Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 200

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a Aeronautics

and

Space Report

of the 

President

Fiscal Year

2001

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, 2000,

through September 30, 2001.
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

TABLE OF CONTENTS c

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

Department of Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Federal Aviation Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Department of Commerce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Department of the Interior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Federal Communications Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Department of Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

National Science Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Department of State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Department of Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Smithsonian Institution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

A-1 U.S. Government Spacecraft Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

A-2 World Record of Space Launches Successful in 

Attaining Earth Orbit or Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

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

October 1, 2000–September 30, 2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

C U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights, 

1961–September 30, 2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

D U.S. Space Launch Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

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

Budget Authority (in millions of real-year dollars) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

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

Equivalent FY 2001 Dollars (adjusted for inflation) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

E-2 Federal Space Activities Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

E-3 Federal Aeronautics Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Glossary and Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

d
In FY 2001, NASA’s safety quest continued to build momentum. In the past year,

NASA continued its successful plan for reducing injuries to a rate of 0.75 occurrences per 100 workers, well below the goal specified by the President’s direction

arising from the Federal Worker 2000 Presidential Initiative. To continue this positive trend, NASA’s Centers are working to be certified under the Occupational

Safety and Health Administration’s Voluntary Protection Program (VPP). NASA

has set a goal for all of its Centers to be VPP certified. By the end of FY 2001, 2 of

the 10 Centers had been certified. NASA safety and mission assurance experts

provided assessment, oversight, and critical evaluation for NASA Space Shuttle

missions, International Space Station missions and operations, and NASA spacecraft missions. In addition, NASA conducted several focused assessments

including operational and engineering reviews of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

microdevices laboratory and Unitary Wind Tunnel at the Ames Research Center;

a critical facilities maintenance assessment to determine the safety and mission

support posture of critical facilities across NASA; an assessment of X-37 safety and

mission assurance processes and design features; the United Space Alliance

Ground Operations workforce survey; and the Boeing Seal Beach onsite assessment and review. NASA instituted an Aviation Safety Board to oversee aviation

safety programs. To strengthen the Agency’s safety and mission assurance capabilities, NASA introduced the following two new tools: the Systems Analysis

Program for Hands-On Integrated Reliability Evaluations (SAPHIRE), a

Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) software application developed for the

Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which now serves as the baseline PRA tool for

NASA; and the Process-Based Mission Assurance Web resource, which provides

F iscal Year 2001 Activities

1

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS

AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

NASA
NASA’s program managers with the framework to help build the right level of

safety and mission assurance activity into their program.

In the human space flight area, NASA successfully accomplished seven

Space Shuttle missions in support of complex International Space Station (ISS)

assembly operations during FY 2001. From the launch of STS-98 in February 2001

to the landing of STS-105 in August 2001, NASA flew five flights in six months,

maintaining a vehicle in orbit for more than one third of that time. The ISS had

its first permanent occupants in FY 2001, beginning with the launch of the

Expedition 1 crew aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket on October 31, 2000. The

Expedition 2 and 3 crews also began their stays on the ISS during FY 2001.

The STS-92 mission, which launched on October 11, 2000, was the 100th

Shuttle mission. For STS-92, during its 12-day mission to the ISS, all assigned

objectives to install the Zenith Z1 Truss structure and the third pressurized mating

adapter (PMA3) for use as a docking port on subsequent Shuttle missions were

completed. On flight day three, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata deftly maneuvered Discovery’s robotic arm to lift the Zenith Z1 Truss from the Shuttle’s payload

bay and berthed it to a port on the Unity connecting module. Inside Unity, pilot

Pam Melroy and crewmate Jeff Wisoff opened the hatch where the new truss was

attached and installed grounding connections between the framework and the

Station. Discovery’s five mission specialists performed a total of four extravehicular

activities (EVAs) during the STS-92 mission. The crew also successfully completed testing of the four control moment gyroscopes that will be used to orient the

ISS as it orbits Earth.

On November 30, 2000, the STS-97 mission was successfully launched. For

STS-97, an 11-day mission, the astronauts completed three spacewalks to deliver

and connect the first set of U.S.-provided solar arrays to the ISS, prepare a docking port for arrival of the U.S. Laboratory Destiny, install a sophisticated

instrumentation package to measure electrical potential surrounding the Station,

install a camera cable outside the Unity module, and transfer supplies, equipment,

and refuse between Endeavour and the ISS. The successful checkout of the

extravehicular mobility units (EMUs), the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue

(SAFER) units, the Remote Manipulator System RMS, the Orbiter Space Vision

System (OSVS), and the Orbiter Docking System (ODS) were all completed

nominally. Also, the ODS centerline camera was installed smoothly.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 2
The STS-98 mission launched on February 7, 2001. On STS-98, after docking to the ISS, Station and Shuttle crews opened hatches and unloaded supplies:

bags of water, a spare computer, cables to be installed inside the Station to power

up the Destiny Laboratory, and various personal items for the Station crew. The

U.S. Laboratory Destiny was successfully installed on the ISS using the RMS and

concurrent EVAs. Shuttle and Station astronauts also activated air systems, fire

extinguishers, alarm systems, computers, and internal communications, plus continued equipment transfers from the Shuttle to the Station. They also filmed

onboard scenes using an IMAX camera.

On March 8, 2001, the STS-102 mission launched at sunrise and carried

the second resident crew (Expedition 2) to the ISS, as well as the first MultiPurpose Logistics Module, Leonardo, full of supplies and equipment plus science

racks for transfer to the U.S. Laboratory Destiny. Joint operations between the

Shuttle and the Station crews resulted in unloading almost 5 tons of experiments

and equipment from Leonardo and packing almost 1 ton of items for return to

Earth. Discovery’s spacewalkers—James Voss, Susan Helms, Andrew Thomas, and

Paul Richards—set the stage for continued expansion of the Station by installing

a platform that will eventually be used to mount a Canadian-built robotic arm, the

Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS), to the Station on a future

mission. They also removed a Lab Cradle Assembly from Discovery’s cargo bay and

installed it on the side of the U.S. Lab Destiny, where it will form the base for the

SSRMS that was delivered on a mission in April 2001. 

The STS-100 mission launched on April 19 and docked with the ISS 2 days

later. The advanced robotic arm, called Canadarm2, was attached to a pallet on

the outside of Destiny. It later was directed to “walk off” the pallet and grab onto

an electrical grapple fixture on the Lab, which would provide data, power, and

telemetry to the arm. Days later, the arm was used to hand off the cradle, on which

it rested inside Endeavour’s payload bay during launch, to the orbiter’s arm. The

exchange of the cradle from Station arm to Shuttle arm marked the first-ever

robotic-to-robotic transfer in space. Other crew activities during the mission

included attaching an ultra-high-frequency antenna on the outside of the Station

and, inside, calibrating the Space Vision System, an alignment aid for operating

the robotic arm, plus helping repair the Space Station’s treadmill and filming for

IMAX.

F iscal Year 2001 Activities

3
For STS-104, liftoff occurred on July 12, 2001. The primary mission goal

was to deliver the joint airlock Quest module to the ISS. This mission marked the

end of the second phase of Station assembly. After docking with the ISS on July

13, both Atlantis and ISS crews prepared for the planned three EVAs. In a series of

three spacewalks, the joint airlock module was attached to the Unity Node an

high-pressure gas tanks attached to the airlock. Both Station and Shuttle crews

checked out and activated the new Quest airlock, conducting a dry run before the

inaugural event. This mission was the first launch of the Block II Space Shuttle

Main Engine. Approximately a month later, on August 10, 2001, the STS-105

mission launched. Part of the mission was to bring the next resident crew,

Expedition 3, to the ISS and return Expedition 2 to Earth. The payload included

the Early Ammonia Servicer (EAS), to be installed on the outside of the ISS, and

Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) Leonardo. During the time docked with

the ISS, crews unloaded 7,000 pounds of supplies, equipment, and science racks

from the MPLM Leonardo, storing it on the Space Station. This was the

second flight of the Leonardo to the ISS. Mission specialists completed the

first of two EVAs to install the EAS on August 16, 2001. 

The Expedition 1 crew began their stay on the ISS in November 2000, following an October 31 launch (Flight 2R). The outfitting of the ISS continued

with the delivery of supplies via a Russian Progress supply vehicle (2P) in midNovember. The STS-97 crew then launched on November 30, 2000, delivering

the first U.S. solar array and radiator (Flight 4A), the 11th flight in the ISS assembly sequence. Next, the Expedition 1 crew received the 12th flight in the ISS

assembly sequence, 5A, the delivery of the U.S. Lab on STS-98 in February 2001.

This mission was followed by the third Russian Progress supply mission and the

13th ISS flight (3P) on February 25, 2001. The Station’s first permanent crew

spent more than 4 months on the ISS and supported four assembly and logistics

missions before the arrival of the Expedition 2 crew. 

Increment 2 crew operations were initiated on STS-102, the premier

launch of the first Italian-made MPLM Leonardo (Flight 5A.1) on March 8. It was

the first docking with the ISS under U.S. Orbital Segment (USOS) attitude control and the first ISS crew rotation. On April 16, the Progress M-244 resupply ship

(3P) was jettisoned from the Service Module (SM) aft port, after having delivered

approximately 2 metric tons of goods and propellants, and conducted three reboost

maneuvers of the ISS. On April 19, 2001, STS-100 lifted off on ISS mission 6A

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 4
with a crew of seven (including one Russian) to deliver the second Italian-built

MPLM “Raffaello” and the Canadian space station remote manipulator system

“Canadarm2” to the ISS. The first Soyuz (crew return vehicle) exchange (2S) was

accomplished with an April 28 launch to provide the replacement Soyuz and

return the “spent” Soyuz TM-31 (2R) to Earth. 

Following this mission, the fourth Progress logistics flight (4P) was

launched to the ISS on May 20. On July 12, STS-104 was launched with five

crewmembers on assembly mission 7A to conduct joint operations with the

Expedition 2 crew and, in three spacewalks, to install the Joint Airlock “Quest”

and outfit it with four high-pressure gas tanks. 

As NASA has accelerated the transition from ISS development work into

operations, all elements for ISS assembly flight elements through 12A have been

delivered either to orbit (Node 1 Unity, the FGB, the first solar arrays, thermal

radiators, the Z1 Truss, Control Moment Gyros (CMG) attitude control systems,

PMA-1, 2, and 3, and the U.S. Laboratory, Destiny) or to KSC (the remaining

truss segments, communications system, integrated electronics, and the U.S.

Airlock). NASA determined that it is in the best interest of the Government to

concentrate resources on assembly planning, operations, and utilization readiness,

and on the on-orbit assembly of the ISS.

From an operational perspective, the communications systems with Mission

Control Center (MCC)-Houston, MCC-Moscow, and the U.S.-led international

control teams have been vigorously exercised as they worked anomaly resolution,

avoidance maneuvers, Soyuz and Progress dockings, and redocking tests at different ISS ports, as well as ISS reboosts as required. Mission Control was officially

handed over to MCC-Houston after the 5A.1 mission in March 2001. 

The establishment of a permanent human presence on the ISS created

remarkable opportunities for the Space Medicine Program. While traditional support continued for astronaut healthcare, medical certification, and Shuttle

medical operations, the space medicine emphasis at the Johnson Space Center

(JSC) shifted to worldwide long-duration operations, onorbit deconditioning

countermeasures, onorbit medical certification and intervention, and comprehensive rehabilitation services postflight. In addition, the planning process was begun

to integrate exciting new capabilities such as the onorbit ultrasound to improve

both astronaut healthcare and research possibilities. 

F iscal Year 2001 Activities

5
The Space Medicine Program successfully implemented many changes to

medical operations that included 24-hour-per-day medical support at multiple sites

such as JSC, the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training

Center, and in Kazakhstan. Preflight, inflight, and postflight medical support was

provided for seven Shuttle missions and ISS Expeditions 1, 2, and 3. Preparation

for each mission included preflight medical screening, crew training on the use of

medical, exercise, and environmental monitoring hardware, cross-cultural and isolation- coping techniques training, contingency medical procedures training,

medical kit preparation, strength and endurance physical training, and ground

crew mission-specific preparation. 

Initial ISS support operations were conducted from Moscow utilizing an

integrated medical team approach developed between the Russian and U.S. support staff. The integrated medical team continued daily communication and

planning when flight control shifted to Houston during Expedition 2. All of the

ISS International Partners participated in multilateral flight crew certification and

in integrated flight readiness program reviews. An integrated catalog of all Russian

and U.S. medical systems and hardware was also developed.

The Crew Health Care System (CHeCS) comprised of the Environmental

Monitoring System, Health Maintenance System, and Countermeasure System

was launched and operationally deployed. Medical systems for ISS are unique in

that components of CHeCS can be commanded from the ground. These commands can implement a verification of onorbit systems or initiate data downlink

operations. Data within JSC are transferred using a file transfer protocol server

with virtual private network (VPN) connectivity to MCC-Houston and JSC

Medical Lab facilities.

Medical services were enhanced with the implementation of an electronic

medical record, replacing the paper-based system in the flight medicine clinic.

Data are now automatically entered into the Longitudinal Study of Astronaut

Health (LSAH) database. The LSAH project provides data for evidence-based

decisionmaking for the development of selection standards and appropriate Earth

and space-based prevention and treatment capabilities within the Space Medicine

Program. 

A critical new part of the Space Medicine Program is the physical training,

preflight conditioning, and postflight rehabilitation of the astronauts. The

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 6
Astronaut Strength, Conditioning, and Rehabilitation (ASCR) program was

implemented for long-duration ISS crewmembers. EVA-assigned crewmembers

received physical training specifically to address conditioning for the required task

of EVA. ISS crewmembers exercise activities were monitored and specific exercise

prescriptions uplinked weekly. As a result, ISS crewmembers returned to Earth

with acceptable performance margins to be able to exit the Shuttle with minimal

assistance. The postflight program is designed to return the astronauts to their

normal state of health while providing safety factors to prevent injury during their

rehabilitation. 

Upgrading the onboard space medicine preventive, diagnostic, and treatment capabilities is an ongoing process. Among many new developments this year,

an important concept was improving telepresence techniques to optimally utilize

Earth-based resources and expertise to extend crewmember capabilities. One

example this year was the development of procedures to use ultrasound techniques

to provide high-quality diagnostic imaging with nonmedical personnel. Using this

technique, onorbit crew can be guided by a remotely located flight surgeon and

Earth-based experts via the ISS telecommunications infrastructure. 

It has also become clear that the crewmembers on long-duration missions

need considerable support for psychosocial considerations. Behavioral health programs were implemented in 2001 to support the ISS crewmembers and their

families. These support elements included cross-cultural training, cognitive selfassessment, and fatigue self-assessment tools to enable maximum performance and

safety of the crew. 

The primary goal of the Space Shuttle Safety Upgrade Program continued

to be the improvement of crew flight safety and situational awareness, protect

people both during flight and on the ground, and increase the overall reliability of

the Shuttle system. During FY 2001, NASA continued working on improving

existing Space Shuttle operational mission assurance and reliability through several safety and supportability upgrade initiatives. To improve Shuttle safety, an

effort was initiated to proactively upgrade the Shuttle elements and keep it flying

safely and efficiently through FY 2012 and beyond to meet Agency commitments

and goals for human access to space. The suite of high- priority safety upgrades

included the Cockpit Avionics Upgrade (CAU), the Space Shuttle Main Engine

(SSME), Advance Health Management System (AHMS), Electric Auxiliary

Power Unit (EAPU), and the Solid Rocket Booster Advance Thrust Vector

F iscal Year 2001 Activities

7
Control system. CAU, which will enhance crew situational awareness and reduce

crew workload by providing automated control of complex procedures, is currently

underway. The EAPU would have replaced the hydrazine-powered units by using

battery-powered electric motors, but, due to technology development required

before initiating the implementation, this project was cancelled. In addition, the

Solid Rocket Booster Advance Thrust Vector Control upgrade, which if implemented could replace the hydrazine-powered turbines, was delayed due to budget

constraints. 

FY 2001 included the first flight of the upgraded SSME designated Block II

on the STS-104 flight. The Block II Maine Engine configuration included a new

Pratt & Whitney high-pressure fuel turbopump. The main modification to the

engine was the elimination of welds by using a casting process for the housing and

in integral shaft/disk with thin-wall blades and ceramic bearings. These changes

doubled the reliability of the engine. This modification should increase the

number of flights between major overhauls.

The operational character of the Space Shuttle Program places a significant

burden on NASA resources. Although “operational” by NASA standards, the Space

Shuttle requires significant specialized skills and facilities to maintain and operate at

appropriate safety levels. Over the past 6 years, NASA has reduced the annual operation cost of the Space Shuttle by almost 40 percent. NASA has already made

significant strides toward privatization of the Space Shuttle by completing a series of

contract consolidations. In 1997, NASA turned over daily operations of the Shuttle

to a jointly owned corporation called United Space Alliance (USA). During FY

2001, however, the Shuttle program still required about 1,800 highly skilled civil

service personnel to carry out the remaining Government operational and oversight

responsibilities. Additionally, for continued safe operations of the Space Shuttle

until the middle of the next decade, significant investments are required to maintain

Space Shuttle flight system and aging ground infrastructure assets.

The challenges to complete Space Shuttle privatization continued to be

centered on ensuring that safety is not compromised while at the same time

achieving further cost benefit to the Government. During FY 2001, NASA began

the current Space Shuttle privatization effort by chartering an internal task team

to perform a review and assessment of options for privatizing the Shuttle, developing screening criteria for all privatization options, and providing

recommendations on the best options to senior Agency officials. 

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 8
In the area of space communications, NASA’s Space, Deep Space, Ground,

and Wide-Area Networks successfully supported all NASA flight missions and

numerous commercial, foreign, and other U.S. Government agency missions.

Included were the launch of ISS hardware, Mars Odyssey, Microwave Anisotrophy

Probe, Genesis, Artemis, and GOES-M. Emergency support of spacecraft anomalies were provided to Artemis, GOES, Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, Mars

Global Surveyor, Terra, Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, and Cassini. Other

support included the NEAR landing on the asteroid Eros, Deep Space-1 encounter

with comet Borrelly, Astro-D re-entry with impact in the Pacific Ocean, and

Landsat-4 end-of-life maneuvers. 

The Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC) completed its 33rd

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

Johnson Space Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Goddard Space Flight Center,

Marshall Space Flight Center, and Kennedy Space Center. 

Other significant activities included installation of Ka-Band uplink capability at Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex to support the Cassini

mission; installation of 70-meter X-Band uplink capability at the Madrid, Spain,

and Canberra, Australia, stations; completion of the mechanical life extension

study for the Deep Space Network’s 70-meter antennas; automation of the 26-

meter antenna operations at Goldstone station; automation of the packet

telemetry processing facility that supports the Hubble Space Telescope; installation of a 5-meter Ka-Band antenna at Wallops Flight Facility to support flight

demonstrations; initiation of construction of a new 34-meter antenna at Madrid,

to be operational for the armada of spacecraft arriving at Mars in late 2003/early

2004; and preparations for the launch of TDRS-I and TDRS-J.

There were 18 U.S. Expendable Launch Vehicle launches in FY 2001.

Seven of the 18 launches were NASA-managed missions, 9 were Department of

Defense (DoD)-managed missions, and 2 were FAA-licensed commercial

launches. In addition, NASA flew one payload as a secondary payload on one of

the FAA-licensed commercial launches. The last launch of the fiscal year was a

NASA-managed launch from the Alaska Spaceport on Kodiak Island, the first

orbital launch from the new commercial Spaceport. There was one launch failure

this year. An FAA-licensed launch of the Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC)

Taurus with a NASA secondary payload onboard did not achieve orbit due to a

launch vehicle first-stage failure. 

F iscal Year 2001 Activities

9
NASA began a new Spaceport and Range Technology Development

Initiative to develop and demonstrate advanced spaceport and range technologies

to keep pace with the upgrades of current and the development of new launch

vehicles. This initiative was an outgrowth of an Administration interagency study

on the primary Federal launch ranges. The Kennedy Space Center is leading the

initiative. Throughout FY 2001, NASA continued to define potential

human/robotic exploration architectures and technologies through the efforts of

an interagency planning team. As reported in FY 2000, the Decadal Planning Team (now known as the NASA Exploration Team or NEXT) focused upon science-driven and technology-enabled capabilities for future applications and

destinations. These studies have changed the way NASA has approached exploration, and, at the end of the fiscal year, NASA planned to continue them. 

To tackle the many technical challenges, the HEDS Technology and

Commercialization Initiative (HTCI) was initiated following a 6-month program

formulation involving numerous NASA Enterprises, Field Centers, universities,

and companies. The focus of this initiative was to identify new concepts and

develop new technologies to enable the future human/robotic exploration and

commercial development of space. In February 2001, HTCI issued a Cooperative

Agreement Notice that yielded 152 proposals, from which 43 were recommended

for funding in May 2001. Unfortunately, however, a few months later, HTCI funds

were frozen, and then the funds were transferred to the ISS Program to cover

budget issues.

In lieu of HTCI as a means of implementing technology research in the

near term, efforts to foster development continued by cooperative interaction

among the NASA Enterprises and Centers. The cooperation encompasses a continuing specific focus in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and

Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. The SBIR/STTR programs

in the Advanced Programs Office are geared to support HEDS technology research

with focused topics in high-priority technologies. In addition, the programs have

been given a push in nontraditional research avenues via the Historically Black

Colleges and Universities (HBCU) outreach activity. This activity resulted in a

new STTR phase one contract in FY 2001 and is expected to generate additional

contracts in FY 2002. The HBCU research institutions represent a far underutilized resource that could form a new approach toward meeting the HEDS

technology challenges.

10Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 
In the space science arena, NASA successfully launched three spacecraft in

FY 2001: the 2001 Mars Odyssey, the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP), and

Genesis. In addition, the many spacecraft already operating delivered a wealth of

scientific data.

The launch of Odyssey in April 2001 represented a milestone for space science: the rebirth of the Mars program after the devastating losses of Mars Climate

Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander in late 1999. Odyssey was the first Mars mission

designed under the newly renovated Mars program, so naturally all eyes were

focused closely on this particular mission. From the beginning, the spacecraft operated beautifully, but the proof would not come until the spacecraft successfully

achieved Mars Orbit Insertion after the close of FY 2001.

In June 2001, NASA launched the Microwave Anisotropy Probe, a mission

designed to measure 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. Immediately after the end of FY 2001, MAP arrived safely at its permanent observing station at L2 Lagrange Point, some 1.5 million kilometers from

Earth, and scientists eagerly await the data it will deliver over its 2-year prime mission.

In August 2001, NASA launched a unique Sun-Earth Connection mission

called Genesis. Genesis is designed to collect particles of solar wind in an attempt

to answer two fundamental scientific questions: What is the Sun made of? Are the

Earth and other planets made of the same stuff? At the end of FY 2001, the spacecraft was on its million-mile journey toward the Sun. 

NASA’s other orbiting spacecraft continued to deliver many new scientific

discoveries and fascinating images. The Hubble Space Telescope—now in orbit for

12 years—discovered a supernova blast in the early universe that greatly bolsters

the case for the existence of a mysterious form of “dark energy” pervading the universe. The concept of dark energy, which shoves galaxies away from each other at

an ever-increasing speed, was first proposed—and then discarded—by Albert

Einstein early in the last century. The Hubble discovery also reinforces the startling idea that the universe only recently began to speed up.

The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Shoemaker spacecraft

achieved an unprecedented feat in FY 2001. It conducted the first soft landing on

F iscal Year 2001 Activities

11
an asteroid following a year-long orbital mission at the asteroid Eros, during which

the mission returned enormous quantities of scientific data and images.

The Chandra X-Ray Observatory celebrated 2 years in orbit and continued

unlocking secrets of mysterious high-energy astrophysical events. Chandra

enhanced our understanding of black holes on many fronts. It took the deepest xray 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 it captured

the first x-ray flare ever seen from the supermassive black hole in the center of the

Milky Way.

The Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS) made news when a

stellar apocalypse yielded the first evidence of water-bearing worlds beyond our

solar system. The SWAS observations provided the first evidence that extra-solar

planetary systems contain water, an essential ingredient for known forms of life.

The Mars Global Surveyor continued to send back tens of thousands of surface images over the past year that featured dust storms, dust devils, 3-D sand

dunes, a recent image of “the face,” and dark streaks that may have been caused by

dust avalanches. Other images revealed evidence of ground ice on Mars as recently

as 10 million years ago. With more than 30 space science missions currently in operation, these

highlights represent only a fraction of the scientific discoveries and insights that

the Office of Space Science gained over the past year. At the end of FY 2001, the

Space Science Enterprise planned to launch seven new missions before the end of

2002, covering a wide variety of new scientific objectives. 

FY 2001 was the most successful year to date for NASA’s Earth Science

Enterprise (ESE) in fulfilling its mission to develop a scientific understanding of

the Earth system and its response to natural and human-induced changes so as to

enable improved prediction of climate, weather, and natural hazards for present

and future generations. ESE’s unique vantage point of space allowed unprecedented global views of the Earth system’s atmosphere, land, oceans, ice, and life.

ESE combines space observations with airborne and in situ measurements, data

analysis, and modeling to conduct basic research and provide validated data products. In FY 2001, ESE more than doubled its output of top-rated scientific

discoveries compared to previous years. Together with its partners, ESE enhanced

the availability of Earth science results to decisionmakers, providing a sound, scientific basis for economic investment and policy decisions. ESE’s strategic goals in

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

12
FY 2001 were to expand scientific knowledge by characterizing the Earth system,

disseminate information about the Earth system, and enable the productive use of

ESE science and technology in the public and private sectors.

On November 21, 2000, ESE successfully launched the Earth Observing-1

(EO-1) technology demonstration satellite, its first New Millennium Program mission. EO-1 included the world’s first space-based hyperspectral sensor. At

one-quarter the weight and one-third the cost of traditional Landsat satellites, EO1 demonstrated its ability to produce Landsat-like imagery at a fraction of the

mission costs. EO-1 flies in formation with the Earth Observing System Terra

(EOS-Terra) satellite, Landsat 7, and the joint U.S.-Argentina SAC-C satellite,

and has demonstrated the satellite constellation concept in which the combined

capabilities create a super-satellite. Once validated, several of the EO-1 technologies will be turned over to the private sector for commercial development.

Two international collaborations in FY 2001 provided new tools that should

allow policymakers and scientists to identify major sources of air pollution and to

track the movement of pollution globally. ESE and its partners tracked hazardous

smoke and smog around the globe using the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer

Earth Probe (TOMS-EP). By examining data from Indonesian and African fires in

1997, researchers discovered that smoke and smog move through the atmosphere

in different ways. In the second collaboration, ESE developed the most complete

view of the world’s air pollution using new observations from the Canadian

Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument on the

Terra spacecraft. Analysis of the new data revealed that plumes of carbon monoxide travel across the world, and that air pollution therefore is not just a local issue.

Early warning of pollution events can help to mitigate their potentially hazardous

effects on human health.

ESE successfully conducted an international field experiment, the Transport

and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE-P) airborne campaign. During

the 45-day campaign in March/April 2001, ESE scientists combined data collected

by two specially equipped NASA airplanes flying near Hong Kong and Japan with

satellite and ground station measurements. By studying the seasonal airflow from

Asia across the Pacific, researchers gained insight into the way in which natural

and human-induced changes affect our global climate and contributed to our

understanding of the dynamics of atmospheric chemistry.

F iscal Year 2001 Activities

13
Using 3 years of continuous, daily observations of ocean algae and land

plants from the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) launched in

1997, ESE created the most comprehensive global biological record of the Earth

ever assembled. Researchers are using the record, which ESE plans to extend to 10

years or more, to study the fate of carbon in the atmosphere, the length of growing seasons, and the vitality of the ocean’s food web. Other uses include

monitoring the health of coral reefs, tracking harmful “red tides” and algae blooms,

and improving global climate models.

In FY 2001, ESE made advances in understanding seasonal to interannual

climate change. The Clouds and Earth’s Radiation Energy System (CERES)

instrument on the Terra spacecraft provided the most accurate and first complete

year of global radiation measurements. Using Terra’s ability to collect data twice

per day over the entire planet, the new measurements captured both incoming and

outgoing energy globally. The results from a second NASA-funded study suggested

that solar activity affects the jet stream over North America, possibly causing a

change in cloud cover patterns. In years of increased solar activity, more ultraviolet radiation is absorbed by stratospheric ozone, which warms the stratosphere and

may affect circulation in the troposphere. Researchers found that the U.S. is on

average 2 percent cloudier in years of solar maximum. Understanding the links

between solar radiation, atmospheric chemistry, cloud cover, and atmospheric circulation will help narrow the uncertainties in predictions of both weather and

future climate change. ESE and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) completed

the second Antarctic Mapping Mission that was begun in FY 2000. By precisely

navigating the CSA’s RADARSAT-1 satellite to obtain data from six passes,

researchers created detailed topographic maps and were able to measure the speed

of moving glaciers. The first-ever velocity map of the Lambert Glacier revealed

that the ice stream reaches speeds of more than 1 kilometer per year. By comparing the new map of Antarctica with the first map made in 1997, researches found

that some glaciers are retreating while others are advancing. The full map should

be completed in FY 2002. ESE researchers also monitored the development of a

crack 15 miles long in Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier—evidence of the imminent birth of a massive iceberg—using images from Landsat 7, Terra, CSA’s

RADARSAT, and the European Space Agency’s radar imager. These results are

giving scientists a better understanding of long-term change in the polar regions,

a very sensitive component of the Earth system.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

14
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

15 ESE was also highly successful in disseminating Earth science data and

information. The Earth Observing System Data and Information System

(EOSDIS) manages data from NASA’s past and current Earth science research

satellites and field measurement programs. The EOSDIS network was very successful in FY 2001, distributing more data faster as the median product delivery

time was reduced to less than 1 day. EOSDIS distributed approximately 1.2 million

data products per month in response to approximately 150,000 user requests. In

addition, ESE conducted 482 workshops training K–12 teachers on Earth science

education products, reaching 9,295 educators (K–12). Schools participating in

Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE)

increased to 13,800, and participating countries increased to 97.

Finally, FY 2001 was also a successful year for enabling productive use of

ESE science and technology. Using a newly developed 512-node Silicon Graphics,

Inc., supercomputer, ESE researchers simulated more than 900 days of the Earth’s

climate in 1 day of computer time. Previous capability had been limited to the simulation of 70 days. Researchers demonstrated experimental seasonal climate

predictions using ESE data sets from the TOPEX/Poseidon, SeaWiFS, TRMM, and

Terra satellites. The combination of a faster computer, more accurate climate

models, and the use of more global satellite observations will result in more accurate prediction of climate change for policy makers. 

To improve access to and understanding of remote-sensing data, ESE hosted

five workshops around the United States. The workshops demonstrated the use of

ESE science and technology to over 550 decisionmakers representing nearly every

state. A survey conducted during the workshops found that 35 percent of respondents had never used satellite data. A follow-up survey after the workshops

demonstrated that the number fell to 20 percent.

In FY 2001, ESE worked to extend the benefits of remote sensing to policymakers in urban and rural areas. Researchers at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Earth

Science Applications Center produced more accurate and detailed maps of major

cities around the country using Landsat-7 data. These maps should help urban

planners studying city growth and how rainfall runoff over paved surfaces impacts

regional water quality. ESE also provided imagery from the EOS-Terra satellite to

the Rapid Response Project for tracking and combating wildfires in the Western

United States. Federal, State and local Governments, and firefighters used the

data to help mitigate this natural disaster. In a third effort, ESE created a commercial partnership that will place advanced Global Positioning Satellite technologies in tractors, giving American farmers access to precision farming

technologies. Precision farming helps farmers use less water, fertilizer, and weed

control, reducing the environmental impacts of agriculture and increasing efficiencies in food and fiber production.

Through a collaborative project with the Department of Defense, ESE continued to monitor and predict disease outbreaks in an effort to reduce their impact

on society. Using near-real-time satellite vegetation measurements and associated

climate data sets, scientists developed the capability to make predictions about

emerging Rift Valley Fever (RVF) epidemics in East Africa several months before

an outbreak occurs. Additionally, ESE investigators provided data support to the Walter Reed Army Institute for Research during an RVF outbreak in Saudi Arabia

and Yemen. 

In the area of aeronautics and aerospace technology, NASA's Office of

Aerospace Technology (OAT) continued to manage a portfolio of technology

development activities designed to improve air travel, making it safer, faster, and

quieter, as well as more affordable, accessible, and environmentally sound. It also

continued working to develop more affordable, reliable, and safe access to space;

improve the way in which air and space vehicles are designed and built; and ensure

new aerospace technologies are available to benefit the public. 

In the area of aviation safety, there were a number of significant accomplishments. NASA demonstrated a “daisy-chain flight control allocation scheme,”

based on a second-generation neural flight control architecture applied to generic

transport aircraft simulation. The daisy-chain scheme utilizes remaining operational surfaces and the propulsion system in an unconventional manner (e.g.,

symmetric ailerons or symmetric throttles for pitch control and rudder or differential throttles for yaw-based roll control) in order to compensate for more severe

failures. These simulations showed that the system provided redundant control

power in the event of the loss of actuator control, additional control authority in

the event of actuator control saturation, and demonstrated ability to provide

improved handling qualities for severe failures in a reduced flight envelope that

would otherwise result in a catastrophic event.

The aviation safety program system selected design concepts that showed

the greatest promise for accident prevention in the areas of fire prevention, fire

detection, synthetic vision, and an integrated vehicle health management for conAeronautics and Space Report of the President 

16
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

17 tinued development. One of these, the tactical Synthetic Vision System (SVS) is

a technology that has the potential to eliminate low-visibility conditions as a

causal factor to civil aircraft accidents, as well as replicate the operational benefits

of flight operations on a clear, sunny day, regardless of the outside weather condition or time of day. Flight demonstration of conventional media head-up and

head-down tactical SVS display concepts intended for retrofit in commercial and

business aircraft were conducted over a three-week period in August and

September 2001. Seven evaluation pilots representing Boeing, the FAA, and three

major airlines conducted 11 research flights for a total of 106 airport approaches.

The concepts were evaluated in flight tests designed to evaluate pilot acceptability/usability and terrain awareness benefits. Early results indicated that pilot

terrain awareness was higher when using the selected SVS display concepts compared to present-day displays.

Studies have shown that 5 to 10 percent of rotorcraft accidents are the

result of gear failure and drive train failure. NASA personnel established design

guidelines to prevent catastrophic rim fractures. This work should enable ultra-safe

gears to be designed, eliminating nearly all catastrophic failure modes for lightweight thin-rimmed aircraft gears. The model accurately predicts crack

propagation paths and has been validated using the NASA Gear Fatigue Test Rig.

During FY 2001, NASA developed the Collaborative Arrival Planner

(CAP) tool to exchange real-time air traffic control information with Airline

Operational Control (AOC) centers such that decisions made by AOCs regarding

their aircraft operations could be based on the most up-to-date information possible. This increased arrival prediction accuracy in the AOCs has enabled airlines

to make better decisions regarding flight diversions, gate utilization, and push-back

times, leading to improved operational efficiency and financial savings. In addition, an en route decision support tool for efficient, conflict-free routing was also

developed. The “Direct-to” (D-2) decision support tool underwent field testing in

the Fort Worth Air Route Traffic Control Center. The D-2 controller tool identifies aircraft that can save flight time by flying directly to a down-stream fix along

its route of flight. This technology has demonstrated the ability to save several

minutes per flight, with commensurate reductions in fuel consumption and emissions. Finally, NASA personnel developed and flight tested an Air Traffic Control

(ATC)/cockpit information exchange capability. Software tools that support decisionmaking by ATC require an ability to accurately predict future aircraft positions
during flight. To perform long-range trajectory predictions, Center TRACON

Automation System (CTAS) relies on the availability of aircraft state, aircraft performance, flight plan intent, and atmospheric data. The ATC/cockpit information

exchange successfully demonstrated the capability to downlink aircraft state and

intent information from the cockpit directly to CTAS by means of a real-time airto-ground data link. A comparison of climb predictions at 15,000 feet to actual

radar tracks showed that the direct downlink predictions reduced the peak altitude

error by over 3,000 feet from the standard system. 

NASA continued conducting a balanced effort at making major advances

in aircraft noise reduction. Previously, NASA had demonstrated technologies that

resulted in a 5-decibel reduction in aviation noise. In FY 2001, researchers tested

additional technologies including a Pratt & Whitney 4098 engine and improved

inlets. NASA personnel also conducted tests to separate and assess core noise.

Airframe noise-reduction concepts (flap edge, slat cove, flap and slat trailing edge

treatments, and landing gear modifications) were validated on the Subsonic Technology Assessment Research model, a detailed 26 percent Boeing 777, which

was tested in the 40 x 80-foot tunnel at NASA’s Ames Research Center. Two flight

tests were conducted to validate engine system noise reduction. A “chevron”

nozzle and other jet noise-reduction concepts were validated on a Lear 25, and

both jet and fan noise-reduction concepts were validated on a Falcon 20.

A system analysis of the test results demonstrated an additional 2-decibel

reduction for large transport aircraft and 3 decibels for regional and business classes

of aircraft. 

In the area of technology innovation, NASA set a new world altitude

record for a solar-powered aircraft, reaching an altitude of 96,863 feet on August

13, 2001 from the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) on the

Hawaiian island of Kaua’i. Although short of the 100,000-foot altitude that project officials hoped for, the altitude is the highest ever flown by a

nonrocket-powered aircraft in sustained horizontal flight and well above the current world altitude record of 85,068 feet for sustained horizontal flight by a

conventional aircraft, set by a U.S. Air Force Lockheed SR-71A reconnaissance

aircraft in July 1976. It also surpassed the existing altitude record for propellerdriven aircraft, 80,201 feet, set by the Helios Prototype’s predecessor, the

Pathfinder-Plus, in August 1998. The 96,863-foot record altitude remains unofficial, however, until certified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

18
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

19 The Helios Prototype flew for more than 40 minutes above a 96,000-foot

altitude before beginning its descent. It was in the air for almost 17 hours on the

record flight, having lifted off the PMRF runway at 8:48 a.m. and landing at 1:43

a.m. the following morning after a 9.5-hour descent. Electrical power for postsunset flight was provided by the generating capability of the motors using the

windmill effects of the propellers as the aircraft glided down.

Production variants of Helios might see service as long-term Earth environmental monitors, disaster monitoring, as well as communications relays,

reducing dependence on satellites and providing service in areas not covered by

satellites. The record altitude flight also provided NASA and AeroVironment

with information on how an aircraft would fly in a Mars-like atmospheric condition, since the atmosphere at that altitude above the Earth is similar to the

atmosphere near the Martian surface. 

Another aircraft mission was not as successful. The X-43A is designed to be

the first scramjet-powered vehicle, capable of attaining speeds as high as Mach 10.

The X-43A mission on June 2, 2001 was lost moments after the X-43A and its

launch vehicle were released from the wing of the NASA B-52 carrier aircraft.

Following launch vehicle ignition, the combined launch vehicle and X-43A experienced structural failure, deviated from its flight path, and was deliberately

terminated. A Mishap Investigation Board (MIB) was immediately formed and

began conducting a thorough review of the failure. The MIB results were released

in April 2002 and will be addressed prior to scheduling the next X-43 flight.

With the cessation of the X-33 and the X-34 programs, the Aerospace

Technology Enterprise has taken a new approach toward developing reusable

launch vehicle (RLV) technologies to enable the eventual routine access to space.

This effort is called the Second-Generation RLV Program. In FY 2001, NASA

awarded contracts valued at $767 million to 22 contractors, including large and

small companies, to allow maximum competition. The money will be used to

develop concepts and the technologies needed to pioneer this extraordinary effort,

which is expected to make the vehicle at least 10 times safer and crew survivability 100 times greater, all at one-tenth the cost of today’s space launch systems.

At the beginning of FY 2001, NASA created the Biological and Physical

Research Enterprise (BPR) to strengthen NASA’s interdisciplinary program of

research in space. As humans make the first steps off Earth and into space, we

enter a new realm of opportunity to explore profound questions, new and old,
about the laws of nature. At the same time, we enter an environment unique in

our evolutionary history that poses serious physiological, psychological, and environmental challenges. NASA’s Biological and Physical Research Enterprise

addresses the opportunities and challenges of space flight through basic and

applied research on the ground and in space. BPR seeks to exploit the rich opportunities of space flight for fundamental research and commercial development,

while conducting research to enable efficient and effective systems for protecting

and sustaining humans in space. 

The Biological and Physical Research Enterprise (BPRE) closed its first

fiscal year with a significant record of accomplishment. The Enterprise initiated a

program of research on the International Space Station to take advantage of available resources during the construction phase, released three NASA research

announcements, and strengthened its research investigator community. 

BPR established a new Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S.

Department of Agriculture, conducted a joint research solicitation with the

National Cancer Institute, and continued work under 18 other agreements with

the National Institutes of Health. In a truly auspicious sign of things to come, a

BPRE investigator received the Nobel Prize in physics for ground-based research

that he plans to extend and expand on the International Space Station. 

FY 2001 also included major efforts to restructure International Space

Station research. These efforts respond to substantial reductions in available budgets for research equipment (facilities), support, and operations. In addition, BPR

continued working to address potential reductions in available onorbit resources

for research. While this restructuring is of central importance for the future of ISS

research, it did not materially affect resources necessary for executing BPR’s

planned research program in fiscal year 2001.

ISS outfitting for research began with the delivery of the Human Research

Facility in March 2001. NASA delivered two research equipment racks in midApril and an additional two at the beginning of Expedition 3 in August 2001. At

the end of the fiscal year, the Agency is on track to deliver another five research

equipment racks by the end of 2002. Despite underestimation of Station maintenance requirements and a greater-than-expected volume of “off-normal” activities

during Expeditions 1 and 2, the ISS team was able to meet the minimum research

objectives of these increments. 

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

20
The Expedition 1 crew initiated a small number of U.S. research activities,

including crew Earth observations, the Educational SEEDS experiment (plant

growth in microgravity), biological crystal growth (structural biology), space technology motion and vibration experiments, and human research baseline data

collection. 

With Expedition 2, completed in July, the research program on the ISS was

underway. Eighteen experiments were conducted. The Expedition focus was on

biomedical research and included studies of biological effects of space radiation,

characterization of the ISS radiation environment, bone loss and spinal cord

response during space flight, and interpersonal influences on crewmember and

crew-ground interactions. Other experiments included plant germination and

growth; Earth observations; and experiments aimed at resolving the exact structures of important biological molecules. 

Research on Expedition 3 included 8 new and 10 continuing experiments.

New Expedition 3 experiments included investigation of the mechanism that

causes space travelers to suffer from dizziness and an inability to stand on returning to Earth (a condition called orthostatic intolerance); a study of heart and lung

function in space and as affected by spacewalks; a study of the risk factors associated with kidney stone formation during and after space flight; new techniques for

structural biology in space; and a study of materials passively exposed to the space

environment around the ISS to better define changes in material properties and

onorbit degradation trends. 

Research results from the ISS will be forthcoming as data are collected and

analyzed. Results reported in FY 2001 based on earlier research missions and

ground-based experiments support continued progress in understanding and controlling the negative effects of space travel. 

Research published in 2001 suggests that the human brain contains an

internal model of gravity and that this model may be very difficult or potentially

even impossible to “unlearn.” (Nature Neuroscience, 4, 693–694, 2001).

Astronauts quickly adjust to many of the challenges of orientation and movement

associated with space flight, but the new results suggest there may be limits to this

adaptability. Astronauts attempted to catch a “falling” object moving at different

constant speeds. The test subjects proved unable to adjust to the fact that such

objects do not “fall” faster and faster in space. The expectation that a “falling”

F iscal Year 2001 Activities

21
object would accelerate proved impossible to unlearn over the course of this brief

experiment. This experiment raises the possibility that the nervous system may

contain a “hardwired” model of gravity. If confirmed, this would be a fundamental

discovery that could influence medical treatments for people with damaged or

impaired nervous systems. In addition, this finding has important implications for

the design of safe and efficient environments and systems for human space flight. 

In what may be a breakthrough for astronauts and osteoporosis victims alike,

researchers were able to prevent bone loss using mild vibrations (FASEB J, October

2001). Normally, rats lose bone when their hind limbs are suspended and no longer

support the weight of the body. BPRE researchers were able to counteract this bone

loss by exposing the rats to mild vibrations. This study opens the door to a new

method for controlling the 1% per month loss of bone that astronauts experience in

space, and clinical studies are planned to determine the usefulness of vibration for

treating or preventing osteoporosis on Earth. 

In addition to research aimed at controlling the physical challenges of space

flight, BPR exploits the space environment to conduct unique experiments in physics,

chemistry, and biology that would be impossible to conduct on Earth. A broader program of ground-based research supports research progress in space and develops new

hypotheses for testing. 

2001 was a banner year for BPRE basic physics research. Early in the year,

BPRE researchers reported that they had “brought light to a full stop, held it, and then

sent it on its way.” (Physical Review Letters, January 29, 2001, Vol. 86, Issue 5).

Researchers used lasers they developed under BPRE funding to bring a beam of light

to a complete stop in a specially designed trap, and then released it again. 

Another team of BPRE researchers created a gas cloud riddled with tiny

whirlpools like those that cause “starquakes.” (Science, Vol. 292, No. 5516, 20 April

2001). The researchers used an ultra-cold cloud of sodium gas and quantum effects to

create a physical model of phenomena that take place deep inside distant stars. 

The importance of this kind of low-temperature physics research was reinforced at the end of 2001 when Dr. Ketterle was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics

for his seminal BPRE-funded work on Bose-Einstein Condensate, a new state of

matter in which individual atoms merge into each other.

These experiments represent substantial milestones in physicists’ quest to study

quantum phenomena (physical phenomena that are ordinarily only observable at

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

22
microscopic scales) in macroscopic systems. This research could have far-reaching

implications for the future of information and communication technologies. 

In biotechnology research, a research group at the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology grew heart tissue with “significantly improved” structural and electrophysiological properties using NASA bioreactor technology (Journal of

Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology, Jan. 2001). Unlike tissue grown using

more conventional technology, the tissue grown in the NASA bioreactor was actually made to beat like native heart tissue. The NASA bioreactor allows researchers to

grow tissues in the laboratory that much more faithfully reproduce the properties of

natural tissues in the body. These tissues allow researchers to explore mechanisms of

disease and may ultimately improve processes for creating engineered tissue for use in

treatment and transplant. 

Twenty-four cell cultures, including colon, kidney, neuroendocrine, and ovarian cell cultures, were grown aboard the ISS in 2001. This represents our first

opportunity to use a sophisticated bioreactor to grow cells in space. Bioreactor cell

growth in microgravity permits cultivation of tissue cultures of sizes and quantities not

possible on Earth. Cells may grow in low gravity more like they grow in the human

body, increasing research capability in areas pertinent to the study of human diseases. 

BPR provides knowledge, policies, and technical support to facilitate industry

investment in space research. BPR enables commercial researchers to take advantage

of space flight opportunities for proprietary research. FY 2001 included continued

growth in the number of commercial partners participating in the program and an initial set of 5–6 experiments conducted aboard the ISS.

In fiscal year 2001, StelSys (a joint venture of FVI and In Vitro Technologies)

signed an agreement with NASA to explore commercial applications of bioreactor

technology research specifically in areas related to biological systems.

Bristol-Myers Squibb and the Center for BioServe Space Technologies

reported that production of antibiotics is substantially greater in microgravity than on

the ground with more antibiotic produced in flight samples. They are working to

apply this research to ground-based processes. 

BPR’s Center for Biophysical Sciences and Engineering (CBSE) formed an

exclusive partnership with Athersys, Inc., a premier genomics company. Genomics is

the science of describing the proteins that are encoded by the genes in our DNA.

CBSE has developed a world-class capability to determine the exact shapes and structures of proteins through the process of protein crystallography. Precise information

F iscal Year 2001 Activities

23
on the protein structure is critical to the design of highly specific and effective new

drugs.

BPR seeks to use its research activities to encourage educational excellence

and to improve scientific literacy from primary school through the university level

and beyond. We deliver value to the American people by facilitating access to the

experience and excitement of space research. BPRE strives to involve society as a

whole in the transformations that will be brought about by research in space. 

During FY 2001, BPR held its first interactive education and public outreach broadcast as part of a technically oriented Pan Pacific Microgravity Workshop. BPR revamped its material on the Worldwide Web to reflect our new

NASA Enterprise status and mission, and to group material specifically for public,

educational, and technical audiences. The Enterprise had requests for and distributed over 4,000 interactive CDs explaining space flight and space research to the

layperson and educator as a result of our electric light tower exhibit touring the

country. In collaboration with the USAF Academy Department of Biology, we

completed development of an undergraduate-level course in Space Biology. 

During FY 2001, NASA continued its international activities, expanding

cooperation with its partners through new agreements, discussions in multilateral

fora, and support for ongoing missions. NASA concluded over 90 cooperative and

reimbursable international agreements for projects in each of NASA’s five

Strategic Enterprises. These agreements included ground-based research, aircraft

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

human space flight and research. Significant international agreements signed

during FY 2001 include several government-to-government framework agreements, under which future cooperation will be carried out, and agency-to-agency

Memoranda of Understanding for specific projects. 

In the area of framework agreements, the Agreement Between the United

States of America and the Republic of Hungary on Cooperation in the Exploration

and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes was signed on May 14, 2001. This

agreement establishes the foundation for future bilateral cooperation between the

U.S. and Hungary in the areas of space science, Earth and atmospheric science,

and human space exploration. The Agreement Between NASA and the National

Commission for Space Activities of the Argentine Republic for Cooperation in

the Civil Uses of Space was extended on August 2, 2001, for an additional l5 years.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

24
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

25 This agreement provides the framework for strengthening cooperation in the uses

of space for research in Earth science and global climate change.

In space science, specifically in the area of solar system exploration, NASA

and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (Rosaviakosmos) signed an

Implementing Agreement for Flight of the Russian High-Energy Neutron Detector

(HEND) instrument to fly on NASA’s Mars 2001 Odyssey mission. This mission was

launched by NASA on April 7, 2001 and entered the orbit of Mars after the end of

FY 2001. The HEND instrument will provide unique data to scientists to assist in the

ongoing search for water on Mars. NASA also signed project-level agreements for scientific participation by Germany and Denmark in NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover

mission, to be launched in 2003. In the area of space physics, NASA signed projectlevel agreements covering the participation of several nations in NASA’s planned

Solar-Terrestrial Relations Observatory mission: Germany, Italy, the United

Kingdom, France, Switzerland, and Hungary, and the European Space Agency

(ESA). In astrophysics, NASA signed initial project-level agreements with the ESA

and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) for cooperation in the Next-Generation

Space Telescope mission, NASA’s planned follow-on to the highly successful Hubble

Space Telescope mission. In addition, NASA signed a series of project-level agreements with ESA covering U.S. participation in several future ESA astrophysics and

planetary missions: the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory, the Laser

Interferometer Space Antenna, the International Rosetta mission (an in situ investigation of the Comet Wirtanen), and Mars Express. The NASA Astrobiology

Institute accepted two new international affiliate members during FY 2001, the

United Kingdom Astrobiology Forum and the Australia Centre for Astrobiology.

In Earth science, NASA and the CSA signed a Memorandum of

Understanding (MoU) for the SciSat-1 Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE)

mission on October 24, 2000. As of the end of FY 2001, the SciSat-1 ACE mission

was scheduled for launch no earlier than December 2002. The objective of the

SciSat-1 ACE mission is to improve our understanding of the chemical processes

involved in the depletion of the ozone layer, with particular emphasis on the processes

occurring over Canada and the Arctic. On May 29, 2001, NASA and The

Netherlands Agency for Aerospace Programmes signed an MoU for the Dutch-built

Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) to fly on NASA’s Earth Observing System

(EOS) Aura spacecraft, scheduled for launch in mid-2003. OMI will measure total

column ozone, ozone profiles, and other atmospheric constituents, such as clouds and
aerosols. These important measurements will help scientists determine how the

Earth’s ozone layer and ultraviolet radiation is responding to the phase-out of ozonedestroying chemicals, as well as to the increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases

and atmospheric particulates (e.g., dust and soot) caused by human activity. 

Also in Earth science, NASA and the Israel Space Agency signed an MOU

for cooperation related to the Mediterranean Israeli Dust Experiment (MEIDEX) in Tel Aviv, Israel, on August 16, 2001. Both agencies are now completing work on the

Israeli instrument, which is scheduled for flight as a secondary payload on the Space

Shuttle Columbia in 2002. The primary objective of the MEIDEX payload is to investigate the geographical variation of the optical, physical, and chemical properties of

desert aerosols, including the location and temporal variation of its sinks, sources, and

transport. An Israeli payload specialist, Colonel Ilan Ramon, who will be the first

Israeli to fly in space, will conduct the MEIDEX experiment in flight. NASA established a series of agreements with institutes from Japan, China, Taiwan, and Germany

in support of the NASA Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific atmospheric science experiment. This experiment, which included NASA aircraft and

ground-validation sites, was conducted in March and April 2001 in Hong Kong,

Japan, and Taiwan. 

In addition, NASA and the Argentine Space Commission (CONAE) signed

an agreement for an airborne validation campaign on December 27, 2000, to complement cooperation between NASA and CONAE under the Memorandum of

Understanding for the Scientific Applications Satellite-C (SAC-C) Earth Observing

Mission (signed October 28, 1996). Under this agreement, the NASA Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) was deployed to Argentina to conduct calibration and validation activities for the EO-1 and SAC-C satellites shortly

after their joint launch in November 2000. 

In human space flight and research, the NASA Administrator led a NASA

delegation to witness the historic launch of the first crew (Expedition 1) to the

International Space Station (ISS), which took place at the Baikonur launch facility

in Kazakhstan on October 31, 2000. Following approval procedures in the U.S.,

Japan, and Russia, the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) Concerning

Cooperation on the Civil International Space Station entered into force on March

28, 2001. The International Space Station Partners approved the flight of the first

space flight participant, Mr. Dennis Tito, to the ISS in April 2001 aboard a Soyuz taxi

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

26
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

27 mission. In December 2000, as part of the U.S. Government team, NASA successfully concluded discussions with the government of Japan that clarified and updated

the 1995 Agreement Between the United States and the Government of Japan

Concerning Cross-Waiver of Liability for Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of

Space for Peaceful Purposes. This agreement ensures that Japan and the United States

agree to waive liability claims for cooperative U.S./Japan space activities.

Also during FY 2001, NASA participated in numerous multilateral fora and

meetings designed to review ongoing cooperation or to foster new cooperation.

These included: the Inter-Agency Consultative Group for Space Science and its

International Living with a Star Task Group; the Committee on Earth Observing

Satellites; the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and its

subcommittees; the ISS IGA Triennial Review; the ISS Forum 2001; and the

International Astronautical Federation. NASA senior management engaged in

bilateral discussions with current and potential future international partners, hosting meetings with space officials from around the world, and visiting foreign space

officials and facilities. One of the developments in this regard was the initiation of

preliminary discussions between the U.S. Government and the government of Turkey on potential civil space cooperation. A Turkish Space Symposium was held

in May 2001 in Ankara, Turkey, and senior NASA management participated in

this meeting. Several months later, a high-level Turkish delegation visited NASA

Headquarters and several NASA Field Centers in August 2001 to continue the

exploratory discussions. 

F iscal Year 2001 Activities

29

DEPARTMENT OF

DEFENSE

DoD

During FY 2001, 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 of 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 2001, the NPOESS Integrated Program Office (IPO)

extended the two Program-Definition and Risk-Reduction (PDRR) contracts by 6

months and down-selected development contract awards for all remaining major

sensors. The NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP), an IPO/NASA joint mission to

provide a crucial early-flight and risk-reduction opportunity for several major

NPOESS sensors, also continued to progress in FY 2001. The PDRR contractors

each held several promising early demonstrations of system concepts and designs

to accommodate the planned 2005 NPP mission launch.

DoD, NASA, NOAA, and other Federal agencies continued to make

good progress in FY 2001 on implementing activities for the Space Weather

Architecture Transition Plan. DoD participated in a new NASA initiative, Living

with a Star, a systems approach to studies of Sun-Earth connections. In 2001, DoD

participated fully in the LWS Science Architecture Team to help develop a definition of the LWS program. The objectives of LWS connect the scientific

understanding of the Sun-Earth system with an ultimate operational forecasting

capability, a major DoD concern.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-M

spacecraft was launched successfully on July 23, 2001. This DoD/NOAA/NASA

spacecraft continued a series of capabilities in weather imagery and sounding data

to support operational weather forecasting and meteorological research. New on
this mission was the DoD/NOAA/NASA-sponsored Solar X-ray Imager, the first

operational instrument for monitoring x rays that originate in the atmosphere of

the Sun. Solar forecasters now get a real-time downlink of images that helps them

make more accurate predictions of geomagnetic storms on Earth. Some affected

activities and impacts that benefit from these forecasts are GPS navigation errors,

radio communication blackouts, radiation danger to high-flying crews and passengers, and interruptions to satellite operations.

Regarding the highly protected SatCom systems, Milstar Flight 4 was

launched from the Eastern Range during February 2001. This was the first successful medium data rate EHF satellite on orbit for the DoD. 

In the area of positioning and navigation, two Global Positioning System

(GPS) Block IIR satellites were launched and subsequently declared operational.

At the end of the fiscal year, the GPS constellation consisted of a total of 28 satellites providing unprecedented levels of accuracy in support of national security, as

well as worldwide transportation safety, scientific, and commercial interests.

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. As the

first step in a major effort over the next several years to modernize GPS to enhance

its ability to meet both military and civil needs for the foreseeable future, System

Architecture and Requirements Development (SA/RD) contracts were awarded to

Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The yearlong SA/RD contracts, also called Concept

Exploration, are intended to evaluate military and civil utility, as well as define the

system performance trade space for the subsequent phases of GPS III development. 

As part of the DoD restructure of its Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle

(EELV) program, DoD sought and won congressional approval of a Heavy Lift Vehicle demonstration launch as a risk-reduction step. Launch was scheduled

for 2003. 

In the areas of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, the SpaceBased Infrared System (SBIRS) made progress toward fielding the follow-on

system to the Nation’s Defense Support Program (DSP) missile launch early warning satellites. SBIRS is fielded in three increments. The technical difficulties in

1999 that had set back the transition to a new mission control station were

resolved. Increment 1 consolidated the DSP’s overseas ground stations, located in

Europe and Australia, with the old U.S. ground station into a single mission con30Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

31 trol station located at Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado. The overseas sites were

replaced with minimally staffed relay ground stations in order to realize savings in

staffing, operations, and maintenance. The addition of the SBIRS high component, also known as “SBIRS Increment 2,” has encountered difficulties, however,

and first launch will probably be slipped from FY 2005 to FY 2007. The Highly

Elliptical Orbit sensor payload and the mobile multimission processors both passed

successful critical design reviews, paving the way to begin fabrication of HEO

flight payloads and SBIRS mobile ground stations. The DoD has also continued

with the risk-reduction and program definition phase for SBIRS low.

The DoD Space Test Program (STP) teamed again with NASA in launching the Kodiak Star mission on an Athena I launch vehicle—the first orbital

launch out of Kodiak Island, Alaska. In addition to NASA's Starshine III spacecraft, this mission included three small DoD spacecraft (PICOSat, PCSat, and

Sapphire) which tested a variety of new space technologies, including flexible

polymer batteries, ionospheric occultation measurements, and advanced command

and control techniques. At the end of the fiscal year, STP and the Naval Research

Laboratory were progressing well toward the 2002 Titan II launch of Coriolis, a

risk-reduction effort for NPOESS, acquired under NASA’s Rapid Satellite

Acquisition process. STP awarded a contract to Spectrum Astro to build and

launch the Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System mission,

which will test the ability to forecast communications outages due to ionospheric

scintillation. STP teamed with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space

Vehicles Directorate to develop a secondary payload adapter ring for the Evolved

Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV), which can host up to six 400-pound micro

satellites. STP also worked closely with NASA and the U.S. Navy on the

Geosynchronous Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer/Indian Ocean

Meteorology and Oceanography Imager project.

STP had two successful Shuttle/ISS missions in FY 2001 as well. STS-105

delivered and successfully deployed the Materials International Space Station

Experiment (MISSE) externally on the ISS. MISSE, a passive materials exposure

experiment, is the first external experiment on ISS. In addition, STS-105

retrieved and returned MACE II (Middeck Active Control Experiment II) from

the ISS. MACE II was the first experiment on ISS and was operated for nearly a

year. Through the efforts of Commander Bill Shepherd and astronaut Susan

Helms, Mace II surpassed all anticipated data results.
DoD continued to coordinate and oversee a wide array of space control initiatives spanning all four space control mission areas: surveillance of space;

protection of space assets; prevention; and negation. Particular emphasis was

placed on space surveillance programs leading to an approved modernization and

investment strategy that will transform the existing surveillance network from a

track-based system to a search-based system that will eventually be able to provide

true space situational awareness. Plans were also made for a new Space Situational Awareness Integration Office within the Air Force Space Command to serve as an

advocate for space surveillance and improve program management and collaboration among DoD components and other interested Government agencies. In the

area of space system protection, the U.S. Space Command led an effort to develop

a new analytic tool to assist decisionmakers in establishing protection priorities for

space systems. The results of this effort will be used to help develop a Space

Protection Roadmap that will ensure the availability of critical space capabilities

during all levels of conflict. Research also continued on a number of space prevention and negation concepts in response to emerging DoD requirements.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

32
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

33

FEDERAL AVIATION

ADMINISTRATION

FAA

The FAA continued in its mission to ensure a safe, secure, efficient, and environmentally friendly civil air navigation and commercial space transportation system.

During FY 2001, the agency performed and sponsored research and development

programs to enhance the effectiveness of its mission; issued regulations and guidelines for better flight standards, operations, and maintenance; and provided

equipment and training for a modernized air traffic control system.

In the area of airport safety and pavement technology research, the FAA

completed the first set of full-scale trafficking tests at the National Airport

Pavement Test Facility during FY 2001.These tests involved subjecting nine test

pavements to simulated B-747 and B-777 loading at speeds of 2.5 and 5 mph. The

FAA worked closely with the Boeing Company and an international working

group in planning these tests. Researchers recorded the pavement response instrumentation data and stored it in a database for future retrieval.

The FAA, in cooperation with the Air Force, conducted a study on vehicle

stability enhancements for heavy airport rescue and firefighting vehicles, since a

number of these vehicles have suffered rollover accidents in recent years. The

study focused on active and reactive suspension systems and shock-dampening systems. Technicians conducted testing to establish more stringent static and

dynamic testing criteria for newly manufactured vehicles. As a result, the FAA

incorporated changes into the latest revision of the advisory circular for heavy airport rescue vehicle design in the areas of performance testing and vehicle

suspension systems. These changes will help prevent rollover accident by ensuring

that future airport rescue and firefighting vehicles have the new suspension

technology, as well as allowing for retrofitting the existing fleet.
The FAA also initiated research to prevent new large aircraft wingtips from

intruding in the safety areas of adjacent taxiways, runways, and terminal areas. In

particular, the FAA selected Anchorage International Airport for this research

due to its large number of Boeing 747 traffic and availability of varying weather

conditions. FAA specialists completed the first phase of data collection in August

2001, with a second phase beginning in September 2001. The FAA expected to

begin analysis of the data in FY 2002.

In the area of fire safety research, the FAA has emphasized fuel tank safety

since the TWA flight 800 accident in July 1996. One proposed method of reducing the flammability of fuel tanks is fuel tank inerting, which is commonly used by

the military. However, the systems weight, resource requirements, and low dispatch reliability have indicated that military fuel tank inerting systems would not

be practical for application in transport airplanes. The Aviation Rulemaking

Advisory Committee (ARAC) Fuel Tank Harmonization Working Group, commissioned by the FAA to evaluate various concepts for preventing fuel tank

explosions in commercial transport aircraft, concluded that the most potentially

cost-effective method of fuel tank flammability reduction is ground-based inerting

(GBI). Ground-based inerting is defined by inerting fuel tanks during ground operations, when the threat of explosion is perceived to be the greatest. FAA and Boeing personnel therefore performed a series of aircraft flight and

ground tests to evaluate the effectiveness of GBI as a means of reducing the flammability of fuel tanks in the commercial transport fleet. Boeing made available a

model 737-700 for modification and testing. A series of 10 tests were performed

(five flight, five ground) under different ground and flight conditions to demonstrate the ability of GBI to reduce fuel tank flammability. Results with low fuel

loads showed that, under quiescent conditions, the oxygen concentration in the

fuel tank remained somewhat constant, keeping the CWT inert (below 10- to 12-

percent oxygen by volume) for relatively long periods of time. Results were in

reasonably good agreement with predictions, and the FAA planned to continue

this research in FY 2002. 

Aircraft cargo compartments’ fire-detection systems currently consist of

either ionization or photoelectric smoke detectors. However, the ratio of false

alarms to actual fires detected by U.S.-registered airlines during the previous 5

years is approximately 200 to 1. There are no certification criteria for new multiAeronautics and Space Report of the President 

34
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

35 sensor detectors employing algorithms that attempt to discriminate between real

fires and nuisance alarm sources. The FAA conducted research to standardize the

fire that cargo fire-detection systems must detect and to provide technical data to

develop certification guidelines for multisensor fire detectors.

Two fire sources were initially developed as proposed standards and the

FAA-conducted testing was done at its William J. Hughes Technical Center.

Concurrent with the development and testing of fire sources, under NASA funding, Sandia National Laboratories developed a computational fluid dynamics

(CFD) model to predict the transport of smoke, heat, and gases throughout an aircraft cargo compartment. NASA also contributed to the research by expanding an

ongoing project on miniature gas sensors for space applications into use on aircraft.

The FAA planned to conduct further related tests to evaluate detector placement

and alarm algorithms on detection times and possibly reduce some of the required

certification tests.

Regarding suppression of inflight cargo compartment fires, FAA personnel

conducted full-scale tests to investigate the effectiveness of several types of water

spray systems. Water spray is being considered an alternative agent for Halon 1301,

which is no longer being produced because it depletes stratospheric ozone. Because

water spray technologies have proven effective in other applications and because

water is environmentally friendly, nontoxic, and abundant, it is being considered

as a halon-replacement agent for use in cargo compartments. 

During FY 2001, FAA personnel also investigated ways to reduce the flammability of seat cushions and other sources of rubber and foam in aircraft. New

materials that were developed with the assistance of industry such as polyphosphazene and polysilphenylene-siloxane provide as much as a 50-percent reduction

in flammability compared to the best commercial semi-inorganic rubbers and an

order-of-magnitude reduction in flammability compared to the polyurethane currently used in aircraft seating. FAA specialists planned to explore the use of

relatively low-cost expandable graphite technology in semi-inorganic rubber compounds to obtain a fireproof (zero heat release rate) seat cushion foam by 2005.

The FAA’s Fire Research Program continued to seek ways to predict the fire

resistance of new polymers from their chemical structure without the time and

expense (about 6 months and $50,000 per material) of synthesis, purification,

characterization, and fire testing. To this end, the FAA has been developing computer programs to simulate the molecular-level fuel generation process of polymers
in fires. FAA scientists measured over 100 polymers of known chemical structure

for heat-release capacity using a special FAA-developed technique. A comparison

of calculated to measured heat release capacities for 80 polymers showed good

agreement, indicating that the fire hazard of a polymer in an aircraft cabin is proportional to its heat-release rate in flaming combustion. Thus, the potential fire

resistance of polymers can be simply calculated a priori from the chemical structure without the need for synthesis and/or testing.

In terms of crash research, FAA researchers conducted a vertical drop test

of a B737-100 fuselage section at its Atlantic City, NJ, facility. The airframe section was configured to simulate the load density at the maximum takeoff condition

and contained cabin seats, dummy occupants, overhead stowage bins with contents, and cargo compartment luggage. The test article was fully instrumented.

The objective of the test was to evaluate the response behavior of the overhead

stowage bin installations when subjected to a severe, but survivable, impact condition. Of particular interest was a comparison of the pretest static, steady state

forces to which the bins were subjected during their calibration versus the dynamic

forces generated during the impact test.

Researchers at Wichita State University used an FAA grant to study the use

of composite materials in commercial and general aviation aircraft. In particular,

scientists investigated impact damage states. It is crucial to understand the effects

of impact damage on static ultimate strength and damage tolerance criteria in

terms of safety, as well as the implications to maintenance.

The FAA also funded researchers at Syracuse University who developed a

methodology to address the problem of delamination growth, a common failure

mode in laminated composite aircraft structures. This methodology has the potential of profoundly affecting design, analysis, and certification procedures for

composite aircraft structures. First, it will allow a relatively rapid assessment at a

large number of possible locations, under a wide range of loadings, whether delamination growth is likely. This will provide an early identification of possible failure

sites that may not be found by the current selective testing approach, resulting in

improved flight safety. Second, knowledge of the critical size and location of

delaminations will reduce aircraft maintenance activity as it will serve as a guide

for repair actions. Finally, this methodology may allow the implementation of a

more economic certification procedure based on a mix of analysis and testing to

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

36
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

37 assure a damage-tolerant structure similar to that presently in use for

metallic structures.

A virtue of fabricating aircraft components from composite materials is that

the designer is afforded significant flexibility to vary materials and adhesives to

optimize the component’s weight and load-carrying performance. The same wide

range of variables that is so appealing to the designer, however, can cause significant concern to the nondestructive inspection (NDI) practitioner who must buy

or fabricate calibration standards for each type of structure encountered when conducting comparative-type NDI tests. Thus the FAA developed some important

new reference standards in this regard, and a number of aircraft manufacturers said

they would comply. 

To predict crack growth and residual strength of riveted joints subjected to

widespread fatigue damage (WFD), accurate stress and fracture analyses of corner

and surface cracks emanating from a rivet hole are needed. To address this need,

the FAA expanded the existing database of three-dimensional stress-intensity

factor solutions and modeled bulging factors. 

The FAA also developed a methodology to assess the development of WFD

and its effect on the residual strength of aircraft structure. WFD in a structure is

characterized by the simultaneous presence of cracks at multiple structural components where the cracks are of sufficient size and density that the structure will

no longer meet its damage-tolerance requirement. The approach developed by the

FAA is a combination of analytical methodology development and experimental

validation. Advanced analytical methods were developed and validated over the

past decade by the FAA with the support and sponsorship of NASA and the U.S.

Air Force Research Laboratory. 

In a related area, the FAA funded the development of an analytical

methodology to provide stress-intensity factors to predict fatigue crack growth for

rotorcraft applications. The methodology (Automated Global, Intermediate, and

Local Evaluation) is a suite of software tools developed for the automation of hierarchical analysis of complex structures. 

The FAA Operational Loads Monitoring Research Program continued to

collect and analyze both flight and landing loads data on civil transport aircraft.

FAA personnel added airplane models A-320 and Cessna-172 to the research program in FY 2001, and models B-747 and B-777 were scheduled to be incorporated

into the program in FY 2002. 
In partnership with the Naval Air Systems Command and the Office of

Naval Research, the FAA continued research and development of arc fault circuit

breakers (AFCB) intended to replace existing thermal circuit breakers used in aircraft today. AFCBs detect electrical arcing and rapidly remove power to the

affected circuit, drastically reducing the chances of fire and other damage. During

FY 2001, the FAA successfully fabricated and tested these AFCB prototypes. In

addition, the FAA initiated an extensive program to evaluate the condition of

aging circuit breakers. 

In the area of aviation security research, the FAA continued to develop and

deploy products that prevent explosives, weapons, and other threat material from

being introduced onto aircraft. Major areas of concentration include: certification

testing, checked and carry-on baggage screening using bulk and trace explosives

detection, human factors, aircraft hardening, aviation security technology

integration, and airport deployment of systems by the Security Equipment

Integrated Product Team. 

The Aviation Security Laboratory (ASL) conducted certification tests on

the InVision CTX 9000Dsi Explosives Detection System (EDS) production unit,

the CTX-2500, and the L3 eXaminer 3DX 6000 unit. All these systems passed. FAA researchers also continued their advanced work in bulk-detection techniques

such as x-ray diffraction. In the area of personnel screening, the FAA evaluated

several explosive detection prototypes. In the weapons detection area, the ASL

evaluated the response of metal detector systems to additional types of weapons in

anticipation of upgrading the standard. The ASL also evaluated several large cargo

inspection systems and a large bulk EDS for break-bulk cargo. 

The human factors program continued to enhance the performance of

screeners through the development of Threat Image Projection software. This software, which continued to be installed on systems for both carry-on and checked

baggage, improves screener training and enhances awareness. The program also

developed a networked Screener Readiness Test. 

The Aircraft Hardening Program conducted a series of explosive tests on

737s, 747s, and Airbus aircraft under pressurized conditions for the purpose of

refining the vulnerability criteria for carry-on luggage. The program also evaluated

liners to protect the overhead bin area and performed additional tests to determine

the least risk bomb location. 

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

38
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

39 In FY 2001, human factors and aeromedical scientists conducted research

to provide the FAA and industry with human performance information critical to

the design, operation, regulation, and certification of equipment, training, and

procedures, thereby facilitating safe and efficient National Airspace System

(NAS) operations and reducing operator error as an accident-causation factor.

Specifically, the FAA conducted aeromedical research with a focus on improving

the health, safety, and survivability of aircraft crews and passengers. 

The air transportation human factors research program conducted investigations to collect and analyze data on the antecedents and responses to crew error.

The results of these investigations were used by the air carriers to modify current

line operations and pilot training programs to enhance safety. Researchers completed a survey of over 12,000 U.S. air carrier pilots regarding the effectiveness of

current pilot training programs. The results revealed that pilots view their training

as effective and important in preparing them to fly in the NAS. Researchers also

continued the development of a training analysis and development system that is

used by air carriers and local FAA offices in designing pilot training simulator

scenarios and other tests that are challenging, fair, and operationally relevant

when evaluating pilot performance. This system allows air carriers to design an

Advanced Qualification Program (AQP) using performance data collection and

analysis. Phase 2 of the Model AQP was completed in 2001.

General aviation researchers completed an analysis of causal factors in accidents and incidents attributed to human error using the military Human Factors

Analysis and Classification System. Aviation maintenance researchers also continued their investigation of methods and guidelines that can be used to reduce

fatigue-producing factors in the maintenance environment. The results of both of

these research projects will facilitate development of regulatory and certification

guidance material.

In FY 2001, the FAA researched a new incident-investigation technique

that assesses underlying causal factors of operational errors in air traffic control.

This project was coordinated with a similar European project. Research also examined human-factor issues in runway incursions, including development of a new

booklet for controllers and pilots entitled “Runway Safety: It’s Everybody’s

Business,” that provides helpful information on memory, pilot-controller communication, and situational awareness. 
In terms of aircraft occupant safety, the FAA completed the largest cabin

evacuation study ever conducted evaluating aircraft design and human factors

affecting passenger egress through Type III (over wing) emergency exits in transport aircraft. The FAA also completed an altitude research study evaluating the

physiological protection provided by three different types of continuous-flow

oxygen masks used with portable oxygen bottles for flight attendants. The 747

Aircraft Environmental Research Facility was completed and is in service supporting a variety of safety, security, training, and testing functions and programs.

Researchers also conducted investigations to address the FAA’s goal for an equivalent level of safety for all aircraft occupants, with targeted areas including

seats/restraints/inflation devices for infants and small children, and side-facing

seats in corporate aircraft. In addition, three research studies aimed at providing

information on 1) the accessibility of under-seat life preservers on transport aircraft, 2) the tension average passengers apply to their seatbelts during normal and

emergency conditions, and 3) the optimum lever motion for rapid seatbelt release

were completed. Researchers also continued to investigate the nature of inflight

medical emergencies and the use of defibrillators on commercial flights, as well as

perform epidemiological assessment of biochemical and toxicological factors from

fatal civilian aviation accidents. 

The FAA and private industry continued to collaborate on the Safe Flight

21 Program, an initiative to validate the capabilities of advanced communication,

navigation, and surveillance technologies and related air traffic procedures. During

FY 2001, the FAA continued to demonstrate the uses of Automatic Dependent

Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) technologies at various airports across the country. ADS-B has been identified in the FAA “Blueprint for NAS Modernization” as

a key surveillance technology to supplement, and possibly replace, radar. On

January 1, 2001, FAA began initial operations using ADS-B in Alaska for air

traffic control representing the first-ever use of this technology to provide radarlike services. 

To accomplish these results, the FAA conducted extensive testing to validate the suitability for use of ADS-B to provide air traffic control services similar

to radar-based air traffic control services. Problems were identified and solutions

developed. New air traffic and certification procedures for using ADS-B were

developed and implemented. The FAA’s en route automated radar tracking system

in Anchorage, Alaska, was upgraded to receive, process, and display ADS-B

reports. In October 2000, an operational evaluation involving 17 aircraft from the

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

40
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

41 Cargo Airline Association, the FAA, and avionics manufacturers was conducted

in Louisville, Kentucky, to demonstrate the use of ADS-B in final approach spacing, airport surface situational awareness, and moving map applications. A

demonstration of surface safety applications was also conducted in Memphis,

Tennessee, in June 2001. In addition, four ADS-B safety assessments were completed in September 2001. The Alaska Capstone Program continued its work in

Bethel, Alaska, and the Yukon Kuskokwim (Y-K) Delta region, and began expansion into southeast Alaska. On January 1, 2001, the Anchorage Air Route Traffic

Control Center began using ADS-B to provide radar-like services in the Bethel,

Alaska, area. During the year, avionics were installed in 140 aircraft operating in

Bethel and the Y-K Delta. Pilots use this equipment, in conjunction with six

ground stations, to receive weather data, a NEXRAD map, and other traffic data.

Program expansion to southeast Alaska also began. A useable Instrument Flight

Rules (IFR) infrastructure is planned to address the terrain challenges presented by

Juneau, Alaska, and the surrounding area. During the year, a request for proposal

(RFP) was released to solicit vendors for upgraded avionics suites. Approximately

200 commercial service airplanes and helicopters will be equipped with the

enhanced ADS-B systems in southeast Alaska.

The FAA awarded six contracts in February 2001 under the initial Surface

Technology Broad Agency Announcement which is designed to explore

new/emerging lower cost technology options to reduce runway incursions at the

Nation’s airports. Two proposed solutions, ground markers and addressable signs,

showed promise and were being considered for functional and operational testing

in an airport environment. The FAA also continued to pursue surveillancecontrolled runway status light solutions for both large and small airports. 

In FY 2001, the FAA continued progress toward implementation of the

Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) that will provide availability,

integrity, and accuracy for the Global Positioning System (GPS) to be used for en

route navigation and precision civilian navigation. During the fiscal year, WAAS

employees performed data collection and analyses using the National Satellite Test

Bed (NSTB). The FAA developed interference detection and mitigation techniques, collected and analyzed ionospheric data, analyzed satellite alternatives for

WAAS final operating capability, and researched satellite navigation issues for

Alaska. Researchers from Stanford University used FAA funding to provide key

support to the WAAS Integrity and Performance Panel and Independent Review
Board. The FAA continued pursuing a North American Satellite Augmentation

System with Mexico and Canada. These agreements may significantly cut the

FAA’s expenses by reducing the agency’s need to field WAAS reference stations

along the southern and northern U.S. borders. 

In addition, the FAA assisted the International Civil Aviation

Organization (ICAO) with plans and strategies for the development of a WAASbased Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) test bed capability for the

Caribbean South American region. The FAA expected that the resulting South

American test bed would pave the way for an operational system in the region that

is completely compatible with the U.S. systems. This future capability, based on

U.S. technology, may also provide cost-sharing opportunities on Geostationary

Earth Orbit satellite services, significantly reducing projected FAA leasing

expenses for satellites. The successful completion of all flight tests and other activities helped to demonstrate U.S. technological leadership in satellite navigation,

ensure the seamless transfer from one regional satellite-based navigation system to

another, and promote the adoption of satellite navigation in regions where

improved navigation capability will increase the safety of flight for U.S. citizens

traveling abroad. The FAA expected it to provide the groundwork necessary to

achieve the ICAO's vision of a future, worldwide, seamless navigation capability.

In FY 2001, FAA researchers made significant progress in the quest to use the

Local Area Augmentation System to achieve Category I and Category III

precision approaches. The FAA cooperated with private companies such as

United Parcel Service (UPS) and Federal Express (FedEx) in successful tests using

this system. 

During the fiscal year, the FAA worked with the aviation industry to

increase the level of detail contained in the National Airspace System Plan.

The plan provides the communities strategic plan for Air Traffic Management

through 2015. The plan is based on the “Free Flight” operational concept in which

pilots may choose the most efficient and economical routes to their destinations.

As part of these modernization efforts, the FAA delivered all the domestic Terminal Doppler Weather Radars. The radar and its associated display are important safety features for helping to identify hazardous weather such as wind shear

and microbursts. 

During FY 2001, the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center worked in

partnership with NASA's Ames Research Center as the cosponsors of a technol42Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

43 ogy transition initiative. The purpose of this initiative was to acquire technical

knowledge of new technologies developed by NASA early in the concept and prototype development phases. The knowledge acquired through joint development

participation will potentially assist in reducing the time it takes to go from concept

development to field implementation. In support of this effort, the team at the

Technical Center recruited and hired subject-matter experts to participate in the

technology transition initiative. The success of the technology transition initiative

was validated by an increase in the number of implementation plans, which provide the formal agreement between NASA and the FAA for collaborative joint

development and technology transition efforts. 

The Technical Center team has also supported the mission of the

Interagency Air Traffic Management Integrated Product Team by providing technical experts to serve as coleads for joint research projects and project leads for

those projects that have shown some benefit for the NAS. In addition, the key

team members were active participants in the Interagency Air Traffic

Management Integrated Management Team.

In FY 2001, the FAA completed development of an advanced tool to calibrate and certify many secondary radars in the NAS, including the new Airport

Surveillance Radar, the Air Traffic Control Beacon Interrogator upgrade, and

existing Mode S radars. The Technical Center conducted tests verifying the performance envelope and the electromagnetic inference and environmental

characteristics of this new test set. Subsequently, the FAA accepted the first five

production units for use at operational sites around the Nation.

The Hughes Technical Center also completed a study of the Airport

Movement Area Safety System intersecting runways alert parameters. The purpose

of the study was to determine a recommended set of parameters to initiate alerts of

potential runway collisions for aircraft operating on intersecting runways at various airports. After collecting live data at these airports and thorough analysis of

the data, the study recommended a set of parameters that maximize safety benefits

while minimizing the number of nuisance alerts generated. 

In partnership with the Department of Defense and the National Oceanic

and Atmospheric Administration, the Technical Center initiated research on the

feasibility of using multifunction-phased array radars to perform weather detection

and warning, and to track aircraft. The ultimate goal of this project was to provide

much earlier warning of impending severe weather conditions. The FAA expected
that this project would create a research facility in the aptly named “Tornado

Alley” at the National Severe Storm Laboratories in Norman, Oklahoma.

Airborne laboratories in the FAA’s Research and Development Flight

Program participated in unique flight-test and high-altitude data collection to support development of new procedures and technology to improve navigation and

safety for our Nation’s pilots and their passengers. The wide variety of programs

included GPS navigation and precision approach development, air traffic control

circuit breakers tests, human factors, WAAS, and the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS). These tests utilized a specially modified Boeing 727,

a Sikorsky helicopter, and a Convair 580 aircraft.

The Technical Center established an advanced differential GPS test bed in

Brazil. Under a memorandum of understanding between FAA and the aviation

authority in Brazil, Technical Center engineers procured and installed

hardware and software for the test bed and provided training on the fundamental

concepts of GPS wide-area differential systems and how to operate and maintain

the test bed.

The safe operation of our Nation’s airspace depends on reliable communications and navigation signals, but radio frequency interference (RFI) can damage

or cancel those signals. The Technical Center supported several high-visibility RFI

projects such as innovative training courses for FAA inspectors and personnel

at ATC facilities. In FY 2001, FAA instructors reached out to over 300 FAA regional, flight inspection, and international technicians, inspectors,

and engineers. 

The Technical Center completed the final phase of an air traffic control

simulation study designed to reduce delays into Newark International Airport.

More than 100 air traffic controllers from four facilities in the eastern region participated in a series of simulations. They tested different procedures along existing

flight paths to better enable controllers to sequence aircraft into the busy New York metropolitan area. The completion of this study represented more than a year

of development and testing involving hundreds of hours of simulation, and

involved airspace in four air traffic control facilities: New York Center, Washington Center, Philadelphia Air Traffic Control Tower, and the New York

TRACON. Separate standalone simulations were conducted for each facility, and

these simulations were conducted using the high-fidelity equipment in the air traffic labs at the Technical Center. The controllers, programmers, airspace specialists,

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

44
union representatives, and managers all worked together throughout the year to

overcome the many challenges faced by the participants, and the final phase of

simulations was completed in May 2001. The Administrator also initiated a

unique study in the fall of 2000 to identify several points of congestion in the NAS

and provide relief in an expeditious manner.

Human factors researchers at the Technical Center conducted rapid prototyping efforts, early user involvement events, and computer-human interface

(CHI) validation simulations on multiple new or upgraded systems for the NAS.

In addition, they revised the Human Factors Design Guide to reflect the most current research and information.

Human factors scientists at the Technical Center also examined the effects

of automation tools on air traffic controllers’ workload and situational awareness.

The first study investigated the effect of increasing levels of decision support

automation. A second study, conducted in collaboration with the Civil

Aeromedical Institute, explored the potential benefits and information requirements of an operational position, airspace coordinator, which could more

strategically plan traffic through airspace sectors. Finally, researchers examined the

potential human factors issues associated with collocating three Free Flight

automation tools.

FAA’s Office of the Associate Administrator for Commercial Space

Transportation (AST) continued to license and regulate U.S. commercial space

launch activity, ensuring public health and safety, and the safety of property, and

protecting national security and foreign policy interests of the United States. AST

also licensed operation of non-Federal launch sites and facilitated and promoted

commercial space launches by the private sector. 

During fiscal year 2001, AST licensed six orbital space launches. Three

launches were conducted by Sea Launch (Zenit 3SL vehicle), two by Orbital

Sciences Corporation (Pegasus and Taurus), and one by International Launch

Services (Atlas IIAS). AST also established the System Engineering and Training

division to define safety standards for existing and emerging space launch systems,

launch sites, re-entry systems, and re-entry sites. The new division responds to the

training needs of AST employees. 

Several reports were released, including “The Economic Impact of

Commercial Space Transportation on the U.S. Economy.” The first-ever U.S.

study of its kind, the report showed that in a single year (1999), the U.S. comF iscal Year 2001 Activities

45
mercial launch industry was responsible for yielding more than $61.3 billion in

economic activity and for supporting nearly half a million jobs in the United

States. The “2001 Commercial Space Transportation Forecasts” were released by

AST and FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee. The

forecasts projected an average demand for 32 worldwide commercial space

launches per year through 2010. 

The Air Force and the FAA signed a Memorandum of Understanding on

Safety for Space Transportation and Range Activities. AST completed the draft

and preliminary versions of the Rulemaking Project Record for the Reusable

Launch Vehicle Operations and Maintenance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

(NPRM). In addition, AST participated on a committee to advise NASA in

selecting initial contracts for the Space Launch Initiative (second-generation

Reusable Launch Vehicle), revised and updated its environmental guidelines, and

began preparation on licensing new Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles. 

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

46
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

47

DEPARTMENT OF

COMMERCE

DoC

In FY 2001, 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. Most notably, DoC joined other U.S.

Government agencies in applying airborne and space-based resources to the relief

efforts following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and

the Pentagon. Specifically, a number of National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration (NOAA) line offices contributed significantly to these efforts,

namely the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO), National Ocean

Service (NOS), and Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR). The OMAO’s

Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) provided support to NOS’s Remote Sensing

Division. Teaming with NOS, Optech, Inc., and the University of Florida, AOC

made available and operated NOAA’s Citation jet, and coordinated its flights

with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and North American

Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). The Citation flew over both sites at the

request of the Army’s Joint Precision Strike Demonstration project, collecting

high-resolution aerial photography and LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging)

data from a system provided by Optech, Inc., of Canada.

NOS’s National Geodetic Survey (NGS) directly supported search and

recovery efforts at both the World Trade Center and the Pentagon disaster sites by

using its mapping and remote-sensing capabilities. The Army Joint Precision

Strike Demonstration coordinated a highly detailed mapping mission at both disaster sites using LIDAR technology. LIDAR is an active remote-sensing system

used to profile or scan terrain elevations. NOS, the NOAA Office of Marine and

Aviation Operations, Optech, Inc., and the University of Florida teamed up to fly
the LIDAR in NOAA’s Cessna Citation. The images, which were created

by the LIDAR system and produced by NOAA, were provided as digital

surface models that offered an accurate bird’s eye view of the scene. They provided

three-dimensional positioning of the building structures and the surrounding area,

at 15cm accuracy, which helped the rescuers and engineers locate original support

structures, stairwells, elevator shafts, and basements. The LIDAR data, traditional

high-resolution aerial photography, and accurate Global Positioning System

(GPS) measurements are all connected to the National Spatial Reference System

(NSRS), which serves as a base reference for location information, and proved to

be invaluable to the rescue efforts. In this way, the rescuers had one base reference

system to efficiently locate utilities and building structures, which had been rendered indistinguishable as a consequence of the attacks. NOAA later returned to

the World Trade Center site to provide data for change analysis. The crews were

able to pinpoint their recovery efforts by using photographs that revealed the

degree of the damage and the distribution of debris.

LIDAR data was also used to monitor structural movement of damaged

buildings in the area of the disaster and to calculate the volume of rubble.

For example, as the recovery efforts descended into the World Trade Center Tower

basements, LIDAR images provided very accurate height measurements that

could be used to mitigate potential flooding from the surrounding rivers. NOAA

also flew a mission over the Pentagon site to map it with LIDAR for reconstruction purposes. 

A NOAA pilot on temporary duty with NASA flew an aircraft equipped

with the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) system at the

request of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in order to identify and

locate asbestos fallout from the WTC plume. NOAA/OAR scientists also assisted

EPA efforts to assess ground-level air pollution problems in New York that were

primarily associated with asbestos released as the buildings fell.

On July 23, 2001, NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and

Information Service (NESDIS) launched the Nation’s newest Geostationary

Operational Environmental Satellite-12 (GOES-12). GOES-12 is the first in the

GOES series to carry a new Solar X-Ray Imager (SXI) capable of producing images

of the Sun at 1-minute intervals. The SXI provides a continuous sequence of

coronal x-ray images that will be used by NOAA’s Space Environment Center

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

48
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

49 (NOAA/SEC) and the broader community to monitor solar activity for its effects

on the Earth’s upper atmosphere and near space. 

GOES-8 continued to view environmental events over the East Coast of

North and South America and over the Atlantic Ocean; GOES-10 continued to

view the West Coast and the Pacific Ocean, including Hawaii. Similar to the

other operational GOES, GOES-11 and GOES-12 are in place to be used to monitor Earth’s atmosphere and surface to support NOAA’s forecasting and warning

programs. 

GOES-2 was de-orbited in May 2001 after 24 years of onorbit operations.

Launched in 1977, the satellite was initially used for imaging operations and later

supported the Pan-Pacific Education and Communication Experiment (PEACESAT) administered by the University of Hawaii. In addition, NOAA-10 was

deactivated in August. Since its launch in 1986, the satellite was fully operational

for almost 5 years, and served secondary functions until its deactivation.

NESDIS continued to operate two polar-orbiting environmental satellites,

NOAA-15 and NOAA-16, to provide a continuous flow of data to support

weather forecasting and monitoring of environmental events around the world. In

the U.S., NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) used the data primarily for

long-range weather and climate forecasts. These satellites are the first of 2 in a

series of 5 polar-orbiting satellites with improved imaging and sounding capabilities that will operate over the next 12 years. The new microwave instruments on

NOAA-15 and NOAA-16 have enabled NOAA short-term weather forecasting

and warning programs to measure moisture in the atmosphere for identifying heavy

precipitation conditions. The direct broadcast, on a free and open basis, of

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) instrument data provides

imagery to scientific, commercial, and educational groups throughout the world.

In addition, the search and rescue instruments on these satellites continue to support a global community that has established ground stations that “listen” for

distress beacons relayed through the NOAA polar-orbiting and Russian Cospas

satellites.

As part of NOAA’s interagency activities, it represented the DoC interests

in several subteams under the National Security Council Space Policy

Coordinating Committee. NOAA also continued its work with the Department of

Defense (DoD) and NASA as part of the Integrated Program Office (IPO) that is
managing the development of the National Polar-orbiting Operational

Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) commenced 7 years ago. NPOESS

represents a major step toward the merger of U.S. civilian and military operational

meteorological satellites into a single, integrated, end-to-end satellite system.

NPOESS is designed to replace the current NOAA Polar-orbiting Operational

Environmental Satellites (POES) and the Defense Meteorological Satellite

Program (DMSP) systems.

Under a robust sensor risk-reduction effort that has been focused on early

development of the critical sensor suites and algorithms necessary to support

NPOESS, the IPO has awarded contracts for design and development of the following NPOESS instruments: Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS);

Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS); Global Positioning System Occultation

Sensor (GPSOS); and the Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). In

August 2001, preliminary design efforts were completed for the last of five critical

advanced technology imaging/sounding instruments for NPOESS, and an instrument development contract was awarded for the Conical-scanning Microwave

Imager Sounder (CMIS). In 2001, the IPO continued work on competitive

Program Definition and Risk Reduction contracts to define the requirements for

the NPOESS total system architecture, including space, ground processing, and

command, control, and communications components, as well as to develop specifications for sensor/spacecraft integration.

The IPO continued to support its partners in final development of the joint

DoD/IPO WindSat/Coriolis mission that is designed to provide a space-based test

and demonstration of passive microwave polarimetric techniques to derive measurements of ocean surface wind speed and direction. This 3-year mission will

continue the development of improved microwave measurement capabilities from

the Special Sensor Microwave Imager and Sounder (SSMI/S) on DMSP to CMIS

on NPOESS. In addition, the IPO continued to comanage development of the

NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) designed to reduce the potential risks

incurred during the transition from POES and DMSP to NPOESS. NPP is also

designed to provide continuity of the calibrated, validated, and geo-located

NASA EOS Terra and Aqua missions systematic global imaging and sounding

observations for NASA Earth Science research. As part of the convergence of the

DoC and DoD meteorological satellite programs (POES and DMSP) into

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

50
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

51 NPOESS, the IPO and NESDIS continued to operate the DMSP satellites

and prepared for the launch of the next replacement satellite (DMSP F-16).

During the course of the year, four DMSP satellites continued to contribute atmospheric, ocean, and space weather measurements to DoD and NOAA operational

forecast centers.

NOAA/NESDIS continued to lead the National Hazard Information

Strategy (NHIS), which is an interagency initiative to reduce disaster losses

through better information. Under this initiative, efforts to develop the Hazard

Mapping System (HMS) succeeded in achieving progress on applications for

smoke and fire detection for State and Federal agencies. The HMS is an interactive processing system that allows analysts in the NESDIS Office of Satellite Data

Processing and Distribution to integrate data from various sources, such as GOES,

polar-orbiting data (AVHRR), detection of fire from the NASA Moderate

Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and Defense Meteorological

Satellite Program/Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) nighttime lights

detection technique. This composite data set is used to compile a qualitycontrolled display of fire locations for the continental United States.

In FY 2001, the national Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking

(SARSAT) and international Cospas-Sarsat programs, led by NOAA/NESDIS in

collaboration with the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Air Force, and NASA, contributed

to the rescue of 178 lives in the U.S. and more than 1,000 worldwide. The

SARSAT program uses search and rescue payloads on NOAA and Russian satellites to detect emergency beacons used by aviators and mariners in distress. During

the year, South Africa and Nigeria joined the Cospas-Sarsat program, bringing the

total number of member States to 33. Planning also continued for placing search

and rescue payloads on the European Meteosat Second Generation and Indian

Insat-3 geostationary satellites.

In FY 2001, the NESDIS/National Climatic Data Center (NCDC)

archived 2.3 terabytes of POES data and 16.2 terabytes of GOES data.

Approximately 300 customers requested satellite products. A data set of surface

temperatures was recently developed from a combination of in situ, satellite, ship,

and buoy observations. This blended source of information provides a comprehensive analysis of surface temperature anomalies throughout the globe. In support of

NOAA efforts to improve access to GOES retrospective data, NCDC awarded a
contract to Marada Corporation in June 2001 to conduct a 1-year study of design

options for online access to GOES data. 

NCDC supported the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project

(ISCCP) by serving as the Sector Processing Center (SPC) for both operational

morning and afternoon NOAA polar orbiter satellites and, secondly, as the ISCCP

Central Archive (ICA). In its role as the SPC, NCDC provided ISCCP level B2

data, which consists of a spatially sampled version (approximately 30 km resolution) of the Global Area Coverage (GAC) data routinely produced by NOAA

from the AVHRR instrument onboard the operational NOAA polar orbiters. In

its role as the ICA, NCDC acted as the official archive of ISCCP data, serviced

customer orders from this archive, and also provided correlative data to some of

the ISCCP participants.

Throughout FY 2001, NCDC responded to data requests from customers

supporting the NOAA mission. The Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab,

which is part of NOAA, ordered approximately 1,000 GOES images to study the

El Niño-induced weather patterns from Central America and South America. The

National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) acquired GOES-8 data to

help map aerosol distribution from space. Scientists developed new algorithms to

study the effects of aerosols on regional climate patterns and used aerosol properties retrieved from the GOES-8 Imager to compare against ground-based Sun

photometer measurements.

Space environment monitoring data from the geostationary and

polar-orbiting operational satellites were processed and archived at the

NOAA/NESDIS National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC). Space environment, atmospheric, and oceanic monitoring data recorded on operational Defense

Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites were also processed and

archived. Analyses of the DMSP archives produced the first global database of visible-to-near-infrared emissions. The emission database was used to produce a map

of changes in emission intensity from 1992 to 2000, which are then related to

analysis of urban sprawl. NOAA personnel developed a new Satellite Archive

Browse and Retrieval system to provide a variety of online, automated services

from imagery browsers to high volume, full resolution data transfers. This archive

and access system was modified to accept moderate resolution imagery collected

on NASA’s Earth Observing Satellite (EOS) as a joint venture with NASA to

address the long-term archive of EOS data. 

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

52
In conjunction with the GOES-12 satellite launch and the Solar X-ray

Imager (SXI) that it carries, the first new instrument in over 20 years designed to

improve space weather forecasting and monitoring, NGDC helped to develop a

real-time system that will provide data to commercial space weather vendors, scientists, educators, and the public. NGDC worked in close cooperation with

NOAA’s Space Environment Center to produce the software to process, archive,

and access SXI data within minutes of the recording. 

Charged under the 1992 Land Remote Sensing Policy Act to license private

remote-sensing satellite systems, NOAA approved four new licenses for commercial systems in FY 2001, including second-generation electro-optical/multispectral

systems, and high-resolution synthetic aperture radar. NOAA also approved 6

foreign agreements of its licensees, totaling an investment of up to $110 million in

U.S. systems. 

Additionally, NOAA and DoC’s International Trade Administration (ITA)

commissioned a remote-sensing policy study from the RAND Corporation.

This study was conducted with the aim of better understanding the role that

U.S. Government policies and regulations play in shaping prospects for the

commercial remote-sensing satellite industry. The study provided recommendations to U.S. Government and industry to mitigate technical, market, policy, and

regulatory risks.

In the international space arena, NOAA/NESDIS continued to improve

and enhance its ongoing activities in FY 2001. NOAA participation in the United

Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) played a key

role in facilitating negotiations that established the U.N. COPUOS Action Team

on Disaster Management. State Department Environmental Defense Funding was

awarded to NOAA through its role as the Chair of the Committee on Earth

Observation Satellites (CEOS) Disaster Management Support Group (DMSG).

This funding, together with assistance from the United Nations Office of Outer

Space Affairs (OOSA) and the European Space Agency (ESA), is to be used in

support of disaster workshops to bring together practitioners and space agencies

that have developed space technology solutions for disaster management in developing countries. NOAA managers also negotiated a renewal of the Radarsat-1

Memorandum of Understanding resulting in signature by the NOAA and NASA

Administrators and the Director-General of the Canadian Space Agency. This

agreement maintains NOAA access to Radarsat-1 data until Radarsat-2 becomes

F iscal Year 2001 Activities

53
operational. NOAA’s ongoing space relations with Japan also continued in 2001,

with completion of a new proposal to NASDA for cooperation on their Advanced

Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) mission. NOAA continued to provide, as the

sole DoC representative, overall responsibility for observational issues on the

U.S. delegations to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change (UNFCCC) and the United Nations Commission on Sustainable

Development (CSD). 

NESDIS’s significant multilateral space activities also continued through its

prominent activities in the Integrated Global Observing Strategy (IGOS). NOAA

developed, with an IGOS visibility team, IGOS-related language and concepts for

endorsement at the April 2001 intergovernmental Commission on Sustainable

Development (CSD) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. In

particular, they worked to insert language in support of full and open data sharing,

and to find an integrated global observing strategy for documents being prepared

for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). NOAA also organized, with its IGOS Partners, an IGOS exhibit and side-event in connection with

the CSD. 

In coordination with the French, Canadian, and European Space Agencies,

the DoS, and other U.S. agencies, NOAA became a member to the International

Charter on Space and Major Disasters. NOAA also worked closely with the DoS

to obtain an Export License for four-line elements and perturbation software to

allow EUMETSAT to calibrate and validate NOAA instruments on their METOP

satellites. In addition, the NOAA/DoS collaboration helped to expedite approval

of a Technology Assistance Agreement between EUMETSAT and ITT. European

cooperation with NOAA was further enhanced through an energetic effort to refocus NOAA and U.S. Government polar satellite cooperation with EUMETSAT.

NOAA obtained EUMETSAT funds, in agreement with NASA, for testing

NOAA instruments scheduled to fly in a changed METOP-1 launch environment.

NOAA, with NASA and DoD, its partners in the NPOESS, drafted a new Joint

Polar Transition Agreement for negotiation with EUMETSAT.

The NOAA Assistant Administrator for Satellite and Information Services

participated in a July 26, 2001, inaugural ceremony in San Jose, Costa Rica, that

celebrated the NOAA-facilitated transfer to Costa Rica of a satellite ground staAeronautics and Space Report of the President 

54
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

55 tion that brings high-resolution digital imagery from GOES satellites to the

Central American region. The imagery is collected through RAMSDIS units

installed in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. NOAA has commenced

efforts to establish agreements with Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras,

Nicaragua, and Panama for installation of RAMSDIS systems. 

In addition, Australia and NOAA signed a historic Science and

Technology Arrangement for collaboration on coral reef research. The Acting

NOAA Administrator signed the Arrangement in January 2001 to establish a

Coral Reef Virtual Laboratory that will help researchers better understand and

monitor coral reef health. Excessive temperatures can cause bleaching of the corals

that are detrimental to island reef structures and the attendant marine ecosystem.

The health of the coral reefs will be monitored by using satellite-observed sea

surface temperatures and will contribute to mitigation activities under the

arrangement.

NOAA/NESDIS worked with NASA, the French space agency, and

EUMETSAT to fashion cooperation for the eventual transitioning of research

satellite altimetry missions of the follow-on Jason series of satellites to operational

status. The four agencies also received recognition for preparing to commit

resources to the identified satellite altimetry requirements in the Oceans Theme

of the IGOS. NOAA/NESDIS also focused efforts of the Assistant Administrator,

in coordination with NASA and NOAA/NWS counterparts, to represent U.S.

interests in the January 2001 World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

Consultative Meeting on High-Level Policy on Satellite Matters. This effort also

included NOAA inputs to a new WMO Technical Document on the role of satellites in WMO programs. NOAA/NESDIS contributed, and prompted

contribution by other foreign space agencies, to a May 2001 University of Miami

international infrared radiometer calibration and inter-comparison exercise in

connection with the CEOS Working Group on Calibration and Validation.

In FY 2001, the NOAA/NESDIS Office of Research and Applications

(ORA) and NASA established the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation

(JCSDA) to accelerate the use of satellite data in weather-prediction models. The

JCSDA is a “virtual center,” involving scientists from NASA and NOAA who

work in tandem to transition research, algorithms, and techniques in satellite data

assimilation. The objective is to maximize the significant investment that has
been put into current observing systems and prepare for the explosion of data that

will be available from future systems, such as the convergence of the NPOESS

constellation of satellites. 

NOAA’s AOC supported hurricane research and surveillance, winter

storms research, coastal mapping, snow surveys (for hydrological forecasting), air

chemistry studies, and global climate research by providing specially designed and

instrumented aircraft for operations. Highly trained pilots, scientists, engineers,

and technicians operate these aircraft. In FY 2001, AOC also made significant

improvements to NOAA’s “hurricane hunter” technology. In conjunction with

flights of the NOAA G-IV hurricane surveillance jet far out over the Pacific

Ocean, a WP-3D Orion flew into winter storms off the West Coast, collecting

meteorological data for computer models to improve forecasts of severe Pacific

storms approaching the United States. An Inmarsat communications system was

installed on the P-3 for this mission that enabled immediate, real-time storm data

and voice transmissions to forecasters. The system was later installed on NOAA’s

other P-3, giving both aircraft the capability to transmit immediately to the

National Hurricane Center during missions flown over the course of the 2001 hurricane season.

NOAA’s NOS continued to use 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. NOS/NGS

continued work on advancing centimeter-level positioning accuracy of GPS

through its National Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) program. It added 31 new stations to the National CORS network during FY 2001.

At the end of the fiscal year, the network contained 229 sites. NOS continued

upgrading the sampling rate of all Nationwide Differential GPS (NDGPS)/DGPS

sites from 30 seconds to 5 seconds to better serve those involved in Geographical

Information Systems (GIS) development and/or kinematic applications. In

another effort to better serve those in the GPS and GIS communities, NOS hosted

a CORS Industry Forum in March 2001. 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. A joint effort was undertaken between

NOS and the FAA Tech Center in Atlantic City, NJ, to establish a T1 Internet

connection to download GPS data from approximately 50 sites contained in the Wide Area Augmentation System/National Satellite Test Bed (WAAS/NSTB)

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

56
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

57 network. Many of these sites are being incorporated into the CORS network. This

software will allow the streaming of FAA data into hourly files. CORS was also utilized in the response and recovery efforts of the World Trade Center disaster. The

New Jersey Institute of Technology and the U.S. Coast Guard increased the data

collection rate at nearby stations to better position the airplanes that were mapping the affected area via remote-sensing techniques.

Also in the past year, NOS developed the Online Positioning User Service

(OPUS) as a means to facilitate GPS users’ access to the NSRS. OPUS allows

users to submit their GPS data files to NOS, where the data will be processed to

determine a position using NOS computers and software. Each submitted file is

processed with respect to three CORS sites. While it is not a real-time feedback,

it is very valuable for checking data that is brought in from the field. 

NGS continued its effort as a key partner in the NASA Synthetic Vision

System (SVS) program by providing essential data and information to be incorporated into this system. NASA is working with industry to create Synthetic Vision,

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.

NOS continued to provide access to data it currently collects and maintains

within the Aeronautical Survey Program (ASP). It also continued to derive specialized data to support the SVS. These data include obstruction data, runway

positional information, digital terrain models, and orthorectified imagery. In FY

2001, two test sites were selected, Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, and Eagle County,

Colorado. This data provides the backbone of the SVS system, which is used to

provide the required positional accuracy and the scene replication data needed for

safe air navigation in low-visibility situations.

NOS has collaborated with the FAA Aviation Systems Standards (AVN),

the University of Florida Geomatics Department, and Optech Inc. to test the feasibility of using an Optech 33 kHz Airborne Laser Terrain Mapper (ALTM) for

FAA programs (AVN-Flight Check/National Aeronautical Charting Office

(NACO)-Flight Edit) and the NOS Aeronautical Survey Program. 

NOS continued to participate in the Safe Flight 21 program, which is led

by the FAA. 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
58 system forward in the 21st century. Enabling technologies include Automatic

Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) and Traffic Information ServicesBroadcast (TIS-B). The NOS role is to provide accurate data referenced to the

NSRS. 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.

The NOS Coastal Services Center (CSC) continued to expand its efforts to

make remote-sensing data, information, and technology accessible to the coastal

resource management community in FY 2001. One of CSC’s most significant

efforts was to manage the NOS coral mapping efforts in the Pacific Ocean. This

effort is based primarily on remote-sensing technology, using satellite and airborne

platforms to develop the coral reef map products. This is an ongoing collaborative

activity and includes the participation of many program offices within NOS, as

well as contracts with the private sector for product development.

Another significant activity included the beginning of outsourcing efforts

for remote-sensing products and services. NOS released a contract to private

industry for the development of satellite-based, land cover and “change” data sets

in the coastal areas of the Great Lakes region. These products will meet the guidelines and standards of the NOAA Coastal Change Analysis Program (CCAP). In

FY 2001, NOS also developed these products for the main eight islands of Hawaii.

Commercial, high-resolution satellite data were purchased to support various landbased resource management projects in the Pacific Islands and coastal regions of

the mainland. Other outsourcing activities included the initiation of a contract to

collect elevation data from LIDAR technology for the Willapa Bay region of Washington.

NOS also continued to support remote-sensing and GIS activities in partnership with the coastal management community. These data were used to support

the land cover mapping of the main eight islands of Hawaii, to verify historical

logging activities for an ecological characterization project in Alaska, and to estimate visitor use for two National Marine Sanctuaries located off the coasts of

Georgia and Texas.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

59 NOS outreach and educational activities included the development of a

remote-sensing training course for GIS professionals, Web-based materials that

focus on the coastal applications of remote sensing, and CD-ROM products that

demonstrate how remote-sensing technology is being used in specific State and

local coastal resource management applications. NOS continued to develop its

internal NOAA relationships and to foster its relationships with other civil agencies that have mutual interests in remote-sensing and Earth observation

technologies within the coastal zone, such as the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS),

the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), EPA, and NASA’s Earth

Science Enterprise.

The NOAA/National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Office of Habitat

Conservation has been interacting with the Naval Oceanographic Office at

Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for several years on a project to acquire highresolution imagery of the Sacramento River. The aim is to monitor areas along the

river that are accessible by threatened and endangered species of interest to

NMFS. Previously, the Navy collected very-high-quality imagery along the

Sacramento River, from Shasta Dam downstream to the Delta (i.e., the entire portion of the river accessible to resources of interest to NMFS). That imagery was

processed by the Naval Oceanographic Office and sent to NMFS as 2 sets of a

6-volume series of hard-copy images of the Sacramento River. The last volume was

received during summer 2001. Copies were then sent to the NMFS field office in

Santa Rosa, California, for immediate use in assessments for both the Endangered

Species Act and the Sustainable Fisheries Act. The imagery has allowed NMFS

staff engineers and biologists to examine details of the river that have enhanced

project planning, impact assessment, and evaluation of potential restoration activities. 

During FY 2001, following completion of a NMFS-led restoration effort to

enhance lateral growth of the Atchafalaya River Delta under the Coastal

Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act (CWPPRA), the NMFS

Office of Habitat Conservation used National Imagery Systems and other data to

track changes in the delta from 1998. Louisiana has 40 percent of the wetlands in

the continental U.S., yet the State experiences 80 percent of the loss (the

CWPPRA was instituted to combat this loss). The imagery collected under this

project was utilized by the USGS and analyzed by NMFS. This imagery has
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

60 revealed observations of large areas of accretion on the lateral edges of the delta,

which demonstrates the success of the NMFS-led restoration effort.

NOAA’s Special Agents and Fisheries management officials leveraged hightech tools to assist them in their work of protecting and managing the Nation’s

marine living resources. One of these tools is a national Vessel Monitoring System

(VMS), which routinely uses satellite-based monitoring systems to monitor compliance with domestic and international fishing regulations, as well as receive

real-time catch data. NOAA’s Fisheries Office for Law Enforcement (OLE) continued to expand its national VMS program. This program is the vehicle to

provide infrastructure, economies of scale and coordination across NOAA

Fisheries’ regions and offices. It is designed to ensure standards-based consistency

for enacting national policies concerning fishing data confidentiality, systems

security, and legal evidence handling. The current regional VMS systems are

designed to be linked to OLE HQ servers and use standardized hardware, communications software, and formats. An integral part of the national VMS program is

the ability to afford wide-area network connectivity for all of the major enforcement and VMS monitoring offices.

NOAA’s SEC, the Nation’s official source of space weather alerts and warnings, continued to monitor continually and forecast Earth’s space environment by

providing accurate, reliable, and useful solar-terrestrial information.

SEC conducted research into phenomena affecting the Sun-Earth environment, including the emission of electromagnetic radiation and particles from the

Sun, the transmission of solar energy to Earth via solar wind, and the interactions

between the solar wind and Earth’s magnetic field, ionosphere, and atmosphere. In

conjunction with the U.S. Air Force, SEC continued to conduct Space Weather

Operations (SWO) to monitor solar and geomagnetic activity 24 hours a day; disseminate information on the solar-terrestrial environment; alert private,

commercial, Government, and military users to possible disruptive or dangerous

changes in the space environment; issue daily forecasts of space environment conditions; and act as the World Warning Agency for the space environment. The

SEC continued to operate a Data Acquisition and Display System to gather current space weather data for distribution to Government and private sector users

and for subsequent archiving by NOAA’s NGDC.
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

61 More than 20 years of joint effort between the U.S. Air Force, NASA, and

NOAA culminated in the development of a real-time image processing system, to

improve space weather alerts and forecast the effects of such disturbances. The

system, installed on one of NOAA’s geostationary satellites (GOES-12), includes

a flexible “movie” player for visualization and assessment of dynamic changes in

the sun’s corona, as provided by the new SXI data. Data from the instrument was

first recorded on September 7, 2001. The images, which revealed solar details such

as coronal holes, active regions, flare locations, and a wealth of other detail,

achieved all expectations. The instrument is being tested and calibrated to optimize products that will come out of the images. 

Real-time tracking of NASA’s Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global

Exploration (IMAGE) commenced from NOAA’s Fairbanks ground station.

IMAGE is the first mission dedicated to “seeing” Earth’s space environment and

watching solar activity drive space weather. Through a partnership between

NASA, NOAA, and the Communications Research Laboratory in Japan, the

IMAGE satellite broadcasts images of space weather in real time, and ground stations receive the images and transfer them to the SEC. 

SEC collaborated with NASA in planning Living with a Star, a guide providing K–12 educators with materials and resources that are useful for

understanding connections between the Sun and Earth. The two primary goals of

this effort are to disseminate educational resources about the Sun and to facilitate

the involvement of space scientists in education.

DoC also engaged in a variety of non-NOAA aerospace activities. The

Technology Administration (TA) 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 DoC on space-related issues, coordinating positions

with and disseminating information to various bureaus with separate space-related

responsibilities and authorities, including NIST, NOAA, the International Trade

Administration (ITA), the National Telecommunications and Information

Administration (NTIA), and the Bureau of Export Administration (BXA).

In June, OSC published the 2001 Trends in Space Commerce report, providing an overview of the commercial space market and projections for future growth.

The analysis included highlights on competitiveness comparing the U.S. with
other nations in the fields of space commerce, space transportation, satellite communications, remote sensing and the Global Positioning System. The report

projected a $93.4 billion worldwide market for the space industry in 2001, with

$77.74 billion in revenue expected from satellite communications, the largest and

fastest growing segment of the industry.

OSC assumed an active role in interagency space matters under the Space

Policy Coordinating Committee (PCC) established by the National Security

Council. OSC cochaired the Space PCC Sub-Team on commercial space issues,

overseeing the development of strategies for the use of commercial remote-sensing

satellite systems by the military and for commercial use of the International Space

Station. OSC also participated in Space PCC Sub-Teams focused on space transportation, spectrum, and international issues. Within the White House-led Interagency Working Group on the Future

Use and Management of the U.S. Space Launch Bases and Ranges, OSC collaborated with the U.S. Air Force and the FAA Office of the Associate Administrator

for Commercial Space Transportation (AST) to assure full consideration of the

needs of commercial users of the two major Federal space launch facilities. As part

of a separate effort, OSC, FAA/AST and IT’s Office of Aerospace worked closely

to coordinate industry positions on outside funding for Federal launch bases

and ranges.

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 GPS

radio spectrum from encroachment by ultra-wideband 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 IGEB, to

engage in international outreach missions to promote GPS, and to participate in

the GPS modernization program.

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 DoS to affirm the two

nations’ mutual commitment to promote and use GPS as an international standard

for satellite navigation and timing.

In the area of satellite remote sensing, OSC, NOAA, and IT’s Office of

Aerospace (OA) continued to represent commercial interests as part of the

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

62
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

63 Remote Sensing Interagency Working Group (RSIWG). Led by the DoS, the

RSIWG is charged with coordinating policy for the export of U.S. remote-sensing

satellite systems and negotiating government-to-government agreements covering

the safeguarding of those systems’ technology.

During FY 2001, NIST performed a broad range of measurements and

standards-related research, technology transfer, and industry support in the areas

of aeronautics and space. NIST continued to provide radiometric calibration support for NASA’s EOS program to ensure the accuracy of the sensors used in global

remote sensing. NIST also provided the radiometric calibration of NOAA’s

Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY), which furnishes accurate data necessary to calibrate and validate satellite ocean color measuring instruments such as the

Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWifs) and MODIS. NIST started a

multi-year effort to improve calibration techniques for radiometers used for remote

sensing. These new developments should provide greater measurement accuracy in

satellite applications such as measuring Earth’s temperature, wind speed over the

ocean, sea salinity, and locating resource position.

The NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) helped hundreds

of U.S. aerospace parts and systems manufacturers increase sales and productivity

and reduce costs through adoption of lean manufacturing and other competitive

processes. As one example, RoBrad Tool & Engineering, Inc., an 80-employee

machine shop that supplies precision subassemblies for Boeing and Honeywell,

came to the Arizona extension center to reengineer its setup processes.

Conversion techniques prescribed by the Arizona center reduced RoBrad’s setup

times by 42 percent and saved $300,000 a year in setup costs.

To improve the security of communications between space-based and

ground-based operations, NIST’s Cryptographic Module Validation Program

worked with NASA to develop and use new cryptographic modules and cryptographic algorithm implementations. To reduce interference between aircraft

navigation systems, external radiation, and onboard laptops and cell phones, the

Naval Surface Warfare Center provided funding to NIST to compare alternatives

and to deliver efficient techniques and methodologies for measuring aircraft radiation shielding. With funding from FAA, NIST helped set interference

measurement policy. To reduce potential interference between ultra-wideband
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

64 broadcast signals and GPS systems, NIST and the NTIA worked on characterizing

ultra-wideband emissions for simulated interference studies.

NIST continued to work with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the

Condensate Laboratory Aboard the Space Station (CLASS) project, which will

develop microgravity measurement instruments for Bose-Einstein condensates, an

atomic-level phenomenon for which a NIST scientist received the 2001 Nobel

Prize in physics. NIST scientists also prepared a Shuttle experiment involving the

rapid stirring of xenon in microgravity, a process that decreases its viscosity, something never seen before in such a simple fluid. Results from this experiment should

help predict flows occurring in the manufacture of ordinary plastics. 

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 International System of Units (SI)

of length, mass, and time, as well as their derived units (force, acceleration, sound

pressure, and ultrasonic power). For example, NIST provided calibration services

in the 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’s Advanced Technology Program supported efforts of an industry

team at the Ohio Aerospace Institute of Cleveland to develop technologies that

make product design concurrent with manufacturing, thereby reducing design

time, improving quality, and potentially reducing the cost of creating new products

in a range of industries. Demonstration of the technology will focus on a jet

engine, nacelle, and fuel nozzle. 

NIST 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. To

characterize the size distribution of smoke generated in microgravity, NIST and

NASA researchers measured and compared the output of approved spacecraft

smoke detectors with 1-g results and model predictions. A computer program was

developed to simulate the effects of g-jitter on small combustion experiments

being conducted in NASA drop towers, the Space Shuttle, and the International

Space Station. 
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

65 NIST worked with aerospace manufacturers to develop “predictive process

engineering” models, metrology, and standards, intelligent manufacturing control

systems, and product interoperability protocols and knowledge representation

schemes for Computer-Aided Design (CAD) systems. NIST developed software

for testing the Air Transport Association’s IGExchange, a specification that allows

the aerospace industry to develop Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based

dynamic graphics. In collaboration with NASA, NIST helped deploy on a telescope in Hawaii a unique infrared-imaging instrument similar to NIST systems

aerospace companies have commercialized for space missions.

NIST worked with NASA to develop an optics metrology laboratory and

capability for NASA optics. NIST also developed optical disk image and storage

standards for NASA, which is interested in using optical tape for storing satellite

imagery. With funding from NASA and in collaboration with Stanford University,

NIST deployed a new class of optical detectors with sufficient speed and resolution

to provide entirely new information from space, such as the detailed characterization of light being emitted from pulsars.

NIST scientists developed tools to accelerate the introduction of new materials and processes in the manufacture of aerospace engine components; these

include multi-component alloy thermodynamics, phase diagrams, solidification,

and diffusion. Additionally, NIST cooperated with the NASA Glenn Research

Center to broaden the use of advanced ceramic materials that, due to their brittleness, currently have limited applications. The two agencies developed standard

test methods for quantifying the fracture resistance of brittle, monolithic ceramics

in a manner suitable for use by aerospace designers. NIST also developed objectoriented finite element 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 continued to support the Primary Atomic Reference Clock in Space

(PARCS), a laser-cooled cesium clock being developed for deployment on and use

with the International Space Station’s onboard scientific and technical applications. The PARCS project has completed its first two NASA reviews and is

scheduled to fly in early 2005. NIST also continued to provide synchronization

support for NASA’s Deep Space Network, used for space navigation and tracking. 

NIST provided a number of key NIST facilities to NASA science missions, including NIST’s synchrotron (SURF III), the Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

66 (SORCE), and the TIMED (Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics

and Dynamics) spacecraft. SURF III 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. 

NIST completed the radiometric calibration of the NIST Advanced

Radiometer (NISTAR) and Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), both

planned for deployment on the NASA Triana satellite. NISTAR will measure the

absolute irradiance of the Earth. EPIC will provide hourly, spatially resolved measurements of cloud properties, and ozone and aerosol levels of the Earth’s

atmosphere. 

In FY 2001, ITA’s OA played a central role in the organization and coordination of the Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry,

established by Congress to study issues associated with the future of the industry in

the global context, particularly in relation to national security. The Commission

is required to issue a report for the President and Congress in late 2002 recommending actions by Federal agencies to maintain a robust industry in the future.

OA contributed a staff member to colead a team on global issues and assist the

Commission in developing recommendations on issues including export control,

technology transfers, subsidies/offsets, trade agreements and policies, regulations

and standards, and international mergers and teaming.

OA worked closely with other U.S. agencies to renew the Czech

government’s 1-year tariff waiver on imports of U.S. large civil aircraft, helicopters, and certain spare parts through December 31, 2002. The DoS, 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. OA encourages as many countries as possible to

sign the WTO Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft as part of their WTO

accession process. 

Efforts by OA, USTR, and the DoS to open Russia’s highly protectionist

aerospace market met with some success during FY 2001. In August 2001, the
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

67 Russian government repealed Resolution #716, which had linked obtaining tariff

waivers for imported aircraft to purchases of Russian-made aircraft. 

OA continued to monitor and address European government loans to

Airbus for the development of the A380 super jumbo jet. In January 2001, a U.S.

interagency team, led by USTR and DoC, held consultations with the EU in

Washington. U.S. officials expressed concern about Government loans and the

extent to which they 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 that match up to

33 percent of total aircraft development costs. In April 2001, the EU provided

information about the loans as required in the 1992 agreement. OA personnel

continued analyzing this data, and the U.S. Government requested further information from the EU to better understand their compatibility with both the 1992

Agreement and WTO disciplines.

OA organized a number of aerospace-related activities under the U.S.-

China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) aimed at fostering

greater bilateral trade in this sector. The Chinese participated in training programs

sponsored by the FAA and offered by the American Association of Airport

Executives. Delegations of Chinese from various disciplines in the aviation community visited the United States and participated in the annual meetings of the

Airports Council International, the National Business Aviation Association, and

the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.

OA continued to play a critical role in the U.S. Government team seeking

resolution of the dispute over the European Union regulation that restricts the registration and operation in the EU of aircraft modified with noise suppression

technology, including aircraft engine “hushkits” and replacement engines. OA and

other agency representatives participated in bilateral discussions with EU officials

under the mediation of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)

Council President. The U.S. Government team also vigorously supported the recommendation for a new aircraft noise standard and related procedures by an ICAO

technical working group and subsequent adoption of the standard by the ICAO

Council. Through extensive technical discussions and negotiations with other

ICAO members, the U.S. Government successfully achieved the key objective of

endorsement by all ICAO members of new aircraft-noise-related policy guidance.

ICAO adoption of this policy guidance is anticipated to significantly contribute to
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

68 resolution of the “hushkit” dispute. The U.S. Government will continue bilateral

negotiations with European officials to seek withdrawal of the hushkit regulation

prior to April 2002.

During discussions with European officials in FY 2001, OA and other

Federal agencies raised concerns over the European Commission’s plans to establish a European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to regulate civil aircraft safety in

the EU and other European states. OA has concerns with provisions that link aircraft safety to international trade considerations. DoC championed a proposal to

amend the EASA regulation in a way that would remove the linkage between

trade considerations and the oversight of aircraft safety. 

OA and TA’s OSC continued to participate in efforts led by USTR to monitor Chinese compliance with the quantitative restrictions and pricing provisions

of the U.S.-China Commercial Space Launch Agreement. Ongoing and new

proliferation-related sanctions on China have limited the ability of foreign satellite manufacturers and operators to select a Chinese launch vehicle, thereby

reducing China’s participation in the commercial market. China had relatively few

new commercial contracts, and the interagency working group discovered no new

violations of the agreement. 

In FY 2001, OA continued to assist the U.S. aerospace industry through

trade promotion events. To promote the export of U.S. aerospace products, ITA

sponsored Aerospace Product Literature Centers at five major international exhibitions and air shows in Australia, China, France, Taiwan, and the United

Kingdom. More than 4,000 trade leads were generated through this program.

Working with the American Association of Airport Executives, OA sponsored the

6th Annual Eastern European Airport and Infrastructure Conference and Trade

Show in Budapest, Hungary. The office also cosponsored, with Senator

Rockefeller, Congressman Oberstar, and Federal agencies, a China seminar that

showcased a variety of U.S. products and services.

With support from OA, Secretary Evans visited the Paris Air Show in June

2001. In meetings with representatives of leading U.S. aerospace exporters and

with his counterparts in foreign governments, Secretary Evans called for improvements in the international trade regime to facilitate U.S. export sales. OA

arranged visits to the U.S. Pavilion by more than 20 delegations from outside the

United States. Those visits helped generate sales leads for U.S. exhibitors. 
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

69 OA, in coordination with ITA’s Advocacy Center and overseas offices, provided advocacy to support U.S. companies in international aerospace

competitions. The competitions include commercial aircraft sales for the Boeing

Company, helicopters, airport construction, commercial space projects, and air

traffic management projects. 

Secretary Evans oversaw the official signing ceremony for the sale of 30

Boeing aircraft worth over $1.6 billion to four Chinese airlines. The contract and

signing ceremony, coordinated by OA, highlighted the importance of international cooperation in this sector, especially in the wake of the September 11

terrorist attacks and their toll on the U.S. aircraft industry. 

As the lead advisory agency for Federal Government telecommunications

issues, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration

(NTIA) undertook a number of policy initiatives regarding satellites and other

space-based communications systems. Specifically, NTIA provided policy guidance on the restructuring of the International Telecommunications Satellite

(INTELSAT) Organization and the International Mobile Satellite (INMARSAT)

Organization. The restructuring has been successfully completed. NTIA continued

to manage the Federal Government’s use of the radio spectrum, including assignments for NASA, DoD, NOAA, and other Government satellite programs.

NTIA worked closely with other U.S. regulatory authorities and commercial satellite users to prepare for U.S. participation at the ITU World Radio Conference

(2003) to protect spectrum allocations for GPS.

F iscal Year 2001 Activities

71

DEPARTMENT OF THE

INTERIOR

DoI

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and NASA continued their partnership to

manage the Landsat-7 satellite, providing important new data to the global science

and operational user communities. USGS assumed complete mission operation

responsibility for Landsat-7 from NASA in October 2000, and USGS continued

to have responsibility for Landsat-7 data collection, archiving, and distribution.

NASA shared its expertise in mission management with USGS staff and conducted research in the technical characteristics and the potential uses of Landsat

data. At the end of FY 2001, nearly 200,000 scenes of Landsat-7 Enhanced

Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) data were collected for the U.S. archive at the

USGS Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center. Total Earth

coverage, including record amounts of repetitive coverage, exceeds 6.2 billion

square kilometers. USGS successfully supported the Landsat-7 International

Cooperator Network by downlinking approximately 350 scenes per day to 16 operational Landsat-7 ground receiving stations. Eight ground stations are now

submitting metadata on a regular basis.

The commercial operator of the Landsat-5 satellite officially relinquished

commercial rights to market Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data on July 1, 2001.

The operator had informed USGS earlier that it would no longer support the operation of Landsats 4 and 5 at no cost to the Government. Because USGS manages

Landsat-7 operations, it assumed responsibility for Landsat-5 operations and continued to operate Landsat-5 through FY 2001. Landsat-4 was decommissioned in

June 2001 because it was no longer able to provide useful data.

The Land Remote Sensing Policy Act of 1992 requires U.S. Government

Landsat Program Management (NASA and USGS) to “assess options for a successor land remote-sensing system to Landsat 7.” NASA and the USGS proceeded
with a two-step procurement strategy for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission

(LDCM) under which the private sector would provide multispectral digital image

data for global coverage of the Earth’s land mass on a seasonal basis and in a

manner that ensures continuity with the Landsat-7 mission. In FY 2001, NASA

requested industry comment on a draft Request for Proposals (RFP) for a set of

Formulation Phase contracts. In response to the final RFP for this phase, NASA

may award several contracts in FY 2002 to companies that will develop plans for a

mission that is mutually beneficial to the Government and the private sector. The

winning contractor for the Implementation Phase will deliver data as specified in

the LDCM Data Specification for the 5-year period starting in 2006, with an

option to extend the contract for a second 5-year period.

Landsat data were used in many studies of human-induced and natural alterations to the Earth during FY 2001. For example, USGS collected Landsat-7

ETM+ data over Siren, Wisconsin, on June 18, 2001, the day after a tornado

destroyed much of the community; the data clearly showed the geographic extent

of the affected area. State and Federal emergency response agencies used the data

to study the path of the tornado and to assess its effects on the communities

involved by comparing that scene with one collected shortly before the storm.

The Land Cover Trends project is a 4-year collaborative research project

between USGS, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and NASA to use

Landsat and other data to document the rates, driving forces, and consequences of

land use and land cover change over the past 30 years for the conterminous United

States. The project is based on the hypothesis that land cover changes unevenly

over time and space. In order to understand and manage the consequences of the

change, it is necessary to have reliable information on the forces that cause change

and the actual rates of change from time-to-time and from place-to-place. During

FY 2001, project scientists began to determine the rates of change for 84 regions

of the conterminous United States, using a probability sample methodology with

over 800 20-km by 20-km sites and Landsat data covering five dates from 1972 to

2000. Preliminary results showed that land cover has changed little between 1972

and 1992 in some regions such as North Central Appalachia in Pennsylvania and

New York. In other areas, such as the Northern Piedmont stretching from New

Jersey through Virginia, there has been significant conversion of agricultural land

to urban cover.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

72
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

73 With funding support from NASA, primary team members from the USGS

Astrogeology Program had outstanding success supporting several missions in the

FY 2001 NASA Planetary Science Program, and they hold leadership roles on several future missions. USGS is part of the imaging team on the Galileo spacecraft's

continuing survey of Jupiter’s largest moons. Galileo returned image and geophysical data as it closed to within 180 km of Jupiter’s moon, Io, passing through the

sulfurous snowflakes of one of its volcanic plumes. The Mars Global Surveyor collected spectacular images of Mars with the Mars Observer Camera and the

Thermal Emission Spectrometer, especially of the largest global dust storm on

Mars in over 20 years. As Mars 2001 Odyssey reached orbit, USGS team members

collected data to help determine the distribution of minerals on the surface of Mars

and how that relates to its geological landforms.

USGS leads the combination camera-and-spectrometer instrument on the

Deep Space 1 probe that had a successful encounter with comet Borrelly, returning images of the 10-km-long “bowling-pin-shaped” nucleus of that comet from

only 2,200 kilometers away. USGS leads the micro-imager camera team on the

Mars Excursion Rover mission that will be launched in 2003. Astrogeology scientists are also part of the primary camera team for the ultra-high spatial resolution

(25 cm) camera on the Mars 2005 orbiter.

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE)

used IKONOS 1-meter-resolution pan-sharpened multispectral stereo satellite

imagery covering active western and eastern coal mines for regulatory purposes,

including review of coal mining permits, making topographic measurements at

active coal mines, and ensuring that mine operators comply with regulations.

OSMRE successfully orthorectified this imagery by collecting high-accuracy global

positioning system (GPS) ground control and generating digital elevation model

products from the IKONOS stereo pairs on a photogrammetric workstation.

OSMRE used its Technology Information Processing System to distribute

Landsat orthorectified imagery mosaics (imagery from approximately 1990) of the

conterminous 48 States to over 70 State agencies, tribes, and OSMRE field offices

involved in surface coal mining to promote the use of remote sensing. OSMRE

installed a terabyte imagery server in Denver and began testing software to distribute the data to agencies and tribes involved in surface coal mine permitting

issues. OSMRE personnel conducted briefings and training sessions during the
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

74 year to expand the use of remotely sensed data within the agency and to stimulate

its full integration with geographic information systems (GIS), GPS, and mobile

computing activities.

OSMRE continued to acquire and successfully use Light Detection and

Ranging (LIDAR) imagery for detailed topographic mapping at abandoned mine

land sites and active coal mines. OSMRE also acquired standard aerial photography products from commercial vendors and used airborne GPS and Inertial

Measurement Unit data to lower the overall cost of internal production of

orthophotography. OSMRE used GPS technology in FY 2001 in surface mine

reclamation verification, technical assistance projects, and training. OSMRE mine

inspectors routinely used GPS on large western surface mines for navigation and

field verification of mine features such as channels, surface depressions, and

reclaimed topography. OSMRE used GPS in Midwestern States to map acid mine

drainage discharges and to locate and inventory abandoned mine entries. In the

Eastern States, OSMRE technical staff mapped domestic wells and home sites to

aid in resolving complaints of water loss due to the impact of mining activities on

ground water flow.

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) resource specialists used a wide variety

of remote-sensing technologies in FY 2001 to inventory and monitor public lands

that were under increased pressure for energy and mineral resource extraction, as

well as urban growth. Data from traditional and digital aerial cameras, and multispectral and hyperspectral sensors were supplemented by GPS and GIS to support

management activities associated with wildlife habitat, wilderness, recreation,

rangeland, timber, fire, minerals, and hazardous materials.

In FY 2001, BLM specialists used Landsat TM data to map a variety of landscape components, including: vegetation and invasive species for five

Southwestern States—Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah (in

partnership with USGS); leafy spurge, an invasive plant species in Wyoming;

increased soil detail throughout the Western U.S.; sage grouse habitat as an input

to conservation planning for the 11 BLM-managed Western States; and riparian

wetland areas in South Park, Colorado. Landsat TM data were also used to map

hazardous fuels in the 11 Western States that BLM manages, and to develop

hydrologic and terrain landscape models to support identification of rangeland

health indicators in western Colorado. BLM personnel analyzed NOAA
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

75 Advanced Very-High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite data for detection of cheatgrass, an invasive species, in the Great Basin region to support

vegetation restoration efforts following wildland fire.

BLM used digital orthophoto quadrangles to identify off-highway vehicle

routes for land use assessments on BLM-managed lands. Color-infrared and blackand-white aerial photographs were used to assess riparian conditions in numerous

Western States. BLM personnel mapped historical changes in pinyon-juniper communities in western Utah to support site-specific fuels management. Airborne

Data Acquisition and Registration (ADAR) multispectral camera data were used

to monitor vegetation succession following wildland fire in northern Wyoming.

AURORA hyperspectral data were collected to develop a hazardous waste materials inventory for remediation efforts on BLM-managed lands; for coal bed methane

inventory in Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming; and to inventory an invasive

plant species in Wyoming.

The National Park Service (NPS) used Landsat, SPOT, and IKONOS satellite data, along with conventional aerial photography, LIDAR data, and digital

orthophotography to map and monitor land cover, vegetation, cultural features,

and other specific features in many national parks. Approximately 400 GPS

receivers were used for mapping and navigation to support a variety of NPS

resource management and park maintenance applications.

NPS continued to work with USGS to map vegetation and obtain uniform

baseline data on the composition and distribution of vegetation types for 270 U.S.

national park units. Vegetation mapping was completed in FY 2001 for Badlands

(South Dakota), Theodore Roosevelt (North Dakota), Voyageurs (Minnesota),

Isle Royale (Michigan), and Rock Creek (District of Colombia) National Parks.

The pace of mapping increased substantially in FY 2001, with work beginning in

29 new park units. For comparison, mapping was performed in a total of only 30

parks since the program began in 1994.

Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) and USGS personnel used NASA

Advanced Visible and Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) hyperspectral

data of a portion of the Owyhee Basin in eastern Oregon to map surface minerals

and identify source areas of mercury within the basin that are contributing to the

high levels of mercury found in Reclamation’s Owyhee Reservoir. These high mercury levels exceed standards set for fish and wildlife populations, and have resulted
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

76 in advisories being placed on the consumption of fish taken from the reservoir.

Preliminary maps of mercury source areas have been produced; when these maps

are finalized, they could be used to institute land-management practices to retard

the influx of mercury into the reservoir.

The California Central Valley Project Improvement Act Biological

Opinion requires that data on wildlife habitat change be used in water-related

negotiations with irrigation districts and with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

(FWS). BOR image analysts used multitemporal Landsat TM data of the Central

Valley to identify such areas of change between 1993 and 2000. Areas that

changed between 1993 and 2000 will be mapped again using 1:120,000-scale aerial

photography acquired in 2001. This two-tiered approach reduced overall costs by

focusing more expensive high-resolution image acquisitions on specific areas identified using the Landsat data. These data will also be incorporated into the

Statewide change detection project being coordinated by the U.S. Forest Service

and the California Department of Forestry.

BOR continued to use Landsat TM, Indian Remote-Sensing Satellite multispectral and panchromatic data, and USGS digital orthophoto quarterquads to

map agricultural crops in the Colorado River basin, the Lahontan Basin in

Nevada, and the Central Valley of California. Water managers used irrigation

status and crop-type data with crop water use coefficients and locally varying climate data to calculate agricultural consumptive water use.

BOR continued mapping flood inundation perimeters and depths below

reclamation dams. Image analysts developed high-accuracy digital elevation

models (DEMs) from multireturn airborne LIDAR data. Hydraulic engineers used

these DEMs in conjunction with one- or two-dimensional hydraulic models to

predict flood water perimeters and depths for specific time intervals that would

result from a theoretical dam breach or spill event. GIS analysts overlaid maps of

maximum wetted area and maximum depth onto geographically referenced population and infrastructure data derived from USGS, the Census Bureau,

Department of Transportation, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and

other Federal agencies to determine the human and economic impacts of the modeled flood events.

During FY 2001, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) used remote sensing

and GPS to support BIA and tribal initiatives to map land use, inventory natural
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

77 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 (NED) data, Digital Raster Graphics

(DRG), and IKONOS satellite imagery 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. BIA

personnel developed inundation maps for input to Emergency Action Plans for

five dams during the reporting period.

Commercial GPS receivers were used to collect data for 1,539 ditch miles

and 19,518 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 photos and satellite data were also key components in the

mapping process in both the Irrigation and Safety of Dams Projects. The BIA also

continued its use of the Precision Lightweight GPS Receivers (PLGRs) to access

the DoD Navstar GPS Precise Positioning Service (PPS), primarily at the field

office level. The PLGRs are being phased out, where appropriate, in favor of commercial systems as the life span of PLGRs is being reached.

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) supported University of

Colorado scientists in research on satellite altimetry using the TOPEX/Poseidon

and European Remote Sensing-2 (ERS-2) satellites. This work has improved estimates of sea surface height and ocean currents, particularly for the large Loop

Current eddies in the Gulf of Mexico. Accurate ocean currents are important for

estimating oil spill trajectories and can affect offshore oil and gas operations.

MMS continued to use GPS data to assist in determining baseline points

that are used to delineate offshore boundaries in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Accurate

boundaries were needed to support Territorial Submerged Lands jurisdictions, as

well as a proposed national monument for protection of coral reefs around the

islands of St. Thomas and St. Croix.

The USGS and BLM used Landsat-7, RADARSAT-2 synthetic aperture

radar (SAR) images to investigate glacier dynamics and change at Bering Glacier,

Alaska. The observations are used to map the retreat of the glacier terminus as it
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

78 undergoes large-scale calving in Vitus Lake. Vitus Lake is now expanding, and a

marine ecosystem is rapidly evolving. The stability of the ice dam that impounds

water in Berg Lake remained under study to assess potential hazards should the

dam fail.

The USGS and the French Space Agency (CNES) have developed multisensor techniques to estimate snow pack thickness and water equivalent from

microwave instruments. The combination of passive microwave observations

obtained by the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) on the Defense

Meteorological Satellite and the dual frequency TOPEX/Poseidon radar altimetry

measurements have yielded more accurate snow depths than previously attained

by SSM/I observations when the technique was applied to the U.S. Northern

Great Plains, with the heavy snow year of 1997 used as a test case.

Cleveland Volcano in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, sent ash plumes across

the air lanes of the North Pacific three times in February and March 2001.

Scientists at the USGS Alaska Volcano Observatory detected the ash clouds by

using data from meteorological satellites, Landsat 7, and other sources, and quickly

informed Federal and State agencies, including the Federal Aviation

Administration, the National Weather Service, and local Air Force installations,

of the hazard. These ash clouds disrupted international air traffic in the busy North

Pacific corridor during the first 48 hours after each of the explosions. Timely information on the position of ash clouds helps minimize both the cost of such

eruptions to the airlines and the danger and inconvenience they pose to the

public. Satellite data was the main monitoring tool for this eruption because

Cleveland Volcano (which has erupted at least 11 times since 1893) was not yet

monitored seismically at the end of the fiscal year.

In FY 2001, USGS scientists used SAR data from the ERS satellites and the

interferometric SAR (InSAR) technique to detect uplift of the ground surface

over a broad area centered 5 kilometers west of South Sister Volcano in the Three

Sisters region of the central Oregon Cascade Range. The initial uplift, which

occurred between 1996 and 2000, covers an area about 15 to 20 km in diameter,

with the maximum amount of uplift being about 10 centimeters. Close aerial

inspections of the area revealed no unusual surface features. Scientists from the

Cascades Volcano Observatory installed a seismometer near the center of the area

to see if there are any earthquakes associated with the deformation. The uplift,

which is most likely caused by intrusion of magma, appeared from InSAR analysis
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

79 results to be continuing. The USGS continued to monitor the area to assess the

probability of an eruption. This was the first successful use of the InSAR technique

in the Cascades region.

USGS also used the InSAR technique to study land surface deformation

associated with natural recharge in the San Bernardino ground water basin of

Southern California. Several centimeters of uplift were detected during the first

half of 1993 in two areas of the basin based on InSAR analysis of ERS-1 and ERS2 images. This uplift correlates with unusually high runoff from the surrounding

mountains and increased ground water levels in nearby wells. The deformation of

the land surface identifies the location of faults that restrict ground water flow,

maps the location of recharge, and suggests the areal distribution of fine-grained

aquifer materials. Preliminary results demonstrate that naturally occurring runoff

and the resultant recharge can be used with interferometric deformation mapping

to help define the structure and important hydrogeologic features of a ground

water basin. This approach may be particularly useful in investigations of remote

areas with limited ground-based hydrogeologic data.

USGS, in collaboration with the University of Washington, tested the feasibility of using helicopter-mounted radar equipment that is to measure river

discharge. River discharge traditionally has been measured by using sounding

weights to determine average river depth and rotating cups to determine river

velocity. For these experiments, standard ground-penetrating radar measured river

cross-sectional areas, and microwave radar developed by the Applied Physics

Laboratory, University of Washington, measured river velocity. Preliminary analysis indicates that discharge can be measured within +/-10 percent of the discharge

value computed from stage readings at streamflow-gaging stations. Discharge

measurements using the radar method were made in an average of about 45 seconds each, compared with several hours using the traditional method. The radar

method may have an important application during large regional floods when discharge measurements are needed at many streamflow-gaging stations in a short

period of time, or for other applications in which the physical properties of a river

need to be defined.

USGS scientists used key predator bird species as part of long-term contaminant monitoring systems to assess the health of large river systems, bays, and

estuaries in the United States. In the past, scientists have used bird banding to
track where one such species, the American osprey, spent the winter and the

routes used to reach wintering sites. Scientists from USGS and the University of

Minnesota used NOAA satellites to track osprey migration routes by using small

radios. Knowledge about the speed of migration and the location of wintering

grounds gained in this way provides a better understanding of contaminant exposure away from the nesting grounds in the United States.

Sandhill cranes migrate through the Platte River valleys of Nebraska, but

much is not known about their habitat use and ultimate destinations. During

FY 2001, researchers marked 51 cranes with satellite-monitored transmitters

attached to plastic leg bands and tracked them continuously from their staging

area along the Platte and North Platte Rivers in Nebraska, to their breeding

grounds. At the end of the fiscal year, results showed that lesser sandhill cranes

staging along the North Platte River breed mostly in Siberia and western Alaska.

Data show that most of the midcontinent population was present in late

March when the FWS conducted their annual population survey, providing managers with key information on reliability of population size estimates derived from

the survey.

USGS biologists completed a pilot study of the year-to-year movements of

snowy owls in the Arctic. They used satellite telemetry to map the annual flight

paths of adult female snowy owls from Barrow, Alaska, through remote areas and

during periods of Arctic darkness. These data would have been impractical or

impossible to obtain with traditional tracking methods.

USGS biologists developed methods to predict brood and duckling survival

across the extensive Prairie Pothole region of the upper Great Plains by analyzing

habitat information in a GIS. They also used satellite radiotelemetry to monitor

mallard and gadwall duckling survival rates in relation to wetland and upland

habitat conditions. They collected imagery from a digital color-infrared camera to

monitor the availability of seasonal wetland habitat and to estimate the percentage of the landscape in perennial vegetation cover. USGS biologists used similar

satellite telemetry techniques to determine the survival, dispersal, and long-range

movements of prairie falcons from the Snake River Birds of Prey National

Conservation Area, Idaho.

In FY 2001, the USGS Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center

collected digital, high-resolution black-and-white and color-infrared aerial
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

81 imagery over approximately two thirds of the Colorado River Ecosystem between

Lake Powell and Lake Mead. The USGS has collected aerial imagery annually

since 1990 to monitor change in the natural and cultural resources within the

ecosystem resulting from the operation of the Glen Canyon Dam. This information is used by the Glen Canyon Adaptive Management Program to make

informed decisions on the operation of the dam that improve the values for which

the Grand Canyon National Park and the Glen Canyon National Recreation

Area were created.

USGS scientists cooperated with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

(USACE) and a private firm to complete initial high-definition airborne mapping

of glacial and bedrock outcrop sites in northern Lake Michigan that are used by

lake trout as spawning habitat. Mapping was done with the USACE/Navy

Scanning Hydrographic Operational Airborne LIDAR Survey (SHOALS) system

that uses a LIDAR sensor to make lake-floor maps in areas too shallow for practical use of conventional sonar systems, such as reefs and near-shore areas. Fishery

resource management agencies used this information to determine whether

degraded spawning habitat is one of the factors adversely affecting the rehabilitation of trout populations in Lake Michigan.

USGS scientists regularly used GPS in FY 2001 to support scientific

research conducted in the Great Lakes basin. Side-scan sonar surveys conducted

throughout the Great Lakes basin and habitat-mapping projects in the St. ClaireDetroit River System required GPS technology to locate sample sites and provide

geographic reference for biological data. Larval fish habitat preference studies in

Lake Erie used GPS to guide repetitive sampling procedures and simplify navigation in open water. GPS was also used for locating field sites while conducting

native clam research in several NPS national parks and lakeshores in Michigan

and wetland restoration projects in cooperation with FWS on national wildlife

refuges in Michigan and Ohio.

USGS scientists used GPS to conduct annual fish stock assessments in all

five Great Lakes in cooperation with the international Great Lakes Fishery

Commission and State, tribal, and Canadian fishery management agencies. These

data are used to make management decisions on fish stocking and harvest quotas

to promote the ecological and economic sustainability of Great Lakes commercial,

sport, and tribal fisheries. USGS scientists also used GPS to guide studies on the
82 recovery of the burrowing mayfly (Hexagenia) populations in western Lake Erie,

Saginaw Bay (Lake Huron), and Green Bay (Lake Michigan). Hexagenia is an

important food source for many kinds of Great Lakes fishes, and its increasing

numbers in recent years is an indicator of improving Great Lakes water and bottom

sediment quality. In contrast, another important fish food organism is the deepwater amphipod, Diporeia, and its declining numbers were investigated at sites

located by GPS in Lakes Ontario and Huron. 

USGS scientists on the NASA Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite Science

Validation Team worked to determine whether data from the EO-1 satellite could

be used to detect and map leafy spurge, an invasive plant species in Theodore

Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota. Preliminary analysis of multiple data sets

collected during the 2001 growing season with the EO-1 Hyperion hyperspectral

sensor indicated the feasibility of delineating stands of leafy spurge larger than 30

m in diameter in grassland and badland environments of the park.

USGS scientists used high-spatial-resolution IKONOS satellite data and

NASA’s Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer

(ASTER) multispectral satellite data to map small but important and sensitive

bird habitat types such as pockets of forested wetlands on islands in the Great

Lakes. These features were essentially unidentifiable with other commercially

available spaceborne sensors. Protection of Great Lakes island habitats is one of

the highest management priorities of the FWS in the Great Lakes region. Landsat

ETM+ images were used for project planning and wetland research at Seney

National Wildlife Refuge, a very large refuge on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan

where a USGS/FWS wetland restoration project is ongoing.

USGS and a private company began developing new techniques to monitor infestations of water hyacinth, an exotic aquatic weed infestation that is

causing major damage to the ecosystem and economy of the Lake Victoria basin of

East Africa. They used RADARSAT, Landsat, and IKONOS satellite data to provide timely information to aquatic plant managers in East Africa. USGS scientists

documented a major infestation in Winam Gulf, Kenya, which peaked at 180 km2

of areal extent in November 1998, and subsequently declined to under 1 km2 by

February 2000. USGS and the company are helping East African governments to

implement an operational monitoring system.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

83 Since 1975, the USGS has chaired the Civil Applications Committee,

chartered by the Office of the President, to facilitate the use of classified imagery

for applications that are central to many agency missions, such as environmental

monitoring, resource management, homeland security, natural hazards, and emergency response applications. USGS continued to support this growing demand

through the National Civil Applications Project (NCAP). NCAP staff employed

a network of secure national and regional facilities to help users acquire these data

for science investigations, and to generate custom and derived products. FY 2001

applications of classified data included glacier monitoring and delineation of

glacial karst features; tracking of migration and breeding patterns of animals

in remote locations; determining the surface characteristics of sea ice melt

ponds; gathering river stage information for flood forecasting; and water

quality monitoring.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

84
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

85

FEDERAL

COMMUNICATIONS

COMMISSION

FCC

All FCC accomplishments in space during FY 2001 were related to communications and Earth observation satellites. The FCC formulates rules to facilitate and

regulate the U.S. domestic satellite industry and the licensing of all stations and

satellite launches. Internationally, the FCC continued to coordinate satellite placement with other countries. FCC specific accomplishments are outlined for FY 2001.

The FCC issued construction authorizations and authorized a number of

launches of communications satellites. There were 34 Ka-band Geostationary

Orbit/Fixed Satellite Service (GSO/FSS) satellites authorized for construction. In

the C/Ku bands, the FCC authorized SES Americom for two satellites which were

launched in October and December 2000.

The FCC granted operational licenses to The Boeing Company, Celsat

America, Inc., Constellation Communications Holdings, Inc., Globalstar, L.P.,

Iridium LLC, Mobile Communications Holdings, Inc., ICO Services Ltd., and TMI

Communications and Company, L.P., in the 2 GHz band. An Earth Exploration

Satellite Service (EESS) license was granted to AstroVision, and the DirecTV 5

space station license was granted in November 2000. In addition, 34 Ka-band

GSO/FSS satellites were licensed to 11 companies.

Several satellites authorized by the FCC became operational during FY 2001.

These were VITA, a little LEO licensee; and EarthWatch, an EESS licensee. Also,

XM Radio began providing Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service broadcast in

September 2001. 

During FY 2001, the FCC was also active in international satellite coordination with Argentina, Brazil, Canada, ESA, INTERSPUTNIK, Mexico,
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

86 Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom,

Uruguay, and Venezuela in the C/Ku-band. Other coordination meetings were also

concluded with Japan, Norway, and the Russian Federation. 
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

87

DEPARTMENT OF

AGRICULTURE

USDA

During FY 2001, several USDA agencies regularly used remotely sensed data to

support operational and research activities. These agencies include, but are not

limited to, the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Foreign Agricultural Service

(FAS), Farm Service Agency (FSA), Forest Service (FS), National Agricultural

Statistics Service (NASS), and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

Following are brief summaries from these six agencies describing how remotely

sensed data were used to accomplish departmental goals and objectives during

FY 2001.

The ARS research program used remotely sensed data and related technologies to develop techniques and methodologies to monitor, assess, and

administer agricultural, rangeland, and natural resources. ARS identified eight

areas for research of the application of remotely sensed information to agricultural

and natural resource problems. These areas encompassed 1) soil properties and

assessment, 2) hydrometeorology, 3) crop management, 4) range management, 5)

land use evaluation, 6) water quality and aquatic ecosystems, 7) sensor development and calibration, and 8) development of analytical tools for remotely sensed

data. ARS scientists were involved in a broad remote-sensing research program

that involved more than 30 laboratories. These laboratories cooperated extensively with other Federal and State agencies, in this country and abroad, to extend

the applications of remotely sensed data for agricultural and natural resources management. This research resulted in the development of new and cost-effective

methods to assess agricultural and natural resources at local, regional, and global

scales. The following examples epitomize the breadth and depth of remote-sensing

research in ARS.
88 ARS scientists used remote-sensing data from ground, aircraft, and satellite

platforms to develop methods to monitor, assess, and manage the Nation’s waters

on small and large scales. For example, at the Kika de la Garza Subtropical

Agricultural Research Center in Weslaco, Texas, scientists used aerial photography and videography to detect water-lettuce infestations in Texas waterways.

Similarly, scientists at the Northwest Watershed Research Center in Boise, Idaho,

used very-large-scale, color-infrared aerial photography of stream segments to

quantify stream shading by riparian vegetation. Stream shading was under consideration by the Environmental Protection Agency as a possible remotely sensed

surrogate for direct stream temperature measurements because it is logistically

impossible to use ground-based techniques to characterize the spatial dynamics of

stream temperature within extensive and remote rangeland stream systems.

Researchers in Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, and Texas used remote sensing to

develop methods to monitor water quality. A prototype submersible sensor to

monitor harmful algal species, such as those responsible for red tide and dead

zones, was being tested in the St. John’s River in collaboration with other regional,

State, and Federal agencies. 

ARS scientists in Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Maryland, New Mexico,

Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas collaborated with personnel from NASA and

other Federal and international agencies to study interactions between the Earth’s

surface and atmosphere, and how these interactions influence climate change and

the management of agricultural and natural resources. For example, researchers

from the ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory and the University of Virginia, Department of Environmental Sciences, explored the coupling between

the land and the atmospheric boundary layer using a three-dimensional turbulence

large eddy simulation model and remotely sensed land surface images. An analysis

of the results revealed the existence of scale-dependent earth/atmosphere interactions, suggesting that significant changes in regional land use or agricultural

practices could affect local and regional climate. This research was a fundamental

step in addressing the effects of climate change on agricultural resources and will

help in the development of mitigation strategies.

In Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, and

Texas, ARS scientists worked on developing remote sensors and techniques to

monitor crop growth, soil conditions, and plant water and fertilizer requirements.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

89 These sensors and techniques have helped in the development of precision farming techniques that enable farmers to maximize crop production while minimizing

agricultural effects on the environment. Work also focused on sensor calibration.

ARS scientists from the U.S. Water Conservation Laboratory in Phoenix,

Arizona, and from the Southwest Watershed Research Center in Tucson, Arizona,

teamed with personnel from NASA Stennis Space Center and the National

Imaging and Mapping Agency to perform a multiple-platform calibration in July

2001. Images of the University of Arizona’s Maricopa Agricultural Center were

acquired via sensors aboard IKONOS, Landsat 7, and NASA Earth Observing

System (EOS) satellites, as well as aircraft ranging from a Learjet to a powered

parachute. Ground crews measured plant and soil parameters, surface properties,

and atmospheric conditions in support of this project. ARS scientists used these

data to evaluate each sensor’s suitability for helping growers make better informed

management decisions related to the water and nutrient needs of their crops.

ARS personnel applied remote sensing in recent studies of insect, weed, and

disease infestations and rangeland conditions. One goal of this research was to

develop new remote-sensing tools and techniques to help decisionmakers better

manage pests and weeds affecting agriculture and natural resources. For example,

the ARS Screwworm Research Program found that screwworm population densities were highest in edges between mature forests and open fields in the tropics.

Researchers developed methods to identify these habitats using Landsat Thematic

Mapper (TM), SPOT, and RADARSAT satellite data. The ability to locate probable screwworm populations using remotely sensed data would increase the

efficiency and effectiveness of USDA’s biological control of screwworm.

The FAS remote-sensing program is administered by the Production

Estimates and Crop Assessment Division (PECAD). PECAD is the focal point

within FAS and USDA for assessing global agricultural production and conditions

that affect world food security. PECAD is the world’s most extensive and longest

running (20 years) operational user of commercial satellite data, using numerous

satellite platforms to evaluate agronomic situations worldwide. This basic market

intelligence effort was mandated in the legislation, establishing the agency in 1954

(Title VI of the Agricultural Act of 1954). PECAD is the only operational unit of

its type in the world.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

90 PECAD was responsible for global crop condition analysis and estimates of

world grain, oilseed, and cotton production. Satellite remote-sensing data are a

critical components used in making crop production and condition estimates for

key markets and competitors, providing reliable, repeatable, and comparable

observations. In 2001, the division confirmed and enhanced remote-sensing data

by incorporating economic, weather, crop model, and field observation data in a

“convergence of evidence” methodology. These data came from public and

private sources. Remote sensing enabled PECAD to obtain information in regions

where such information is often difficult to obtain. Satellite data were

frequently more timely and reliable, and often more complete, than conventional

sources. Furthermore, satellite data were quite inexpensive compared to the cost

of maintaining staff in overseas offices or continually funding travel for

U.S.-based analysts.

PECAD helped USDA and other agencies “right size” food aid and other

emergency response efforts by providing unbiased assessments of the influence of

weather and other events on food supplies. Two division analysts provided fulltime support to the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) by providing crop

condition assessments and early warnings of crop disasters through the FSA/FAS

Center for Remote-Sensing Analysis. FAS also shared data and analyses with

other USDA and U.S. Government agencies to meet national security requirements and assess global food security needs. In 2000, USDA designated FAS as the

repository and manager of the USDA Satellite Imagery Archive. FAS purchased,

archived, and shared satellite data with six other USDA agencies, substantially

reducing individual agency costs. All high- and medium-resolution and some lowresolution satellite data were purchased commercially. Some low-resolution data

was acquired from NASA and NOAA. NOAA and the U.S. Air Force Weather

Agency (AFWA) provided the satellite weather data. 

FSA completed a three-state pilot that compared alternative methods for

collecting aerial photography for farm program compliance. During FY 2001, FSA

acquired most of the U.S. agricultural area data using light aircraft equipped with

35-millimeter cameras and color slide film. FSA tested approaches to replace this

methodology with a program that delivered 1 to 2 m geo-referenced digital

imagery. FSA challenged the private sector to collect, rectify, package by county,

and deliver, within 60 days of the flying window, usable products. Data for 51
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

91 counties in Kansas and Nebraska were collected through this project, and the

result was an amazing achievement for inexpensive, high-quality digital images. As

an added benefit, FSA had the color film, similar to that available through the

National Aerial Photography Program (NAPP), stored at the Aerial Photography

Field Office in Salt Lake City, Utah. The film was capable of being scanned to

create 1-meter Digital Orthophoto Quadrangles.

As a result of the Kansas and Nebraska pilots, FSA began a major paradigm

shift. FSA began redirecting its $500,000 NAPP cost-share money to contract

internally to create digital products that can serve FSA compliance requirements.

These products were anticipated to be a great national asset, used by Federal, State

and local Governments, as well as the public, to obtain low-cost, high-resolution

digital images of domestic agricultural areas. FSA spent about $2 per square mile

to acquire film for the 35- millimeter compliance program. In contrast, this new

digital acquisition method required $12 to $14 per square mile. The FSA FY 2002

and 2003 budgets would not allow this innovation to be fielded. 

The FSA also tested a lower cost alternative in Minnesota. Here, companies flew small aircraft with digital sensors and 35-millimeter film-based cameras.

These products were not geo-referenced as well and, combined with a small footprint, were more difficult to use. This new digital acquisition method required $4

to $8 per square mile. 

FS continued to manage 191 million acres of public lands in national forests

and grasslands, and provided technical and financial assistance to State and private forestry agencies. FS also continued its role as the largest forestry research

organization in the world. Wildfires in 2000 and 2001 were larger, more frequent,

and more numerous than those seen in recent years. The number and severity of

these fires severely taxed Federal and State wildfire management resources. The FS

Remote Sensing Applications Center (RSAC) collaborated with staff at NASA

Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Maryland to develop the

Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Land Rapid Response

System, providing a range of time-critical data to the National Interagency Fire

Center (NIFC) and other Federal and State users. Staff at the RSAC used MODIS

data to generate cumulative and daily active fire maps, and disseminated the maps

to users via an Internet Web-based system. The Federal wildfire community used

this near-real-time data to assist in the strategic allocation of assets and in post-fire
92 rehabilitation efforts. Before the end of the fiscal year, technicians installed an

antenna at the RSAC facility in Salt Lake City, Utah, to receive Direct Broadcast

MODIS data that was expected to become operational in FY 2002.

NASA also supported FS by acquiring high-altitude color photography over

the nearly 1,600,000 acres of the Deschutes National Forest. The imagery included

large format camera 9 x 18-inch color-infrared photography at 1:30,000 scale and

9 x 9-inch color-infrared photography at 1:60,000 scale. FS staff used this photography for a wide range of resource management applications, including

recreational planning and forest health management.

The mission of NASS continued to be the provision of timely, accurate,

and useful statistics describing U.S. agriculture. These statistics cover virtually

every facet of domestic agriculture, from the production and supply of food and

fiber to the prices paid and received by farmers and ranchers. 

During FY 2001, NASS personnel used remote-sensing data to construct

area frames for statistical sampling, estimate crop area, and create crop-specific

land-cover data layers for geographic information systems (GIS). For area frame

construction, NASS staff combined digital Landsat and SPOT data with U.S.

Geological Survey (USGS) digital line-graph data, enabling users to assign a category to each piece of land in a State based on the percentage of cultivated land

and other variables. NASS implemented a new remote-sensing-based area frame

and sample for Tennessee and Wisconsin. The remote-sensing acreage estimation

project analyzed Landsat data from the 2000 crop season in Arkansas, Illinois,

Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, New Mexico, and North Dakota. These data were used

to produce crop acreage estimates for major crops at State and county levels, and

to develop a crop-specific categorization of a digital mosaic of TM scenes, which

was distributed to users on a CD-ROM. For the 2001 crop season, NASS headquarters and several NASS field offices continued partnership agreements with

State organizations, working to decentralize Landsat processing and analysis tasks,

and expanding into the boot heel of Missouri and a pilot area in southeastern

Nebraska. The pilot area in southeastern Nebraska was a joint project with FSA

to examine the accuracy of NASS crop-specific categorizations. Data for 2001

acreage estimation analyses were collected in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa,

Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, and North Dakota. NASS, in conjunction

with ARS, began studying data obtained from the MODIS sensor on the NASA

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

93 Terra satellite for use as an additional input for setting yield estimates and as a possible replacement for Advanced Very-High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR)

data in generating vegetation condition images.

NRCS is the primary Federal agency working with private landowners to

help them protect their natural resources. Much of the land management business

conducted by NRCS requires the use of good science and practical technology,

such as remote sensing. NRCS has used aerial photography and related remotesensing products for over 50 years to conduct agency programs and business. 

In FY 2001, aerial photography and orthoimagery (1-meter resolution) were

used extensively nationwide for conducting soil surveys as part of the National

Cooperative Soil Survey program. Soil scientists used digital orthoimagery to map

and digitize soils at their true map positions on the ground. NRCS personnel also

used digital orthoimagery for conservation planning, wetland delineations, watershed planning, and to provide technical assistance to landowners and

communities. NRCS acquired and used high-quality (1-foot resolution) aerial

photography to conduct the annual continuous National Resources Inventory

(NRI). In FY 2001, the agency expanded use of GIS to most county field offices.

As a result, the need for digital orthoimagery for use as a mapping and planning

base map also increased. 

NRCS obtained all of its aerial photography and digital orthoimagery from

commercial sources. NRCS coordinated with USDA and other Federal agencies in

the purchase of aerial photography and digital orthoimagery. Much of the aerial

photography was obtained through NAPP, a partnership of Federal and State agencies. Digital orthoimagery was coordinated and obtained through the National

Digital Orthophoto Program (NDOP), a partnership of Federal and State agencies

having common imagery requirements. All of the data developed through these

national imagery programs became part of the public domain, permitting agencies

to share these data and imagery internally and externally without licensing or

use restrictions. 

The NRI program required high-resolution imagery over confidential statistical sampling sites. In FY 2001, NRCS purchased high-quality imagery for

approximately 72,500 sites nationwide. The USDA Aerial Photography Field

Office of FSA contracted for the imagery. The FSA office had responsibility for

contracting aerial photography in the USDA.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

94 Compared to the purchase and use of aerial photography and digital imagery

derived from airborne systems, NRCS purchased and used only a modest amount

of satellite imagery. Most NRCS programs and activities required high-resolution

imagery from airborne systems. Satellite systems were not able to provide highresolution imagery to NRCS at a cost comparable to airborne systems. 

NRCS was well represented on Federal mapping, remote sensing, GPS, and

geodata committees. Significant time and resources were devoted to supporting

the work of the Federal Geographic Data Committee, NAPP, NDOP, Interagency

GPS Executive Board, and other groups. Coordination efforts within these committees resulted in partnerships to cost share in the development, acquisition, and

sharing of imagery and geodata. 

NRCS has actively used GPS for more than six years as a tool in support of

carrying out conservation programs and technical assistance. Over 1,000 GPS

receivers were in use at county field offices. In FY 2001, NRCS led a GPS modernization team of USDA county service center agencies to develop business

application requirements, equipment configuration specifications, and to provide

contact support to the department for the awarding of an USDA-wide GPS contract for commercial off-the-shelf GPS receivers. 
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

95

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
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. 
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

97 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

models also predicted that large grains precipitate out of the brown dwarf atmospheres, just as rain does on Earth. 
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

98 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 15 times this size 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, under development by Townes at UC 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 Air Force Office of Scientific

Research to provide the U.S. astronomical community with access to state-of-theart 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 km 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.

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
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

99 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

GLONASS satellite. 
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

100
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

10

DEPARTMENT OF

STATE

DoS

The Department of State (DoS) conducted successful negotiations with the

Japanese government to resolve issues related to the 1995 U.S.-Japan Agreement

Concerning Cross-Waiver of Liability for Space Cooperation that had been

impeding successful implementation of the agreement. 

During FY 2001, the Department of State led U.S. Government participation in the United Nations’ Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space

(COPUOS). Over the past year, the committee undertook significant work in

areas such as addressing the problem of orbital space debris, global navigation

satellite systems, meteorology, astronomy and astrophysics, space transportation,

human space flight, planetary exploration, and environmental monitoring. The

committee also considered legal issues related to international liability and responsibility of launching nations, international financial security interests in space

equipment, and the equitable access to the geostationary orbit. 

The Department of State provided funding for a series of four regional

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) Workshops and one Plenary Session

to be held during 2001–2002. These workshops are being held under the auspices

of the United Nations and the United States. The first two workshops were held

in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the Asia Pacific regions, and in Vienna, Austria,

for the Eastern European region. Both workshops were highly successful in bringing together regional experts and decisionmakers to advance awareness and

support for use of GNSS applications for sustained growth, transportation safety,

and environmental management.

In addition to the GNSS workshops, the DoS led GPS international outreach efforts for the interagency GPS Executive Board Secretariat. As a result, the
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

102 GPS exhibit and support team carried the U.S. message to such venues as the

International Civil Aviation Organization General Assembly in Montreal and the

Working Party 8D of the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva. 

The Department of State also presented a draft framework agreement

between the United States and the European Community on Satellite Navigation

Systems in October 2000. This led to two negotiation sessions with the European

Community based on the draft. 
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

10

DEPARTMENT OF

ENERGY

DoE

DoE’s Office of Nuclear Energy continued to support NASA’s Space Exploration

Program by providing radioisotope power sources and heater units, and developing

new advanced power systems covering the range of power levels required to meet

more stringent power system requirements for future missions. DoE personnel provided safety analyses to support the NASA Environmental Impact Statement for

the potential use of radioisotope heater units on the Mars 2003 mission. DoE conducted competitive procurements with several potential system contractors for

development of conceptual designs for a Stirling radioisotope power system. A

Stirling engine is one in which work is performed by the expansion of gas at high

temperature to which heat is supplied through a wall. At the end of the fiscal year,

DoE specialists were evaluating these contractor designs and expected to select

one for further development. Additionally, DoE initiated actions to procure a

system contractor to develop a multimission radioisotope thermoelectric generator

(RTG) suitable for use in a variety of environments such as the surface of Mars and

deep space. Finally, following a bench-scale demonstration in 2000, DoE proceeded to install a full-scale process to recover Plutonium-238 scrap for reuse as an

energy source for radioisotope power systems for future NASA missions.

In FY 2001, DoE’s Office of Science cooperated with NASA in a wide variety of activities, such as bringing the experimental techniques of fundamental

physics for use in outer space, using the science and technology plasma science to

devise new propulsion systems, joint efforts to understand atmospheric and environmental phenomena, and a working partnership in advanced computing

research. These activities were carried out under a Memorandum of

Understanding between NASA and DoE signed by NASA Administrator Goldin

and DoE Secretary Watkins in 1992. 
Through an Implementing Arrangement with NASA signed in 1995, the

Office of Science continued in 2001 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 2001 was used for analysis of data acquired during a 10-day Shuttle

flight in 1998, and for planning and fabrication for an upcoming Shuttle flight, for

the eventual deployment on the International Space Station in 2003. 

DoE’s Office of Science and NASA’s Office of Space Science worked

together in FY 2001 to build the Large-Area Telescope (LAT), the primary instrument for the Gamma-ray Large-Area Space Telescope (GLAST) project. 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 the assembly and

integration of the complete instrument, data acquisition system management, as

well as software development for GLAST’s flight system and science analysis. DoE

provided funding in FY 2001 for R&D, design, and fabrication of the telescope, in

conjunction with NASA and international partners. At the end of FY 2001, the

launch was anticipated to take place in 2004.

DoE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and NASA’s Johnson Space

Center collaborated in FY 2001 on the development of an advanced rocket

technology that could cut in half the time required to reach Mars. Called the

Variable-Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR), the technology is a

precursor to fusion rockets and was developed in DoE’s magnetic fusion program.

The VASIMR concept could provide a powerful means of propulsion by utilizing

plasma as the propellant. A key to the technology is the capability to vary the

plasma exhaust to maintain optimal propulsive efficiency. 
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

10

Some of the new fusion technologies being developed for VASIMIR include

magnets that are super-conducting at space temperatures, compact power generation equipment, and compact and robust radio-frequency systems for plasma

generation and heating. ORNL’s Fusion Energy Division continued to play a key

role in developing and adapting these technologies for use on the VASIMR plasma

thruster. NASA’s Johnson Space Center provided direct support to ORNL to fund

technology development specific to the VASIMR. In addition, DoE's Office of

Science complemented the NASA effort by supporting related research on creating high-density plasmas by radio-frequency heating.

The Office of Science also worked with NASA to evaluate the responses of

ecosystems to increasing concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide and to

make predictions of future climate variation due to such increases. In FY 2001, the

Office of Science made available to NASA its models of carbon dynamics in terrestrial ecosystems developed under the Terrestrial Carbon Processes Program.

Scientists began to use these models as a basis for comparison with a variety of

models developed under NASA’s Vegetation Model Analysis Program. 

DoE’s Office of Science and NASA also worked together to calculate the

biweekly primary productivity of various representative regions in the United

States. In FY 2001, the AmeriFlux Program of the Office of Science provided realtime meteorological and solar radiation data for these calculations, and NASA

provided data on leaf-area and photosynthetically active radiation. This joint work

made possible continental-scale estimates of seasonal and geographic patterns of

productivity. The AmeriFlux Program produced unique measurements of net

ecosystem production from about 25 locations across the U.S. These results provided an independent calibration of NASA’s productivity calculations. 

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program of the Office of Science

conducted a joint field campaign with NASA that is designed to provide accurate

measurements of water vapor in the upper troposphere. Data on water vapor in the

upper troposphere are one of the key elements required to improve the performance of large-scale weather and climate-prediction models. The Office of Science

and NASA provided ground and airborne instrumentation for water vapor measurements for the campaign. In addition, NASA provided the new Proteus aircraft,

an airborne platform designed for high-altitude and long-endurance research

flights. This campaign represented the most extensive study of upper-level water

vapor to date—a critical step forward in climate model improvements.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

106 The Office of Science and NASA also collaborated in a joint effort to measure water vapor in the lower troposphere. Both agencies provided ground-based

instruments, which enabled researchers to compare two sets of data. This research

has led to new algorithms for the instruments that will be used by each agency as

standards for specific measurements. 

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

DoE 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 account for radiation risks. 

In FY 2001, NASA and DoE developed a Memorandum of Agreement

(MoA) to better coordinate their common interests that were pending final

approval at the end of the fiscal year. This close collaboration between NASA and

DoE is to enhance progress in understanding and predicting the effects and health

risks resulting from low-dose radiation. In addition to the MoA, DoE and NASA

jointly sponsored a radiation investigators workshop in FY 2001 that included presentations by representatives of all radiation biology research projects funded by

DoE and NASA. DoE and NASA also issued a joint Request for Applications in

FY 2001 for research that addresses both DoE and NASA needs to understand the

human health effects and risks of exposures to low doses of radiation.

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. The AGS is the

only accelerator in the United States capable of providing heavy ion beams at

energies of interest for space radiobiology. Since the fall of 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 is under construction at the RHIC complex, the Booster Applications Facility. This new user facility, scheduled for

completion in 2003, will be used to more effectively continue NASA’s radiation

biology studies. The Office of Science and NASA continued working together to

expand the range of technical resources available for experimentation and analysis of experimental results at BNL.
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

10

In the computing area, the Office of Science and NASA continued their

collaboration on “Grids,” an innovative way to transfer data among geographically

disbursed computer systems at rates of a gigabyte per second and higher.

Disciplines that are benefiting from Grid technology include multidisciplinary

aerospace system design, high-energy physics data analysis, climate analysis and

prediction, and large-scale remote instrument operation. 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.

Most users of Grids will access Grid services via discipline-specific frameworks that are built from services that use the World Wide Web. The Office of

Science supplied and continued working on various technologies that made Grid

services available in the Web environment. The Office of Science has developed

a range of basic Grid services for reliable movement of terabyte-sized datasets, data

replication, and location management techniques to minimize data access times,

etc. Two Office of Science laboratories, the Lawrence Berkeley National

Laboratory and the Argonne National Laboratory, set up experimental Grids with

NASA's 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 are the central information service for Grids.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

108
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

10

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,

Massachusetts, to form the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).

Here, over 300 scientists engage in a broad program of research in astronomy,

astrophysics, and science education. The Smithsonian National Air and Space

Museum (NASM) in Washington, DC, also contributed to national aerospace

goals through its research and education activities.

SAO continued to operate NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, which

completed its second year of observations in FY 2001 with a series of widely

reported results and discoveries. During FY 2001, Chandra observations led to an

enhanced understanding of black holes. Chandra took the deepest x-ray images

ever and found the early universe likely to be teeming with black holes, probed the

theoretical edge of a black hole known as the “event horizon,” observed the x-ray

afterglows of gamma-ray bursts, and captured the first x-ray flare ever seen from the

massive black hole in the center of the Milky Way. Chandra data also shed light

on the distribution of dark matter by yielding the most accurate estimate to date

of the amount of dark matter in galaxy clusters. In the field of supernova research,

Chandra associated a pulsar with a supernova recorded by Chinese astronomers in

386 AD (only the second pulsar to be associated with a historically observed supernova), and a team of three high school students using x-ray data from Chandra and

radio data from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Large Array

discovered a neutron star within a nearby supernova remnant.
SAO also continued its role as the leader of another NASA satellite, the

Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS), a space telescope used to study

the chemistry and dynamics of the interstellar gas clouds in the Milky Way galaxy.

In FY 2001, SWAS observed massive amounts of water vapor surrounding an aging

giant star about 500 light years from Earth. The SWAS observations provided

the first evidence that extrasolar planetary systems contain water. Scientists

concluded that this water likely comes from a swarm of icy comets surrounding the

star which are gradually being vaporized. This result was the subject of a NASA

Space Science Update news conference held at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.

In FY 2001, using ground-based observations, SAO scientists discovered

high-energy gamma-ray emissions from so-called “extreme” galaxies and created

the first large-scale map of the galactic center using emissions from carbon monoxide molecules at submillimeter wavelengths. They also discovered a young star

repeatedly emitting spheres of gas into space. An international team of

astronomers including a member from SAO discovered dusty disks surrounding

young brown dwarfs in the Orion Nebula, indicating that brown dwarfs probably

form in a manner similar to stars. SAO scientists set new limits on the amount of

material in the outer reaches of the solar system by studying the diffused light from

Kuiper Belt Objects too small to be seen directly. Their data set constraints on theories of planet formation in our solar system.

Solar scientists at SAO continued to study the electrically charged atoms

(ions) that the Sun expels into the solar system via coronal mass ejections. New

observations from SAO’s UltraViolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS) aboard

the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft allowed scientists to:

1) probe physical processes in the explosive coronal mass ejections that can have

a strong impact on Earth’s local space environment, and 2) observe, for the first

time, the properties of the sources of the high-speed solar wind as these sources

reform in conjunction with the Sun’s switch in magnetic polarity. These measurements are coordinated with other SOHO instruments and with the extreme

ultraviolet images from the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer satellite.

UVCS ultraviolet spectra of sungrazing comets indicated that the nuclei of those

comets are in the range of 10–20 meters in diameter. These spectra also provided

unique probes of the density and speed of the solar wind.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

110
The Science Education Department (SED) at CfA continued to host teachers from across the United States at sessions designed to train them in the use of

the department’s many curriculum programs for grades 3–12. SED activities

included the “MicroObservatory Program,” which enables classrooms to control

small telescopes located around the world. Using MicroObservatory, students can

plan observations, take data, and share their results with other schools. SED

worked with a consortium of teachers from across the Nation to develop the “From

the Ground UP!” program—a series of investigations in physical science for

middle and high school students using the MicroObservatory network. 

SED’s Science Media Group produced four television workshops and

documentaries, ranging from a 1-hour special on science and sports to an eightpart workshop exploring the science of force and motion. SED also 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 62,000 schools and 38 million

households. 

SAO continued to offer its popular Observatory Night lectures and telescope observing to the public on a monthly basis. Lectures aimed at general

audiences drew more than 100 people to most events. A new program of monthly

“Sci-Fi Movie Nights” was introduced, offering attendees the chance to learn

about science in a fun way by comparing what Hollywood got right versus what it

got wrong. A CfA scientist introduced each film by discussing the science shown

and the social context in which the film was made. These movie nights, with the

theme “Everything we learned about science, we learned at the movies,” proved

extremely popular, with attendances of up to 100 people, and were frequented by

science and science-fiction enthusiasts of all ages. SAO also continued to offer

“Children’s Night” programs aimed at younger audiences.

Staff of the Center for Earth & Planetary Studies (CEPS) at the National

Air and Space Museum were selected as science team members for the 2005 Mars

Reconnaissance Orbiter. Dr. John Grant is a co-investigator for the HiRISE HighResolution Imager, which will be capable of color and stereo imaging with about

six times higher resolution than any current images of Mars. This imagery will be

crucial for understanding the evolution of Mars and the changing role that water

has played in shaping the surface of the planet. CEPS chairman Dr. Bruce

F iscal Year 2001 Activities

11
Campbell is a member of the science team for the Shallow Subsurface Sounding

Radar. This system will use radio waves to penetrate the upper kilometer of the

Martian crust, map subsurface geologic layering, and search for buried ice and

water deposits. Dr. Campbell was also selected as one of 10 principal investigators

to receive NASA funding for a 6-month concept study of the Mars Scout Radar

instrument proposed for the Mars Scout missions. CEPS staff were further involved

in planetary mission planning through co-chairing the Mars Landing Site

Steering Group, participating in the Mars Exploration Payload Analysis Group,

serving on the Messenger Science Team, and working on numerous other NASA

evaluation groups.

CEPS continued its active research program in planetary and terrestrial

geology and geophysics using remote-sensing data from Earth-orbiting satellites

and manned and unmanned space missions. The scope of research activities

included work on Mercury, Venus, the Moon, and Mars, and corresponding field

studies in terrestrial analog regions. CEPS staff studied a variety of geologic

processes such as volcanism, cratering, tectonics, and sand movement.

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. 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 the museum’s galleries.

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

112
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

11

APPENDICES
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

114

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 00

1992 26 c 0 10

1993 28 c 1 10

1994 31 c 1 10

1995 24 c, d 2 1 0 

1996 30 1 3 0

1997 22 e 0 10

1998 23 0 2 0

1999 35 4 2 0

2000 31 f 0 00

2001 (through September 30, 2001) 16 0 3 0

TOTAL 1,499 153 97 15

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 2001 Activities

11

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 21 1

1972 30 74 1 1

1973 23 86

1974 22 81 2 b 1

1975 27 893123

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 18 23 1 7

(through September 30, 2001)

TOTAL 1,233 3,657 10 8 54 64 1 1 137 11 3

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 

116 APPENDIX B

Successful Launches to Orbit on U.S. Launch Vehicles

October 1, 2000–September 30, 2001

Launch Date Apogee and

Spacecraft Name Perigee (km),

COSPAR Designation Period (min),

Launch Vehicle Mission Objectives Inclination to Equator (°) Remarks

Oct. 9, 2000 Science 637 km

HETE 2* 594 km

2000-61A 97 min

Pegasus 2°

Oct. 11, 2000 ISS Assembly 381 km

STS-92/Discovery 380 km

2000-62A 92 min

Space Shuttle 51.6°

Oct. 20, 2000 Military Orbital Parameters

USA 153 Communications unknown

2000-65A

Atlas 2A

Oct. 21, 2000 Communications Geosynchronous United Arab

Thuraya 1* Emirates satellite

2000-66A

Zenit 3SL/Sea Launch

Nov. 10, 2000 GPS navigation 20,498 km

Navstar 49 (USA 154) 20,177 km

2000-71A 724.3 min

Delta 2 55.1°

Nov. 21, 2000 Earth Science 700 km

EO-1 690 km

2000-75A 98.7 min

Delta 2 98.2°

Nov. 21, 2000 Earth Science 701 km International

SAC-C 682 km mission

2000-75B 98.7 min

Delta 2 98.2°

Nov. 21, 2000 Earth Science 1,794 km Swedish auroral

Munin 693 km research

2000-75C 110 min nanosatellite

Delta 2 95.4°

Nov. 30, 2000 ISS Assembly 365 km

STS-97/Endeavour 352 km

2000-78A 91.7 min

Space Shuttle 51.6°

Dec. 6, 2000 Military Orbital parameters

USA 155 reconnaissance unknown

2000-80A

Atlas 2AS
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

11

APPENDIX B

(Continued)

Successful Launches to Orbit on U.S. Launch Vehicles

October 1, 2000–September 30, 2001

Launch Date Apogee and

Spacecraft Name Perigee (km),

COSPAR Designation Period (min),

Launch Vehicle Mission Objectives Inclination to Equator (°) Remarks

Jan. 30, 2001 GPS navigation 20,390 km

Navstar 50 (USA 156) 158 km

2001-4A 357 min

Delta 2 39.1°

Feb. 7, 2001 ISS assembly 378 km

STS-98/Atlantis 365 km

2001-6A 92 min

Space Shuttle 51.5°

Feb. 7, 2001 ISS module ISS orbital

Destiny module parameters

2001-6B

Space Shuttle

Feb. 27, 2001 Military Geosynchronous

USA 157 communications

2001-9A

Titan 4/Centaur

March 8, 2001 ISS crew and ISS orbital

STS-102/Discovery supplies parameters

2001-10A

Space Shuttle

March 18, 2001 Radio broadcast Geosynchronous Also known as XM

XM 2* satellite Rock

2001-12A

Zenit 3SL/Sea Launch

April 7, 2001 Space Science Interplanetary

Mars Odyssey mission

2001-14A

Delta 2

April 19, 2001 ISS crew and 394 km

STS-100/Endeavour assembly 377 km

2001-16A 92.3 min

Space Shuttle 51.6°

May 8, 2001 Radio broadcast Geosynchronous Also known as XM

XM 1* satellite Roll

2001-18A

Zenit/Sea Launch

May 18, 2001 Military Geosynchronous Reportedly a laser

USA 158 communications communications

2001-20A technology

Delta 2 demonstrator
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

118 APPENDIX B

(Continued)

Successful Launches to Orbit on U.S. Launch Vehicles

October 1, 2000–September 30, 2001

Launch Date Apogee and

Spacecraft Name Perigee (km),

COSPAR Designation Period (min),

Launch Vehicle Mission Objectives Inclination to Equator (°) Remarks

June 19, 2001 Communications 10,216 km British relay

ICO-F2* 10,104 km satellite

2001-26A 351 min

Atlas 2AS 45°

June 30, 2001 Space Science Initial “parking” at Microwave

MAP second Lagrangian Anisotropy Probe

2001-27A point astrophysics

Delta 2 spacecraft

July 12, 2001 ISS assembly 390 km

STS-104/Atlantis 372 km

2001-28A 92.2 min

Space Shuttle 51.6°

July 23, 2001 Weather Geosynchronous

GOES 12

2001-31A

Atlas 2A

Aug. 6, 2001 Military Geosynchronous Defense Support

USA 159 reconnaissance Program (DSP)-21

2001-33A satellite

Titan 4B

Aug. 8, 2001 Space Science Varying parameters

Genesis

2001-34A

Delta 2

Aug. 10, 2001 ISS crew and 402 km

STS-105/Discovery assembly 373 km

2001-35A 92.3 min

Space Shuttle 51.6°

Sept. 8, 2001 Military Orbital parameters

USA 160 reconnaissance unknown

2001-40A

Atlas 2AS/Centaur

Sept. 30, 2001 Science 472 km First launch from

Starshine 3 472 km the Kodiak Launch

2001-43A 94 min Complex in Alaska

Athena-1 67°

Sept. 30, 2001 Science 794 km British-built, U.S.

Picosat 9 794 km DoD-funded

2001-43B 101 min satellite to test

Athena-1 67° electronic

components
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

11

APPENDIX B

(Continued)

Successful Launches to Orbit on U.S. Launch Vehicles

October 1, 1998–September 30, 2001

Launch Date Apogee and

Spacecraft Name Perigee (km),

COSPAR Designation Period (min),

Launch Vehicle Mission Objectives Inclination to Equator (°) Remarks

Sept. 30, 2001 Science 794 km Prototype

PCSat 794 km communications

2001-43C 101 min satellite built by

Athena-1 67° midshipmen at U.S.

Naval Academy as

relay for amateur

radio transmissions

Sept. 30, 2001 Science 794 km DoD-funded

Sapphire 794 km microsatellite built

2001-43D 101 min by Stanford

Athena-1 67° University students

and faculty, with

voice synthesizer

* Commercial launch licensed as such by the Federal Aviation Administration. 

More launch data is available at http://ast.faa.gov/launch_info/launch/history.cfm on the Web.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

120 APPENDIX C

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 2001

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs: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 hrs.

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 hrs.

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, 

10 min.

Aleksey A. Leonov

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 duration 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 hrs.).

Edwin E. 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. 
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

12

APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 2001

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs: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. 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,

Soyuz 7 Oct. 12, 1969 A. V. Filipchenko 4:22:41 including welding and Earth and celestial 

Viktor N. Gorbatko observation.

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 inflight EVA of 38 min., 

12 sec. 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
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

122 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 2001

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs: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 and 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

Anomaly (Soyuz 18A) 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 days, 10 hrs.

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 days, 22 hrs., 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 days, 14 hrs., 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 days, 20 hrs., 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 days, 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.
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

12

APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 2001

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs: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 days, 20 hrs., 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 days, 20 hrs., 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 days, 20 hrs., 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 days. 

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 crew members. 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
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

124 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 2001

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs: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 woman 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 crew members, 

Owen K. Garriott one of whom was West German; first non-U.S. 

Robert A. R. Parker astronaut to fly in U.S. space program 

Byron K. Lichtenberg (Merbold).

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 days. 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 female EVA.

Svetlana Savistskaya

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 crew members, 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
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

12

APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 2001

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs: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 mission.

Atlantis Ronald J. Grabe

(STS 51-J) Robert L. Stewart

David C. Hilmers

William A. Pailes
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

126 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 2001

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs: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 (FRG)

Wubbo J. Ockels (ESA)

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 long-distance stay in space record 

of 326 days.

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, 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. 

Anatoly Solovyev Crew returned Jun. 17 in 

Aleksandr Aleksandrov Soyuz TM-4.

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 Sept. 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 (STS-26) Richard O. Covey

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 

Sergey Krikalev returned with Chrétien, Vladimir Titov, 

Jean-Loup Chrétien and Musa Manarov. Titov and Manarov 

completed 366-day mission Dec. 21. Crew of

Krikalev, Volkov, and Valery Polyakov 

returned Apr. 27, 1989, in Soyuz TM-7.
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

12

APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 2001

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs: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 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 Docked with Mir space station. Crew of 

Aleksandr Serebrov Viktorenko and Serebrov returned in 

Soyuz TM-8, 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 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.
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

128 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 2001

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs: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 175:01:52 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 on board 

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
APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 2001

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs: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

(Kazakh Republic) in the TM-12 spacecraft.

Franz Viehboeck (Austria)

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 (ESA)

Soyuz TM-14 Mar. 17, 1992 Aleksandr Viktorenko 145:15:11 First manned CIS space mission. Docked with 

Aleksandr Kaleri Mir space station Mar. 19. The TM-13 

Klaus-Dietrich Flade capsule with Flade, Aleksandr Volkov, and 

(Germany) Sergei Krikalev returned to Earth Mar. 25. 

Krikalev had been in space 313 days.

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 (France) 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 2001 Activities

12
APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 2001

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs:min)

Space Shuttle Jul. 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 (ESA)

Marsha S. Ivins

Jeffrey A. Hoffman

Franklin R. Chang-Díaz

Franco Malerba (Italy)

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 ten 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 (Germany)

Hans W. Schlegel (Germany)

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 in orbit since

Nancy J. Sherlock August 1992.

Peter J. K. Wisoff

Janice E. Voss

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

130
APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 2001

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs: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 testbed 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 

David A. Wolf and animal subjects.

William S. McArthur

Martin J. Fettman

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 of 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 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 semi-conductor 

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) 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 the 

Jerome Apt Earth and the effects humans have on its

Michael R. Clifford 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 July 3. Both 

Talgat A. Musabayev Malenchenko and Musabayev returned to 

Earth with the Soyuz TM-19 spacecraft, 

landing in Kazakhstan on Nov. 4 together 

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

body in the first of two ESA missions to Mir 

to prepare for the International Space 

Station.

F iscal Year 2001 Activities

13
APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 2001

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs: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 near 

Carl E. Walz weightlessness.

Leroy Chiao

Donald A. Thomas

Chiaki Naito-Mukai (Japan)

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 atmosJ. M. Linenger pheric 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 (ESA) 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 (ESA) 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 International Space 

Janice E. Voss Station. (Shuttle flew close by to Mir.) Main 

Vladimir G. Titov (Russia) 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 

132
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

13

APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 2001

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs: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 (U.S.) 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 one hundredth U.S. 

Atlantis (STS-71) Charles J. Precourt human space flight. Docked with Mir space 

Ellen S. Baker station. Brought up Mir 19 crew (Anatoly Y.

Gregory Harbaugh Solovyev and Nikolai M. Budarin). Returned 

Bonnie J. Dunbar to Earth 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 (ESA) 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 (CSA) 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 (Japan) 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).
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

134 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 2001

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs: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 (ESA) experiments.

Claude Nicollier (ESA)

Franklin R. Chang-Díaz

Umberto Guidoni (ESA)

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 (CSA)

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 (CSA)

Robert B. Thirsk (ESA)

Soyuz TM-24 Aug. 17, 1996 Claudie Andre-Deshays (ESA) * 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***
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

13

APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 2001

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs:min)

Soyuz TM-25 Feb. 10, 1997 Vasily Tsibliev * Soyuz TM-24 returned to Earth on March 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. 
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

136 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 2001

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs: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 February 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 

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 (ESA) Performed biomedical experiments on

Chiaki Mukai (NASDA) 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 (RSA)

Soyuz TM-29 Feb. 20, 1999 Viktor Afanasyev * Soyuz mission to Mir.

Jean-Pierre Haignere (ESA)

Ivan Bella
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

13

APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 2001

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs: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 (RSA)

Ellen Ochoa

Julie Payette (CSA)

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 (CNES) Shuttle mission.

Steven A. Hawley

Catherine G. Coleman

Space Shuttle Dec. 19, 1999 Curtis L. Brown 7:23:11 Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission #3

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 Sept. 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 Shuttle

Discovery (STS-92) Pamela A. Melroy Program 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 1st resident crew (Expedition 1)

Yuri Gidzenko to the ISS.

Sergei Krikalev
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

138 APPENDIX C

(Continued)

U.S. and Russian Human Space Flights

1961–September 30, 2001

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew Flight Time Highlights

(days:hrs:min)

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

Space Shuttle Feb. 7, 2001 Kenneth D. Cockrell 12:21:20 Delivered U.S. Laboratory module Destiny to

Attlantis (STS-98) Mark L. Polansky the ISS.

Robert L. Curbeam

Marsha S. Ivins

Thomas D. Jones

Space Shuttle March 8, 2001 James D. Wetherbee 12:19:49 Delivered Expedition 2 crew to the ISS and

Discovery (STS-102) James M. Kelly returned the Expedition 1 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 April 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 April 28, 2001 Talgat A. Musabaev 7:22:4 Launch of the 1st “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 2 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)

* 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 2001 Activities

13

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

280e

1. Orion 50S Solid 484.9 1.28x8.88

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,

(7920, 7925) 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/ 3.05x9.14

RL10A-3-3A (2) engine

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)

Athena

1. Athena Solid 1450 2.36x19.8 520 245 1995
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

140 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

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 

(5-1/2 segments) [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 2001 Activities

14

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, and

oxidizer from the External Tank. The boosters stage first, with 

d. Inclination of 28.5 ̊ except where indicated. SSME’s 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 wing span.

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 

142 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 Ag 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 31 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 21,76

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 12,941 990 102 571 60 44 207 6 26,708

2001 14,230 13,304 14,326 1,073 145 576 59 49 232 12 28,703

* 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 it 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 2001 Activities

14

APPENDIX E-1B

(Continued)

Space Activities of the U.S. Government

BUDGET AUTHORITY IN MILLIONS OF EQUIVALENT FY 2001 DOLLARS

(adjusted for inflation)

Inflation NASA NASA Total

FY Factors Total Spaceb DoD Otherc DoEd DoC DoI Ag NSFa DoT Space

1959 4.8869 1,618 1,275 2,395 166 166 3,836

1960 4.7940 2,512 2,215 2,689 206 206 5,110

1961 4.7489 4,578 4,397 3,866 323 323 8,586

1962 4.6858 8,552 8,420 6,082 932 694 239 15,435

1963 4.6285 17,000 16,783 7,174 1,190 990 199 25,147

1964 4.5745 23,330 22,946 7,315 974 961 14 31,235

1965 4.5160 23,709 23,203 7,108 1,088 1,034 54 31,400

1966 4.4403 22,978 22,490 7,500 950 830 120 30,940

1967 4.2581 21,146 20,567 7,086 907 783 123 28,559

1968 4.2107 19,315 18,654 8,093 734 611 118 0.8 4 27,480

1969 4.0606 16,206 15,520 8,174 692 479 81 0.8 4 127 24,385

1970 3.8877 14,563 13,790 6,524 548 400 31 4 4 109 20,861

1971 3.6899 12,217 11,442 5,579 598 351 100 7 4 136 17,619

1972 3.5078 11,600 10,772 4,935 468 193 109 21 7 138 16,176

1973 3.3460 11,396 10,349 5,431 493 181 134 33 7 138 16,273

1974 3.1994 9,717 8,827 5,650 506 134 192 29 10 141 14,983

1975 2.9873 9,646 8,708 5,652 471 90 191 24 6 161 14,831

1976 2.7168 9,645 8,762 5,387 457 62 196 27 11 161 14,606

TQ 2.5341 2,362 2,151 1,166 109 13 56 8 3 30 3,426

1977 2.4514 9,359 8,433 5,913 474 54 223 25 15 158 14,820

1978 2.3507 9,544 8,517 6,436 531 80 242 24 19 167 15,484

1979 2.2012 10,117 8,871 6,683 546 130 216 22 18 161 16,100

1980 2.0420 10,700 9,557 7,858 472 82 190 25 29 147 17,886

1981 1.8803 10,376 9,387 9,078 441 77 164 23 30 147 18,905

1982 1.7153 10,367 9,482 11,456 536 105 249 21 26 137 21,475

1983 1.6055 11,038 10,160 14,480 525 63 286 8 32 137 25,165

1984 1.5366 11,460 10,538 15,665 607 52 363 5 29 158 26,810

1985 1.4811 11,217 10,257 18,911 865 50 627 3 22 162 30,032

1986 1.4346 11,200 10,279 20,265 684 50 443 3 33 155 31,227

1987 1.4012 15,305 13,744 22,821 653 67 390 11 27 157 1 37,218

1988 1.3650 12,370 11,360 24,133 1,012 329 480 19 25 157 1 36,504

1989 1.3224 14,506 13,353 23,679 741 128 398 22 28 160 4 37,773

1990 1.2731 15,690 14,590 19,881 644 101 309 39 32 157 5 35,115

1991 1.2265 17,191 16,002 17,394 947 308 308 36 32 259 5 34,342

1992 1.1821 16,925 15,603 17,759 943 264 387 40 34 214 5 34,305

1993 1.1561 16,544 15,103 16,308 845 191 375 38 29 208 5 32,257

1994 1.1276 16,428 14,683 14,845 713 83 352 35 35 202 6 30,242

1995 1.1022 15,270 13,825 11,732 836 66 388 34 35 306 7 26,393

1996 1.0794 14,986 13,567 12,428 894 50 509 39 40 249 6 26,889

1997 1.0590 14,518 13,192 12,419 836 37 474 44 41 232 6 26,447

1998 1.0413 14,212 12,830 12,869 874 107 453 45 41 222 6 26,573

1999 1.0282 14,037 12,810 13,575 1,010 108 591 61 38 206 6 27,394

2000 1.0150 13,804 13,134 12,708 1,071 166 584 61 45 210 6 26,914

2001 1 14,230 13,304 14,326 1,073 145 576 59 49 232 12 28,703
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

144 APPENDIX E-2

(Continued)

Federal Space Activities Budget

(in millions of dollars by fiscal year)

Federal Agencies Budget Authority Budget Outlays

1999 2000 2001 1999 2000 2001

actual actual est. actual actual est.

NASA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12,459 12,521 13,304 12,466 12,427 13,197

Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13,203 12,941 14,326 12,453 13,207 13,046

Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 164 145 103 165 143

Commerce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575 575 576 431 517 519

Interior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 60 59 59 60 59

Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 44 49 37 44 49

Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 6 12 6 6 12

NSF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 207 232 216 207 213

SOURCE: Office of Management and Budget.
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

14

APPENDIX E-3

(Continued)

Federal Aeronautics Budget

(in millions of dollars by fiscal year)

Federal Agencies Budget Authority Budget Outlays

1999 2000 2001 1999 2000 2001

actual actual est. actual actual est.

NASAa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,194 1,060 926 1,217 1,014 867

Defenseb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,532 6,587 6,149 5,913 6,320 6,297

Transportationc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,271 2,201 2,792 2,369 2,243 2,571

a. Research, Development, Construction of Facilities, Research and Program Management

b. Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation of aircraft and related equipment.

c. Federal Aviation Administration: Research, Engineering, and Development; Facilities, Engineering, and Development

SOURCE: Office of Management and Budget.

F iscal Year 2001 Activities

14

A

ACTS Advanced Communications Technology Satellite

ADEOS Advanced Earth Observing Satellite

ADS-B Automated Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast

AEAP Atmospheric Effects of Aviation Project

AGATE Advanced General Aviation Technology Experiment

AMOS Air Force Maui Optical Site

ARS Agricultural Research Service (USDA)

AST Advanced Subsonic Technology (Program)

ASTER Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer

ASTP Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

ATLAS Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science

AVHRR Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

AVIRIS Airborne Visible and Infrared Imaging Spectrometer

AVOSS Advanced Vortex Sensing System

AXAF Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (former name of Chandra X-ray 

Observatory)

B

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

BXA Bureau of Export Administration (DoC)

C

CEOS Committee on Earth Observation Satellites

CIS Commonwealth of Independent States

CITEL Commission on Inter-American Telecommunications

CME Coronal Mass Ejections

CNES Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (France)

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

CSC Commercial Space Center

CSOC Consolidated Space Operations Contract

CT Computerized Tomography

CUE Collaborative Ukrainian Experiment

GLOSSARY AND ACRONYMS
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

148 D

DAAC Distributed Active Archive Center

DARWIN Design Assessment of Reliability With Inspection

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

DoS Department of State

DoT Department of Transportation

DSN Deep Space Network

DSP Defense Support Program

E

EELV Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (program)

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

EOS Earth Observing System—a series of satellites, part of NASA’s Earth 

Science Enterprise, being designed for launch at the end of the 1990’s 

togather data on global change

EPA Environmental Protection Agency 

EPIC Environmental Photographic Interpretation Center (EPA)

ERAST Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (project)

EROS Earth Resources Observation System (USGS)

ERS European Remote-Sensing Satellite

ESE Earth Science Enterprise

ESA European Space Agency

ET External Tank

ETM+ Enhanced Thematic Mapper-Plus (Landsat instrument)

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)

FCC Federal Communications Commission

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 pilot

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
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

with no mechanical backup linkages and providing the 14

pilot 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.

FSA Farm Service Agency (USDA)

FSS Fixed Satellite Service

FWS (U.S.) Fish and Wildlife Service (DoI)

FY Fiscal Year

G

Gamma rays The shortest of electromagnetic radiations, emitted by some 

radioactive substances

GDIN Global Disaster Information Network

Geo-stationary Traveling around the Earth’s equator at an altitude of at least 

35,000 kilometers and at a speed matching that of the Earth’s 

rotation, thereby maintaining a constant relation to points on 

the Earth

Geosynchronous Geostationary

GIS Geographic Information System

GOES Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite

GOIN Global Observation Information Network

GPS Global Positioning System

H

Heliosphere The region of the Sun’s influence, including the Sun and the inter

planetary medium

HST Hubble Space Telescope

Hypersonic Faster than Mach 4; faster than “high speed”

Hyperspectral An instrument capability using many very narrow spectral frequency 

bands (300 or more), enabling a satellite-based passive sensor to 

discriminate specific features or phenomena on the body being 

observed (such as Earth)

I

ICM Interim Control Module

IGEB International GPS Executive Board

IGOS Integrated Global Observing Strategy

IGS International GPS Service for Geodynamics

INM Integrated Noise Model

INMARSAT International Mobile Satellite Organization

InSAR Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar

INSAT Indian Remote Sensing Satellite

Integrated modular avionics Aircraft-unique avionics cabinet that replace multiple black boxes 

with shared common equipment and generic software

INTELSAT International Telecommunications Satellite (Organization)
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

150 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 

short-wave transmissions

IPO Integrated Program Office

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)

K

K-band Radio frequencies in the 20-gigahertz range

Ka-band Radio frequencies in the 30-gigahertz range

KSC Kennedy Space Center

Ku-band Radio frequencies in the 11–12-gigahertz range

L

Landsat Land [remote sensing] Satellite—a series of satellites designed to 

collect information about Earth’s natural resources

Laser Light amplified by simulated 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

LDEF Long-Duration Exposure Facility

LEO Low-Earth Orbit—100 to 350 nautical miles above Earth

LH2 Liquid Hydrogen

LIDAR Light Intersection Direction and Ranging

LOX Liquid Oxygen

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 degrees Fahrenheit 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
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

15

MCC-H Mission Control Center–Houston

MCC-M Mission Control Center–Moscow

MCO Mars Climate Orbiter

MHz Megahertz

MilSatCom Military Satellite Communications

MISR Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer

MMH Monomethyl Hydrazine

MMS Minerals Management Service (DoI)

MODIS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer

MPL Mars Polar Lander

MPLM Multi-Purpose Logistics Module 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)

NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization

NAWQA National Water Quality Assessment

NCAP National Civil Applications Program (USGS)

NDGPS Nationwide Differential GPS

NDOP National Digital Orthoquad Program

NESDIS National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service 

(NOAA)

Neutron Any of a class of extremely dense, compact stars thought to be comstar posed primarily of neutrons; see pulsar

NEXRAD Next Generation Weather Radar

NGS National Geodetic Survey

NGSO Nongeostationary satellite

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

NOx Oxides of nitrogen

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)

NRO National Reconnaissance Office (DoD)

NSC National Security Council

NSF National Science Foundation

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
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

152 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

Order of An amount equal to 10 times a given value; thus if some

magnitude quantity was 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)

OSTP Office of Science and Technology Policy

P

PAMS-STU Passive Aerodynamically Stabilized Magnetically Damped SatelliteSatellite Test Unit

PARCS Primary Atomic Reference Clock in Space

Pathfinder A program that focuses on the 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

PEACESAT Pan-Pacific Education and Communications Experiment by Satellite

PECAD Production Estimates and Crop Assessment Division (FAS)

Photo- The science or art of obtaining reliable measurements by means of 

grammetry photography

PMA Pressurized Mating Adapter

POES Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (program)

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

RADARSAT Canadian Radar Satellite

Ramjet A jet engine with no mechanical compressor, consisting of specially 

shaped tubes or ducts open at both ends, along with the air necessary 
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

15

for combustion being shoved into the duct and compressed by the 

forward motion of the engine

RFID Radio Frequency Identification

RLV Reusable Launch Vehicle

RPA Remotely Piloted Aircraft

RSA Russian Space Agency

RSML Remote Sensing and Modeling Laboratory (ARS) S

SAMRSS Shafter Airborne Multispectral Remote Sensing System

SAO Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

SAR Synthetic Aperture Radar

SBIRS Space Based Infrared System

SBS Satellite Business Systems

Scramjet Supersonic-combustion ramjet

SeaWiFS Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor

SLS Spacelab Life Sciences

SMA Safety and Mission Assurance

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

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

STS Space Transportation System

SWAS Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite T

TATechnology Administration (DoC)

TATPTriacetone triperoxide (terrorist explosive) 

TDRSTracking and Data Relay Satellite

TERRIERSTomographic Experiment using Radiative Recombinative Ionospheric 
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President 

154 EUV and Radio Sources

TOMS Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer

TOPEX Ocean Topography Experiment

TRACE Transition Region and Coronal Explorer

TRACON Terminal Radar Approach Control (system)

TRMM Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission

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

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

USWCL U.S. Water Conservation Laboratory (ARS)

V

VCL Vegetation Canopy Lidar

VHF Very High Frequency—any radio frequency between 30 and 300 

megacycles per second

VLBA Very Large Baseline Array

VLSA Very Large Scale Aerial

W

WAAS Wide Area Augmentation System

Wind shear Variation of wind speed and wind direction with respect to a horizontal 

or vertical plane; powerful but invisible downdrafts 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

WIRE Wide-field Infrared Explorer

WRC World Radiocommunication Conference

WSDDM Weather Support to Deicing Decision Making

WSF Wake Shield Facility

X-Y-Z

X rays Radiations of very short wavelengths, beyond the ultraviolet in the 

spectrum

XRSIM X-ray simulation software
F iscal Year 2001 Activities

15
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal 

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