-satellite communicaAeronautics and Space Report of the President 
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

85 tions systems designed to enable rapid transmission of FS airborne thermal-image

products to incident command personnel. Various equipment alternatives were

examined, and a final design was being formulated with the goal of conducting

operational trials during the upcoming 2003 fire season. 

The NASS mission was to provide timely, accurate, and useful statistics in

service to U.S. agriculture. These statistics cover virtually every facet of U.S. agriculture, from production and supply of food and fiber to prices paid and received

by farmers and ranchers, as well as the Census of Agriculture every 5 years.

Remote-sensing data and techniques are valuable tools used to improve the accuracy of some NASS statistics. Remote-sensing data, including both satellite and

aerial, combine with area sampling frame designs to form the backbone of our most

important early-season survey conducted to provide a first look at planted acreage

for the season. NASS used remote-sensing data to construct and sample area

frames for statistical surveys, estimate crop area, and create crop-specific landcover data layers for the Geographic Information System (GIS). In FY 2002,

NASS used Landsat imagery, digital orthophoto quadrangles, and other remotely

sensed inputs for 19 States to select the yearly sample. In addition, NASS used

these materials in these States to select a supplemental area sample to measure the

completeness of the list used for the 2002 Census of Agriculture. The remote-sensing acreage estimation project analyzed Landsat data from the 2001 crop season in

Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, the Missouri boot heel, eastern

Nebraska, New Mexico, and North Dakota to produce crop-acreage estimates for

major crops at State and county levels, as well as a crop-specific categorization in

the form of a digital mosaic of Thematic Mapper (TM) scenes distributed to users

on a CD-ROM. For the 2002 crop season, NASS headquarters and several NASS

field offices continued partnership agreements with State organizations to decentralize the Landsat processing and analysis tasks and expanded their efforts into a

pilot area in central Wisconsin. Data for 2002 acreage-estimation analyses were

collected in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska,

New Mexico, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. NASS, in conjunction with the

Agricultural Research Service, continued research on data from the MODIS

sensor on the TERRA satellite for use as an additional input for setting yield estimates and as a possible replacement for AVHRR data in generating
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

86 vegetation-condition images. Specific pilots were conducted in McLean County,

IL, and Cass County, ND.

During FY 2002, NRCS was the primary Federal agency working with private landowners to help them protect their natural resources. Much of the

land-management business conducted by NRCS required the use of geospatial

technologies and remote-sensing products. NRCS has used aerial-photography

products for over 50 years in conducting agency programs and business. Today,

NRCS has completely transitioned to the exclusive use of digital-imagery

products. 

All aerial-photography and derivative digital-orthoimagery products used

by NRCS were acquired from commercial sources. NRCS was an original member

of both the National Aerial Photography Program (NAPP) and the National

Digital Orthophoto Program (NDOP). Most of the imagery used was acquired

through cost-share partnerships with NAPP and NDOP member agencies at the

Federal and State levels. The NDOP reached a milestone in FY 2002 when it completed, for the first time ever, full 1-meter ground sample distance (GSD)

orthoimagery coverage of all private lands in the Nation. Only a small percent of

Federal lands remained incomplete. In FY 2002, NRCS began to partner with

State agencies in the development of higher resolution orthoimagery (1- to 2-foot

GSD) over areas originally done at 1-meter GSD. NRCS delivered all imagery and

other geospatial data to county field offices over the Internet on the USDA

Resource Data Gateway. It was important to NRCS that all imagery acquired by

the agency resided in the public domain. This permits NRCS to distribute data

and imagery internally and externally without costly and restrictive use licenses.

In FY 2002, 1-meter orthoimagery was used extensively nationwide for conducting soil surveys as part of the National Cooperative Soil Survey program. Soil

scientists used digital orthoimagery as the base for mapping and digitizing soil surveys. Approximately 45 percent of the Nation’s detailed soil surveys had been

converted to a nationally consistent digital geospatial format. Also in FY 2002,

NRCS completed the installation of the Department’s enterprise GIS in all 2,600

county field offices. Natural-resource planners at county field offices routinely used

digital orthoimagery with the USDA’s GIS to delineate farm tracts, wetlands, and

crop fields in support of conservation programs. Land features such as farmsteads,

gullies, oil wells, ponds, and strip mines were easily located on the orthoimagery.
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

87 The orthoimagery backdrop was a valuable land-planning tool when digital soils,

hydrography, land parcels, and other geospatial data were superimposed onto the

orthoimage base map. 

NRCS continued to contract for high-resolution aerial photography (ground

resolving distance of less than 1 foot) to collect data for the annual continuous

National Resources Inventory (NRI) program. NRI required high-resolution

imagery over confidential statistical sampling sites. NRCS purchased NRI imagery

for approximately 50,000 sites nationwide. Six aerial firms acquired the natural

color imagery within short photo periods during the growing season. The USDA

Aerial Photography Field Office of the Farm Service Agency (FSA) contracted for

the imagery. The FSA office had responsibility for contracting aerial photography

in the USDA.

NRCS increased its use of satellite imagery by accessing the Landsat

imagery acquired by FAS. FAS brokered a contract with a satellite provider that

permits FAS to reproduce the data for other USDA agencies to use. With commercial off-the-shelf remote-sensing and GIS software becoming so commonplace

on personal workstations, more resource planners within NRCS had the ability to

use satellite and other digital imagery on a daily basis. 

In FY 2002, NRCS purchased about 700 Nationwide Differential GPS

receivers through a USDA GPS contract. Over 1,700 GPS receivers were used in

everyday applications by soil scientists, engineers, and resource-planning specialists at the county level. NRCS partnered with FSA to complete a nationwide GPS

training effort for each member of NRCS State and field office staff. 

NRCS was well represented on Federal mapping, remote-sensing, GPS, and

geodata committees. Much time and many resources were devoted to support the

work of the Federal Geographic Data Committee, NAPP, NDOP, and the

Interagency GPS Executive Board.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

88
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

89

NATIONAL

SCIENCE FOUNDATION

NSF

NSF continued to serve as the lead Federal agency for the support of ground-based

astronomy and space science, and sponsored a broad base of observational, theoretical, and laboratory research aimed at understanding the states of matter and

physical processes in the solar system, our Milky Way galaxy, and the universe.

NSF also supported advanced technologies and instrumentation, and optical and

radio observatories that maintain state-of-the-art instrumentation and observing

capabilities accessible to the community on the basis of scientific merit. 

NSF-supported researchers extended their work to measure the very faint

fluctuations in the microwave light emitted by the hot gas in the early universe,

from a time before stars and galaxies formed. These additional data have strengthened the conclusion that the universe is nearly spatially flat and added information

about the higher order peaks in the power spectrum of primordial sound waves,

which have been used to estimate cosmological parameters, such as the expansion

rate, the age, and the total mass of the universe, and how much of that mass is

comprised of normal (baryonic) matter. Models of the universe which have a “flat”

geometry are dominated by (up to 90 percent) “dark” matter and fit the standard

nuclear physics models for the generation of the elements hydrogen and helium

during the big bang, and have been shown to be consistent with the observations. 

Researchers involved in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey discovered, in the

spectrum of the most distant quasar known, the signature of neutral hydrogen in

the intergalactic medium, indicating that their observations are probing redshifts

before large numbers of quasars and galaxies formed. Recent observations of the

highest redshift quasar yet discovered showed the signature of a high optical depth

of neutral hydrogen. The existence of this neutral hydrogen indicates that in this
90 distant epoch, the universe had not yet been flooded with a substantial density of

ionizing photons from stars and quasars.

Recent radio observations of the prototypical starburst galaxy M82 revealed

a complex and dynamic system. NSF-funded researchers used the Owens Valley

Radio Observatory array to map the large-scale structure of molecular gas in M82.

The sensitivity and area coverage of the resulting high-angular-resolution data was

an order of magnitude better than previous interferometric observations. Their

images showed tidal stripping of the molecular gas along the plane of the galaxy

and coincident with streams of neutral hydrogen. The distribution of molecular gas

also coincides with the dramatic dust features seen in optical absorption. As much

as 25 percent of the total molecular mass of M82 is situated at large galactocentric

radii. Researchers with the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory used the

14-meter telescope and the focal plane array system to identify molecular gas

located as high as 3 kiloparsecs above the plane of the disk of M82. Some of the

carbon monoxide (CO) emission is clearly associated with neutral hydrogen tidal

features that arise from the interaction of M82 with the large, neighboring spiral

galaxy M81. The molecular gas in these tidal features may have been directly

extracted from the molecular gas rich reservoir of M82 or formed in situ within the

tidal streams. 

The large, spherical halo component of our own galaxy is believed to harbor

a substantial amount of unseen dark matter. NSF researchers recently observed

microlensing events toward the nearby Magellanic Clouds, indicating that 10 to

50 percent of this dark matter may be in the form of very old white dwarfs, the

remnants of a population of stars as old as the galaxy itself. A team of astronomers

used the Cerro Tololo InterAmerican Observatory 4-meter telescope to carry out

a survey to find faint, cool white dwarfs in the solar neighborhood that would be

members of the halo. The survey revealed a substantial population of white dwarfs,

too faint and cool to have been seen in previous surveys. The newly discovered

population accounts for at least 2 percent of the dark matter, or about an order of

magnitude larger than previously thought, and represents the first direct detection

of galactic halo dark matter. The objects are also found in astrometric survey photographs with other telescopes, and spectra taken at the Cerro Tololo

InterAmerican Observatory confirmed their white dwarf nature. 

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

91 Research into the birth and the death of stars and their planetary systems

continued to be an active area of investigation and discovery. Radio and infrared

studies revealed protostars in the process of formation and extended structures

around them that indicate preplanetary disks. Young stars at different evolutionary

stages show complex outflows of wind and jets. High-resolution images of CO

emission show shell structures and reveal close associations between the morphologies of CO and molecular hydrogen emission features. The CO kinematics

show evidence of bow-shock interactions in a number of sources and evidence for

wide-angle wind interactions. Scientists running simulations found that neither of

the current popular models for stellar outflow, pure jet wind, or wide-angle wind

adequately explain all morphologies and kinematics. 

A major impetus to the observational and theoretical studies of the formation of stars and their planetary disks has been provided in the last few years by the

discovery of extra-solar planets. NSF has supported much of this work. A recent

discovery, again by the team of Marcy, Butler, Fischer, and Vogt, found a planet

three-quarters the mass of Jupiter in a circular orbit around the solar-like star 47

Ursa Majoris. Although 70 extra-solar planets have been found thus far, this is the

first system with two planets in circular orbits—at distances that make the planetary system similar to our own. 

Brown dwarfs are cool, dim objects with masses between that of Jupiter and

the Sun, so small that their cores never become hot enough to burn hydrogen into

helium. Only the slow cooking of the limited amount of deuterium in the stellar

interior is possible. Progress in the discovery and study of brown dwarfs has been

possible through the large coordinated efforts of the 2 Micron All Sky Survey and

Sloan Digital Sky Survey, both of which have been supported partly by NSF.

Individual researchers have been following up these discoveries and investigating

the physical properties of these new objects. Under an award in a joint NSFNASA grants program, investigators from New Mexico State University and

Washington University have developed cool cloud models appropriate to the cool,

substellar temperatures found in brown dwarf atmospheres. Their new models

explain the color changes seen in the spectral sequence of brown dwarfs, and their

thermochemical calculations have wide application to the derivation of temperature and pressure indicators for gas giant planets, as well as brown dwarfs. Their
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

92 models also predicted that large grains precipitate out of the brown dwarf

atmospheres, just as rain does on Earth. 

The national astronomy centers generate substantial databases and archives

of observational data, often through coordinated surveys, which enable research

beyond the scope of a single researcher. A recent example was the National

Optical Astronomy Observatory’s Deep Wide-Field Survey, an extensive, multiyear, multicolor survey using the 4-meter telescopes at Kitt Peak and at Cerro

Tololo. The first results, covering an area of 1.15 degrees square, and with it over

300,000 faint galaxies and stars, were released in January 2001. When the survey

is completed in spring 2002, the full area will be larger by a factor of 15 and will

provide deep images in both the visible and infrared. With it, astronomers will be

able to study large-scale structures in the universe, the formation and evolution of

galaxies and quasars, rare stellar populations, and the structure of the Milky Way. 

Among the areas of development supported by instrumentation programs at

NSF is optical interferometry, which will enable diffraction-limited imaging using

aperture synthesis methods to create images from telescopes with effective apertures up to 1 kilometer in diameter. Recent results from the Infrared Stellar

Interferometer (ISI), under development by Townes at the University of

California, Berkeley, show the potential of such instrumentation—measurements

of nearby stars indicate that our previous understanding of stellar sizes has been

confused by the dust and gas surrounding evolved stars. New measurements with

ISI show stellar radii some 10 to 25 percent larger than previous measurements,

changes that have implications for our models of stellar structure and atmospheres,

temperature, and ultimately distance scales. 

NSF continued a joint activity with the USAF Office of Scientific Research

to provide the U.S. astronomical community with access to state-of-the-art facilities at the Advanced Electro-Optical System (AEOS) telescope, in Maui, Hawaii.

The capability of this 3.76-meter advanced technology telescope for scientific

research is illustrated with its recent observations of Jupiter’s satellite Ganymede.

Images obtained with AEOS resolve details only 270 kilometers in size, performing significantly better than the Hubble Space Telescope.

NSF also supported technological development in the field of radio astronomy that involves the real-time adaptive cancellation of unwanted radio

interference using adaptive digital filters and special signal-processing algorithms.
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

93 Researchers at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Brigham Young

University, Ohio State University, and the University of California at Berkeley

have begun a program of recording high-speed data samples of signals that are

known to cause interference to radio astronomical observations. With these

samples in hand, tests of canceling algorithms were underway at the end of the

fiscal year and have proven to be very successful for certain kinds of wellcharacterized and predictable signals, as in the cancellation of a signal from the

Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) satellite. 
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

94
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

95

DEPARTMENT OF

STATE

DOS

The Department of State (DOS) conducted successful negotiations with the

Japanese Government to resolve policy issues related to the 1969 U.S.-Japan

Space Agreement and current U.S. export control practices that had been impeding Japan’s ability to obtain U.S. technology and hardware to support its space

launch vehicle development programs. As a result of these negotiations, the U.S.

aerospace industry will now be in a significantly better position to market its space

launch technology and hardware successfully in Japan. 

The DOS presented a draft framework agreement between the United

States and the European Community on satellite navigation systems in

October 2000; this agreement has led to three negotiation sessions and two technical working groups with the European Community. In September 2002, the

European Commission recommended that Galileo use the same frequencies for its

Public Regulated Service as GPS uses for the future military service, M-code. This

overlay raises serious national security concerns for the United States and would

impact NATO operational capability. The Department has led multiple bilateral

discussions with the European Commission and European Union member countries in an attempt to reverse this M-code overlay plan. 

The DOS provided funding for a series of four regional Global Navigation

Satellite Systems (GNSS) Workshops and one Plenary Session. These workshops

were held under the auspices of the United Nations and the United States. The

workshops were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the Asia Pacific regions;

Vienna, Austria, for the Eastern European region; Santiago, Chile, for the Latin

American region; and Lusaka, Zambia, for Africa. A summary plenary conference

was held in Vienna, Austria. The workshops were highly successful in bringing
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

96 together regional experts and decisionmakers to advance awareness and support

for the use of GNSS applications for sustained growth, transportation safety, and

environmental management.

In addition to the GNSS workshops, the Department gained approval for

FY 2002 funding for GPS international outreach efforts from the Interagency GPS

Executive Board Secretariat. As a result, a GPS exhibit and support team carried

the U.S. message to such venues as the International Civil Aviation Organization

General Assembly in Montreal, Canada; the Working Party 8D of the

International Telecommunication Union in Geneva, Switzerland; the

Commission on Inter-American Telecommunications (CITEL) in Mexico City,

Mexico; IV Space Conference of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia; the

GNSS 2002 Workshop in Copenhagen, Denmark; the Asia-Pacific

Telecommunications Workshop in Bangkok, Thailand; the Farnborough air show

in Farnborough, England; and the United Nations/U.S. workshops mentioned

above. This exhibit greatly contributed to providing an accurate picture of GPS

policy capabilities and modernization plans.

The Department of State led U.S. Government participation in the United

Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. The Committee was

formed in 1958 and is the only standing body of the United Nations to consider

international cooperation in the exploration of outer space. The Committee has

been responsible for the elaboration and adoption by consensus of five multilateral

treaties governing space activities and three sets of nonbinding principles concerning the use of nuclear power sources in outer space, sharing the benefits of

space exploration and remote sensing of Earth from space. These treaties form the

basis for international law in the use and exploration of outer space. Over the past

year, important work was undertaken by the Committee in areas such as global

navigation satellite systems, meteorology, astronomy and astrophysics, space transportation, human space flight, planetary exploration, addressing the problem of

orbital space debris, and environmental monitoring. The Committee also considered legal issues related to international liability and responsibility of launching

states, international financial security interests in space equipment, and the equitable access to geostationary orbit.
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

97 The DOS implemented a number of international initiatives that harness

space-based technologies in support of U.S. foreign policy goals relating to oceans,

the environment, science, and technology. Many of these initiatives entail applying geospatial technologies (such as satellite remote sensing, geographic

information, Global Positioning System, and online Web-mapping) to issues

related to the international environment, natural resources, and science and technology cooperation. The Geographic Information for Sustainable Development

initiative was featured by the U.S. delegation to the World Summit on Sustainable

Development in Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa, in September 2002. The

initiative is an international public-private partnership in applying geographic

information technologies to help decisionmakers address a range of sustainable

development problems including food, security, sustainable agriculture, natural

resource (including forests and water) management, disaster mitigation, and

poverty alleviation. In addition, the DOS supported other applications and projects of satellite remote sensing and geographic information in the Amazon Basin,

Afghanistan, Thailand, India, and other countries around the world. 

The DOS hosted a consultation of the 16 international partners participating in the International Space Station (ISS) program in July. The Partners

discussed the progress to date on the ISS and the way forward for completion of

the project.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

98
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

99

DEPARTMENT OF

ENERGY

DOE

The Department of Energy (DOE) continued to support NASA’s space exploration program by maintaining the infrastructure for producing radioisotope power

sources and heater units, as well as developing new, advanced power systems covering a range of power levels required to meet more stringent power systems

requirements for future missions. DOE initiated the preparation of the Final Safety

Analysis Report to support the launch approval process for the use of heater units

on the Mars 2003 missions. DOE competitively procured a systems contractor to

develop and demonstrate a Stirling power system, a high-efficiency dynamic

system for providing electrical power for potential use on such future missions as

the Mars Science Laboratory in 2009. DOE also initiated the procurement of a systems contractor to develop a multimission Radioisotope Thermoelectric

Generator (RTG) suitable for providing electrical power on the surface of Mars

and in the vacuum of deep space. Finally, DOE worked to produce an RTG to provide 285 watts of electrical power for potential use on a mission to Pluto and the

Kuiper Belt, scheduled for launch in 2006.

DOE worked to close out the Cape Canaveral Dense Nonaqueous Phase

Liquid project. At the end of the fiscal year, all the field work was done, and the

final reports were under review. The technologies tested are under consideration

for use at several other sites at Cape Canaveral and Patrick Air Force Base. The

follow-on work entails the development of guidance documents on the use of

source removal technologies. These will be interagency documents developed with

the regulatory community. DOE has also been working with NASA on cost-modeling issues as well. The ability to estimate cleanup costs for environmental

contamination cuts across all agencies, so DOE is working with NASA and DOD.

DOE has begun an effort to develop better monitoring methods and systems with
NASA for long-term stewardship of areas that have been remediated. Both agencies are concerned with the residual contamination and the impacts on adjacent

sites, and they are discussing better and cheaper methods to watch the areas for the

long term (in excess of 25 years).

In FY 2002, DOE’s Office of Science cooperated with NASA in a wide variety of activities, such as exploring the experimental techniques of fundamental

physics for use in outer space, using the science and technology plasma science to

devise new propulsion systems, undertaking joint efforts to understand 

atmospheric and environmental phenomena, and building a working partnership in

advanced computing research. The agencies carried out these activities under an

MOU signed by NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin and DOE Secretary James Watkins in 1992. 

Through an Implementing Arrangement with NASA signed in 1995, the

Office of Science continued in 2002 to build the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer

(AMS) for use on the International Space Station. The AMS is an international

experiment designed to use the unique environment of space to search for and

measure, with a much greater sensitivity than heretofore possible, various unusual

types of matter. AMS will study the properties and origin of cosmic particles and

nuclei including antimatter and dark matter. Discovering the presence of either

material will increase scientists’ understanding of the early universe and could

potentially lead to a clearer understanding of the actual origin of the universe.

Funding in FY 2002 was used to analyze data acquired during a 10-day Space

Shuttle flight in 1998 and to plan for an upcoming Shuttle flight to the

International Space Station in 2003.

DOE’s Office of Science and NASA’s Office of Space Science (OSS)

have worked together since FY 2000 to build the Large Area Telescope (LAT), the

primary instrument for NASA’s Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope mission,

currently scheduled for launch in 2006. An Implementing Arrangement was

signed in early 2002 for cooperation on the LAT project, which has continued in

FY 2002. This device, using the techniques of experimental particle physics

research, detects gamma rays emitted by the most energetic objects and phenomena in the universe. Stanford University and the Stanford Linear Accelerator

Center (SLAC) are responsible to the Office of Science and to NASA for overall

project direction. SLAC, a DOE facility at Stanford University, is responsible for

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

100
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

101 the overall management of the LAT project, the data acquisition system, the

tracker detector, software development, and assembly and integration of the complete instrument. Researchers funded by DOE’s Office of Science at the University

of California, Santa Cruz, are building the tracker detector. In conjunction with

NASA and international partners, DOE provided funding in FY 2002 for R&D,

design, and fabrication of the telescope.

The Office of Science continued to make available to NASA the

Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS), part of the Relativistic Heavy Ion

Collider (RHIC) complex at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). The AGS

is the only accelerator in the United States capable of providing heavy ion beams

at energies useful for space radiobiology. Since fall 1995, experiments in radiobiology have been performed using beams of iron, gold, or silicon ions from the AGS.

NASA funded these experiments as part of its Space Radiation Health Program.

A new NASA-funded facility, the Booster Applications Facility, is under construction at the RHIC complex. This new user facility, scheduled for completion

in 2003, is designed to continue NASA’s radiation biology studies more effectively,

specifically to serve as a radiation simulation facility for human space exploration.

The Office of Science and NASA continued working together to expand the

range of technical resources available for experimentation and the analysis of

experimental results at BNL.

Astrophysicists supported (in part) by the DOE Office of High Energy and

Nuclear Physics use the National Energy Research Scientific-computing Center

(NERSC), funded by the DOE Office of Advanced Scientific Computing

Research, to perform computer simulations and analysis of data. In 2002, this effort

produced the first three-dimensional simulation of an exploding supernova, the

first observation of asymmetric supernova explosions (using data collected by the

HST), and the first computer model of the spiraling merger of two black holes. 

Researchers at several DOE labs receive NASA support for their work. This

support includes an “early career” grant and astrophysics theory grant for an astrophysicist working on supernova modeling in NERSC at Lawrence Berkeley

National Laboratory (LBNL), as well as support for the cosmology and astrophysics

group at LBNL, which continued working in several areas of cosmic microwave

background research and technology development. NASA funds also supported

some members of the astrophysics theory group at Fermilab. In FY 2001 and
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

102 FY 2002, LBNL received funds from NASA under the Work For Others program

toward the development of charge coupled devices, which are used for optical

imaging in telescopes. Also in FY 2002, LBNL received NASA funds for scientific

analysis using data from the HST. These funds are based on the number of HST

orbits a researcher has been awarded.

Transfer of knowledge to NASA and NASA’s use of research capabilities

developed in the Fusion Energy Sciences program by the Office of Science continued in FY 2002 in a number of NASA-funded research activities with the

potential to revolutionize interplanetary space travel through the use of plasma

and fusion propulsion. The research activities were part of NASA’s Advanced

Space Transportation Program (ASTP), NASA’s activity in Revolutionary

Aerospace System Concepts (RASC), and NASA’s newly launched Nuclear

System Initiative (NSI). 

Researchers at DOE’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) were

funded by NASA to participate in a study led by NASA Glenn Research Center

on the potential of the spherical torus as an advanced form of fusion rocket with

propulsive power in excess of 8 gigawatts (GW). The spherical torus is being investigated by DOE’s Office of Science for magnetized fusion energy applications at

PPPL, and NASA is using PPPL facilities to perform some experiments pertinent

to space applications. 

Researchers at DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) were

funded by NASA to participate in research, led by NASA Marshall Space Flight

Center, that is investigating the feasibility of developing a very compact, lightweight fusion rocket based upon magnetized target fusion and with a power

capacity of about 1 GW. (DOE’s Office of Science continued investigating magnetized target fusion for fusion energy applications.) Three-dimensional

hydrodynamics computer codes and two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic computer codes, developed by LANL, were used by NASA in this research. Fusion

experts at the University of Wisconsin, funded by NASA, participated in the

RASC Group’s system study of the magnetized target fusion concept, led by

NASA Langley Research Center, for use in human missions to the outer planets.

The University of Wisconsin is a major research center funded by the Office of

Science for fusion energy applications. 
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

103 The two fusion rocket concepts based upon the spherical torus and the magnetized target fusion have the potential of reducing traveling times to the planets

by more than a factor of ten. 

PPPL researchers also worked on a high-power Hall thruster, a form of electric thruster, in FY 2002. The high-power Hall thruster has potential performance

levels that are relevant to NASA’s NSI to send advanced science missions to the

outer planets.

DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, PPPL, and NASA Johnson Space

Center continued to collaborate in FY 2002 on the development of an advanced

plasma rocket technology called the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma

Rocket, which could cut in half the time required to reach Mars. The technology

is potentially a precursor to fusion rockets based upon the magnetic mirror fusion

approach previously investigated in the Office of Science’s magnetic fusion program. A key to the technology is the capability to vary the plasma exhaust to

maintain optimal propulsive efficiency. 

PPPL worked on several other basic science projects for NASA in 2002.

These projects focused on magnetic reconnection and other work on ionospheric

and space-related plasma physics topics. The Magnetic Reconnection Experiment

(MRX) investigated the coupling between microscale reconnection layers and

global-forcing and plasma-topology evolution. The MRX team won the 2001

American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics award for excellence in

plasma research. The project to study the equilibrium magnetic field and current

of Earth’s magnetosphere studies realistic, three-dimensional structures of Earth’s

magnetic field; plasma currents; and plasma pressure, all in equilibrium, by solving

the force balance equation. One project was developing a model to describe magnetosphere/ionosphere coupling; another project was studying the onset

mechanism of substorms that occur in the near-Earth plasma sheet region.

The Office of Science and NASA worked together to calculate the daily

primary productivity of terrestrial ecosystems at diverse sites in North and Central

America. In FY 2002, the AmeriFlux Program of the Office of Science provided

real-time meteorological and solar radiation data for these calculations, and

NASA provided data on gross primary productivity and leaf area. This joint work

made possible continental-scale estimates of seasonal and geographic patterns of
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

104 productivity. The AmeriFlux program produced unique ground-based measurements of net ecosystem production from 16 locations across the United States.

These results provided an independent calibration of NASA’s productivity calculations based on data derived from remote sensing. 

The NASA Aqua Satellite was launched in May 2002. One of the instruments on board is the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS). The NASA AIRS

Instrument Team requires profiles of atmospheric thermodynamic variables in

order to validate the performance of the AIRS instrument. These data were provided by balloon launches from three Office of Science Atmospheric Radiation

Measurement (ARM) sites—Barrow, AK; Lamont, OK; and the Republic of

Nauru—all equipped for advanced radiosonde operations. Data from these soundings and from other ARM instruments are being used for development and testing

of AIRS water vapor retrievals.

The ARM program participated in the NASA Cirrus Regional Study of

Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers Florida Area Cirrus Experiment (CRYSTALFACE) field campaign. CRYSTAL-FACE was a complex airborne and spaceborne

science campaign exploring how cirrus clouds affect climate change. Results from

the project will also help create better weather forecasting models. In July 2002,

researchers supported by NASA and other agencies used six aircraft equipped with

state-of-the-art instruments to measure characteristics of clouds and their influence on Earth temperatures in the Florida region. Satellites and ground-based

instruments played an important role in the experiment. ARM provided the

ground-based measurements that complemented the multiple airborne measurements. Expected results are improved remote-sensing algorithms for estimating the

properties of cirrus clouds and a better understanding of the impact of cirrus clouds

on the energy budget. 

The Office of Science and NASA continued a close collaboration on the

development and implementation of climate models. Both agencies support a variety of activities associated with the Community Climate System Model. The

NASA Earth-System Modeling Framework project is coordinated with the Office

of Science Scientific Discovery Through Advanced Scientific Computing effort in

climate modeling to develop software frameworks and implement efficient software engineering practices for complex climate and Earth system models. DOE
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

105 researchers at ORNL and LANL are working with NASA staff at Goddard Space

Flight Center and Ames Research Center to evaluate and utilize next-generation

high-end computers for climate modeling.

The Office of Science’s Low Dose Radiation Research Program continued

to have an ongoing interaction with the Space Radiation Health Program in

NASA’s Office of Biological and Physical Research. The focus of research in the

Low Dose Radiation Research Program continued to be on doses of radiation that

are at or below current workplace exposure limits. The primary area of emphasis of

the NASA Space Radiation Health Program continued to be understanding the

biological effects of space radiation that cause radiation risks. In FY 2001, NASA

and DOE developed an MOA to better coordinate their common interests. This

close collaboration between NASA and DOE enhances progress in understanding

and predicting the effects and health risks resulting from low doses of radiation.

DOE and NASA also issued joint Requests for Applications in FY 2002 and 2003

for research that addresses both DOE and NASA needs to understand the human

health effects and risks of exposures to low doses of radiation.

In the computing area, the Office of Science and NASA continued their

collaboration on “Grids,” a way to connect geographically dispersed computer systems so that they can work together to solve science and engineering problems.

Two Office of Science laboratories, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

and the Argonne National Laboratory, set up experimental Grids with NASA

Ames Research Center in order to identify and resolve the technical and configuration issues that arise from cross-institutional operation of the authentication and

security infrastructure, and cross-operation of the directory services that form the

central information service for Grids. The Office of Science and NASA also conducted the Global Grid Forum, a technology definition and standards organization

that is providing an invaluable contribution to the field. 

In FY 2002, DOE initiated a new activity on programming models for scalable parallel computing in which NASA researchers are participating. This project

focuses on research, development, and deployment of software technology to support effective parallel programming models for tera-scale computing and beyond.

Developing applications for tera-scale systems is difficult; typical applications

achieve only a small fraction of peak performance. Advances in programming
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

106 models will shorten application development time by making parallel algorithms

easier to express and will improve application efficiency by matching the programming model more closely with the underlying systems. 

Many of the NASA-funded activities listed above entered the Department

of Energy through the Work For Others program. This program allows non-DOE

sponsors access to the Office of Science laboratories’ unique and specialized facilities and expertise. Other areas supported by NASA through this program include

research in the space radiation environment and its implications for human presence in space, aerogel-based materials, combustion under microgravity conditions,

the biological impact of solar and galactic cosmic radiation exposure on astronaut

health, and the genetic and epigenetic effects produced by high-energy heavy ions.
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

107

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

The Smithsonian Institution continued to contribute to national aerospace goals

through the activities of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), which

is joined with the Harvard College Observatory in Cambridge, MA, to form the

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Here, more than 300 scientists

engage in a broad program of research in astronomy, astrophysics, and science education. The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, also

contributed to national aerospace goals through its research and education activities.

SAO continues to control the science and flight operations of the Chandra

X-Ray Observatory from a control center in Cambridge, MA. The Chandra X-Ray

Observatory is one of NASA’s “great observatories” and, since its launch in 1999,

has made many significant discoveries about the high-energy universe. In FY 2002,

Chandra released its spectacular view of the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which

revealed hundreds of white dwarf stars, neutron stars, and black holes bathed in an

incandescent fog of multimillion-degree gas. Also in FY 2002, a movie created

from a series of Chandra and HST images made a big splash by showing how

matter is propelled nearly to the speed of light by the Crab pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star the size of Manhattan.

Using the HST, a team including SAO scientists discovered the atmosphere

of a planet orbiting another star in FY 2002. This accomplishment was possible

because the planet passes directly in front of its host star, causing some of the star’s

light to be absorbed by the planet’s atmosphere. Such studies open the future possibility of detecting Earth-sized worlds with atmospheres capable of supporting life.

Also in FY 2002, SAO astronomers using ground-based observations found signa-
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

108 tures of a planet forming in the dusty disk surrounding the nearby star Vega. They

also developed a model indicating that the periodic extreme dimming of Mira and

similar variable stars occurs because a chemical found in sunscreen forms in the

star’s atmosphere. Peering from a South Pole telescope into the heart of the Milky

Way, they found evidence that our galaxy will undergo a dramatic burst of star formation in about 300 million years.

Solar scientists at SAO continued to study the electrically charged atoms

(ions) that the Sun expels into the solar system. These ions occur in a steady, highspeed wind and in sudden bursts called coronal mass ejections. New observations

from SAO’s UltraViolet Coronagraph Spectrometer aboard the Solar and

Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft allowed scientists 1) to probe physical processes in the explosive coronal mass ejections that can have a strong

impact on Earth’s local space environment and 2) to observe, for the first time, the

properties of the sources of the high-speed solar wind as these sources re-form

during the reversal of the Sun’s magnetic polarity. These measurements are coordinated with other SOHO instruments, with the extreme ultraviolet images from

the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer satellite, and with hard x-ray images

from the Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager satellite. In FY 2002,

the Solar Physics group completed a Phase A definition study for the Advanced

Spectroscopic and Coronagraphic Explorer (ASCE), an Explorer-class satellite

designed to further investigate discoveries made by SOHO. ASCE is among four

projects chosen for Phase A studies from 35 proposals.

Construction of SAO’s Submillimeter Array (SMA) on Mauna Kea, HI,

being done in collaboration with the Academia Sinica of the Institute of

Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taiwan, continued to make good progress.

Scientists at the SMA achieved phase closure at a frequency of 690 gigahertz. This

achievement demonstrated the imaging capability of the Array at that frequency,

which is the highest ever used to obtain high-resolution radio interferometric

imaging. In FY 2002, the SMA observed a number of astrophysically interesting

targets and made unique measurements of them, including the Egg Nebula (a protoplanetary nebula formed of gas ejected from a dying star) and the black hole at

the center of the Milky Way galaxy. When completed, the eight antennas of the

SMA will function together to provide a resolution at submillimeter wavelengths

equal to the visible-light resolution of the HST.
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

109 The Science Education Department (SED) at the Center for Astrophysics

completed the 3-year design and construction of a new 5,000-square-foot museum

exhibit entitled “Cosmic Questions: Our Place in Space and Time.” This traveling

exhibition, which focuses on the theme that the story of the universe is the story

of us, opened in the Boston Museum of Science in September 2002. “Cosmic

Questions” was designed to engage the public and school audiences in high-quality content exploration. The exhibition was seen by 110,000 in its first 7 weeks.

Total attendance over the 5-year lifetime of the exhibit is expected to be 3 to 4

million visitors. Both the exhibition and the accompanying planetarium show

“Journey to the Edge of Space and Time” are rated “highly engaging” by visitors.

SED activities included the MicroObservatory Program, a curriculum of

investigations using online telescopes, which provides authentic inquiry for students and high-quality professional development for pre- and inservice teachers.

Using the MicroObservatory telescopes and the From the Ground UP! curriculum,

students can plan observations, take data, and share their results with other schools.

To date, the online telescope network and accompanying activities have been used

by 15,000 students in 30 States. In FY 2002, students took more than 30,000

images, and the program Web site reported approximately 400,000 unique visitors.

SED’s Science Media Group produced several television workshops and documentaries, ranging from a 30-minute special on science and sports to an eight-part

workshop for elementary teachers that examines the science of energy. Work also

began on new projects, including the three-part, 24-episode Essential Science for

Teachers workshop series. Additionally, the Science Media Group continued managing

the Annenberg/CPB Channel, a satellite/Web service broadcasting free, educational

programming nationwide for schools, colleges, and communities. The channel’s reach

has grown over the past year to 75,650 schools and 42 million households.

SAO continued to offer its popular Observatory Night lectures and telescope observing to the public on a monthly basis. In the spring of 2002, SAO held

six special events to observe a rare planetary alignment, offering visitors the opportunity to see every planet in the solar system on a single night. SAO also

continued to offer Children’s Night programs aimed at younger audiences and 

Sci-fi Movie Nights to explore the theme “Everything I learned about science, I

learned at the movies.”
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

110 Staff members in the Center for Earth & Planetary Studies (CEPS) at the

National Air and Space Museum continued to participate on the science teams of

several spacecraft missions in FY 2002. Dr. John Grant is a Co-Investigator for the

HiRISE High Resolution Imager on the 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and

he was selected to be a Participating Scientist on the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover

missions. Dr. Bruce Campbell is a member of the science team for the Shallow

Subsurface Sounding Radar on the 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and he is

the Principal Investigator (PI) on a proposal submitted to the Mars Scouts program

for a mission to orbit a Synthetic Aperture Radar system at Mars in 2007. Dr.

Thomas Watters is a science team member on the imaging team for MESSENGER,

a funded mission to orbit Mercury in 2009. CEPS staff were further involved in

planetary mission planning through co-chairing the Mars Landing Site Steering

Group and working on numerous NASA evaluation groups for various programs.

CEPS continued its active research program in planetary and terrestrial

geology and geophysics using remote-sensing data from Earth-orbiting satellites, as

well as piloted and unpiloted space missions. The scope of research activities

included work on Mercury, Venus, the Moon, and Mars, as well as corresponding

field studies in terrestrial analog regions. CEPS staff studied a variety of geologic

processes such as volcanism, impact cratering, tectonics, fluvial and pluvial

processes on early Mars, and sand transport and deposition on Earth and Mars.

As a NASA Regional Planetary Imagery Facility, CEPS continued to house

an extensive collection of images of the planets and their satellites. In addition,

CEPS staff participated in the development and presentation of exhibits and

public programs, including teacher workshops, special events, and outreach activities in the community. CEPS staff continued to be responsible for developing and

maintaining the National Air and Space Museum Web site, including innovative

online exhibit materials, interactive educational programs, research highlights,

and virtual tours of Museum galleries.
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

111

APPENDICES
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

112

APPENDIX A-1

U.S. Government Spacecraft Record

(Includes spacecraft from cooperating countries launched by U.S. launch vehicles.) 

Calendar Earth Orbita Earth Escapea

Year Success Failure Success Failure

1957 0 1 0 0

1958 5 8 0 4

1959 9 9 1 2

1960 16 12 1 2

1961 35 12 0 2

1962 55 12 4 1

1963 62 11 0 0

1964 69 8 4 0

1965 93 7 4 1

1966 94 12 7 1 b

1967 78 4 10 0

1968 61 15 3 0

1969 58 1 8 1

1970 36 1 3 0

1971 45 2 8 1

1972 33 2 8 0

1973 23 2 3 0

1974 27 2 1 0

1975 30 4 4 0

1976 33 0 1 0

1977 27 2 2 0

1978 34 2 7 0

1979 18 0 0 0

1980 16 4 0 0

1981 20 1 0 0

1982 21 0 0 0

1983 31 0 0 0

1984 35 3 0 0

1985 37 1 0 0

1986 11 4 0 0

1987 9 1 0 0

1988 16 1 0 0

1989 24 0 2 0

1990 40 0 1 0

1991 32 c 0 0 0

1992 26 c 0 1 0

1993 28 c 1 1 0

1994 31 c 1 1 0

1995 24 c, d 2 1 0

1996 30 1 3 0

1997 22 e 0 1 0

1998 23 0 2 0

1999 35 4 2 0

2000 31 f 0 0 0

2001 23 0 3 0

2002 (through September 30, 2002) 14 0 0 1 b

TOTAL 1,520 153 97 16

a. The criterion of success or failure used is attainment of Earth orbit or Earth escape rather than judgment of mission success. “Escape” flights

include all that were intended to go to at least an altitude equal to lunar distance from Earth.

b. This Earth-escape failure did attain Earth orbit and, therefore, is included in the Earth-orbit success totals.

c. This excludes commercial satellites. It counts separately spacecraft launched by the same launch vehicle.

d. This counts the five orbital debris radar calibration spheres that were launched from STS-63 as one set of spacecraft.

e. This includes the SSTI Lewis spacecraft that began spinning out of control shortly after it achieved Earth orbit.

f. Counts OCS, OPAL, FALCONSAT, and ASUSAT microsatellites as one set, and the Picosats 4–8 as another set.
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

113

APPENDIX A-2

World Record of Space Launches Successful

in Attaining Earth Orbit or Beyond

(Enumerates launches rather than spacecraft; some launches orbited multiple spacecraft.)

People’s European

Calendar United USSR/ Republic United Space

Year States CIS Francea Italya Japan of China Australia Kingdom Agency India Israel

1957 2

1958 5 1

1959 10 3

1960 16 3

1961 29 6

1962 52 20

1963 38 17

1964 57 30

1965 63 48 1

1966 73 44 1

1967 57 66 2 1 1

1968 45 74

1969 40 70

1970 28 81 2 1 b 1 1

1971 30 83 1 2 b 2 1 1

1972 30 74 1 1

1973 23 86

1974 22 81 2 b 1

1975 27 89 3123

1976 26 99 1 2

1977 24 98 2

1978 32 88 3 1

1979 16 87 2 1

1980 13 89 2 1

1981 18 98 3 1 2 1

1982 18 101 1 1

1983 22 98 3 1 2 1

1984 22 97 3 3 4

1985 17 98 2 1 3

1986 6 91 2 2 2

1987 8 95 3 2 2

1988 12 90 2 4 7

1989 17 74 2 7 1

1990 27 75 3 5 5 1

1991 20 c 62 2 1 9 1

1992 31 c 55 2 3 7 b 2

1993 24 c 45 1 1 7 b 

1994 26 c 49 2 5 6 b 2

1995 27 c 33 b 1 2 b 12 b 1

1996 32 c 25 1 3 d 10 1

1997 37 19 2 6 11 1

1998 36 25 2 6 11

1999 30 29 4 10 1

2000 29 36 5 12

2001 25 31 1 8 1

2002 14 15 2 2 11 1 1

(through September 30, 2002)

TOTAL 1,254 2,680 10 8 56 67 1 1 149 13 4

a. Since 1979, all launches for ESA member countries have been joint and are listed under ESA.

b. Includes foreign launches of U.S. spacecraft.

c. This includes commercial expendable launches and launches of the Space Shuttle, but because this table records launches rather than spacecraft, it does

not include separate spacecraft released from the Shuttle.

d. This includes the launch of ChinaSat 7, even though a third-stage rocket failure led to a virtually useless orbit for this communications satellite.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

114 APPENDIX B

Successful Launches to Orbit on U.S. Launch Vehicles

October 1, 2001–September 30, 2002

Launch Date Apogee and

Spacecraft Name Perigee (km),

COSPAR* Designation Period (min),

Launch Vehicle Mission Objectives Inclination to Equator (°) Remarks

Oct. 5, 2001 Military communications satellite Orbital parameters

USA 161 unknown

2001-44A

Titan 4B

Oct. 11, 2001 Military communications satellite Geosynchronous

USA 162

2001-46A

Atlas 2AS-Centaur

Oct. 18, 2001 Commercial imaging satellite 464 km

Quickbird 2 460 km

2001-47A 93.8 min

*Delta 2 97.2°

Dec. 5, 2001 ISS assembly 377 km

STS-108/Endeavour 353 km

2001-54A 92 min

Space Shuttle 51.6°

Dec. 7, 2001 Oceanographic satellite 1,340 km U.S.- French effort

Jason 1 1,328 km to supplement

2001-55A 112 min TOPEX/Poseidon

Delta 2 66° mission

Dec. 7, 2001 Scientific satellite 628 km Study of ionosphere

TIMED (Thermosphere, 627 km

Ionosphere, Mesosphere 97.3 min

Energetics and 74.1°

Dynamics)

2001-55B

Delta 2

Dec. 16, 2001 Educational microsatellite 389 km Built with

Starshine 2 361 km participation of

2001-54B 92.1 min 25,000 students in

Space Shuttle 51.6° 26 countries.

Launched from

Space Shuttle

Jan. 16, 2002 Military communications satellite Geosynchronous Part of Milstar 2

US 164 fleet

2002-1A

Titan 4B

Feb. 5, 2002 Scientific satellite 607 km Solar Flare

HESSI (High Energy 579 km Observatory

Solar Spectroscopic 96.5 min

Imager) 38°

2002-4A

Pegasus XL

*UN Committee on Space Research.
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

115

Feb. 11, 2002 Communications satellite Circular 5 additions to fleet

Iridium 90-91, 94-96 660 km altitude of 73 Iridium sats.

2002-5A-5E 98 min for global phone

*Delta 2 86.6° links

Feb. 21, 2002 Communications satellite Geosynchronous Direct to home

Echostar 7 video and data

2002-6A

*Atlas 3B

March 1, 2002 Hubble Space Telescope 578 km

STS-109/Columbia servicing mission #4. 486 km

2002-10A 95.3 min

Space Shuttle 28.5°

March 8, 2002 Communications satellite Intended

TDRS 9 geosynchronous

2002-11A 35,805 km

Atlas 2A 3,523 km

697 min

21.4°

April 8, 2002 ISS assembly 225 km Installation of the

STS-110/Atlantis 155 km S0 (S-Zero) Truss.

2002-18A 88.3 min

Space Shuttle 51.6°

May 4, 2002 Scientific satellite 686 km Study of global

Aqua (previously EOS 673 km water cycle

PM-1) 98.4 min

2002-22A 98.2°

Delta 2

June 5, 2002 ISS crew and supplies 387 km

STS-111/Endeavour 349 km

2002-28A 91.9 min

Space Shuttle 51.6°

June 15, 2002 Communications satellite Geosynchronous Internet and video

Galaxy 3C for subscribers

2002-30A

*Zenit 3SL/Sea Launch

June 24, 2002 Weather satellite 823 km

NOAA 17 807 km

2002-32A 101.2 min

Titan 2 98.8°

APPENDIX B

(Continued)

Successful Launches to Orbit on U.S. Launch Vehicles

October 1, 2001–September 30, 2002

Launch Date Apogee and

Spacecraft Name Perigee (km),

COSPAR Designation Period (min),

Launch Vehicle Mission Objectives Inclination to Equator (°) Remarks
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

116

July 3, 2002 Scientific spacecraft 394 km Presumed lost after

CONTOUR (Comet 377 km reaching Earth orbit.

Nucleus Tour) 92.3 min Intended to analyze

2002-34A 51.6° composition of comets.

Delta 2

Aug. 21, 2002 Communications satellite Geosynchronous Maiden flight of Atlas 5.

Hot Bird 6

2002-38A

*Atlas 5/Centaur

Sept.18, 2002 Communications satellite Geosynchronous Spanish satellite

Hispasat 1D providing Internet,

2002-44A video, and data.

*Atlas

2AS/Centaur

*Commercial launch licensed as such by the Federal Aviation Administration.

More launch data are available at http://ast.faa.gov/linfo_vsite/launch_info.cfm on the Web. 

APPENDIX B

(Continued)

Successful Launches to Orbit on U.S. Launch Vehicles

October 1, 2001–September 30, 2002

Launch Date Apogee and

Spacecraft Name Perigee (km),

COSPAR Designation Period (min),

Launch Vehicle Mission Objectives Inclination to Equator (°) Remarks
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

117 APPENDIX C

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–June 30, 2002

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(d:h:min)

Vostok 1 Apr. 12, 1961 Yury A. Gagarin 0:1:48 First human flight.

Mercury-Redstone 3 May 5, 1961 Alan B. Shepard, Jr. 0:0:15 First U.S. flight, suborbital.

Mercury-Redstone 4 July 21, 1961 Virgil I. Grissom 0:0:16 Suborbital; capsule sank after landing; 

astronaut safe.

Vostok 2 Aug. 6, 1961 German S. Titov 1:1:18 First flight exceeding 24 h.

Mercury-Atlas 6 Feb. 20, 1962 John H. Glenn, Jr. 0:4:55 First American to orbit.

Mercury-Atlas 7 May 24, 1962 M. Scott Carpenter 0:4:56 Landed 400 km beyond target.

Vostok 3 Aug. 11, 1962 Andriyan G. Nikolayev 3:22:25 First dual mission (with Vostok 4).

Vostok 4 Aug. 12, 1962 Pavel R. Popovich 2:22:59 Came within 6 km of Vostok 3.

Mercury-Atlas 8 Oct. 3, 1962 Walter M. Schirra, Jr. 0:9:13 Landed 8 km from target.

Mercury-Atlas 9 May 15, 1963 L. Gordon Cooper, Jr. 1:10:20 First U.S. flight exceeding 24 h.

Vostok 5 June 14, 1963 Valery F. Bykovskiy 4:23:6 Second dual mission (with Vostok 6).

Vostok 6 June 16, 1963 Valentina V. Tereshkova 2:22:50 First woman in space; within 5 km of Vostok 5.

Voskhod 1 Oct. 12, 1964 Vladimir M. Komarov 1:0:17 First three-person crew.

Konstantin P. Feoktistov

Boris G. Yegorov

Voskhod 2 Mar. 18, 1965 Pavel I. Belyayev 1:2:2 First extravehicular activity (EVA), by Leonov, 

Aleksey A. Leonov 10 min.

Gemini 3 Mar. 23, 1965 Virgil I. Grissom 0:4:53 First U.S. two-person flight; first manual 

John W. Young maneuvers in orbit.

Gemini 4 June 3, 1965 James A. McDivitt 4:1:56 21-min EVA (White).

Edward H. White II

Gemini 5 Aug. 21, 1965 L. Gordon Cooper, Jr. 7:22:55 Longest human flight to date.

Charles Conrad, Jr.

Gemini 7 Dec. 4, 1965 Frank Borman 13:18:35 Longest human flight to date.

James A. Lovell, Jr.

Gemini 6-A Dec. 15, 1965 Walter M. Schirra, Jr. 1:1:51 Rendezvous within 30 cm of Gemini 7.

Thomas P. Stafford

Gemini 8 Mar. 16, 1966 Neil A. Armstrong 0:10:41 First docking of two orbiting spacecraft

David R. Scott (Gemini 8 with Agena target rocket).

Gemini 9-A June 3, 1966 Thomas P. Stafford 3:0:21 EVA; rendezvous.

Eugene A. Cernan

Gemini 10 July 18, 1966 John W. Young 2:22:47 First dual rendezvous (Gemini 10 with 

Michael Collins Agena 10, then Agena 8).

Gemini 11 Sep. 12, 1966 Charles Conrad, Jr. 2:23:17 First initial-orbit docking; first tethered flight; 

Richard F. Gordon, Jr. highest Earth-orbit altitude (1,372 km).

Gemini 12 Nov. 11, 1966 James A. Lovell, Jr. 3:22:35 Longest EVA to date (Aldrin, 5 h.).

Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr.

Soyuz 1 Apr. 23, 1967 Vladimir M. Komarov 1:2:37 Cosmonaut killed in reentry accident.

Apollo 7 Oct. 11, 1968 Walter M. Schirra, Jr. 10:20:9 First U.S. three-person mission.

Donn F. Eisele

R. Walter Cunningham

Soyuz 3 Oct. 26, 1968 Georgiy T. Beregovoy 3:22:51 Maneuvered near uncrewed Soyuz 2.

Apollo 8 Dec. 21, 1968 Frank Borman 6:3:1 First human orbit(s) of Moon; first human 

James A. Lovell, Jr. departure from Earth’s sphere of influence; 

William A. Anders highest speed attained in human flight to date.

Soyuz 4 Jan. 14, 1969 Vladimir A. Shatalov 2:23:23 Soyuz 4 and 5 docked and transferred two 

Soyuz 5 Jan. 15, 1969 Boris V. Volynov 3:0:56 cosmonauts from Soyuz 5 to Soyuz 4.

Aleksey A. Yeliseyev

Yevgeniy V. Khrunov

Apollo 9 Mar. 3, 1969 James A. McDivitt 10:1:1 Successfully simulated (in Earth orbit) operation of 

David R. Scott Lunar Module to landing and takeoff from lunar 

Russell L. Schweickart surface and rejoining with command module. 
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

118 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–June 30, 2002

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(d:h:min)

Apollo 10 May 18, 1969 Thomas P. Stafford 8:0:3 Successfully demonstrated complete system, 

John W. Young including Lunar Module to 14,300 m from the 

Eugene A. Cernan lunar surface.

Apollo 11 July 16, 1969 Neil A. Armstrong 8:3:9 First human landing on lunar surface and safe 

Michael Collins return to Earth. First return of rock and soil 

Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr. samples to Earth and human deployment of 

experiments on lunar surface.

Soyuz 6 Oct. 11, 1969 Georgiy Shonin 4:22:42 Soyuz 6, 7, and 8 operated as a group flight 

Valery N. Kubasov without actually docking. Each conducted 

certain experiments, including welding and 

Earth and celestial observation.

Soyuz 7 Oct. 12, 1969 A. V. Filipchenko 4:22:41

Viktor N. Gorbatko

Vladislav N. Volkov

Soyuz 8 Oct. 13, 1969 Vladimir A. Shatalov 4:22:50

Aleksey S. Yeliseyev

Apollo 12 Nov. 14, 1969 Charles Conrad, Jr. 10:4:36 Second human lunar landing explored surface of 

Richard F. Gordon, Jr. Moon and retrieved parts of Surveyor 3 

Alan L. Bean spacecraft, which landed in Ocean of Storms 

on Apr. 19, 1967.

Apollo 13 Apr. 11, 1970 James A. Lovell, Jr. 5:22:55 Mission aborted; explosion in service module. 

Fred W. Haise, Jr. Ship circled Moon, with crew using Lunar 

John L. Swigert, Jr. Module as “lifeboat” until just before reentry. 

Soyuz 9 June 1, 1970 Andriyan G. Nikolayev 17:16:59 Longest human space flight to date.

Vitaliy I. Sevastyanov

Apollo 14 Jan. 31, 1971 Alan B. Shepard, Jr. 9:0:2 Third human lunar landing. Mission demonStuart A. Roosa strated pinpoint landing capability and 

Edgar D. Mitchell continued human exploration.

Soyuz 10 Apr. 22, 1971 Vladimir A. Shatalov 1:23:46 Docked with Salyut 1, but crew did not board 

Aleksey S. Yeliseyev space station launched Apr. 19. Crew 

Nikolay N. Rukavishnikov recovered Apr. 24, 1971.

Soyuz 11 June 6, 1971 Georgiy T. Dobrovolskiy 23:18:22 Docked with Salyut 1, and Soyuz 11 crew 

Vladislav N. Volkov occupied space station for 22 days. Crew 

Viktor I. Patsayev perished in final phase of Soyuz 11 capsule 

recovery on June 30, 1971.

Apollo 15 July 26, 1971 David R. Scott 12:7:12 Fourth human lunar landing and first Apollo “J” 

Alfred M. Worden series mission, which carried Lunar Roving 

James B. Irwin Vehicle. Worden’s in-flight EVA of 38 min, 

12 s was performed during return trip.

Apollo 16 Apr. 16, 1972 John W. Young 11:1:51 Fifth human lunar landing, with roving vehicle.

Charles M. Duke, Jr.

Thomas K. Mattingly II

Apollo 17 Dec. 7, 1972 Eugene A. Cernan 12:13:52 Sixth and final Apollo human lunar landing, 

Harrison H. Schmitt again with roving vehicle.

Ronald E. Evans

Skylab 2 May 25, 1973 Charles Conrad, Jr. 28:0:50 Docked with Skylab 1 (launched uncrewed May 

Joseph P. Kerwin 14) for 28 days. Repaired damaged station.

Paul J. Weitz

Skylab 3 July 28, 1973 Alan L. Bean 59:11:9 Docked with Skylab 1 for more than 59 days.

Jack R. Lousma

Owen K. Garriott

Soyuz 12 Sep. 27, 1973 Vasiliy G. Lazarev 1:23:16 Checkout of improved Soyuz.

Oleg G. Makarov
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

119 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–June 30, 2002

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(d:h:min)

Skylab 4 Nov. 16, 1973 Gerald P. Carr 84:1:16 Docked with Skylab 1 in long-duration mission; 

Edward G. Gibson last of Skylab program.

William R. Pogue

Soyuz 13 Dec. 18, 1973 Petr I. Klimuk 7:20:55 Astrophysical, biological, and Earth resources 

Valentin V. Lebedev experiments.

Soyuz 14 July 3, 1974 Pavel R. Popovich 15:17:30 Docked with Salyut 3; Soyuz 14 crew 

Yury P. Artyukhin occupied space station.

Soyuz 15 Aug. 26, 1974 Gennady V. Sarafanov 2:0:12 Rendezvoused but did not dock with Salyut 3.

Lev S. Demin

Soyuz 16 Dec. 2, 1974 Anatoly V. Filipchenko 5:22:24 Test of Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) 

Nikolay N. Rukavishnikov configuration.

Soyuz 17 Jan. 10, 1975 Aleksey A. Gubarev 29:13:20 Docked with Salyut 4 and occupied station.

Georgiy M. Grechko

Soyuz 18A (Anomaly) Apr. 5, 1975 Vasiliy G. Lazarev 0:0:20 Soyuz stages failed to separate; crew recovered 

Oleg G. Makarov after abort.

Soyuz 18 May 24, 1975 Petr I. Klimuk 62:23:20 Docked with Salyut 4 and occupied station.

Vitaliy I. Sevastyanov

Soyuz 19 July 15, 1975 Aleksey A. Leonov 5:22:31 Target for Apollo in docking and joint 

Valery N. Kubasov experiments of ASTP mission.

Apollo July 15, 1975 Thomas P. Stafford 9:1:28 Docked with Soyuz 19 in joint (ASTP) 

Donald K. Slayton experiments of ASTP mission.

Vance D. Brand

Soyuz 21 July 6, 1976 Boris V. Volynov 48:1:32 Docked with Salyut 5 and occupied station.

Vitaliy M. Zholobov

Soyuz 22 Sep. 15, 1976 Valery F. Bykovskiy 7:21:54 Earth resources study with multispectral camera 

Vladimir V. Aksenov system.

Soyuz 23 Oct. 14, 1976 Vyacheslav D. Zudov 2:0:6 Failed to dock with Salyut 5.

Valery I. Rozhdestvenskiy

Soyuz 24 Feb. 7, 1977 Viktor V. Gorbatko 17:17:23 Docked with Salyut 5 and occupied station.

Yury N. Glazkov

Soyuz 25 Oct. 9, 1977 Vladimir V. Kovalenok 2:0:46 Failed to achieve hard dock with Salyut 6 

Valery V. Ryumin station.

Soyuz 26 Dec. 10, 1977 Yury V. Romanenko 37:10:6 Docked with Salyut 6. Crew returned in 

Georgiy M. Grechko Soyuz 27; crew duration 96 d, 10 h.

Soyuz 27 Jan. 10, 1978 Vladimir A. Dzhanibekov 64:22:53 Docked with Salyut 6. Crew returned in 

Oleg G. Makarov Soyuz 26; crew duration 5 d, 22 h, 59 min.

Soyuz 28 Mar. 2, 1978 Aleksey A. Gubarev 7:22:17 Docked with Salyut 6. Remek was first Czech 

Vladimir Remek cosmonaut to orbit.

Soyuz 29 June 15, 1978 Vladimir V. Kovalenok 9:15:23 Docked with Salyut 6. Crew returned in Soyuz 31; 

Aleksandr S. Ivanchenkov crew duration 139 d, 14 h, 48 min.

Soyuz 30 June 27, 1978 Petr I. Klimuk 7:22:4 Docked with Salyut 6. Hermaszewski was first 

Miroslaw Hermaszewski Polish cosmonaut to orbit.

Soyuz 31 Aug. 26, 1978 Valery F. Bykovskiy 67:20:14 Docked with Salyut 6. Crew returned in Soyuz 29; 

Sigmund Jaehn crew duration 7 d, 20 h, 49 min. 

Jaehn was first German Democratic Republic 

cosmonaut to orbit.

Soyuz 32 Feb. 25, 1979 Vladimir A. Lyakhov 108:4:24 Docked with Salyut 6. Crew returned in Soyuz 34; 

Valery V. Ryumin crew duration 175 d, 36 min.

Nikolay N. Rukavishnikov

Soyuz 33 Apr. 10, 1979 Georgi I. Ivanov 1:23:1 Failed to achieve docking with Salyut 6 station. 

Ivanov was first Bulgarian cosmonaut to orbit.

Soyuz 34 June 6, 1979 (unmanned at launch) 7:18:17 Docked with Salyut 6, later served as ferry for 

Soyuz 32 crew while Soyuz 32 returned 

without a crew.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

120 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–June 30, 2002

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(d:h:min)

Soyuz 35 Apr. 9, 1980 Leonid I. Popov 55:1:29 Docked with Salyut 6. Crew returned in Soyuz 37. 

Valery V. Ryumin Crew duration 184 d, 20 h, 12 min.

Soyuz 36 May 26, 1980 Valery N. Kubasov 65:20:54 Docked with Salyut 6. Crew returned in Soyuz 35. 

Bertalan Farkas Crew duration 7 d, 20 h, 46 min. 

Farkas was first Hungarian to orbit.

Soyuz T-2 June 5, 1980 Yury V. Malyshev 3:22:21 Docked with Salyut 6. First crewed flight of newVladimir V. Aksenov generation ferry.

Soyuz 37 July 23, 1980 Viktor V. Gorbatko 79:15:17 Docked with Salyut 6. Crew returned in Soyuz 36. 

Pham Tuan Crew duration 7 d, 20 h, 42 min. 

Pham was first Vietnamese to orbit.

Soyuz 38 Sep. 18, 1980 Yury V. Romanenko 7:20:43 Docked with Salyut 6. Tamayo was first Cuban 

Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez to orbit.

Soyuz T-3 Nov. 27, 1980 Leonid D. Kizim 12:19:8 Docked with Salyut 6. First three-person flight 

Oleg G. Makarov in Soviet program since 1971.

Gennady M. Strekalov

Soyuz T-4 Mar. 12, 1981 Vladimir V. Kovalenok 74:18:38 Docked with Salyut 6.

Viktor P. Savinykh

Soyuz 39 Mar. 22, 1981 Vladimir A. Dzhanibekov 7:20:43 Docked with Salyut 6. Gurragcha first Mongolian 

Jugderdemidiyn Gurragcha cosmonaut to orbit.

Space Shuttle Apr. 12, 1981 John W. Young 2:6:21 First flight of Space Shuttle; tested spacecraft in 

Columbia (STS-1) Robert L. Crippen orbit. First landing of airplane-like craft from

orbit for reuse.

Soyuz 40 May 14, 1981 Leonid I. Popov 7:20:41 Docked with Salyut 6. Prunariu first Romanian 

Dumitru Prunariu cosmonaut to orbit.

Space Shuttle Nov. 12, 1981 Joe H. Engle 2:6:13 Second flight of Space Shuttle; first scientific 

Columbia (STS-2) Richard H. Truly payload (OSTA 1). Tested remote manipulator 

arm. Returned for reuse.

Space Shuttle Mar. 22, 1982 Jack R. Lousma 8:0:5 Third flight of Space Shuttle; second scientific 

Columbia (STS-3) C. Gordon Fullerton payload (OSS 1). Second test of remote 

manipulator arm. Flight extended 1 day 

because of flooding at primary landing site; 

alternate landing site used. Returned for reuse.

Soyuz T-5 May 13, 1982 Anatoly Berezovoy 211:9:5 Docked with Salyut 7. Crew duration of 211 d. 

Valentin Lebedev Crew returned in Soyuz T-7.

Soyuz T-6 June 24, 1982 Vladimir Dzhanibekov 7:21:51 Docked with Salyut 7. Chrétien first French 

Aleksandr Ivanchenkov cosmonaut to orbit.

Jean-Loup Chrétien

Space Shuttle June 27, 1982 Thomas K. Mattingly II 7:1:9 Fourth flight of Space Shuttle; first DOD payload; 

Columbia (STS-4) Henry W. Hartsfield, Jr. additional scientific payloads. Returned July 4. 

Completed testing program. Returned for reuse.

Soyuz T-7 Aug. 19, 1982 Leonid Popov 7:21:52 Docked with Salyut 7. Savitskaya second woman

Aleksandr Serebrov to orbit. Crew returned in Soyuz T-5.

Svetlana Savitskaya

Space Shuttle Nov. 11, 1982 Vance D. Brand 5:2:14 Fifth flight of Space Shuttle; first operational 

Columbia (STS-5) Robert F. Overmyer flight; launched two commercial satellites 

Joseph P. Allen (SBS 3 and Anik C-3); first flight with four 

William B. Lenoir crewmembers. EVA test canceled when 

spacesuits malfunctioned.

Space Shuttle Apr. 4, 1983 Paul J. Weitz 5:0:24 Sixth flight of Space Shuttle; launched TDRS-1.

Challenger (STS-6) Karol J. Bobko

Donald H. Peterson

F. Story Musgrave
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

APPENDIX C 121

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–June 30, 2002

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(d:h:min)

Soyuz T-8 Apr. 20, 1983 Vladimir Titov 2:0:18 Failed to achieve docking with Salyut 7 station.

Gennady Strekalov

Aleksandr Serebrov

Space Shuttle June 18, 1983 Robert L. Crippen 6:2:24 Seventh flight of Space Shuttle; launched two 

Challenger (STS-7) Frederick H. Hauck commercial satellites (Anik C-2 and Palapa 

John M. Fabian B-1); also launched and retrieved SPAS 01; 

Sally K. Ride first flight with five crew members, including 

Norman T. Thagard first female U.S. astronaut.

Soyuz T-9 June 28, 1983 Vladimir Lyakhov 149:9:46 Docked with Salyut 7 station.

Aleksandr Aleksandrov

Space Shuttle Aug. 30, 1983 Richard H. Truly 6:1:9 Eighth flight of Space Shuttle; launched one 

Challenger (STS-8) Daniel C. Brandenstein commercial satellite (Insat 1-B); first flight of 

Dale A. Gardner U.S. Black astronaut.

Guion S. Bluford, Jr.

William E. Thornton

Space Shuttle Nov. 28, 1983 John W. Young 10:7:47 Ninth flight of Space Shuttle; first flight of 

Columbia (STS-9) Brewster W. Shaw Spacelab 1; first flight of six crewmembers, 

Owen K. Garriott one of whom was West German; Merbold was 

Robert A.R. Parker first non-U.S. astronaut to fly in U.S. space 

Byron K. Lichtenberg program.

Ulf Merbold

Space Shuttle Feb. 3, 1984 Vance D. Brand 7:23:16 Tenth flight of Space Shuttle; two communicaChallenger Robert L. Gibson tion satellites failed to achieve orbit; first 

(STS 41-B) Bruce McCandless use of Manned Maneuvering Unit in space.

Ronald E. McNair

Robert L. Stewart

Soyuz T-10 Feb. 8, 1984 Leonid Kizim 62:22:43 Docked with Salyut 7 station. Crew set space 

Vladimir Solovev duration record of 237 d. Crew returned

Oleg Atkov in Soyuz T-11.

Soyuz T-11 Apr. 3, 1984 Yury Malyshev 181:21:48 Docked with Salyut 7 station. Sharma first 

Gennady Strekalov Indian in space. Crew returned in 

Rakesh Sharma Soyuz T-10.

Space Shuttle Apr. 6, 1984 Robert L. Crippen 6:23:41 Eleventh flight of Space Shuttle; deployment of 

Challenger Francis R. Scobee Long-Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF-1) 

(STS 41-C) Terry J. Hart for later retrieval; Solar Maximum Satellite 

George D. Nelson retrieved, repaired, and redeployed.

James D. van Hoften

Soyuz T-12 July 17, 1984 Vladimir Dzhanibekov 11:19:14 Docked with Salyut 7 station. First EVA

Svetlana Savistskaya by a woman.

Igor Volk

Space Shuttle Aug. 30, 1984 Henry W. Hartsfield 6:0:56 Twelfth flight of Space Shuttle. First flight of 

Discovery Michael L. Coats U.S. nonastronaut.

(STS 41-D) Richard M. Mullane

Steven A. Hawley

Judith A. Resnik

Charles D. Walker

Space Shuttle Oct. 5, 1984 Robert L. Crippen 8:5:24 Thirteenth flight of Space Shuttle; first with 

Challenger Jon A. McBride seven crewmembers, including first flight 

(STS 41-G) Kathryn D. Sullivan of two U.S. women and one Canadian 

Sally K. Ride (Garneau).

David Leestma

Paul D. Scully-Power

Marc Garneau
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

122 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–June 30, 2002

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(d:h:min)

Space Shuttle Nov. 8, 1984 Frederick H. Hauck 7:23:45 Fourteenth flight of Space Shuttle; first retrieval 

Discovery David M. Walker and return of two disabled communications 

(STS 51-A) Joseph P. Allen satellites (Westar 6, Palapa B2) to Earth.

Anna L. Fisher

Dale A. Gardner

Space Shuttle Jan. 24, 1985 Thomas K. Mattingly 3:1:33 Fifteenth STS flight. Dedicated DOD mission.

Discovery Loren J. Shriver

(STS 51-C) Ellison S. Onizuka

James F. Buchli

Gary E. Payton

Space Shuttle Apr. 12, 1985 Karol J. Bobko 6:23:55 Sixteenth STS flight. Two communications 

Discovery Donald E. Williams satellites. First U.S. Senator in space (Garn).

(STS 51-D) M. Rhea Seddon

S. David Griggs

Jeffrey A. Hoffman

Charles D. Walker

E.J. Garn

Space Shuttle Apr. 29, 1985 Robert F. Overmyer 7:0:9 Seventeenth STS flight. Spacelab-3 in cargo bay 

Challenger Frederick D. Gregory of Shuttle. 

(STS 51-B) Don L. Lind

Norman E. Thagard

William E. Thornton

Lodewijk van den Berg

Taylor Wang

Soyuz T-13 June 5, 1985 Vladimir Dzhanibekov 112:3:12 Repair of Salyut-7. Dzhanibekov returned to 

Viktor Savinykh Earth with Grechko on Soyuz T-13 spacecraft, 

Sept. 26, 1985.

Space Shuttle June 17, 1985 Daniel C. Brandenstein 7:1:39 Eighteenth STS flight. Three communications 

Discovery John O. Creighton satellites. One reusable payload, Spartan-1. 

(STS 51-G) Shannon W. Lucid First U.S. flight with French and Saudi 

John M. Fabian Arabian crew members.

Steven R. Nagel

Patrick Baudry

Prince Sultan Salman Al-Saud

Space Shuttle July 29, 1985 Charles G. Fullerton 7:22:45 Nineteenth STS flight. Spacelab-2 in cargo bay.

Challenger Roy D. Bridges

(STS 51-F) Karl C. Henize

Anthony W. England

F. Story Musgrave

Loren W. Acton

John-David F. Bartoe

Space Shuttle Aug. 27, 1985 Joe H. Engle 7:2:18 Twentieth STS flight. Launched three communiDiscovery Richard O. Covey cations satellites. Repaired Syncom IV-3.

(STS 51-I) James D. van Hoften

William F. Fisher

John M. Lounge

Soyuz T-14 Sep. 17, 1985 Vladimir Vasyutin 64:21:52 Docked with Salyut 7 station. Viktor Savinykh, 

Georgiy Grechko Aleksandr Volkov, and Vladimir Vasyutin 

Aleksandr Volkov returned to Earth Nov. 21, 1985, when 

Vasyutin became ill.

Space Shuttle Oct. 3, 1985 Karol J. Bobko 4:1:45 Twenty-first STS flight. Dedicated DOD

Atlantis Ronald J. Grabe mission.

(STS 51-J) Robert L. Stewart

David C. Hilmers

William A. Pailes
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

123 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–June 30, 2002

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(d:h:min)

Space Shuttle Oct. 30, 1985 Henry W. Hartsfield 7:0:45 Twenty-second STS flight. Dedicated German 

Challenger Steven R. Nagel Spacelab D-1 in Shuttle cargo bay. 

(STS 61-A) Bonnie J. Dunbar

James F. Buchli

Guion S. Bluford, Jr.

Ernst Messerschmid

Reinhard Furrer 

Wubbo J. Ockels 

Space Shuttle Nov. 26, 1985 Brewster H. Shaw 6:21:4 Twenty-third STS flight. Launched three comAtlantis Bryan D. O’Connor munications satellites. First flight of Mexican 

(STS 61-B) Mary L. Cleave astronaut (Neri Vela).

Sherwood C. Spring

Jerry L. Ross

Rudolfo Neri Vela

Charles D. Walker

Space Shuttle Jan. 12, 1986 Robert L. Gibson 6:2:4 Twenty-fourth STS flight. Launched one comColumbia Charles F. Bolden, Jr. munications satellite. First member of U.S. 

(STS 61-C) Franklin Chang-Díaz House of Representatives in space (Bill

Steve A. Hawley Nelson).

George D. Nelson

Robert Cenker

Bill Nelson

Soyuz T-15 Mar. 13, 1986 Leonid Kizim 125:1:1 Docked with Mir space station on May 5/6,

Vladimir Solovyov transferred to Salyut 7 complex. On June 

25/26, transferred from Salyut 7 back to Mir.

Soyuz TM-2 Feb. 5, 1987 Yury Romanenko 174:3:26 Docked with Mir space station. Romanenko 

Aleksandr Laveykin established record of 326 days for longdistance stay in space.

Soyuz TM-3 July 22, 1987 Aleksandr Viktorenko 160:7:16 Docked with Mir space station. Aleksandr 

Aleksandr Aleksandrov Aleksandrov remained in Mir 160 days; 

Mohammed Faris returned with Yury Romanenko. Viktorenko 

and Faris returned in Soyuz TM-2 on July 30 

with Aleksandr Laveykin, who experienced 

medical problems. Faris first Syrian in space.

Soyuz TM-4 Dec. 21, 1987 Vladimir Titov 180:5 Docked with Mir space station. Crew of Yury 

Musa Manarov Romanenko, Aleksandr Aleksandrov, and 

Anatoly Levchenko Anatoly Levchenko returned Dec. 29 in

Soyuz TM-3.

Soyuz TM-5 June 7, 1988 Viktor Savinykh 9:20:13 Docked with Mir space station. Crew returned

Anatoly Solovyev June 17 in Soyuz TM-4.

Aleksandr Aleksandrov

Soyuz TM-6 Aug. 29, 1988 Vladimir Lyakhov 8:19:27 Docked with Mir space station; Mohmand first 

Valery Polyakov Afghanistani in space. Crew returned Sep. 7 

Abdul Mohmand in Soyuz TM-5.

Space Shuttle Sep. 29, 1988 Frederick H. Hauck 4:1 Twenty-sixth STS flight. Launched TDRS-3.

Discovery Richard O. Covey

(STS-26) John M. Lounge

David C. Hilmers

George D. Nelson

Soyuz TM-7 Nov. 26, 1988 Aleksandr Volkov 151:11 Docked with Mir space station. Soyuz TM-6 

Sergei Krikalev returned with Chrétien, Vladimir Titov, 

Jean-Loup Chrétien and Musa Manarov. Titov and Manarov 

completed 366-d mission on Dec. 21. Crew of

Krikalev, Volkov, and Valery Polyakov 

returned Apr. 27, 1989, in Soyuz TM-7.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

124 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–June 30, 2002

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(d:h:min)

Space Shuttle Dec. 2, 1988 Robert “Hoot” Gibson 4:9:6 Twenty-seventh STS flight. Dedicated DOD 

Atlantis (STS-27) Guy S. Gardner mission.

Richard M. Mullane

Jerry L. Ross

William M. Shepherd

Space Shuttle Mar. 13, 1989 Michael L. Coats 4:23:39 Twenty-eighth STS flight. Launched TDRS-4. 

Discovery (STS-29) John E. Blaha

James P. Bagian

James F. Buchli

Robert C. Springer

Space Shuttle May 4, 1989 David M. Walker 4:0:57 Twenty-ninth STS flight. Venus orbiter 

Atlantis (STS-30) Ronald J. Grabe Magellan launched.

Norman E. Thagard

Mary L. Cleave

Mark C. Lee

Space Shuttle Aug. 8, 1989 Brewster H. Shaw 5:1:0 Thirtieth STS flight. Dedicated DOD mission.

Columbia (STS-28) Richard N. Richards

James C. Adamson

David C. Leestma

Mark N. Brown

Soyuz TM-8 Sep. 5, 1989 Aleksandr Viktorenko 166:6:46 Docked with Mir space station. Crew of 

Aleksandr Serebrov Viktorenko and Serebrov returned in 

Soyuz TM-8 on Feb. 9, 1990.

Space Shuttle Oct. 18, 1989 Donald E. Williams 4:23:39 Thirty-first STS flight. Launched Jupiter probe 

Atlantis (STS-34) Michael J. McCulley and orbiter Galileo. 

Shannon W. Lucid

Franklin R. Chang-Díaz 

Ellen S. Baker

Space Shuttle Nov. 22, 1989 Frederick D. Gregory 5:0:7 Thirty-second STS flight. Dedicated DOD 

Discovery (STS-33) John E. Blaha mission.

Kathryn C. Thornton 

F. Story Musgrave 

Manley L. “Sonny” Carter

Space Shuttle Jan. 9, 1990 Daniel C. Brandenstein 10:21:0 Thirty-third STS flight. Launched Syncom IV-5 

Columbia (STS-32) James D. Wetherbee and retrieved LDEF.

Bonnie J. Dunbar

Marsha S. Ivins

G. David Low

Soyuz TM-9 Feb. 11, 1990 Anatoly Solovyov 178:22:19 Docked with Mir space station. Crew returned 

Aleksandr Balandin Aug. 9, 1990, in Soyuz TM-9.

Space Shuttle Feb. 28, 1990 John O. Creighton 4:10:19 Thirty-fourth STS flight. Dedicated DOD 

Atlantis (STS-36) John H. Casper mission. 

David C. Hilmers

Richard H. Mullane

Pierre J. Thuot

Space Shuttle Apr. 24, 1990 Loren J. Shriver 5:1:16 Thirty-fifth STS flight. Launched Hubble Space 

Discovery (STS-31) Charles F. Bolden, Jr. Telescope (HST). 

Steven A. Hawley

Bruce McCandless II

Kathryn D. Sullivan

Soyuz TM-10 Aug. 1, 1990 Gennady Manakov 130:20:36 Docked with Mir space station. Crew returned 

Gennady Strekalov Dec. 10, 1990, with Toyohiro Akiyama, 

Japanese cosmonaut and journalist in space.

See listing for Soyuz TM-11.
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

125 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–June 30, 2002

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(d:h:min)

Space Shuttle Oct. 6, 1990 Richard N. Richards 4:2:10 Thirty-sixth STS flight. Ulysses spacecraft to 

Discovery (STS-41) Robert D. Cabana investigate interstellar space and the Sun. 

Bruce E. Melnick

William M. Shepherd

Thomas D. Akers

Space Shuttle Nov. 15, 1990 Richard O. Covey 4:21:55 Thirty-seventh STS flight. Dedicated DOD 

Atlantis (STS-38) Frank L. Culbertson, Jr. mission.

Charles “Sam” Gemar

Robert C. Springer

Carl J. Meade

Space Shuttle Dec. 2, 1990 Vance D. Brand 8:23:5 Thirty-eighth STS flight. Astro-1 in cargo bay.

Columbia (STS-35) Guy S. Gardner

Jeffrey A. Hoffman

John M. “Mike” Lounge

Robert A.R. Parker

Samuel T. Durrance

Ronald A. Parise

Soyuz TM-11 Dec. 2, 1990 Viktor Afanasyev 175:1:52 Docked with Mir space station. Toyohiro 

Musa Manarov Akiyama returned Dec. 10, 1990, with 

Toyohiro Akiyama previous Mir crew of Gennady Manakov 

and Gennady Strekalov.

Space Shuttle Apr. 5, 1991 Steven R. Nagel 6:0:32 Thirty-ninth STS flight. Launched Gamma Ray 

Atlantis (STS-37) Kenneth D. Cameron Observatory to measure celestial gamma rays.

Linda Godwin

Jerry L. Ross

Jay Apt

Space Shuttle Apr. 28, 1991 Michael L. Coats 8:7:22 Fortieth STS flight. Dedicated DOD mission.

Discovery (STS-39) Blaine Hammond, Jr.

Gregory L. Harbaugh

Donald R. McMonagle

Guion S. Bluford, Jr.

Lacy Veach

Richard J. Hieb

Soyuz TM-12 May 18, 1991 Anatoly Artsebarskiy 144:15:22 Docked with Mir space station. Helen Sharman 

Sergei Krikalev first from United Kingdom to fly in space. 

Helen Sharman Crew of Viktor Afanasyev, Musa Manarov, 

and Helen Sharman returned May 20, 1991. 

Artsebarskiy and Krikalev remained aboard 

Mir, with Artsebarskiy returning Oct. 10, 1991, 

and Krikalev doing so Mar. 25, 1992.

Space Shuttle June 5, 1991 Bryan D. O’Connor 9:2:15 Forty-first STS flight. Carried Spacelab Life 

Columbia (STS-40) Sidney M. Gutierrez Sciences (SLS-1) in cargo bay.

James P. Bagian

Tamara E. Jernigan

M. Rhea Seddon

Francis A. “Drew” Gaffney

Millie Hughes-Fulford

Space Shuttle Aug. 2, 1991 John E. Blaha 8:21:21 Forty-second STS flight. Launched fourth 

Atlantis (STS-43) Michael A. Baker Tracking and Data Relay Satellite 

Shannon W. Lucid (TDRS-5).

G. David Low

James C. Adamson

Space Shuttle Sep. 12, 1991 John Creighton 5:8:28 Forty-third STS flight. Launched Upper 

Discovery (STS-48) Kenneth Reightler, Jr. Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS).

Charles D. Gemar

James F. Buchli

Mark N. Brown
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

126 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–June 30, 2002

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(d:h:min)

Soyuz TM-13 Oct. 2, 1991 Aleksandr Volkov 90:16:00 Docked with Mir space station. Crew returned 

Toktar Aubakirov Oct. 10, 1991, with Anatoly Artsebarskiy

Franz Viehboeck in the TM-12 spacecraft.

Space Shuttle Nov. 24, 1991 Frederick D. Gregory 6:22:51 Forty-fourth STS flight. Launched Defense 

Atlantis (STS-44) Tom Henricks Support Program (DSP) satellite.

Jim Voss

F. Story Musgrave

Mario Runco, Jr.

Tom Hennen

Space Shuttle Jan. 22, 1992 Ronald J. Grabe 8:1:15 Forty-fifth STS flight. Carried International 

Discovery (STS-42) Stephen S. Oswald Microgravity Laboratory-1 in cargo bay.

Norman E. Thagard

David C. Hilmers

William F. Readdy

Roberta L. Bondar

Ulf Merbold 

Soyuz TM-14 Mar. 17, 1992 Aleksandr Viktorenko 145:15:11 First piloted CIS space mission. Docked with 

Aleksandr Kaleri Mir space station on Mar. 19. The TM-13 

Klaus-Dietrich Flade capsule with Flade, Aleksandr Volkov, and 

Sergei Krikalev returned to Earth on Mar. 25. 

Krikalev had been in space 313 d.

Viktorenko and Kaleri remained on the 

Mir space station.

Space Shuttle Mar. 24, 1992 Charles F. Bolden 8:22:9 Forty-sixth STS flight. Carried Atmospheric 

Atlantis (STS-45) Brian Duffy Laboratory for Applications and Science 

Kathryn D. Sullivan (ATLAS-1).

David C. Leestma

Michael Foale

Dirk D. Frimout

Byron K. Lichtenberg

Space Shuttle May 7, 1992 Daniel C. Brandenstein 8:21:18 Forty-seventh STS flight. Reboosted a crippled 

Endeavour (STS-49) Kevin P. Chilton INTELSAT VI communications satellite.

Richard J. Hieb

Bruce E. Melnick

Pierre J. Thuot

Kathryn C. Thornton

Thomas D. Akers

Space Shuttle June 25, 1992 Richard N. Richards 13:19:30 Forty-eighth STS flight. Carried U.S. 

Columbia (STS-50) Kenneth D. Bowersox Microgravity Laboratory-1.

Bonnie Dunbar

Ellen Baker

Carl Meade

Lawrence J. DeLucas

Eugene H. Trinh

Soyuz TM-15 July 27, 1992 Anatoly Solovyov 189:17:43 Docked with Mir space station July 29. Tognini 

Sergei Avdeyev returned to Earth in TM-14 capsule with 

Michel Tognini Aleksandr Viktorenko and Aleksandr Kaleri. 

Solovyov and Avdeyev spent over six months 

in the Mir orbital complex and returned to 

Earth in the descent vehicle of the TM-15 

spacecraft on Feb. 1, 1993. 
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

127 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–June 30, 2002

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(d:h:min)

Space Shuttle July 31, 1992 Loren J. Shriver 7:23:16 Forty-ninth STS flight. Deployed Tethered 

Atlantis (STS-46) Andrew M. Allen Satellite System-1 and Eureca 1.

Claude Nicollier 

Marsha S. Ivins

Jeffrey A. Hoffman

Franklin R. Chang-Díaz

Franco Malerba 

Space Shuttle Sep. 12, 1992 Robert L. Gibson 7:22:30 Fiftieth STS flight. Carried Spacelab J. Jemison 

Endeavour (STS-47) Curtis L. Brown, Jr. first African American woman to fly in

Mark C. Lee space. Mohri first Japanese to fly on NASA 

Jerome Apt spacecraft. Lee and Davis first married couple 

N. Jan Davis in space together.

Mae C. Jemison

Mamoru Mohri 

Space Shuttle Oct. 22, 1992 James D. Wetherbee 9:20:57 Fifty-first STS flight. Studied influence of 

Columbia (STS-52) Michael A. Baker gravity on basic fluid and solidification 

William M. Shepherd processes using U.S. Microgravity 

Tamara E. Jernigan Payload-1 in an international mission. 

Charles L. Veach Deployed second Laser Geodynamics Satellite 

Steven G. MacLean and Canadian Target Assembly.

Space Shuttle Dec. 2, 1992 David M. Walker 7:7:19 Fifty-second STS flight. Deployed the last major 

Discovery (STS-53) Robert D. Cabana DOD classified payload planned for Shuttle 

Guion S. Bluford, Jr. (DOD 1) with 10 different secondary payloads.

James S. Voss

Michael Richard Clifford

Space Shuttle Jan. 13, 1993 John H. Casper 5:23:39 Fifty-third STS flight. Deployed Tracking and 

Endeavour (STS-54) Donald R. McMonagle Data Relay Satellite-6. Operated Diffused 

Gregory J. Harbaugh X-ray Spectrometer Hitchhiker experiment to 

Mario Runco, Jr. collect data on stars and galactic gases.

Susan J. Helms

Soyuz TM-16 Jan. 24, 1993 Gennady Manakov 179:0:44 Docked with Mir space station Jan. 26. On 

Aleksandr Poleschuk July 22, 1993, the TM-16 descent cabin 

landed back on Earth with Manakov, 

Poleschuk, and French cosmonaut Jean-Pierre 

Haignere from Soyuz TM-17 on board.

Space Shuttle Apr. 8, 1993 Kenneth D. Cameron 9:6:9 Fifty-fourth STS flight. Completed second flight 

Discovery (STS-56) Stephen S. Oswald of Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications 

C. Michael Foale and Science and deployed Spartan-201.

Kenneth D. Cockerell

Ellen Ochoa

Space Shuttle Apr. 26, 1993 Steven R. Nagel 9:23:39 Fifty-fifth STS flight. Completed second 

Columbia (STS-55) Terence T. Henricks German microgravity research program in 

Jerry L. Ross Spacelab D-2.

Charles J. Precourt

Bernard A. Harris, Jr.

Ulrich Walter 

Hans W. Schlegel 

Space Shuttle June 21, 1993 Ronald J. Grabe 9:23:46 Fifty-sixth STS flight. Carried Spacelab comEndeavour (STS-57) Brian J. Duffy mercial payload module and retrieved 

G. David Low European Retrievable Carrier, which had 

Nancy J. Sherlock been in orbit since Aug. 1992.

Peter J.K. Wisoff

Janice E. Voss
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

128 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–June 30, 2002

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(d:h:min)

Soyuz TM-17 July 1, 1993 Vasiliy Tsibliyev 196:17:45 Docked with Mir space station July 3. Haignere 

Aleksandr Serebrov returned to Earth with Soyuz TM-16. Serebrov

Jean-Pierre Haignere and Tsibliyev landed in TM-17 spacecraft on

Jan. 14, 1994.

Space Shuttle Sep. 12, 1993 Frank L. Culbertson, Jr. 9:20:11 Fifty-seventh STS flight. Deployed ACTS 

Discovery (STS-51) William F. Readdy satellite to serve as test bed for new 

James H. Newman communications satellite technology and 

Daniel W. Bursch U.S./German ORFEUS-SPAS.

Carl E. Walz

Space Shuttle Oct. 18, 1993 John E. Blaha 14:0:29 Fifty-eighth STS flight. Carried Spacelab Life 

Columbia (STS-58) Richard A. Searfoss Sciences-2 payload to determine the effects 

Shannon W. Lucid of microgravity on M. Rhea Seddon and 

David A. Wolf animal subjects.

William S. McArthur

Martin J. Fettman

M. Rhea Seddon

Space Shuttle Dec. 2, 1993 Richard O. Covey 10:19:58 Fifty-ninth STS flight. Restored planned 

Endeavour (STS-61) Kenneth D. Bowersox scientific capabilities and reliability to the

Tom Akers Hubble Space Telescope.

Jeffrey A. Hoffman

Kathryn C. Thornton

Claude Nicollier

F. Story Musgrave

Soyuz TM-18 Jan. 8, 1994 Viktor Afanasyev 182:0:27 Docked with Mir space station on Jan. 10. 

Yuri Usachev Afanasyev and Usachev landed in the TM-18

Valery Polyakov spacecraft on July 9, 1994. Polyakov remained

aboard Mir in the attempt to establish a new

record for endurance in space.

Space Shuttle Feb. 3, 1994 Charles F. Bolden, Jr. 8:7:9 Sixtieth STS flight. Carried the Wake Shield 

Discovery (STS-60) Kenneth S. Reightler, Jr. Facility to generate new semiconductor 

N. Jan Davis films for advanced electronics. Also carried 

Ronald M. Sega SPACEHAB. Krikalev’s presence signified a

Franklin R. Chang-Díaz new era in cooperation in space between

Sergei K. Krikalev Russia and the United States.

Space Shuttle Mar. 4, 1994 John H. Casper 13:23:17 Sixty-first STS flight. Carried U.S. Microgravity 

Columbia (STS-62) Andrew M. Allen Payload-2 to conduct experiments in materials

Pierre J. Thuot processing, biotechnology, and other areas.

Charles D. Gemar

Marsha S. Ivins

Space Shuttle Apr. 9, 1994 Sidney M. Gutierrez 11:5:50 Sixty-second STS flight. Carried the Space 

Endeavour (STS-59) Kevin P. Chilton Radar Laboratory-1 to gather data on

Jerome Apt Earth and on the effects humans have on 

Michael R. Clifford its carbon, water, and energy cycles.

Linda M. Godwin

Thomas D. Jones

Soyuz TM-19 July 1, 1994 Yuri I. Malenchenko 125:22:53 Docked with Mir space station on July 3. 

Talgat A. Musabayev Both Malenchenko and Musabayev returned 

to Earth with the Soyuz TM-19 spacecraft, 

landing in Kazakhstan on Nov. 4 with 

Ulf Merbold of Germany, who went up aboard

Soyuz TM-20 on Oct. 3, 1994. Merbold 

gathered biological samples on the effects of 

weightlessness on the human body in the first 

of two ESA missions to Mir to prepare for 

the International Space Station.
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

129 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–June 30, 2002

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(d:h:min)

Space Shuttle July 8, 1994 Robert D. Cabana 14:17:55 Sixty-third STS flight. Carried International 

Columbia (STS-65) James D. Halsell, Jr. Microgravity Laboratory-2 to conduct research

Richard J. Hieb into the behavior of materials and life in 

Carl E. Walz near-weightlessness.

Leroy Chiao

Donald A. Thomas

Chiaki Naito-Mukai 

Space Shuttle Sep. 9, 1994 Richard N. Richards 10:22:50 Sixty-fourth STS flight. Used LIDAR In-Space 

Discovery (STS-64) L. Blaine Hammond, Jr. Technology Experiment to perform atmoJ.M. Linenger spheric research. Included the first untethered 

Susan J. Helms spacewalk by astronauts in over 10 years.

Carl J. Meade

Mark C. Lee

Space Shuttle Sep. 30, 1994 Michael A. Baker 11:5:36 Sixty-fifth STS flight. Used Space Radar 

Endeavour (STS-68) Terrence W. Wilcutt Laboratory-2 to provide scientists with data to

Thomas D. Jones help distinguish human-induced environmental

Steven L. Smith change from other natural forms of change.

Daniel W. Bursch

Peter J. K. Wisoff

Soyuz TM-20 Oct. 3, 1994 Aleksandr Viktorenko * Soyuz TM-19 returned to Earth on Nov. 4, 1994, 

Yelena Kondakova with Yuri Malenchenko, Talgat Musabayev, 

Ulf Merbold and Ulf Merbold. Valeriy Polyakov remained

aboard Mir.

Space Shuttle Nov. 3, 1994 Donald R. McMonagle 10:22:34 Sixty-sixth STS flight. Three main payloads: the

Atlantis (STS-66) Curtis L. Brown, Jr. third Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications 

Ellen Ochoa and Science (ATLAS-3), the first Cryogenic 

Joseph R. Tanner Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the 

Jean-François Clervoy Atmosphere-Shuttle Pallet Satellite (CRISTAScott E. Parazynski SPAS-1), and the Shuttle Solar Backscatter

Ultraviolet (SSBUV) spectrometer. Astronauts

also conducted protein crystal growth

experiments.

Space Shuttle Feb. 3, 1995 James D. Wetherbee 8:6:28 Sixty-seventh STS flight. Primary objective: first 

Discovery (STS-63) Eileen M. Collins close encounter in nearly 20 years between 

Bernard A. Harris, Jr. American and Russian spacecraft as a prelude 

C. Michael Foale to establishment of the International Space 

Janice E. Voss Station. (Shuttle flew close by Mir.) Main 

Vladimir G. Titov payloads: SPACEHAB 3 experiments and Shuttle

Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for

Astronomy (Spartan) 204, Solid Surface

Combustion Experiment (SSCE), and Air 

Force Maui Optical Site (AMOS) Calibration 

Test. Also launched very small Orbital Debris 

Radar Calibration Spheres (ODERACS).

Space Shuttle Mar. 2, 1995 Stephen S. Oswald 16:15:8 Sixty-eighth STS flight. Longest Shuttle mission 

Endeavour (STS-67) William G. Gregory to date. Primary payload was a trio of ultraJohn M. Grunsfeld violet telescopes called Astro-2.

Wendy B. Lawrence

Tamara E. Jernigan

Ronald A. Parise

Samuel T. Durrance
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

130 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–June 30, 2002

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(d:h:min)

Soyuz TM-21 Mar. 14, 1995 Vladimir Dezhurov * Thagard was the first American astronaut to fly 

Gennadi Strekalov on a Russian rocket and to stay on the Mir 

Norman Thagard space station. Soyuz TM-20 returned to Earth

on Mar. 22, 1995, with Valeriy Polyakov, 

Alexsandr Viktorenko, and Yelena 

Kondakova. Polyakov set world record by 

remaining in space for 438 days.

Space Shuttle June 27, 1995 Robert L. Gibson 9:19:22 Sixty-ninth STS flight and 100th U.S. human 

Atlantis (STS-71) Charles J. Precourt space flight. Docked with Mir space station. 

Ellen S. Baker Brought up Mir 19 crew (Anatoly Y. Solovyev 

Gregory Harbaugh and Nikolai M. Budarin). Returned to Earth 

Bonnie J. Dunbar with Mir 18 crew (Vladimir N. Dezhurov, 

Gennady M. Strekalov, and Norman 

Thagard).Thagard set an American record 

by remaining in space for 115 days.

Space Shuttle July 13, 1995 Terence Henricks 8:22:20 Seventieth STS flight. Deployed Tracking and 

Discovery (STS-70) Kevin R. Kregel Data Relay Satellite (TDRS). Also conducted 

Nancy J. Currie various biomedical experiments.

Donald A. Thomas

Mary Ellen Weber

Soyuz TM-22 Sep. 3, 1995 Yuri Gidzenko * Soyuz TM-21 returned to Earth on Sep. 11, 1995, 

Sergei Avdeev with Mir 19 crew (Anatoliy Solovyev and 

Thomas Reiter Nikolay Budarin).

Space Shuttle Sep. 7, 1995 David M. Walker 10:20:28 Seventy-first STS flight. Deployed Wake Shield 

Endeavour (STS-69) Kenneth D. Cockrell Facility (WSF-2) and Spartan 201-03.

James S. Voss

James H. Newman

Michael L. Gernhardt

Space Shuttle Oct. 20, 1995 Kenneth D. Bowersox 15:21:52 Seventy-second STS flight. Carried out microColumbia (STS-73) Kent V. Rominger gravity experiments with the U.S. 

Catherine G. Coleman Microgravity Laboratory (USML-2) 

Michael Lopez-Alegria payload.

Kathryn C. Thornton

Fred W. Leslie

Albert Sacco, Jr.

Space Shuttle Nov. 12, 1995 Kenneth D. Cameron 8:4:31 Seventy-third STS flight. Docked with Mir 

Atlantis (STS-74) James D. Halsell, Jr. space station as part of International Space 

Chris A. Hadfield Station (ISS) Phase I efforts.

Jerry L. Ross

William S. McArthur, Jr.

Space Shuttle Jan. 11, 1996 Brian Duffy 8:22:1 Seventy-fourth STS flight. Deployed OAST 

Endeavour (STS-72) Brent W. Jett, Jr. Flyer. Retrieved previously launched 

Leroy Chiao Japanese Space Flyer Unit satellite. Crew 

Winston E. Scott performed spacewalks to build experience 

Koichi Wakata for ISS construction.

Daniel T. Barry

Soyuz TM-23 Feb. 21, 1996 Yuri Onufrienko * Soyuz TM-22 returned to Earth on Feb. 29, 1996, 

Yuri Usachyou with Mir 20 crew (Yuri Gidzenko, Sergei 

Avdeev, and Thomas Reiter).
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

131 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–June 30, 2002

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(d:h:min)

Space Shuttle Feb. 22, 1996 Andrew M. Allen 13:16:14 Seventy-fifth STS flight. Deployed Tethered 

Columbia (STS-75) Scott J. Horowitz Satellite System, U.S. Microgravity Payload 

Jeffrey A. Hoffman (USMP-3), and protein crystal growth 

Maurizio Cheli experiments.

Claude Nicollier 

Franklin R. Chang-Díaz

Umberto Guidoni 

Space Shuttle Mar. 22, 1996 Kevin P. Chilton 9:5:16 Seventy-sixth STS flight. Docked with Mir 

Atlantis (STS-76) Richard A. Searfoss space station and left astronaut Shannon 

Linda M. Godwin Lucid aboard Mir. Also carried SPACEHAB 

Michael R. Clifford module.

Ronald M. Sega

Shannon W. Lucid**

Space Shuttle May 19, 1996 John H. Casper 10:2:30 Seventy-seventh STS flight. Deployed 

Endeavour (STS-77) Curtis L. Brown Spartan/Inflatable Antenna Experiment, 

Andrew S.W. Thomas SPACEHAB, and PAMS-STU payloads.

Daniel W. Bursch

Mario Runco, Jr.

Marc Garneau 

Space Shuttle June 20, 1996 Terrence T. Henricks 16:21:48 Seventy-eighth STS flight. Set Shuttle record

Columbia (STS-78) Kevin Kregel for then-longest flight. Carried Life and 

Richard M. Linnehan Microgravity Sciences Spacelab. 

Susan J. Helms

Charles E. Brady, Jr.

Jean-Jacques Favier 

Robert B. Thirsk 

Soyuz TM-24 Aug. 17, 1996 Claudie Andre-Deshays * Soyuz TM-23 returned to Earth on Sep. 2, 1996,

Valery Korzun with Claudie Andre-Deshays, Yuri 

Alexander Kaleri Onufrienko, and Yuri Usachev.

Space Shuttle Sep. 16, 1996 William F. Readdy 10:3:19 Seventy-ninth STS flight. Docked with Mir 

Atlantis (STS-79) Terrence W. Wilcutt space station. Picked up astronaut Shannon 

Jerome Apt Lucid and dropped off astronaut John Blaha.

Thomas D. Akers

Carl E. Walz

John E. Blaha**

Shannon W. Lucid***

Space Shuttle Nov. 19, 1996 Kenneth D. Cockrell 17:15:53 Set record for longest Shuttle flight. At age 61, 

Columbia (STS-80) Kent V. Rominger Musgrave became oldest person to fly in 

Tamara E. Jernigan space. He also tied record for most space 

Thomas David Jones flights (six) by a single person. Crew 

F. Story Musgrave successfully deployed ORFEUS-SPAS II 

ultraviolet observatory and Wake Shield 

Facility payloads.

Space Shuttle Jan. 12, 1997 Michael A. Baker 10:4:56 Fifth Shuttle mission to Mir. Jerry Linenger 

Atlantis (STS-81) Brent W. Jett replaced John Blaha as U.S. resident on Mir. 

Peter J.K. “Jeff” Wisoff

John M. Grunsfeld

Marsha S. Ivins

Jerry M. Linenger**

John E. Blaha***

* Mir crew members stayed for various and overlapping lengths of time.

** Flew up on Space Shuttle; remained in space aboard Russian Mir space station.

*** Returned to Earth via Space Shuttle from Russian Mir space station.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

132 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–June 30, 2002

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(d:h:min)

Soyuz TM-25 Feb. 10, 1997 Vasily Tsibliev * Soyuz TM-24 returned to Earth on Mar. 2, 

Aleksandr Lazutkin 1997, with Reinhold Ewald, Valery Korzun, 

Reinhold Ewald and Aleksandr Kaleri.

Space Shuttle Feb. 11, 1997 Kenneth D. Bowersox 9:23:36 Crew successfully performed second servicing 

Discovery (STS-82) Scott J. Horowitz mission of the Hubble Space Telescope. 

Joseph R. Tanner

Steven A. Hawley

Gregory J. Harbaugh

Mark C. Lee

Steven L. Smith

Space Shuttle Apr. 4, 1997 James D. Halsell, Jr. 3:23:34 Crew deployed a Spacelab module configured as 

Columbia (STS-83) Susan L. Still the first Microgravity Science Laboratory. 

Janice Voss Shuttle fuel cell malfunction necessitated an 

Michael L. Gernhardt early termination of the mission.

Donald A. Thomas

Roger K. Crouch

Gregory T. Linteris

Space Shuttle May 15, 1997 Charles J. Precourt 9:5:21 Sixth Shuttle mission to Mir. Michael Foale 

Atlantis (STS-84) Eileen Marie Collins replaced Jerry Linenger on Mir. 

Jean-François Clervoy

Carlos I. Noriega

Edward Tsang Lu

Elena V. Kondakova 

Michael Foale**

Jerry M. Linenger***

Space Shuttle July 1, 1997 James D. Halsell, Jr. 15:16:45 Reflight of STS-83 and the same payload, the 

Columbia (STS-94) Susan L. Still Microgravity Science Laboratory. Mission 

Janice Voss proceeded successfully.

Michael L. Gernhardt

Donald A. Thomas

Roger K. Crouch

Gregory T. Linteris

Soyuz TM-26 Aug. 5, 1997 Anatoly Solovyev * Soyuz TM-25 returned to Earth on August 14, 

Pavel Vinogradov 1997, with Vasily Tsibliev and Aleksandr 

Lazutkin.

Space Shuttle Aug. 7, 1997 Curtis L. Brown, Jr. 11:20:27 Crew successfully deployed two payloads: 

Discovery (STS-85) Kent V. Rominger CRISTA-SPAS-2 on infrared radiation and 

N. Jan Davis an international Hitchhiker package of four 

Robert L. Curbeam, Jr. experiments on ultraviolet radiation. The 

Stephen K. Robinson crew also successfully performed the Japanese 

Bjarni V. Tryggvason Manipulator Flight Demonstration of a 

robotic arm.

Space Shuttle Sep. 25, 1997 James D. Wetherbee 10:19:21 Seventh Shuttle docking with Mir. David Wolf 

Atlantis (STS-86) Michael J. Bloomfield replaced Michael Foale on Mir. Parazynski 

Scott E. Parazynski and Titov performed a spacewalk to retrieve 

Vladimir Titov four Mir Environmental Effects Payload 

Jean-Loup Chrétien experiments from the exterior of the docking 

Wendy B. Lawrence module and left a solar array cover cap for 

David A. Wolf** possible future repair of the damaged Spektr 

C. Michael Foale*** module. 
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

133 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–June 30, 2002

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(d:h:min)

Space Shuttle Nov. 19, 1997 Kevin R. Kregel 15:16:34 Payloads included USMP-4, Spartan 201-04

Columbia (STS-87) Steven W. Lindsey free-flyer, Collaborative Ukrainian 

Kalpana Chawla Experiment (CUE) in space biology, and 

Winston E. Scott several other “hitchhiker” payloads.

Takao Doi

Leonid K. Kadenyuk

Space Shuttle Jan. 22, 1998 Terrence W. Wilcutt 8:19:47 Eighth Shuttle docking mission to Mir. Andrew

Endeavour (STS-89) Joe F. Edwards, Jr. Thomas replaced David Wolf on Mir. Shuttle

James F. Reilly II payloads included SPACEHAB double 

Michael P. Anderson module of science experiments.

Bonnie J. Dunbar

Salizhan S. Sharipov

Andrew S. Thomas**

David A. Wolf***

Soyuz TM-27 Jan. 29, 1998 Talgat Musabayev * Soyuz TM-26 left Mir and returned to Earth on

Nikolai Budarin Feb. 19 with Anatoly Solovyev, Pavel

Leopold Eyharts Vinogradov, and Leopold Eyharts.

Space Shuttle Apr. 17, 1998 Richard A. Searfoss 15:21:50 Carried Neurolab module for microgravity 

Columbia (STS-90) Scott D. Altman research in the human nervous system. 

Richard M. Linnehan Secondary goals included measurement of

Kathryn P. Hire Shuttle vibration forces, demonstration of the

Dafydd Rhys Williams bioreactor system for cell growth, and three 

Jay Clark Buckey, Jr. Get Away Special payloads.

James A. Pawelczyk

Space Shuttle June 2, 1998 Charles J. Precourt 9:19:48 Last of nine docking missions with Mir, this one

Discovery (STS-91) Dominic L. Pudwill Gorie brought home Andrew Thomas. Payloads 

Franklin R. Chang-Díaz included DOE’s Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer 

Wendy B. Lawrence to study high-energy particles from deep 

Janet Lynn Kavandi space, four Get Away Specials, and two Space 

Valery V. Ryumin Experiment Modules.

Andrew S. Thomas***

Soyuz TM-28 Aug. 13, 1998 Gennady Padalka * Docked to Mir using manual backup system

Sergei Avdeev because of prior failure of one of two 

Yuri Baturin automatic systems. Soyuz TM-27 left Mir 

and returned to Earth with Talgat Musabayev, 

Nikolai Budarin, and Yuri Baturin.

Space Shuttle Oct. 29, 1998 Curtis L. Brown, Jr. 8:21:44 Payloads included a SPACEHAB

Discovery (STS-95) Steven W. Lindsey pressurized module, the Pansat

Scott E. Parazynski communications amateur satellite, and

Stephen K. Robinson the Spartan 201-05 solar observatory.

Pedro Duque Performed biomedical experiments on

Chiaki Mukai space flight and aging. Second flight of

John H. Glenn John Glenn.

Space Shuttle Dec. 4, 1998 Robert D. Cabana 11:19:18 Payloads included Unity (Node 1), the

Endeavour (STS-88) Frederick W. Sturckow first U.S. module of the ISS, as well as

James H. Newman SAC-A and Mightysat 1.

Nancy J. Currie

Jerry L. Ross

Sergei K. Krikalev 

Soyuz TM-29 Feb. 20, 1999 Viktor Afanasyev * Soyuz mission to Mir.

Jean-Pierre Haignere 

Ivan Bella

* Mir crew members stayed for various and overlapping lengths of time.

** Flew up on Space Shuttle; remained in space aboard Russian Mir space station.

*** Returned to Earth via Space Shuttle from Russian Mir space station.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

134 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–June 30, 2002

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(d:h:min)

Space Shuttle May 27, 1999 Kent V. Rominger 9:19:13 ISS supply and repair mission; also

Discovery (STS-96) Rick D. Husband launched the Starshine student passive

Daniel T. Barry reflector satellite.

Valery I. Tokarev 

Ellen Ochoa

Julie Payette 

Tamara E. Jernigan

Space Shuttle July 23, 1999 Eileen M. Collins 4:22:50 Deployed Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

Columbia (STS-93) Jeffrey S. Ashby Collins was first female commander of a

Michel Tognini Shuttle mission.

Steven A. Hawley

Catherine G. Coleman

Space Shuttle Dec. 19, 1999 Curtis L. Brown 7:23:11 Third Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.

Discovery (STS-103) Scott J. Kelly

Steven L. Smith

C. Michael Foale

John M. Grunsfeld

Claude Nicollier

Jean-Francois Clervoy

Space Shuttle Feb. 11, 2000 Kevin Kregel 11:5:38 Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM).

Endeavour (STS-99) Dominic Gorie The main objective of STS-99 was to obtain

Gerhard P.J. Thiele the most complete high-resolution digital

Janet Kavandi topographic database of Earth, using

Janice Voss a special radar system.

Mamoru Mohri

Soyuz TM-30 Apr. 4, 2000 Sergei Zalyotin 72:19:43 Final Soyuz mission to Mir.

Alexander Kaleri

Space Shuttle May 19, 2000 James Halsell, Jr. 9:20:9 Second crew visit to the International Space

Atlantis (STS-101) Scott Horowitz Station (ISS) (2A.2a) to deliver supplies, 

Susan Helms perform maintenance, and reboost its orbit.

Yury V. Usachev

James Voss

Mary Ellen Weber

Jeff Williams

Space Shuttle Sep. 8, 2000 Terrence Wilcutt 11:19:11 Third logistics/outfitting flight to ISS (2A.2b)

Atlantis (STS-106) Scott Altman to prepare the station for its first resident crew.

Daniel Burbank

Edward T. Lu

Yuri I. Malenchenko

Rick Mastracchio

Boris V. Morukov

Space Shuttle Oct. 11, 2000 Brian Duffy 12:21:43 Discovery’s was the 100th mission in the Shuttle

Discovery (STS-92) Pamela A. Melroy program’s history. ISS assembly mission.

Leroy Chiao

William S. McArthur

Peter J.K. Wisoff

Michael E. Lopez-Alegria

Koichi Wakata

Soyuz TM-31 Oct. 31, 2000 William Shepherd 140 Launch of first resident crew (Expedition One)

Yuri Gidzenko to the ISS.

Sergei Krikalev

Space Shuttle Nov. 30, 2000 Brent W. Jett 10:19:58 Mission to the ISS.

Endeavour (STS-97) Michael J. Bloomfield

Joseph R. Tanner

Marc Garneau

Carlos I. Noriega
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

135 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–June 30, 2002

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(d:h:min)

Space Shuttle Feb. 7, 2001 Kenneth D. Cockrell 12:21:20 Delivered U.S. Laboratory module Destiny to

Atlantis (STS-98) Mark L. Polansky the ISS.

Robert L. Curbeam

Marsha S. Ivins

Thomas D. Jones

Space Shuttle Mar. 8, 2001 James D. Wetherbee 12:19:49 Delivered Expedition Two crew to the ISS and

Discovery (STS-102) James M. Kelly returned the Expedition One crew to Earth.

Andrew S.W. Thomas

Paul W. Richards

James S. Voss (up)

Susan J. Helms (up)

Yuri V. Usachev (up)

William Shepherd (down)

Yuri P. Gidzenko (down)

Space Shuttle Apr. 19, 2001 Kent V. Rominger 11:21:30 Mission to the ISS.

Endeavour (STS-100) Jeffrey S. Ashby

Chris A. Hadfield

John L. Phillips

Scott E. Parazynski

Umberto Guidoni

Yuri V. Lonchakov

Soyuz TM-32 Apr. 28, 2001 Talgat A. Musabaev 7:22:4 Launch of the first “taxi” flight to the ISS,

Yuri M. Baturin bringing a “fresh” Soyuz crew return vehicle

Dennis Tito for the ISS crew.

This mission also carried the first commercial

space tourist, U.S. businessman Dennis Tito.

Space Shuttle July 12, 2001 Steven W. Lindsey 12:18:35 Mission to the ISS.

Atlantis (STS-104) Charles O. Hobaugh

Michael L. Gernhardt

Janet L. Kavandi

James F. Reilly

Space Shuttle Aug. 10, 2001 Scott J. Horowitz 11:21:13 Returned the Expedition Two crew to Earth.

Discovery (STS-105) Frederick W. Sturckow

Patrick G. Forrester

Daniel T. Barry

Frank L. Culbertson (up)

Vladimir N. Dezhurov (up)

Mikhail Tyurin (up)

Yury V. Usachev (down)

James S. Voss (down)

Susan J. Helms (down)

Soyuz TM-33 Oct. 21, 2001 Victor M. Afanasyez 9:18:58 Launch of the second “taxi” flight to the 

Konstantin M. Kozeev ISS, bringing a “fresh” Soyuz crew return

Claudie Haigneré vehicle for the ISS crew. Crew returned

8 d later on older Soyuz TM-32.

Space Shuttle Dec. 5, 2001 Dominic L. Gorie 11:19:36 Delivered Expedition Four crew to the ISS.

Endeavour (STS-108) Mark E. Kelly Returned Expedition Three crew to Earth.

Linda M. Godwin

Daniel M. Tani

Yuri I. Onufrienko (up)

Carl E. Walz (up)

Daniel W. Bursch (up)

Frank L. Culbertson (down)

Mikhail Turin (down)

Vladimir N. Dezhurov (down)
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

136 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–June 30, 2002

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(d:h:min)

Space Shuttle Mar. 1, 2002 Scott D. Altman 10:22:11 Fourth Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.

Columbia (STS-109) Duane G. Carey

John M. Grunsfeld

Nancy J. Currie

James H. Newman

Richard M. Linnehan

Michael J. Massimino

Space Shuttle Apr. 8, 2002 Michael J. Bloomfield 10:19:43 Thirteenth ISS flight. Installation of the

Atlantis (STS-110) Stephen N. Frick S0 (S-Zero) Truss. Jerry Ross became the

Jerry L. Ross first human to fly in space seven times.

Steven L. Smith

Ellen Ochoa

Lee M.E. Morin

Rex J. Walheim

Soyuz TM-34 Apr. 25, 2002 Yuri Gidzenko 9:21:25 Launch of the third “taxi” flight to the

Roberto Vittori ISS, bringing a “fresh” Soyuz crew return

Mark Shuttleworth vehicle for the ISS crew. Crew returned

8 d later on older Soyuz TM-33. 

This mission also carried the second

commercial space tourist, Mark Shuttleworth.

Space Shuttle June 5, 2002 Kenneth Cockrell 13:20:35 Delivered Expedition Five crew to ISS.

Endeavour (STS-111) Paul Lockhart Returned Expedition Four crew to Earth.

Franklin Chang-Diaz

Philippe Perrin

Valeri Korzun (up)

Peggy Whitson (up)

Sergei Treschev (up)

Yuri Onufriyenko (down)

Carl E. Walz (down)

Daniel W. Bursch (down)

* Mir crew members stayed for various and overlapping lengths of time.

** Flew up on Space Shuttle; remained in space aboard Russian Mir space station.

*** Returned to Earth via Space Shuttle from Russian Mir space station.
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

137 APPENDIX D

(Continued)

U.S. Space Launch Vehicles

Max. Payload (kg)d

Max. Dia. Geosynch. SunStages: Thrust x Height 185-km Transfer Synch. First

Vehicle Engine/Motor Propellanta (kilonewtons)b, c (m) Orbit Orbit Orbite Launchf

Pegasus 6.71x15.5h 380 — 210 1990

1. Orion 50S Solid 484.9 1.28x8.88 280e

2. Orion 50 Solid 118.2 1.28x2.66

3. Orion 38 Solid 31.9 0.97x1.34

Pegasus XL 6.71x16.93 460 — 335 1994g

1. Orion 50S-XL Solid 743.3 1.28x10.29 350e

2. Orion 50-XL Solid 201.5 1.28x3.58

3. Orion 38 Solid 31.9 0.97x1.34

Taurus 2.34x28.3 1,400 255 1,020 1994

0. Castor 120 Solid 1,687.7 2.34x11.86 1,080e

1. Orion 50S Solid 580.5 1.28x8.88

2. Orion 50 Solid 138.6 1.28x2.66

3. Orion 38 Solid 31.9 0.97x1.34

Delta II 2.44x29.70 5,089 1,842i 3,175 1990,

3,890e Delta-7925

1. RS-270/A LOX/RP-1 1,043.0 (SL) 3.05x38.1 [1960, Delta]

Hercules GEM (9) Solid 487.6 (SL) 1.01x12.95

2. AJ10-118K N204/A-50 42.4 2.44x5.97

3. Star 48Bj Solid 66.4 1.25x2.04

Atlas E 3.05x28.1 820e — 910k 1968, Atlas F

1,860e, k [1958,

1. Atlas: MA-3 LOX/RP-1 1,739.5 (SL) 3.05x21.3 Atlas LV-3A]

Atlas I 4.2x43.9 — 2,255 — 1990, I [1966,

Atlas Centaur]

1. Atlas: MA-5 LOX/RP-1 1,952.0 (SL) 3.05x22.16 

2. Centaur I: LOX/LH2 73.4/engine 3.05x9.14

RL10A-3-3A (2)

Atlas II 4.2x47.5 6,580 2,810 4,300 1991, II [1966,

5,510e Atlas Centaur]

1. Atlas: MA-5A LOX/RP-1 2,110.0 (SL) 3.05x24.9

2. Centaur II: LOX/LH2 73.4/engine 3.05x10.05

RL10A-3-3A (2)

Atlas IIA 4.2x47.5 6,828 3,062 4,750 1992, Atlas

6,170e IIA [1966,

1. Atlas: MA-5A LOX/RP-1 2,110.0 (SL) 3.05x24.9 Atlas Centaur]

2. Centaur II: LOX/LH2 92.53/engine 3.05x10.05

RL10A-4 (2)

Atlas IIAS 4.2x47.5 8,640 3,606 5,800 1993, IIAS

7,300e [1966,

1. Atlas: MA-5A LOX/RP-1 2,110.0 (SL) 3.05x24.9 Atlas Centaur]

Castor IVA (4)j Solid 433.6 (SL) 1.01x11.16

2. Centaur II: LOX/LH2 92.53/engine 3.05x10.05

RL10A-4 (2)
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

138 APPENDIX D

(Continued)

U.S. Space Launch Vehicles

Max. Payload (kg)d

Max. Dia. Geosynch. SunStages: Thrust x Height 185-km Transfer Synch. First

Vehicle Engine/Motor Propellanta (kilonewtons)b, c (m) Orbit Orbit Orbite Launchf

Athena

1. Athena Solid 1450 2.36x19.8 520 245 1995

Titan II 3.05x42.9 1,905e — — 1988,

1. LR-87-AJ-5 (2) N204/A-50 1,045.0 3.05x21.5 Titan II SLV

2. LR-91-AJ-5 N204/A-50 440.0 3.05x12.2 [1964, Titan II 

Gemini]

Titan III 3.05x47.3 14,515 5,000l — 1989, 

0. Titan III SRM (2) Solid 6,210.0 3.11x27.6 Titan III 

[1964,

1. LR87-AJ-11 (2) N204/A-50 1,214.5 3.05x24.0 Titan IIIA]

2. LR91-AJ-11 N204/A-50 462.8 3.05x10.0

Titan IV 3.05x62.2 17,700 6,350m — 1989,

0. Titan IV SRM (2) Solid 7,000.0 3.11x34.1 14,110e Titan IV

(7 segments)

1. LR87-AJ-11 (2) N204/A-50 1,214.5 3.05x26.4

2. LR91-AJ-11 N204/A-50 462.8 3.05x10.0

Titan IV 4.3x62.2 — 5,760a — 1994, 

0. Titan IV SRM (2) Solid 7,000.0 3.11x34.1 Titan IV

(7 segments) Centaur

1. LR87-AJ-11 (2) N204/A-50 1,214.5/engine 3.05x26.4

2. LR91-AJ-11(1) N204/A-50 462.5 3.05x10.0

3. Centaur:

RL-10A-3-3A LOX/LH2 73.4 4.3x9.0

4. SRMU

(3 segments) 7690 3.3x34.3

Space Shuttlen 23.79x56.14h 24,900o 5,900p — 1981,

1. SRB: Solid 11,790.0 (SL) 3.70x45.46 Columbia

Shuttle SRB (2)

2. Orbiter/ET: LOX/LH2 1,668.7 (SL) 8.41x47.00 (ET)

SSME (3) 23.79x37.24h (orbiter)

3. Orbiter/OMS: N204/MMH 26.7 23.79x37.24h

OMS engines (2)

Delta III

1. RS-27A LOX/RP-1 1,043.0 (SL) 4x39.1 8,292 3,810 6,768 1998g

Alliant GEM (9) Solid 608.8 1.16x14.7

2. RL-10B-2 LOX/LH2 110 4x8.8

3. Star 48B Solid 66.4 1.25x2.04
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

139 APPENDIX D

(Continued)

U.S. Space Launch Vehicles

NOTES:

a. Propellant abbreviations used are as follows: i. Applies to Delta II-7925 version only.

A-50 = Aerozine 50 (50% Monomethyl Hydrazine, 

50% Unsymmetrical Dimethyl Hydrazine) j. Two Castor IVA motors ignited at liftoff. Two Castor IVA

RP-1 = Rocket Propellant 1 (kerosene) motors ignited at approximately 57 seconds into flight. 

Solid = Solid Propellant (any type)

LH2 = Liquid Hydrogen k. With TE-M-364-4 upper stage.

LOX = Liquid Oxygen

MMH = Monomethyl Hydrazine l. With Transfer Orbit Stage.

N204 = Nitrogen Tetroxide

m. With appropriate upper stage

b. Thrust at vacuum except where indicated at sea level (SL).

n. Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters fire in parallel with the

c. Thrust per engine. Multiply by number of engines for Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME), which are mounted on

thrust per stage. the aft end of the Shuttle Orbiter Vehicle and burn fuel, as well

as oxidizer from the External Tank. The boosters stage first, with 

d. Inclination of 28.5 ̊ except where indicated. SSMEs continuing to fire. The External Tank stages next, just

before the orbiter attains orbit. The Orbiter Maneuvering

e. Polar launch from Vandenberg AFB, CA. Subsystem is then used to maneuver or change the orbit of the

Orbiter Vehicle.

f. First successful orbital launch [ditto of initial version].

o. 204-km circular orbit.

g. First launch was a failure

p. With Inertial Upper Stage or Transfer Orbit Stage.

h. Diameter dimension represents vehicle wingspan.

NOTE: Data should not be used for detailed NASA mission planning without concurrence of the 

Director of Space Transportation System Support Programs.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

140 APPENDIX E-1A

(Continued)

Space Activities of the U.S. Government

HISTORICAL BUDGET SUMMARY—BUDGET AUTHORITY

(in millions of real-year dollars)

NASA NASA Total

FY Total Spaceb DOD Otherc DOEd DOC DOI USDA NSFa DOT Space

1959 331 261 490 34 34 785

1960 524 462 561 43 43 1,066

1961 964 926 814 68 68 1,808

1962 1,825 1,797 1,298 199 148 51 3,294

1963 3,673 3,626 1,550 257 214 43 5,433

1964 5,100 5,016 1,599 213 210 3 6,828

1965 5,250 5,138 1,574 241 229 12 6,953

1966 5,175 5,065 1,689 214 187 27 6,968

1967 4,966 4,830 1,664 213 184 29 6,707

1968 4,587 4,430 1,922 174 145 28 0.2 1 6,526

1969 3,991 3,822 2,013 170 118 20 0.2 1 31 6,005

1970 3,746 3,547 1,678 141 103 8 1 1 28 5,366

1971 3,311 3,101 1,512 162 95 27 2 1 37 4,775

1972 3,307 3,071 1,407 133 55 31 6 2 39 4,611

1973 3,406 3,093 1,623 147 54 40 10 2 41 4,863

1974 3,037 2,759 1,766 158 42 60 9 3 44 4,683

1975 3,229 2,915 1,892 158 30 64 8 2 54 4,965

1976 3,550 3,225 1,983 168 23 72 10 4 59 5,376

TQ* 932 849 460 43 5 22 3 1 12 1,352

1977 3,818 3,440 2,412 194 22 91 10 6 65 6,046

1978 4,060 3,623 2,738 226 34 103 10 8 71 6,587

1979 4,596 4,030 3,036 248 59 98 10 8 73 7,314

1980 5,240 4,680 3,848 231 40 93 12 14 72 8,759

1981 5,518 4,992 4,828 234 41 87 12 16 78 10,054

1982 6,044 5,528 6,679 313 61 145 12 15 80 12,520

1983 6,875 6,328 9,019 327 39 178 5 20 85 15,674

1984 7,458 6,858 10,195 395 34 236 3 19 103 17,448

1985 7,573 6,925 12,768 584 34 423 2 15 110 20,277

1986 7,807 7,165 14,126 477 35 309 2 23 108 21,768

1987 10,923 9,809 16,287 466 48 278 8 19 112 1 26,562

1988 9,062 8,322 17,679 741 241 352 14 18 115 1 26,742

1989 10,969 10,097 17,906 560 97 301 17 21 121 3 28,563

1990 12,324 11,460 15,616 506 79 243 31 25 124 4 27,582

1991 14,016 13,046 14,181 772 251 251 29 26 211 4 27,999

1992 14,317 13,199 15,023 798 223 327 34 29 181 4 29,020

1993 14,310 13,064 14,106 731 165 324 33 25 180 4 27,901

1994 14,570 13,022 13,166 632 74 312 31 31 179 5 26,820

1995 13,854 12,543 10,644 759 60 352 31 32 278 6 23,946

1996 13,884 12,569 11,514 828 46 472 36 37 231 6 24,911

1997 13,709 12,457 11,727 789 35 448 42 39 219 6 24,973

1998 13,648 12,321 12,359 839 103 435 43 39 213 6 25,519

1999 13,653 12,459 13,203 982 105 575 59 37 200 6 26,644

2000 13,601 12,521 12,941 1,056 164 575 60 44 207 6 26,518

2001 14,230 13,304 14,326 1,062 145 577 60 36 232 12 28,692

2002 14,868 13,871 15,740 1,180 166 644 64 28 266 12 30,791

* Transition Quarter

a. NSF has recalculated its space expenditures since 1980, making them significantly higher than reported in previous years.

b. Includes $2.1 billion for replacement of Space Shuttle Challenger in 1987.

c. “Other” column is the total of the non-NASA, non-DOD budget authority figures that appear in succeeding columns. The total is sometimes

different from the sum of the individual figures because of rounding. The “Total Space” column does not include the “NASA Total” column

because the latter includes budget authority for aeronautics as well as in space. For the years 1989–1997, this “Other” column also includes

small figures for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

d. DOE has recalculated its space expenditures since 1998, making them slightly different. 

SOURCE: Office of Management and Budget
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

141 APPENDIX E-1B

(Continued)

Space Activities of the U.S. Government

BUDGET AUTHORITY IN MILLIONS OF EQUIVALENT FY 2002 DOLLARS

(adjusted for inflation)

Inflation NASA NASA Total

FY Factors Total Spaceb DOD Otherc DOEd DOC DOI USDA NSFa DOT Space

1959 5.0822 1,682 1,326 2,490 173 173 3,990

1960 5.0009 2,620 2,310 2,806 215 215 0 5,331

1961 4.9444 4,766 4,579 4,025 336 336 8,939

1962 4.8761 8,899 8,762 6,329 970 722 249 16,062

1963 4.8223 17,712 17,486 7,475 1,239 1,032 207 26,200

1964 4.7594 24,273 23,873 7,610 1,014 999 14 32,497

1965 4.7041 24,696 24,170 7,404 1,134 1,077 56 32,708

1966 4.6226 23,922 23,413 7,808 989 864 125 32,210

1967 4.5250 22,471 21,856 7,530 964 833 131 30,349

1968 4.3853 20,115 19,427 8,429 764 636 123 0.9 4 28,620

1969 4.2326 16,892 16,177 8,520 721 499 85 0.8 4 132 25,418

1970 4.0492 15,168 14,363 6,795 571 417 32 4 4 113 21,728

1971 3.8389 12,711 11,904 5,804 622 365 104 8 4 142 18,330

1972 3.6554 12,088 11,226 5,143 488 201 113 22 7 144 16,857

1973 3.4920 11,894 10,801 5,668 515 189 140 35 7 144 16,983

1974 3.3436 10,155 9,225 5,905 528 140 201 30 10 147 15,658

1975 3.1213 10,079 9,099 5,905 492 94 200 25 6 168 15,496

1976 2.8283 10,040 9,121 5,609 476 65 204 28 11 168 15,206

TQ* 2.6418 2,462 2,243 1,215 114 13 58 8 3 32 3,572

1977 2.5608 9,777 8,809 6,177 496 56 233 26 15 165 15,481

1978 2.4572 9,976 8,902 6,728 555 84 253 25 20 174 16,186

1979 2.2996 10,569 9,267 6,982 570 136 225 23 18 168 16,819

1980 2.1270 11,145 9,954 8,185 492 85 198 26 30 153 18,631

1981 1.9534 10,779 9,751 9,431 458 80 170 23 31 153 19,640

1982 1.7807 10,762 9,844 11,893 557 109 258 21 27 142 22,294

1983 1.6642 11,441 10,531 15,009 544 65 296 8 33 142 26,084

1984 1.5941 11,889 10,932 16,252 629 54 376 5 30 164 27,813

1985 1.5374 11,643 10,646 19,629 897 52 650 3 23 169 31,173

1986 1.4882 11,619 10,663 21,023 709 52 460 3 34 160 32,395

1987 1.4532 15,874 14,255 23,669 677 70 404 12 28 163 1 38,600

1988 1.4143 12,817 11,770 25,004 1,048 341 498 20 25 163 1 37,822

1989 1.3695 15,022 13,828 24,523 767 133 412 23 29 166 4 39,118

1990 1.3188 16,253 15,114 20,595 667 104 320 41 33 163 5 36,375

1991 1.2710 17,814 16,582 18,024 981 319 319 37 33 268 5 35,587

1992 1.2234 17,515 16,147 18,379 976 273 400 42 35 221 5 35,502

1993 1.1922 17,060 15,575 16,817 871 197 386 39 30 214 5 33,263

1994 1.1644 16,965 15,163 15,330 736 86 363 36 36 209 6 31,229

1995 1.1397 15,790 14,296 12,131 865 68 401 35 36 317 7 27,292

1996 1.1156 15,489 14,022 12,845 923 51 527 40 41 257 7 27,790

1997 1.0937 14,994 13,624 12,826 863 38 490 46 43 240 7 27,313

1998 1.0728 14,641 13,218 13,258 901 110 467 46 42 229 6 27,377

1999 1.0578 14,443 13,180 13,967 1,039 111 608 62 39 212 6 28,185

2000 1.0442 14,202 13,074 13,513 1,102 171 600 63 46 216 6 27,690

2001 1.0231 14,559 13,611 14,657 1,087 148 590 61 37 237 12 29,355

2002 1 14,868 13,871 15,740 1,180 166 644 64 28 266 12 30,791
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

142 APPENDIX E-2

(Continued)

Federal Space Activities Budget

(in millions of dollars by fiscal year)

Federal Agencies Budget Authority Budget Outlays

2001 2002 2003 2004 2001 2002

actual actual est. est. actual actual

NASA 13,304 13,871 14,244 14,484 13,197 13,449

Defense 14,326 15,740 18,448 20,392 13,046 14,906

Energy 145 166 184 191 143 167

Commerce 577 644 647 866 520 228

Interior 60 64 63 60 54 63

Agriculture 36 28 39 42 36 28

Transportation 12 12 12 13 12 12

NSF 232 266 317 335 213 244

SOURCE: Office of Management and Budget
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

143 APPENDIX E-3

(Continued)

Federal Aeronautics Budget

(in millions of dollars by fiscal year)

Federal Agencies Budget Authority Budget Outlays

2001 2002 2003 2004 2001 2002

actual actual est. est. actual actual

NASAa 926 997 1,069 959 867 956

Defenseb 6,149 6,995 9,604 10,508 6,297 6,655

Transportationc 2,792 2,949 2,963 3,008 2,571 2,799

a. Research, development, construction of facilities, and program management.

b. Research, development, testing, and evaluation of aircraft and related equipment.

c. Federal Aviation Administration: research, facilities, engineering, and development.

SOURCE: Office of Management and Budget
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

144
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

145

A

AAAE American Association of Airport Executives

AANC Airworthiness Assurance Nondestructive Inspection Validation Center

ACS Advanced Camera for Surveys

ACTS Advanced Communications Technology Satellite

ADDS Aviation Digital Data Service

ADEOS Advanced Earth Observing Satellite

ADS-B Automated Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast

AEAP Atmospheric Effects of Aviation Project

AEOS Advanced Electro-Optical System

AFB Air Force Base

AFWA Air Force Weather Agency

AGATE Advanced General Aviation Technology Experiment

AGS Alternating Gradient Synchrotron

AIRS Atmospheric Infrared Sounder

ALERT Attack and Launch Early Reporting to Theater

AML Abandoned Mine Land

AMOS Air Force Maui Optical Site

AMS Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer

ARC Ames Research Center

ARM Atmospheric Radiation Measurement

ARS Agricultural Research Service (USDA)

ARTCC Air Route Traffic Control Centers

ASCE Advanced Spectroscopic and Coronagraphic Explorer

AST Advanced Subsonic Technology (Program); Associate Administrator for 

Commercial Space Transportation (FAA)

ASTER Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer

ASTP Apollo-Soyuz Test Project; Advanced Space Transportation Program

ATC Assurance Technology Center

ATLAS Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science

AVHRR Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

AVIRIS Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer

AVOSS Advanced Vortex Sensing System

AXAF Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (former name of Chandra X-Ray 

Observatory)

B

BEC Bose-Einstein Condensates

BIA Bureau of Indian Affairs (DOI)

Black hole A completely collapsed, massive dead star whose gravitational field is so 

powerful that no radiation can escape from it; because of this property, its 

existence must be inferred rather than recorded from radiation emissions.

BLM Bureau of Land Management

BNL Brookhaven National Laboratory

BOR Bureau of Reclamation

GLOSSARY AND ACRONYMS
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

146 BPRE Biological and Physical Research Enterprise

BXA Bureau of Export Administration (DOC)

C

CAC Civil Applications Committee

CAU Cockpit Avionics Upgrade

CEOS Committee on Earth Observation Satellites

CEPS Center for Earth & Planetary Studies

CIP Current Icing Potential

CIS Commonwealth of Independent States

CITEL Commission on Inter-American Telecommunications

CLASS Condensate Laboratory Aboard the Space Station

CME Coronal mass ejections

CNES Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (France)

CO Carbon monoxide

CONTOUR Comet Nucleus Tour

COPUOS Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (United Nations)

Corona The outer atmosphere of the Sun, extending about a million miles 

above the surface.

CORS Continuously Operating Reference Station

Cosmic rays Not forms of energy, such as x rays or gamma rays, but particles of 

matter.

COSPAR Committee on Space Research

CrIS Cross-track Infrared Sounder

CRISTA-SPAS Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the 

Atmosphere-Shuttle Pallet Satellite

CRYSTAL-FACE Cirrus Regional Study of Tropical Anvils and Cirrus Layers Florida 

Area Cirrus Experiment

CSC Commercial Space Center

CSOC Consolidated Space Operations Contract

CT Computerized Tomography

CUE Collaborative Ukrainian Experiment

D

DAAC Distributed Active Archive Center

DARWIN Design Assessment of Reliability With Inspection

DDU Device Driver Unit

DEM Digital elevation model

DMSP Defense Meteorological Satellite Program—DOD’s polar-orbiting 

weather satellite system

DOC Department of Commerce

DOD Department of Defense

DOE Department of Energy

DOI Department of the Interior

DOQ Digital Orthophotoquad

DOS Department of State

DOT Department of Transportation

DSN Deep Space Network
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

147 DSP Defense Support Program

DSR Display System Replacement E

EASA European Aviation Safety Agency

EDMS Emissions and Dispersion Modeling System

EELV Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (program)

EFB Electronic flight bags

EHF Extremely High Frequency

El Niño A warm inshore current annually flowing south along the coast of 

Ecuador around the end of December and extending about every 

7 to 10 years down the coast of Peru.

ELV Expendable Launch Vehicle

EO Earth Observing

EO-1 Earth Observing-1

EOS Earth Observing System—a series of satellites, part of NASA’s Earth 

Science Enterprise, designed for launch at the end of the 1990s 

to gather data on global change.

EPA Environmental Protection Agency

EPIC Environmental Photographic Interpretation Center (EPA)

E/PO Education and Public Outreach

ERAST Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (project)

EROS Earth Resources Observation Systems (USGS)

ERS European Remote Sensing satellite

ESA European Space Agency

ESE Earth Science Enterprise

ET External Tank

ETM+ Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (Landsat instrument)

EU European Union

EUMETSAT Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites

EUV Extreme Ultraviolet

EVA ExtraVehicular Activity F

FAA Federal Aviation Administration

FACE Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment

FAR Federal Acquisition Regulation

FAS Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA) FAST Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer

FCC Federal Communications Commission

FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency

FFP Free Flight Phase

FFTILFAA Technical Center’s Free Flight Technology Integration 

Laboratory

FGB Functional Cargo Block (Russian acronym)

Fly-by-light The use of light signals to connect the pilot’s control devices with the

aircraft control surfaces; or the use of light (fiber optic) control 

connections with no mechanical backup linkages and providing the 
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

148 pilot with direct control of aircraft motion rather than control surface 

position.

Fly-by-wire The use of electrical signals to connect the pilot’s control devices 

with the aircraft control surfaces; or the use of electrical control 

connections with no mechanical backup linkages and providing the 

pilot with direct control of aircraft motion rather than control surface position.

Free flight A concept being developed by the FAA and the aviation community in which pilots could ultimately choose their own 

routes, speeds, and altitudes in flight, thus improving safety

while saving fuel, time, and natural resources.

FS Forest Service

FSA Farm Service Agency (USDA)

FSS Fixed Satellite Service

FTP File Transfer Protocol

FUSE Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer

FWS (U.S.) Fish and Wildlife Service (DOI)

FY Fiscal Year

G

GAC Global Area Coverage

Gamma rays The shortest of electromagnetic radiations, emitted by some 

radioactive substances.

GDIN Global Disaster Information Network

Geostationary Traveling around Earth’s equator at an altitude of at least

35,000 kilometers and at a speed matching that of Earth’s 

rotation, thereby maintaining a constant relation to points on 

Earth.

Geosynchronous Geostationary

GIS Geographic Information System

GLONASS Global Navigation Satellite System

GloVis USGS Global Visualization

GMS Geostationary Meteorological Satellite

GNSS Global Navigation Satellite Systems

GOES Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite

GOIN Global Observation Information Network

GPS Global Positioning System

GRACE Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment

GSD Ground Sample Distance

GSFC Goddard Space Flight Center

H

Heliosphere The region of the Sun’s influence, including the Sun and the 

interplanetary medium.

HEO Highly Elliptical Orbit

HESSI High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager

HiRISE High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment

HRPT High Resolution Picture Transmission

HST Hubble Space Telescope

Hypersonic Faster than Mach 4; faster than “high speed.”
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

149 Hyperspectral An instrument capability using many very narrow spectral frequency bands (300 or more), enabling a satellite-based passive 

sensor to distinguish specific features or phenomena on the body 

being observed (such as Earth).

I

ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization

ICM Interim Control Module

IGEB International GPS Executive Board

IGOS Integrated Global Observing Strategy

IGS International GPS Service for Geodynamics

ILS International Launch Services

IMF Interplanetary magnetic field

INM Integrated Noise Model

INMARSAT International Mobile Satellite Organization

InSAR Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar

INSAT Indian Remote Sensing Satellite

Integrated Aircraft-unique avionics cabinet that replaces multiple black boxes

modular avionics with shared common equipment and generic software.

INTELSAT International Telecommunications Satellite (organization)

Interferometry The production and measurement of interference from two or 

more coherent wave trains emitted from the same source.

Internet An international computer network that began about 1970 as the 

NSF Net; very slowly, it became a collection of more than 40,000

independently managed computer networks worldwide that have 

adopted common protocols to permit the exchange of electronic 

information.

Ionosphere That region of Earth’s atmosphere so named because of the 

presence of ionized atoms in layers that reflect radio waves and 

shortwave transmissions.

IPO Integrated Program Office

IR Infrared

ISI Infrared Stellar Interferometer

ISO International Organization for Standardization

ISS International Space Station

ITA International Trade Administration (DOC)

ITU International Telecommunications Union J

JEM Japanese Experimental Module

JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA)

JSC Johnson Space Center K

Ka-band Radio frequencies in the 30-gigahertz range

K-band Radio frequencies in the 20-gigahertz range

KDP-C Key Decision Point-C

KSC Kennedy Space Center

Ku-band Radio frequencies in the 11–12-gigahertz range
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

150 L

LAC Local Area Coverage

Landsat Land (remote sensing) Satellite—a series of satellites designed to 

collect information about Earth’s natural resources.

LANL Los Alamos National Laboratory

Laser Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation—a device 

that produces an intense beam of light that may be strong enough 

to vaporize the hardest and most heat-resistant materials. First 

constructed in 1960.

LAT Large Area Telescope

LBNL Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

LDEF Long-Duration Exposure Facility

LDCM Landsat Data Continuity Mission

LEE Low Energy Electrons

LEO Low-Earth Orbit—100 to 350 nautical miles above Earth

LH2 Liquid Hydrogen

LIDAR Light Detection and Ranging

LOX Liquid Oxygen

LSDM Landsat Data Continuity Mission

LVIS Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor

M

Mach A relative number named after Austrian physicist Ernst Mach 

(1838–1916) and indicating speed with respect to that of sound

in a given medium; in dry air at 32 0

F of and at sea level, for 

example, Mach 1 = approximately 741 miles per hour (1,192 

kilometers per hour).

Magnetosphere The region of Earth’s atmosphere in which ionized gas plays an

important role in the atmospheric dynamics and where, 

consequently, the geomagnetic field also exerts an important 

influence; other magnetic planets, such as Jupiter, have 

magnetospheres that are similar in many respects to Earth’s.

MAP Microwave Anisotropy Probe

MCC-H Mission Control Center–Houston

MCC-M Mission Control Center–Moscow

MCO Mars Climate Orbiter

MEMS Microelectromechanical

MHz Megahertz

MI Microwave imager

MilSatCom Military Satellite Communications

MISR Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer

MLLW Mean Lower Low Water

MMH Monomethyl Hydrazine

MMOP Multi-lateral Medical Operations Panel

MMS Minerals Management Service (DOI)

MMU Modular Memory Unit

MOA Memorandum of Agreement

MODIS MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
F iscal Year 2002 Activities

151 MOU Memorandum of Understanding

MPL Mars Polar Lander

MPLM Multipurpose Logistics Module

MRX Magnetic Reconnection Experiment

MSFC Marshall Space Flight Center

MSG Meteosat Second Generation N

NAPP National Aerial Photography Program

NAS National Airspace System (FAA)

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASDA National Space Development Agency (of Japan)

NASM National Air and Space Museum

NASS National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA)

NATCA National Air Traffic Controllers Association

NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization

NAWQA National Water Quality Assessment

NCAP National Civil Applications Program (USGS)

NDGPS Nationwide Differential GPS

NDOP National Digital Orthophoto Program

NDVI Normalized Difference Vegetation Index

NEAR Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous

NERSC National Energy Research Scientific-computing Center

NESDIS National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NOAA)

Neutron star Any of a class of extremely dense, compact stars thought to be composed primarily of neutrons; see pulsar.

NEXRAD Next Generation Weather Radar

NEXT NASA’s Exploration Team

NGDC/STP National Geophysics Data Center’s Solar Terrestrial Physics 

Division

NGS National Geodetic Survey

NGSO Nongeostationary Orbit

NICMOS Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer

NIMA National Imagery and Mapping Agency

NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology (DOC)

NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (DOC); also the 

designation of that administration’s Sun-synchronous satellites in 

polar orbit.

Nominal Functioning as designed

NOS National Ocean Service

NOx Nitrous Oxide

NPOESS National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System

NPP NPOESS Preparatory Project

NPS National Park Service (DOI)

NRA NASA Research Announcement

NRCS National Resources Conservation Service (USDA)

NRI National Resources Inventory

NRO National Reconnaissance Office (DOD)
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

152 NSC National Security Council

NSF National Science Foundation

NSI Nuclear System Initiative

NTIA National Telecommunications and Information Administration 

(DOC)—the Federal Government’s radio spectrum manager, which 

coordinates the use of LEO satellite networks, such as those for 

Landsat, Navstar GPS, the Space Shuttle, and the Television and 

Infrared Operational Satellite (TIROS), with other countries of 

the world.

NWRC Northwest Watershed Research Center (ARS)

O

ODERACS Orbital Debris Radar Calibration Spheres

OLMSA Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications (NASA)

OMPS Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite

OPUS On-Line Positioning User Service

Order of An amount equal to 10 times a given value; thus, if some

magnitude quantity were 10 times as great as another quantity, it would be an 

order of magnitude greater; if 100 times as great, it would be larger by 

two orders of magnitude.

ORFEUS- Orbiting and Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet SpectrographSPAS Shuttle Pallet Satellite

OSMRE Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (DOI)

OSS Office of Space Science (NASA)

OSTM Ocean Surface Topography Mission

OSTP Office of Science and Technology Policy (White House)

P

PAMS-STU Passive Aerodynamically Stabilized Magnetically Damped SatelliteSatellite Test Unit

PARCS Primary Atomic Reference Clock in Space

PARR Problem Analysis, Resolution and Ranking

Pathfinder A program that focuses on processing, reprocessing, maintaining, 

archiving, and distributing existing Earth science data sets to make 

them more useful to researchers; NASA, NOAA, and USGS are 

involved in specific Pathfinder efforts.

PCB Polychlorinated biphenyl

PCC Space Policy Coordinating Committee

PEACESAT Pan-Pacific Education and Communications Experiment by Satellite

PECAD Production Estimates and Crop Assessment Division (FAS)

pH Potential of hydrogen

Photo- The science or art of obtaining reliable measurements by means of 

grammetry photography.

PI Principal Investigator

PLGR Precision Lightweight GPS Receiver

PMA Pressurized Mating Adapter

POES Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (program)

PPPL Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
PPS Precise Positioning Service

PRA Probabilistic Risk Assessment

Pulsar A pulsating radio star, which is thought to be a rapidly spinning neutron star; the latter is formed when the core of a violently exploding star, called a supernova, collapses inward and 

becomes compressed together; pulsars emit extremely regular 

pulses of radio waves.

Q

Quasar A class of rare cosmic objects of extreme luminosity and strong

radio emission; many investigators attribute their high energy 

generation to gas spiraling at high velocity into a massive black

hole.

QuikSCAT Quick Scatterometer R

R&D Research and Development

RADARSAT Canadian Radar Satellite

RAMBO Ram Burn Observation Experiment

Ramjet A jet engine with no mechanical compressor, consisting of spe

cially shaped tubes or ducts open at both ends, along with the 

air necessary for combustion being shoved into the duct and 

compressed by the forward motion of the engine.

RASC Revolutionary Aerospace System Concepts

ReMaP Research Maximization and Prioritization

RFID Radio Frequency Identification

RGL Runway Guard Lights

RHESSI Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager

RHIC Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider

RLV Reusable Launch Vehicle

RPA Remotely Piloted Aircraft

RSA Russian Space Agency (Rosaviakosmos)

RSAC Remote Sensing Application Center

RSML Remote Sensing and Modeling Laboratory (ARS)

RTG Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator

RUC Rapid Update Cycle S

SAGE Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment

SAMRSS Shafter Airborne Multispectral Remote Sensing System

SAO Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

SAR Synthetic Aperture Radar

SARSAT Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking

SBIRS Space Based Infrared System

SBS Satellite Business Systems

SCIGN Southern California Integrated GPS Network

F iscal Year 2002 Activities

153
Scramjet Supersonic-combustion ramjet

SCS Slot Credit Substitution

SeaWiFS Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor

SEC Space Environment Center

SI Le Système International d’Unités (International System of 

Units)

SIMPLEX Shuttle Ionospheric Modification with Pulsed Localized Exhaust

SLAC Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

SLEP Service Life Extension Program

SLS Spacelab Life Sciences

SMA Safety and Mission Assurance; Submillimeter Array

SMC Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center

SNOE Student Nitric Oxide Experiment

SOFIA Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy

SOHO Solar and Heliospheric Observatory

Solar wind A stream of particles accelerated by the heat of the solar 

corona (outer region of the Sun) to velocities great enough to 

permit them to escape from the Sun’s gravitational field.

SPACEHAB Commercial module for housing Shuttle experiments.

SPARTAN Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy

SPOT Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre (French satellite for 

the observation of Earth)

SRB Solid Rocket Booster

SRM Solid Rocket Motor

SRMU Solid Rocket Motor Upgrade

SRTM Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

SSBUV Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet

SSCC Space Station Control Center

SSCE Solid Surface Combustion Experiment

SSME Space Shuttle Main Engine

SSM/I Special Sensor Microwave Imager

SSRMS Space Station Remote Manipulator System

SSTF Space Station Training Facility

SSTI Small Satellite Technology Initiative

START Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty

STP Space Test Program

STS Space Transportation System

SUBSA Solidification Using a Baffle in Sealed Ampoules

SWAS Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite

SXI Solar X-ray Imager T

TATechnology Administration (DOC)

TATPTriacetone triperoxide (terrorist explosive) 

TDRS Tracking and Data Relay Satellite

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

154
TERRIERS

Tomographic Experiment using Radiative Recombinative 

Ionospheric EUV and Radio Sources

THREADSTechnology for Human and Robotic Exploration and 

Development of Space

TIMED Thermoshere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and 

Dynamics

TM Landsat Thematic Mapper

TMA-MC Traffic Management Advisor-Multi-Center

TOMSTotal Ozone Mapping Spectrometer

TOPEX Ocean Topography Experiment

TRACETransition Region and Coronal Explorer

TRACONTerminal Radar Approach Control (system)

TRMMTropical Rainfall Measuring Mission

TXR Thermal-infrared Transfer Radiometer U

UARS Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite

UHF Ultrahigh Frequency—any frequency between 300 and 3,000 

megacycles per second.

UNISPACE United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful 

Uses of Outer Space

URET User Request Evaluation Tool

U.S. United States

USAF U.S. Air Force

USAID U.S. Agency for International Development

USDA U.S. Department of Agriculture

USGS U.S. Geological Survey (DOI)

USML U.S. Microgravity Laboratory

USMP U.S. Microgravity Payload

USTR U.S. Trade Representative

USWCL U.S. Water Conservation Laboratory (ARS)

UWB Ultrawideband V

VCLVegetation Canopy Lidar

VHFVery High Frequency—any radio frequency between 30 and 

300 megacycles per second.

VLBAVery Large Baseline Array

VLSA Very Large Scale Aerial

VNIR Visible near-infrared radiance WWAAS Wide Area Augmentation System

WCSAR Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics

Wind shearVariation of wind speed and wind direction with respect to a 

horizontal or vertical plane; powerful but invisible downdrafts 

F iscal Year 2002 Activities

155
called microbursts focus intense amounts of vertical energy in 

a narrow funnel that can force an aircraft to the ground nose

first if the aircraft is caught underneath.

WIREWide-field Infrared Explorer

WRCWorld Radiocommunication Conference

WSC White Sands Complex

WSDDMWeather Support to Deicing Decision Making

WSFWake Shield Facility

WSSDWorld Summit on Sustainable Development

WTCWorld Trade Center

WTOWorld Trade Organization

X-Y-Z

X rays Radiations of very short wavelengths, beyond the ultraviolet in

the spectrum.

XRS X-Ray Sensor

XRSIM X-ray simulation software

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

156
President

Fiscal Year

2002

Activities

autics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2002 Activities

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