NP-2014-10-1282-HQ
Aeronautics

and

Space Report

of the 

President

Fiscal Year

2012

Activities
Aeronautics 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, 2011, 

through September 30, 2012. Please note that these 

activities reflect the Federal policies of that time 

and do not include subsequent events or changes 

in policy.
Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

Table of Conten

National Aeronautics and Space Administration 1

• Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate 1

• Science Mission Directorate  .

• Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate 27

• Space Technology Mission Directorate 35

Department of Defense . 

Federal Aviation Administration 49

Department of Commerce 57

Department of the Interior 75

Federal Communications Commission . 

U.S. Department of Agriculture 

National Science Foundation 111

Department of State  . 

Department of Energy  . 

Smithsonian Institution 133

Appendices 139 

• A-1 U.S. Government Spacecraft Recor  1

• A-2 World Record of Space Launches Successful in

Attaining Earth Orbit or Beyond . 

• B Successful Launches to Orbit on U.S. Vehicle  1

• C Human Spaceflights . 

• D-1A Space Activities of the U.S. Government—Historical Table of Budge

Authority in Millions of Real-Year Dollars 144

• D-1B Space Activities of the U.S. Government—Historical Table of Budge

Authority in Millions of Inflation-Adjusted FY 2012 Dollars . 

• D-2 Federal Space Activities Budget . 

• D-3 Federal Aeronautics Activities Budget 147

Acronyms 149

1Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

NASA

Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate

International Space Station

Following the completion of International Space Station (ISS) assembly in 2011, 

the focus of ISS operations transitioned from assembly to utilization in FY 2012. A 

new U.S. commercial cargo vehicle, provided by Space Exploration Technologies 

(SpaceX), conducted its demonstration flight to the ISS during FY 2012.

The ISS began FY 2012 with Expedition 29 crewmembers Sergei Volkov 

(Roscosmos), ISS Commander Mike Fossum (NASA), and Satoshi Furukawa 

(Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency [JAXA]) living on board. A Russian 

Progress cargo vehicle carrying several tons of supplies docked to the ISS on 

November 2, 2011. After launching on a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur 

Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Anton Shkaplerov (Roscosmos), Anatoly Ivanishin 

(Roscosmos), and Dan Burbank (NASA) joined the onboard crew on November 

16, 2011. On November 21, 2011, after a short handover, Volkov, Fossum, and 

Furukawa undocked their Soyuz vehicle from the ISS and landed in Kazakhstan, 

ending Expedition 29.

Expedition 30 began on November 21, 2011. Cosmonauts Shkaplerov, Ivanishin, 

and ISS Commander Burbank remained on board and were joined on December 23, 

2011, by Oleg Kononenko (Roscosmos), Andre Kuipers (European Space Agency 

[ESA]), and Don Pettit (NASA), when a Russian Soyuz vehicle docked to the ISS. 

Shkaplerov and Kononenko conducted a Russian Orlan spacewalk on February 16, 
2Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

2012, to relocate a Strela crane and install the experiment Vynoslivost. Russian 

Progress cargo vehicles carrying several tons of supplies docked to the ISS on 

January 28, 2012, and April 22, 2012. In addition, the ESA Automated Transfer 

Vehicle (ATV3), named Edoardo Amaldi, docked to the Service Module aft port 

on March 28, 2012, also carrying several tons of supplies to the ISS. Expedition 30 

ended on April 27, 2012, when Shkaplerov, Ivanishin, and Burbank undocked their 

Soyuz vehicle from the ISS and returned to Kazakhstan.

Expedition 31 began on April 27, 2012. Cosmonaut and ISS Commander 

Kononenko and astronauts Kuipers and Pettit remained on board and were joined 

on May 17, 2012, by Gennady Padalka (Russia), Sergei Revin (Russia), and Joe 

Acaba (NASA), when a Russian Soyuz vehicle docked to the ISS. On May 25, 

2012, the first U.S. commercial cargo vehicle developed under the Commercial 

Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program arrived at the ISS during its 

demonstration flight. Developed by SpaceX, the Dragon spacecraft was launched 

on a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida on May 22 and completed a series of demonstration objectives prior to its arrival at the ISS. The Dragon vehicle was captured with the ISS robotic arm and berthed to the ISS at the Node 2 nadir port. 

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft stayed six days at the ISS for the demonstration 

flight; departed on May 31, 2012; and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off 

the coast of Baja California, Mexico. Expedition 31 ended on July 1, 2012, when 

Kononenko, Kuipers, and Pettit undocked their Soyuz vehicle from the ISS and 

returned to Kazakhstan.

Expedition 32 began on July 1, 2012. Cosmonauts Padalka (ISS Commander) 

and Revin and astronaut Acaba remained on board and were joined on July 17, 

2012, by Suni Williams (NASA), Yuri Malenchenko (Roscosmos), and Aki 

Hoshide (JAXA) when a Russian Soyuz vehicle docked to the ISS. On July 27, 

2012, the JAXA HII Transfer Vehicle (HTV3), carrying several tons of supplies, 

was berthed to the Node 2 nadir port. A Russian Progress cargo vehicle carrying 

several tons of supplies docked to the ISS on August 2, 2012. Malenchenko and 

Padalka conducted a Russian Orlan spacewalk on August 20, 2012, to relocate 

the Strela cargo boom, deploy the Sphera satellite, and install five micrometeoroid 

shields on the Russian Service Module. The Biorisk experiment container was 

also retrieved, and support struts were installed on the Docking Compartment’s 
3Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

spacewalk ladder. Hoshide and Williams conducted U.S. Extravehicular Mobility 

Unit (EMU) spacewalks on August 30, 2012, and September 5, 2012, to replace a 

faulty Main Bus Switching Unit (MBSU) in the ISS electrical power system, route 

power cables for the Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM), and replace 

a video camera on the ISS robotic arm. Expedition 32 ended on September 17, 

2012, when Padalka, Revin, and Acaba undocked their Soyuz vehicle from the 

ISS and returned to Kazakhstan. This also marked the beginning of Expedition 33 

with astronaut Suni Williams as the ISS Commander.

Research and technology development was conducted on the ISS throughout 

FY 2012. The crew time devoted to research increased significantly following the 

completion of ISS assembly in 2011. Crewmembers continued the checkout of 

Robonaut, a dexterous humanoid robot that has been on the ISS since February 

2011, and performed the first operations of the Robotic Refueling Mission to 

demonstrate satellite servicing capabilities for legacy satellites using the Special 

Purpose Dexterous Manipulator and specially designed tools and taskboards.

The crew continued to study the long-term effects of microgravity on ISS crewmembers, including cardiac function, bone loss, immune function, nutrition, and 

brain function. The Space Communications and Navigation Testbed was delivered 

on HTV3 to investigate reprogrammable software-defined radio technology during 

space missions. A series of operational investigations began during Expedition 31 to 

prepare for communication delays of up to tens of minutes on future long-duration 

exploration missions. These initial investigations used routine ISS activities as a 

test bed to demonstrate crew autonomous operations. 

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle physics detector continued to search 

for antimatter, dark matter, and cosmic rays to better understand the universe. 

Crewmembers activated a series of NanoRacks experiments brought up on the 

SpaceX Dragon vehicle and conducted the YouTube Space Lab contest for 14- to 

18-year-old students in the areas of physics and biology. The new aquatic habitat for 

multigenerational research on small freshwater medaka and zebrafish was delivered 

on HTV3. In addition, the ISS program cohosted the 1st Annual ISS Research & 

Development Conference in June 2012 to introduce the public to scientific research 

and technology development on the ISS.
4Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

Space Life and Physical Sciences Research and Applications

Human Research Program

Long-term exposure to microgravity and the spaceflight environment causes 

changes in the anatomical structure and function of the eye for the majority of 

astronauts. These changes can include degraded vision, flattening of the globe, 

swelling of the optic disc, choroidal folds, and cotton-wool spots. Some astronauts 

also exhibit elevated intracranial pressure—an increase in the pressure of the fluid 

that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. Some of these changes in vision and 

pressure persist even after returning to Earth. Concerns about the long-term effects 

of these changes have heightened efforts to quickly characterize the health risk and 

the cause of this syndrome. NASA has assembled an expert team from clinical and 

research communities involved with the systems responsible: the cardiovascular 

system, the ocular system, and the central nervous system. The team and syndrome 

are named Visual Impairment/Intracranial Pressure (VIIP), as elevated intracranial 

pressure is the leading hypothesis to explain the changes. The VIIP team compiled an evidence report containing the results of an exhaustive literature review 

and mining of NASA’s astronaut health database. With the help of the Human 

Research Program (HRP) Science Management Office, a Wiki-based version of the 

VIIP Evidence Report is now available to the public for expanded collaboration. 

The link to the VIIP Wiki site is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VIIP.

The On-Line Tool for the Assessment of Radiation in Space (OLTARIS) is a 

Web-based set of tools and models that allow engineers and scientists to evaluate and optimize protection from space radiation for human or electronic systems 

such as spacecraft, spacesuits, rovers, habitats, and instruments. During FY 2012, 

significant upgrades were made to OLTARIS that greatly enhanced the analysis 

fidelity. First, vehicles can now be analyzed with a bidirectional, ray-by-ray transport method utilizing up to 100 different materials, in any order. This capability 

provides significant improvement for a detailed look at mature spacecraft designs 

in which components and materials have typically been defined in a master equipment list. Previous methods relied on interpolation-based estimates using three or 

four materials commonly defined as equivalent aluminum, polyethylene, regolith, 

or tissue, combined together in a fixed order. Users can now upload their own 
5Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

vehicle trajectories and then analyze missions, either as an averaged environment 

over the entire trajectory to compute mission totals or at every point along the 

trajectory for a detailed response versus time history. Models, methods, and limitations have been independently verified and validated and are fully documented 

with online access. The tool set is configuration-managed and makes a current 

change log available to users. OLTARIS is capable of supporting commercial space 

partners and Advanced Exploration Systems habitat and space vehicle design 

teams to assess and mitigate radiation exposures. The Web site may be found at 

https://oltaris.larc.nasa.gov/.

Eating enough calories and exercising in space may help protect astronauts’ bones 

and help solve one of the key problems facing future explorers heading beyond lowEarth orbit. This finding was published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. 

The Nutritional Status Assessment project evaluated the mineral density of specific 

bones as well as the entire skeleton of astronauts who consumed sufficient calories 

and used the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED). The ARED was added to 

the ISS in 2006 and can produce resistance of as much as 600 pounds in microgravity, allowing astronauts to “lift weights” in weightlessness. The researchers found 

that astronauts using the ARED returned to Earth with more lean muscle and less 

fat and maintained their whole-body and regional bone mineral density at about the 

same levels as when they launched. Crewmembers using the ARED also consumed 

sufficient calories and vitamin D, among other nutrients. These nutrients support 

bone health and likely contributed to the results. Normal, healthy bone constantly 

breaks down and renews itself—a process called remodeling. Earlier studies of 

Russian Mir space station residents found an increased rate of bone breakdown, 

but little change in the rate of regrowth, so that an overall loss in bone density 

resulted. The new study, which examined crewmembers who ate well or used the 

ARED, found that bone breakdown still increased. However, bone formation also 

tended to increase, likely resulting in the maintenance of bone mineral density. The 

increase in both breakdown and formation suggests that the bone was being remodeled, but a key question remains as to whether this remodeled bone was as strong 

as the bone before flight. Additional studies to evaluate bone strength before and 

after flight are currently under way. Besides answering the bone strength question, 

further study is required to determine the best combination of exercise and diet for 
6Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

long-duration crews. Dietary effects on bone are currently being studied on the ISS. 

In one experiment, researchers are evaluating the effect on bone health of different 

ratios of animal protein and potassium in the diet. In another, they are looking at 

the benefits of lowering sodium intake and studying its effect on bone.

ISS Research—Space Biology and Physical Sciences

The National Research Council’s recent report, titled “Recapturing a Future for 

Space Exploration: Life and Physical Sciences,” called on NASA to “reinvigorate 

its partnership with the life and physical sciences research community.” NASA 

has taken several important steps in response. After nearly a decade of uncertainty 

about the future of animal research in space, NASA has reinitiated firm plans to 

conduct basic biological research with rodents on the ISS. The first flight of the 

new rodent research effort is planned for FY 2014. NASA has also reestablished its 

program in atomic physics, with a new payload in development that is projected to 

create the coldest conventional matter in the universe (not at the center of a black 

hole) aboard the ISS by 2017.

Exploration Systems Development

Within the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD), 

Exploration Systems Development (ESD) is continuing NASA’s exploration efforts, 

which include the Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift launch 

vehicle, and Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) infrastructure required to conduct crewed missions of exploration into deep space, such as a proposed mission 

to send astronauts to a redirected asteroid that would be inserted into a stable 

orbit around the moon. Orion and SLS fit well within a broader U.S. Government 

launch strategy of procuring commercial launches of crew and cargo to the ISS 

while concentrating NASA’s development efforts on exploration missions beyond 

Earth orbit. SLS and Orion are fundamental building blocks in a capability-based 

architecture designed for long-term human exploration of our solar system, particularly the goal of landing humans on Mars. Both Orion and SLS are being designed 

to support multiple missions and destinations rather than being optimized for one 

particular mission or architecture. The capabilities being developed will open a 
7Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

broad range of exciting destinations for human exploration in the solar system. 

NASA’s approach to expanding the human presence farther into the solar system 

includes sending humans to an asteroid in the next decade and eventually sending 

humans to Mars.

In 2012, NASA successfully completed an integrated Systems Requirements 

Review (SRR) in February for the full-up Orion, SLS, and ground systems capabilities. This milestone demonstrated that the requirements for the integrated 

programs meet the Agency’s goals and provide a sound basis for the individual 

development of Orion, SLS, and ground systems. ESD directs cross-program 

integration to ensure that Orion, SLS, and the ground systems capabilities meet 

the needs of the Agency’s long-term human exploration objectives, function as 

planned, and remain within the tight cost and schedule constraints. Guidelines 

were established for programmatic management and development; roles, responsibilities, and accountability were identified for each of the programs; and processes 

for integration and configuration management, risk management, and program 

performance reporting were established. ESD has also implemented procedures for 

decision making, as well as cost and schedule management; defined program deliverables; and completed the first phases of the NASA program management process.

ESD is progressing toward the integrated System Definition Review (SDR) in the 

third quarter of 2012, as the associated flow-down processes are properly performed 

and the programs are properly integrated to meet the needs of the human exploration framework. The status of the integrated system will be reviewed and assessed 

at periodic checkpoints as ESD proceeds through development and operations.

Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle

Orion’s shape resembles its Apollo-era predecessors, but its technology and capabilities are far more advanced. The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) 

features dozens of technology innovations that have been incorporated into the 

spacecraft’s subsystem and component design. To support our exploration missions, the Orion teams at Johnson Space Center (JSC) and at Lockheed Martin 

are developing state-of-the-art life-support, propulsion, thermal protection, and 

avionics systems. Building upon the best of U.S. human spaceflight design and 

experience, the Orion spacecraft includes both crew and service modules, as well 
8Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

as a launch abort system that will significantly increase crew safety. Our computer 

modeling scenarios are now so accurate that we have been able to forgo more 

expensive ground tests in some cases. We expect this trend to continue whenever 

possible without sacrificing safety.

The program delivered the first flight test crew module structure to Kennedy 

Space Center (KSC) for assembly and integration in July 2011. All planned engineering test activities were accomplished throughout FY 2012. The results confirmed our models and informed our design analysis cycles in support of the Systems 

Requirements Review and Systems Definition Review in May and June 2012.

Space Launch System

The SLS Program, managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) 

with the Boeing, Alliant Techsystems (ATK), and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne 

industry partners, is developing the heavy-lift vehicle that will launch the Orion 

spacecraft and cargo for NASA’s exploration missions. The SLS vehicle family will 

start with a lift capability of 70 metric tons (t) to low-Earth orbit (LEO), with the 

ability of evolving up to 130 t based on future mission requirements. The SLS is 

designed with one overarching purpose: to explore beyond Earth orbit with ambitious mass and propulsion requirements. The initial 70-t configuration will consist 

of an 8.4-meter-diameter core stage, building on Space Shuttle and Ares experience 

and powered by four RS-25D liquid-hydrogen/liquid-oxygen engines that formerly 

powered the Space Shuttle orbiter, and will build on the U.S. state-of-the-art capabilities in liquid propulsion. The core stage is being designed for use on future configurations of the SLS with the diameter, materials, and manufacturing processes 

remaining the same as the vehicle performance evolves. In this configuration, two 

five-segment solid rocket boosters (SRBs)—a more powerful version of the foursegment boosters used on the Space Shuttle—will be attached to the core stage 

for the initial boost phase of flight. For the first two missions of SLS, an Interim 

Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) will be used to propel the Orion spacecraft 

from LEO. NASA has chosen Boeing’s Delta IV upper stage as the ICPS for the 

first two flights. Contract negotiations are in progress.

The SLS NASA-industry team has successfully completed the SRR and the 

SDR, and it has gained Agency-level approval to proceed to the Preliminary Design 
9Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

Review. The NASA/Boeing Core Stage element has successfully completed its 

SRR and SDR. Manufacturing process development has proceeded to support the 

core stage and vehicle design efforts. NASA has initiated activities to prepare the 

B-2 test stand at Stennis Space Center (SSC) for Core Stage testing that will be 

performed prior to shipment to KSC for a launch scheduled in December 2017. 

The Core Stage element is on the critical path for the SLS, and all hands are on 

deck to achieve the schedule. The initial segments for the first of two solid booster 

Qualification Motor tests have been poured at ATK. The 15 RS-25D liquid-hydrogen/

liquid-oxygen engines have been delivered to SSC from KSC in preparation for installation and testing on the Core Stage.

SLS is also an integral part of the Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) planned 

for December 2014. SLS is responsible for designing and developing the structure 

adapter to attach the Orion spacecraft to the launch vehicle. The Block 1, 70-t 

vehicle will prove out the new Core Stage and integrated stack for the initial 

exploration missions and can support scientific payloads with requirements beyond 

commercial lift capabilities. Mission analysis has shown that the Block 1A, 105-t 

vehicle will provide significant mission capture capabilities for the next set of 

human missions beyond LEO. A 130-t Block 2 vehicle is also being designed consistent with congressional direction and would be used for full-capability asteroid 

missions and, ultimately, missions to Mars.

Exploration Ground Systems

The Exploration Ground Systems effort has also been making significant progress since September 2011. The KSC and SLS teams are working very closely to 

define and develop the necessary interfaces for the launch vehicle. In a similar 

manner, KSC has been working with the Orion program on the necessary prelaunch processing to be performed. Based upon the SLS and Orion needs, KSC 

has proceeded through the Systems Requirements and Systems Definition Reviews. 

KSC is also providing valuable operations expertise to the SLS and Orion teams to 

address operational issues in the design in order to help reduce eventual production 

and operations costs. In terms of infrastructure and hardware, KSC has completed 

the first phase of the mobile launcher construction. Refurbishment and upgrades 

to a crawler-transporter are being performed at a pace to support the December 
10Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

2017 flight of SLS and Orion. These upgrades are needed due to the increased mass 

of the SLS/Orion integrated stack compared to the Space Shuttle configuration. 

Work has begun on the Vehicle Assembly Building and the platforms in High 

Bay 3 to support SLS. Launch Complex 39-B has been prepared for the SLS/Orion 

mobile launcher with the Space Shuttle hardware removed, lightning towers in 

place, and the needed refurbishment to the pad infrastructure.

Commercial Crew Development

During 2012, NASA signed Space Act Agreements (SAAs) with three companies to advance multiple integrated transportation systems, which could ultimately 

transport humans to low-Earth orbit. This effort is called Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap).

NASA’s CCiCap partners are Sierra Nevada Corporation, Louisville, Colorado; 

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), Hawthorne, California; and the Boeing 

Company, Houston, Texas.

NASA’s partners will perform tests and mature integrated designs. This will 

then set the stage for a future activity that will launch crewed orbital demonstration missions to low-Earth orbit by the middle of the decade.

Additionally, NASA took the next step in its plan to launch American 

astronauts from U.S. soil, selecting three companies to conduct activities under 

Certification Products Contracts (CPCs) that will enable the future certification of 

commercial spacecraft as safe to carry humans to the International Space Station.

CPC contractors are the Boeing Company, Houston, Texas; Sierra Nevada 

Corporation Space Systems, Louisville, Colorado; and SpaceX, Hawthorne, California.

These companies will work with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) to 

discuss and develop products to implement the Agency’s flight safety and performance requirements. This includes implementation across all aspects of the space 

system, including the spacecraft, launch vehicle, and ground and mission operations.

Commercial partners continued to make progress maturing their respective 

commercial crew transportation systems and completing technical, programmatic, 

and financial milestones.
11Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

Launch Services

The first launch for the Launch Services Program (LSP) in FY 2012 was the 

National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) 

Preparatory Project (NPP) mission launching on a United Launch Services (ULS) 

Delta II launch vehicle on October 28, 2011. Also aboard this launch vehicle were 

five CubeSats from four universities in Alabama, Michigan, Montana, and Utah. 

The LSP then went on to achieve a 100 percent success rate by conducting three 

additional launches of NASA missions during FY 2012. LSP launched NASA’s Mars 

Science Laboratory (MSL) toward the Red Planet aboard an Atlas V on November 

26 and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) spacecraft into lowEarth orbit on June 13. The Radiation Belt Storm Probe (RBSP) mission, the first 

twin-spacecraft mission designed to explore our planet’s radiation belts, launched 

aboard an Atlas V on August 30, 2012. Additionally, LSP continued to provide 

launch-related systems engineering, launch integration, and mission design and 

analysis support to approximately 35 NASA-sponsored missions in various phases of 

development. To find out more about these and other NASA science missions, see 

the Science Mission Directorate section in this report.

LSP is working to expand the selection of launch vehicles and support the 

continued growth of the U.S. commercial space sector by providing competitive 

opportunities to U.S. commercial launch providers. In FY 2012, LSP signed the New 

Entrant Launch Vehicle Certification Strategy with the United States Air Force and 

the National Reconnaissance Office. This provides a coordinated certification strategy for new entrant launch vehicle certification and is intended to further enable 

competition and provide a consistent path for new entrants to compete for U.S. 

Government missions. On May 14, 2012, the SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle 

was added to the NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract. Orbital Sciences 

Corporation’s (OSC’s) Antares 120 and 130 model launch vehicles were added to 

NLS II on June 26, 2012. Launch Service Task Orders (LSTOs) for six missions 

were awarded in FY 2012, including the Geostationary Operational Environmental 

Satellites (GOES)-R and -S missions awarded to ULS Atlas V launch vehicles on 

April 5. This was followed on July 16 by a multi-mission launch service award of the 

Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO)-2, the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), 

and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS)-1. ULS received the contract to launch 
12Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

OCO-2 on a Delta II launch vehicle after the termination of the OCO-2 Taurus XL 

LSTO on February 2, 2012. ULS also received the contracts to launch the SMAP 

and JPSS-1 missions on Delta II launch vehicles. On the very same day, SpaceX 

received an LSTO to launch the Jason-3 mission on a Falcon 9 launch vehicle.

Lastly, LSP was active with its support to the Taurus XL T9 Mishap Investigation 

Board (MIB) that reviewed the cause of the March 4, 2011, launch failure of OSC’s 

Taurus XL launch vehicle. By the end of FY 2012, the MIB had completed its 

review and the NASA Glory MIB report was finalized.

Human Spaceflight Capabilities

The most notable test activity in FY 2012 was that of the J-2X engine, the first 

human-rated liquid-oxygen and liquid-hydrogen rocket engine to be developed in 

40 years. The J-2X upper stage engine is vital to achieving full launch capability 

of the heavy-lift SLS, a critical component of NASA’s deep space exploration program, currently under development. Additional testing was performed in support 

of NASA development projects, including a liquid-oxygen (LOX)/liquid-methane 

engine that could one day carry cargo to the moon.

The Orbital Sciences Corporation and Aerojet conducted several test firings of 

the AJ26 engine to clear the engines for use on the Antares first stage. These firings 

represented the final engine testing prior to shipping to Wallops Flight Facility and 

integrating on test and flight launch vehicles. The engines will enable COTS test 

and demonstration flights, as well as upcoming ISS resupply missions.

NASA Advanced Exploration Systems developed a small lander test bed called 

Morpheus to demonstrate autonomous precision landing and LOX-methane propulsion—two key technologies for landing on the moon or Mars. These landing 

systems will improve safety by detecting hazards such as rocks and craters in the 

landing zone and automatically maneuvering the lander to avoid them. LOXmethane propulsion systems may be used on Mars missions since crew could produce propellants for the trip home from the Martian atmosphere.

In support of the Space Shuttle’s transition and retirement, the Rocket 

Propulsion Test (RPT) Program Office conducted final preparations for decontamination, cleanup, and removal of hypergolic propellant at JSC’s White Sands Test 
13Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

Facility (WSTF) prior to shipping the vehicles to their final display destinations 

in Virginia and Los Angeles. Removing the hypergolic propellants was necessary 

because the propellant is highly corrosive and poses a health hazard.

By the conclusion of FY 2012, the RPT program had safely performed over 118 

tests, clocked over 300,000 seconds of test time, and neared 10,000 seconds of hot 

fire at various levels of thrust capacity.

Space Communications and Navigation

In FY 2012, the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program Office 

focused on the critical sustainability and development of the ground and space 

components of the networks that provide space communications for NASA’s missions. The three networks—the Near Earth Network (NEN), the Space Network 

(SN) Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS), and the Deep Space 

Network (DSN)—continued to meet the space communications needs, such as 

Earth monitoring and support of deep space science missions, of a wide range of 

customers, both internal and external to NASA.

In FY 2012, SCaN maintained at least 99 percent proficiency of all of its networks, providing communication and navigation services to approximately 35 

spacecraft using the DSN, approximately 30 spacecraft using the Space Network, 

and approximately 30 spacecraft using the Near Earth Network. The Near Earth 

Network also provided communication and navigation services to approximately 

25 launches during launch and early orbit phases.

The DSN is an international network of antennas that supports interplanetary 

spacecraft missions and radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration 

of the solar system and the universe. The network also supports selected Earthorbiting missions. The SN consists of a space segment, composed of TDRSS, and 

a ground segment, which includes the White Sands Complex in New Mexico and 

the Guam Remote Ground Terminal. Data from the satellites and the International 

Space Station is downlinked to the ground segment. The NEN provides tracking, 

telemetry, and communications services, using antenna assets located around the 

world, for orbital missions and occasionally suborbital missions.

SCaN completed some key milestones during FY 2012. The SCaN Program 

System Engineering team continued to make progress toward an architecture 
14Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

design for an integrated network. The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS)-K 

spacecraft successfully completed its Pre-Ship Review, and the TDRS-L spacecraft 

successfully completed thermal testing. A contract for the TDRS-M spacecraft 

was signed. The Space Network Ground Segment Sustainment Project successfully completed its Preliminary Design Review. The Merritt Island Launch Area 

tracking station, which had provided tracking services since the Apollo era, was 

successfully closed after the Shuttle program ended. The Deep Space Network 

Aperture Enhancement Project successfully completed its system-level Preliminary 

Design Review. The Lunar Laser Communication Demonstrator Project completed 

its Pre-Environmental Review. The SCaN Program also completed phase 1 of its 

Disruption Tolerant Networking Project and a novel concept of arraying the TDRS 

signals. The Communications, Navigation, and Networking reConfigurable Testbed 

(CoNNeCT) successfully launched on HTV3 to mate with the ISS. It is now called 

SCaN Test Bed. The Standards activity completed the Consultative Committee for 

Space Data Systems (CCSDS) Blue Book (the recommended standard) for Internet 

protocols for space links. The Spectrum Management Program was successful in its 

studies in protecting Global Positioning System (GPS) frequencies from introducing 

incompatible commercial mobile services in adjacent frequencies. NASA’s analyses were submitted to the national regulators (the National Telecommunications 

and Information Administration and the Federal Communications Commission) 

to support the U.S. decision on this issue. The CCSDS is a major international 

organization that develops internationally agreed-upon and interoperable space 

communications standards that enable joint international missions and reduce 

cost and risk to space missions. The MSL Earth communications systems are using 

the CCSDS internationally agreed-upon space data communications standards 

to enable reliable transmission of data directly to Earth or through the European 

Space Agency’s Mars Express Orbiter, which relays data to and from Earth.

Advanced Exploration Systems

The Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Program is pioneering new

approaches for high-priority capabilities needed for human exploration through 

rapidly developing prototype systems, demonstrating key capabilities in flight, and 

validating operational concepts.
15Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

In FY 2012, the AES Division executed 20 projects and achieved 49 of 56 major 

project milestones. These milestones included the following:

• The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) developed by the AES 

Program for the Mars Science Laboratory mission obtained the first radiation measurements from the surface of Mars. These measurements will 

improve our understanding of the risks to future human explorers.

• A crew of four simulated an asteroid exploration mission in a 12-day 

underwater test. The crew tested various methods for exploring the surface of a low-gravity asteroid and demonstrated mission operations with 

a communications time delay. On deep space missions, the communications time delay becomes too long for real-time mission control from the 

ground. Consequently, the crew must perform mission control functions 

such as planning and scheduling on their own.

• A prototype suit port was demonstrated in vacuum chamber tests. A suit 

port is an interface between a spacesuit and a crew habitat or vehicle. It 

allows an astronaut to quickly enter or exit the spacesuit without requiring an airlock. Suit ports will reduce the time needed to prepare for 

extravehicular activity, and they will be incorporated into the design of 

advanced spacesuits.

• NASA and the Canadian Space Agency tested a prototype lunar ice prospecting experiment in Hawaii. Propellants and oxygen produced from ice 

in the lunar soil could reduce the amount of consumables launched from 

Earth to support human missions.

• Ground-based radar is a low-cost way to image many asteroids that pass 

close to Earth, eliminating the need to send expensive robotic spacecraft 

to the asteroids in advance of human missions to gather critical data. The 

Goldstone radar imaged 16 near-Earth asteroids to determine their size, 

shape, and spin rate. Several of these asteroids could be candidates for 

human missions.

• The Human Spaceflight Architecture Team completed two full design 

analysis cycles that scoped key performance capabilities and mission 

requirements, with the results extensively briefed to NASA leadership, 

the NASA Advisory Council, the White House, Congress, industry, and 
16Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

the public. The team completed a major study analysis of near-term mission options and a key report to Congress. The results drove SLS/MPCV 

architecture decisions, prioritized technology investment planning, and 

allowed comprehensive roadmaps for beyond-LEO capability development 

requirements to achieve national mission objectives with a “capabilitydriven architecture” approach for future human exploration.

• AES continued mission planning and preparatory analysis of all known 

near-Earth asteroid targets for potential human exploration and robotic 

precursor missions, including key test mission refinement.

• AES hosted four world-class Blue Sky innovation forums, supported four 

analog activities, and held two Exploration Community Workshop events 

to bring innovative ideas into human spaceflight activities, including the 

creation of the Voyages document, which further detailed the strategy 

outlined in the Capability Driven Framework.

Science Mission Directorate

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) conducts scientific exploration 

enabled by the use of space observatories and space probes that view Earth from 

space, observe and visit other bodies in the solar system, and peer out into our 

galaxy and beyond. From space, in space, and about space, NASA’s science vision 

encompasses questions as practical as hurricane formation, as enticing as the prospect of lunar resources, and as profound as the origin of the universe. SMD seeks 

answers to significant questions that touch us all: How and why are Earth’s climate 

and environment changing? How and why does the sun vary and affect Earth and 

the rest of the solar system? What are the impacts on humanity? How do planets 

and life originate? What are the characteristics of planetary systems orbiting other 

stars, and do they harbor life? Are we alone?

SMD has five program divisions: Astrophysics, Earth Science, Heliophysics, 

Planetary Science, and the Joint Agency Satellite Division (JASD). SMD also has 

a James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) program office. In FY 2012, SMD successfully launched four new space and Earth science missions designed to improve our 

understanding of solar processes, Earth system change, the nature of the universe, 
17Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

and the history of the solar system. SMD lays the intellectual foundation for the 

robotic and human expeditions of the future while meeting today’s needs for scientific information to address national issues such as climate change, space weather, 

and education.

Astrophysics Division

The science goals of the Astrophysics Division are breathtaking: we seek to 

understand the universe and our place in it. We are starting to investigate the very 

moment of the creation of the universe and are close to learning the full history 

of stars and galaxies. We are discovering how planetary systems form and how 

environments hospitable for life develop. Further, we will search for the signature 

of life on other worlds, perhaps to learn that we are not alone.

On December 12, 2011, astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope 

announced that they had seen further back in time than ever before and uncovered 

a previously unseen population of seven primitive galaxies that formed more than 

13 billion years ago, when the universe was less than 3 percent of its present age. 

The greater depth of the new Hubble images, together with a carefully designed 

survey strategy, permitted this work to go further than previous studies. Notably, 

one of the galaxies might be a distance record breaker, observed just 380 million 

years after the Big Bang. The universe is estimated to be 13.8 billion years old.

Researchers on NASA’s Kepler mission announced on December 20, 2011, that 

they had discovered the first Earth-sized planets orbiting a sunlike star outside 

our solar system. The planets, called Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, were too close to 

their star to be in the so-called habitable zone where liquid water could exist on a 

planet’s surface, but they were the smallest exoplanets ever confirmed around a star 

like our sun. The discovery marked the next important milestone in the ultimate 

search for planets like Earth.

On March 20, 2012, it was announced that studies using x-ray and ultraviolet 

observations from NASA’s Swift satellite were providing new insights into the 

elusive origins of an important class of exploding star called Type 1a supernovae. 

Astronomers have known for decades that Type 1a supernovae originate with a 

remnant star called a white dwarf, which detonates when pushed to a critical mass. 
18Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

The environment that sets the stage for the explosion, however, has been harder 

to pin down. These new studies suggest that the companion to the white dwarf is 

either a smaller, younger star similar to our sun or another white dwarf.

Scientists using NASA’s Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Observatory announced on 

April 2, 2012, that observations of dwarf galaxies had provided new insights on 

dark matter. While scientists still do not know what makes up the mysterious dark 

matter thought to dominate the universe, a study using Fermi data to examine 

dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way Galaxy has chipped away at the possibilities, 

offering intriguing hints about the nature of dark matter. Dark matter constitutes 

about 80 percent of the matter in our universe. By studying numerous dwarf galaxies—satellite systems that orbit our own Milky Way Galaxy—Fermi scientists 

have produced some of the strongest limits yet on the nature of the hypothetical 

particles suspected of making up dark matter.

On May 2, 2012, astronomers announced they had gathered the most direct evidence yet of a supermassive black hole shredding a star that wandered too close. 

NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), a space-based observatory, and the 

Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS1) telescope on the summit of Haleakala, Hawaii, were among the first to help identify 

the stellar remains. The scientists believe that the star’s hydrogen-filled envelope 

surrounding the core was lifted off a long time ago by the same black hole. The star 

may have been near the end of its life. After consuming most of its hydrogen fuel, 

it had probably ballooned in size and become a red giant. Astronomers think the 

bloated star was looping around the black hole in a highly elliptical orbit. On one of 

its close approaches, the star was stripped of its puffed-up atmosphere by the black 

hole’s powerful gravity. The stellar remains continued their journey around the center, until they ventured even closer to the black hole to face their ultimate demise.

Researchers from NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission 

announced on August 29, 2012, that they had found a bonanza of supermassive 

black holes and extreme galaxies called hot dust-obscured galaxies, or hot DOGs. 

Images from WISE have revealed millions of dusty black hole candidates across the 

universe and about 1,000 even dustier objects thought to be among the brightest 

galaxies ever found. These findings are helping astronomers better understand how 

galaxies and the behemoth black holes at their centers grow and evolve together. 
19Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

For example, the giant black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, called 

Sagittarius A*, has 4 million times the mass of our sun and has gone through 

periodic feeding frenzies where material falls toward the black hole, heats up, and 

irradiates its surroundings. Bigger central black holes, up to a billion times the mass 

of our sun, may even shut down star formation in galaxies. These extreme objects 

can pour out more than 100 trillion times as much light as our sun.

Earth Science Division

Earth is a complex, dynamic system we do not yet fully understand. The Earth 

system, like the human body, comprises diverse components that interact in complex ways. We need to understand Earth’s atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, 

cryosphere, and biosphere as a single, connected system. The purpose of NASA’s 

Earth Science program is to develop a scientific understanding of Earth’s system 

and its response to natural or human-induced changes, as well as to improve the 

prediction of climate, weather, and natural hazards.

On October 28, 2011, NASA successfully launched the Suomi National Polarorbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) spacecraft aboard a United Launch Alliance 

rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to begin its Earth observation mission. Suomi NPP continues to collect the quality data records from NASA’s 

Earth Observing System (EOS) observations. It also serves as a demonstration and 

risk-reduction mission for the forthcoming series of Joint Polar Satellite System 

(JPSS) satellites and represents a critical first step in building this next-generation 

weather satellite system. Suomi NPP carries five science instruments and is the first 

satellite mission to address the challenge of acquiring a wide range of land, ocean, 

and atmospheric measurements for Earth system science while simultaneously 

addressing operational requirements for weather forecasting. Suomi NPP enables 

the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to continue issuing accurate forecasts and providing advance warning for severe weather, such as 

deadly tornado outbreaks, blistering heat waves, floods, snowfall, and wildfires.

NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites celebrated their 10-year anniversary on March 17, 2012. Making precise measurements 

of Earth’s gravity field while traveling as a pair in orbit, the GRACE satellites 
20Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

revolutionized several scientific fields and provided precise information about what 

is happening to the world’s water and ice; they also served as the scientific pathfinder for NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission. 

Launched on March 17, 2002, the twin GRACE spacecraft work together by using 

a microwave ranging system to measure differences in their separation as small as a 

hundredth of the thickness of a human hair. Using a high-quality GPS, the spacecraft relayed variations in separation along with their location down to earthbound 

tracking stations. GRACE satellites’ measurements of extremely small temporal 

variations in Earth’s gravity field have resulted in a 10- to 100-fold improvement in 

geoid (a model of Earth’s gravity field) precision and the ability to detect changes 

in groundwater with astounding accuracy. Measurements of ocean bottom pressure 

surprised oceanographers, and GRACE profiled the global water vapor content of 

Earth’s atmosphere. It was GRACE that determined that ice loss from the high 

Asian mountain ranges was only 4 billion tons a year, compared to the 50 billion 

tons estimated using ground-based instrumentation.

In April 2012, a study using measurements from NASA’s Ice, Cloud, and land 

Elevation Satellite (ICESat) revealed that warm ocean currents attacking the 

underside of ice shelves were the dominant cause of recent ice loss from Antarctica. 

An international team of scientists used a combination of satellite measurements 

and models to differentiate between the two known causes of melting ice shelves: 

1) warm ocean currents thawing the underbelly of the floating extensions of ice 

sheets and 2) warm air melting them from above. The researchers concluded that 

warm ocean currents melted 20 of the 54 ice shelves studied. Most of these were in 

West Antarctica, where inland glaciers flowing down to the coast and feeding into 

these thinning ice shelves accelerated, draining more ice into the sea and contributing to sea-level rise. This ocean-driven thinning was responsible for the most 

widespread and rapid ice losses in West Antarctica and the majority of Antarctic 

ice sheet loss during the period studied. The finding brought scientists a step closer 

to providing reliable projections of future sea level rise.
21Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

Heliophysics Division

Understanding the sun, heliosphere, and planetary environments as a single 

connected system is an important goal of the Heliophysics Division. We live in 

the extended atmosphere of an active star; while sunlight enables and sustains life, 

the sun’s variability produces streams of high-energy particles and radiation that 

can harm life or alter its evolution. In addition to solar processes, the heliophysics domain of study includes the interaction of solar plasma and radiation with 

Earth, the other planets, and the galaxy. By analyzing the connections between 

the sun, solar wind, planetary space environments, and our place in the galaxy, we 

are uncovering the fundamental physical processes that occur throughout the universe. Understanding the connections between the sun and its planets will allow 

us to predict the impacts of solar variability on humans, technological systems, and 

the presence of life itself.

On December 14, 2011, the Heliophysics solar fleet observed Comet Lovejoy as 

it survived its encounter with the sun. The comet graced the southern sky of Earth 

after it unexpectedly survived a close encounter with the sun. This bright comet was 

also seen from the ISS in another stunning time-lapse sequence on December 21, 

2011. Observations of Lovejoy’s close call with the sun have helped researchers 

improve models used to describe the irregular nature of coronal magnetism.

NASA announced on January 31, 2012, that its Interstellar Boundary Explorer 

(IBEX) spacecraft had captured the best and most complete glimpse yet of what 

lies beyond the heliosphere—observations that showed that our solar system is 

different from the space right outside it. These new measurements yield clues about 

how and where our solar system formed, about the forces that physically shape our 

solar system, and about the history of other stars in the Milky Way. The IBEX 

spacecraft observes four distinct chemical elements: hydrogen, oxygen, neon, and 

helium. IBEX determined the distribution of these elements, outside the solar 

system, that are flowing as charged and neutral particles, which stream through 

the galaxy. IBEX also measured the interstellar wind traveling at a slower speed 

than previously measured by the Ulysses spacecraft and from a different direction. 

The improved measurements from IBEX showed a 20 percent difference in how 

much pressure the interstellar wind exerts on our heliosphere. The pressures on 
22Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

our heliosphere from the material in the local interstellar medium and from the 

galactic magnetic fields determine its size and shape.

In July 2012, an unprecedented alignment among NASA’s Time History of 

Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) probes, JAXA’s 

Geotail satellite, and two of NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental 

Satellites in the night side of Earth’s vast magnetic environment captured data that 

yielded comprehensive details of an energy-intensive process that forms the aurora, 

called a substorm. Their results showed that small events unfolding over the course 

of a millisecond can result in energy flows that last up to half an hour and cover 

an area 10 times larger than Earth. These flows ultimately power Earth’s auroras, 

heat the plasma inside Earth’s magnetic field, and energize the Van Allen radiation 

belts. Understanding the details of each step in the process is crucial for scientists 

to achieve their goal of someday predicting the onset and intensity of the dynamic 

variations of near-Earth space.

A massive cloud of solar material erupted off the sun’s right side on July 23, 2012, 

zooming out into space and passing one of NASA’s Solar TErrestrial RElations 

Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft along the way. Using the STEREO data, scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center clocked this giant cloud, known as a 

coronal mass ejection (CME), traveling between 1,800 and 2,200 miles per second 

as it left the sun. This was the fastest CME ever observed by STEREO, which, 

since its launch in 2006, has helped make CME speed measurements much more 

precisely, enabling us to better understand what causes these great explosions and 

to improve models of the sun’s effects near Earth.

On August 30, 2012, NASA successfully launched the Radiation Belt Storm 

Probes into space; the renamed Van Allen Probes were released from the rocket’s 

Centaur upper stage one at a time and sent off into different orbits, kicking off 

the two-year mission to study Earth’s radiation belts. The scientific successes for 

the Van Allen Probes began almost immediately after launch, starting with a discovery made by the Relativistic Electron Proton Telescope (REPT) instrument on 

September 1, 2012: a new, third radiation belt formed at the interior of the outer 

belt. The new belt was destroyed four weeks later by another solar storm—another 

unprecedented observation. Just a few days later, on September 5, 2012, members of the Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument Suite and Integrated Science 
23Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

(EMFISIS) team of the Van Allen Probes mission made an audio recording of 

radio waves in the belts, at a frequency audible to humans, known as “chorus.” 

While scientists have known about chorus since the 1950s, these new, high-quality 

recordings became known as “the sounds of space” and drew a great deal of interest 

around the world. Chorus is caused by plasma waves in the belts and is suspected 

to be related to the process that accelerates electrons to speeds that can harm 

spacecraft and astronauts.

Planetary Science Division

The observation and discovery of our solar system’s planetary objects is one of 

the oldest of scientific pursuits. With an exploration strategy based on progressing 

from flybys, to orbiting, to landing, to roving, and finally to returning samples from 

planetary bodies, the Planetary Science Division advances the scientific understanding of the solar system in extraordinary ways while pushing the limits of 

spacecraft and robotic engineering design and operations. Since the 1960s, NASA 

has broadened its reach with increasingly sophisticated missions launched to a host 

of nearby planets, moons, comets, and asteroids.

NASA successfully launched the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity 

rover into space on November 26, 2011. Curiosity carried the most advanced payload of scientific gear ever used on Mars’s surface, a payload more than 10 times as 

massive as those of earlier Mars rovers. Curiosity inherited many design elements 

from NASA’s twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, launched in 

2003, including a six-wheeled drive, a rocker-bogie suspension system, and cameras 

mounted on a mast to help the mission’s team on Earth select exploration targets 

and driving routes. Unlike earlier rovers, Curiosity carries equipment to gather 

samples of rocks and soil, process them, and distribute them to on-board test chambers inside analytical instruments. The U.S. Department of Energy radioisotope 

power generator provides electrical power to Curiosity; this safe and long-lived 

power supply gives the mission an operating lifespan on Mars’s surface of a full 

Mars year (687 Earth days) or more.

Curiosity landed successfully on the floor of Mars’s Gale Crater in August 2012. 

Curiosity landed in a riverbed that held key chemical ingredients in the bedrock 
24Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

indicating that ancient Mars could have supported microbial life. Almost immediately, Curiosity sent back pictures of its landing site at Gale Crater with the 

eventual destination of Mount Sharp in the background. Since then, Curiosity 

has checked out its 10 science instruments, sent back detailed photos and weather 

observations, and “tasted” Martian soil. Key mission findings during the first three 

months after the landing included conglomerate rocks bearing rounded pebbles as 

evidence of vigorous ancient stream flow right in the area where Curiosity landed; 

mineral composition of Martian soil similar to soils in Hawaii that contain volcanic glass; and the first assessment of the natural radiation environment that future 

astronauts will encounter on the surface of Mars. In addition, the landing technology for putting such a large payload safely on the Martian surface could help with 

plans for future human Mars missions. Curiosity’s successful and historic landing 

was a worldwide phenomenon; during the Curiosity landing, NASA’s Web site 

received 15 million visits and sent out 36 million Webcast streams of NASA TV, 

breaking records that had just been set during the Venus transit (4.2 million Web 

site visits, 7.7 million Webcast streams).

NASA’s twin GRAIL spacecraft entered lunar orbit on December 31, 2011, and 

on January 1, 2012, respectively. The twin spacecraft flew around the moon in 

tandem, working together to map the lunar gravity field in unprecedented detail 

to deduce information about the structure, density, and composition of the lunar 

interior. The lunar insertion maneuvers placed the spacecraft into a near-polar, 

elliptical orbit with an orbital period of approximately 11.5 hours. During GRAIL’s 

science mission, the two spacecraft transmitted radio signals precisely defining the 

distance between them. As the two probes flew over areas of greater or lesser gravity caused by visible features such as mountains and craters, as well as masses hidden beneath the lunar surface, the distance between the two spacecraft changed 

slightly. Each spacecraft carried a set of cameras called Moon Knowledge Acquired 

by Middle school students (MoonKAM), marking the first time a NASA Planetary 

Science Division mission carried instruments expressly for an education and public 

outreach project. The GRAIL spacecraft have given us the best gravity map of the 

moon thus far.

On June 5, 2012, people across 159 countries witnessed the last transit of Venus 

across the sun in our lifetime. The culmination of a two-year planning effort by 
25Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

NASA SMD’s Education and Public Outreach teams involved over 7 million people 

watching the transit through NASA’s online services and an estimated 1 billion 

people watching it worldwide through a variety of means. Over 10,000 astronomy 

clubs and science museums hosted Venus transit–related events. NASA transmitted real-time events from India, the United Kingdom, and six U.S. locations. The 

Agency used this opportunity to educate viewers on the scientific importance of 

planetary transits (especially in finding exoplanets), the historical importance of the 

transit in the calculation of the astronomical unit (distance from Earth to sun), and 

the technological importance of how technology has changed from transit to transit. 

(Transits occur only about every 105 years.)

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft escaped from the gentle gravitational grip of the giant 

asteroid Vesta on September 5, 2012. Dawn left Vesta on its way to its second 

destination, the dwarf planet Ceres. The Dawn spacecraft was built to help scientists understand the conditions and processes acting at the solar system’s earliest 

epoch on two complementary bodies—Vesta and Ceres. Also, Dawn’s scientific 

drivers included 1) capturing the earliest moments in the origin of the solar system, enabling us to understand the conditions under which these objects formed; 

2) determining the nature of the building blocks from which the terrestrial planets 

formed, improving our understanding of this formation; and 3) contrasting the formation and evolution of two small planets that followed very different evolutionary 

paths so that we could understand what controls that evolution. From July 2011 to 

September 2012, Dawn comprehensively mapped this previously uncharted world, 

revealing an exotic and diverse planetary building block. The findings helped 

scientists unlock some of the secrets of how the solar system, including our own 

Earth, formed. Dawn’s journey in time to help us understand the conditions at 

the formation of the solar system provided context for the understanding of the 

observation of the extrasolar-planetary systems. Additionally, Dawn provided data 

on the role of size and water in planetary evolution and formed a bridge between 

the exploration of the rocky inner solar system and the icy outer solar system.

James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be a large (with a 6.5-meterdiameter mirror), infrared-optimized telescope designed to study and answer 
26Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

fundamental astrophysical questions ranging from the formation and structure of 

the universe to the origin of planetary systems and the origins of life. A scientific 

successor to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the Spitzer Space Telescope, 

the JWST observatory will be used by international teams of astronomers to 

conduct imaging and spectroscopic observations in the wavelength range of 0.6–

27 microns. The mission of the JWST project is to develop, launch, and operate 

a state-of-the-art observatory for use by the international astronomy community 

substantially to advance our understanding of the origin and destiny of the universe; the creation and evolution of the first stars and galaxies to form after the Big 

Bang; the formation of stars and planetary systems within the Milky Way Galaxy; 

and characteristics of planetary systems, including our own.

The center section of the backplane structure that will fly on JWST was completed on April 24, 2012, marking an important milestone in JWST’s hardware 

development. The backplane will support the telescope’s beryllium mirrors, instruments, thermal control systems, and other hardware. The center section will hold 

JWST’s 18-segment, 21-foot-diameter primary mirror nearly motionless while the 

telescope peers into deep space. The center section of the backplane also meets 

unprecedented thermal stability requirements. The backplane maintains the alignment of the telescope’s optics through the rigors of launch and over a wide range 

of operating temperatures, which reach as cold as –406 degrees Fahrenheit. The 

JWST Program Office, located at NASA Headquarters, manages JWST.

Joint Agency Satellite Division

The Joint Agency Satellite Division (JASD) efficiently manages NASA’s fully 

reimbursable satellite and instrument development program, which includes 

NOAA-funded missions. JASD offers the Federal agencies a single interface for 

planning, development, and management of their satellite projects.

Since its inception in 2010, JASD has consistently delivered to NASA’s partner 

agencies and the science community. For example, the Suomi National Polarorbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) was the first system completed and launched 

under JASD management. After a successful launch in October 2011 and checkout 

in March 2012, NASA transferred operational control of Suomi NPP to NOAA. A 
27Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

top priority for JASD is to ensure that Suomi NPP continues to operate optimally 

and is able to overlap with the planned follow-on polar orbiting weather satellite, JPSS. To that end, NASA and NOAA will continue to collaborate during 

the mission’s five-year prime operations phase to ensure that the agencies’ shared 

objectives are being met. The system’s value is already apparent; Suomi NPP data 

are publicly available and are being used by the National Weather Service for 

weather forecasting.

On September 17, 2012, a European meteorological satellite soared into space 

with five environmental instruments aboard that were developed by the NASA 

Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) Project. These instruments were developed under a reimbursable agreement with NOAA. The five 

NASA-developed instruments included the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit 

(AMSU)-A1 and AMSU-A2, the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer 

(AVHRR), the High-resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS), and the Space 

Environment Monitor (SEM). These NASA-developed instruments continue to 

gather data that include remotely sensed vertical profiles of atmospheric temperature and moisture, as well as visible and infrared imagery of cloud cover and surface 

conditions such as vegetation, snow, and ice. The National Weather Service uses 

the data to develop the short-, medium-, and long-range weather forecast models.

Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

A key enabler for American commerce and mobility, U.S. commercial aviation 

is vital to the Nation’s economic well-being. NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission 

Directorate (ARMD) focuses on the most appropriate cutting-edge research and 

technologies to overcome a wide range of aeronautics challenges for America’s current and future transportation system. As demands on the aviation transportation 

system grow, NASA is discovering ways to improve aviation safety and air traffic 

and reduce fuel consumption, noise, and emissions.
28Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

Aviation Safety Program

NASA developed and tested an analysis tool that can automatically review 

large-scale software systems for errors without needing to run the software. This 

capability is part of an ongoing NASA research effort to reduce the time and cost 

associated with ensuring the safety of complex, flight-critical systems. NASA’s tool 

reduced the analysis time from the 3 to 4 hours typical of a currently available 

commercial product down to several minutes. The NASA tool also achieved a 

false-positive rate of 5 percent or less.

NASA also advanced its data-mining algorithms that look for anomalous events, 

occurring across thousands of flights, that can represent precursors to aviation 

safety incidents. In a validation test, the latest algorithm successfully predicted the 

occurrence of known safety events with at least 10 percent more lead time than 

prior methods. Earlier recognition can be a good indicator of an algorithm’s ability to reliably identify a wide range of potential safety concerns. These tests were 

done on real flight datasets of at least 10 terabytes. NASA provided the capabilities 

to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Aviation Safety Information 

Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) system, and multiple airlines.

In addition, NASA completed a Concept of Operations for an Integrated 

Vehicle Health Assurance System. In this concept, NASA provides its research 

approach for monitoring the health of aircraft systems during in-flight and postflight analyses and then using that knowledge to confidently predict system malfunctions before they occur. The concept integrates ground-based inspection and 

repair information with in-flight measurement data for airframe, propulsion, and 

avionics subsystems. This approach may eventually enable airline maintenance 

practices to rely more on the actual system health of an individual aircraft and less 

on fleet-wide reliability averages.

Finally, NASA completed a first-generation engine icing simulation code that 

predicts the adverse effects on engine performance due to high ice water content 

icing. Aircraft flying through high-altitude thunderstorms encounter high concentrations of ice crystals. Under certain conditions, these ice crystals may cause ice 

to form inside a jet engine in a way that can degrade its performance, potentially 

leading to engine power loss. To better understand the hazards of high-altitude 
29Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

icing, NASA modeled the conditions an engine would encounter throughout a 

hypothetical flight. NASA’s model incorporated the effects of ice accumulation, 

melting, and sublimation (conversion from solid to gaseous state) into a basic jet 

engine performance computer simulation. A study used the model to estimate the 

risk of engine icing in ice crystal conditions and the effect of the blockage on 

engine performance. Results showed that ice particle size is an important factor 

affecting engine icing. The distribution of ice particle sizes in clouds is currently 

unknown and is of high interest to NASA and its U.S. and international partners. Working with partners, NASA is conducting studies that further explore the 

atmospheric conditions leading to ice crystal icing and the effects of that icing on 

engine performance. Results from these studies will help aircraft remain clear of 

hazardous icing conditions and make aircraft engines more resilient if those conditions do occur.

Airspace Systems Program

Results of NASA’s research to define and validate the Efficient Descent Advisor 

(EDA) concept were officially transferred in FY 2012 to the FAA for further evaluation and potential operational use. The EDA concept helps air traffic controllers 

allow airliners of all sizes to more efficiently descend from cruising altitude to arrive 

at an airport using less engine power while maintaining a safe distance from other 

aircraft. As a result, airlines save money on fuel, fewer emissions are released into 

the atmosphere, and air traffic controller workload is reduced (since automation is 

added to the process). In fact, NASA simulations showed potential annual savings 

of $300 million in fuel.

NASA also successfully simulated airport operations using an integrated set of 

software that better manages scheduling and spacing of aircraft in congested terminal airspace. The technologies, which include Automatic Dependent SurveillanceBroadcast (ADS-B), a satellite-based aircraft tracking technology, produced more 

precise aircraft spacing, allowing for increased arrival rates and operational cost 

savings. The simulation was conducted with active FAA controllers, airline pilots, 

and datasets from Dallas/Fort Worth and Los Angeles airports. In addition, NASA 

successfully demonstrated safe interval management procedures to a single airport 
30Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

with dependent parallel runways utilizing NextGen flight-deck technologies. 

Benefits analysis indicates that these technologies have the potential to save several percent of total operational fuel costs due to more efficient arrivals. Although 

dependent on the level of aircraft equipage, annual systemwide savings are estimated at between $200 million and $300 million. Results from these simulations 

are being used to refine the plans for a future technology demonstration.

NASA developed and tested a new decision-support system called Dynamic 

Weather Routing that automatically finds alternative routes that help airlines 

save time and fuel for en route aircraft. The biggest cause of airline flight delays is 

hazardous weather. Flight routes are based on predicted weather and established 

prior to aircraft departure. Because weather patterns and severity change over 

time, flight routes often become congested and inefficient, which results in delays, 

wasted fuel, and sometimes hazardous conditions for aircraft and travelers. Air 

traffic controllers currently lack automation tools to generate new routes that save 

time and fuel once the aircraft are airborne. Laboratory simulations and field tests 

of NASA’s new Dynamic Weather Routing technology conducted with a U.S. air 

carrier have shown potential average savings in time of 10 minutes or in operating 

cost of $1,000 to $1,700 per flight impacted by severe weather.

In addition, NASA developed weather translation models that provided an 

estimate of the weather’s impact (e.g., high surface winds, low visibility) on an 

airport’s capacity for 1 to 8 hours in the future over a 15-minute interval. These 

models incorporated forecasts from three state-of-the-art, airport-centric weather 

forecasts from the National Weather Service. Two of the models on average were 

able to predict the weather-impacted Airport Arrival Rate (AAR) at two representative airports over a 1- to 8-hour look-ahead time horizon within 10 to 15 

percent of the actual weather-impacted AAR. The third model was able to estimate the weather-impacted AAR over a 1-hour look-ahead time horizon within 

5 percent of the actual weather-impacted AAR at three representative airports. 

This improvement in use of weather predictions will provide a substantial increase 

in airport arrival throughput.
31Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

Fundamental Aeronautics Program

NASA completed analyses of ground-based tests that characterized the emissions of hydro-treated renewable jet (HRJ) fuel, which is an alternative aviation 

fuel. The results showed that HRJ fuels and their blends had substantially reduced 

particulate emissions (characterized by small particles of solids and liquids), minor 

effects on gaseous emissions, and no measurable adverse effect on engine performance. These data are important to industry and other government agencies, such 

as the FAA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to help ensure that 

aircraft can safely and efficiently utilize alternative fuels.

In order to realize significant improvements in efficiency and reductions in the 

environmental impact of aviation, it may be necessary to develop new aircraft 

designs that have little resemblance to today’s tube-and-wing aircraft. NASA 

completed wind tunnel testing of a new concept that was very different from a 

tube-and-wing and demonstrated its reduced noise potential and improved short 

takeoff and landing performance. Results from this test will be used to improve 

computational tools for a number of advanced aircraft configurations.

NASA also made advances in making air travel even more flexible and convenient. It is highly desirable to make modern helicopters quieter and more efficient so that they can safely carry more people and cargo and be more effective 

in conducting current missions and new missions, such as increased delivery and 

transportation. To support these improved capabilities, NASA made significant 

advances in rotary wing propulsion systems that included new types of engine compressors and new transmissions. Also, to make rotorcraft more efficient, NASA 

demonstrated advances in computational modeling for rotorcraft fuselage drag 

reduction systems. People are always looking to spend less time traveling and more 

time at their destinations. One way to help achieve this desire is faster air transportation. Although the noise associated with sonic booms has always been a limiting 

factor, this may change due to NASA research. NASA successfully completed wind 

tunnel tests that validated the computational tools developed for designing and 

shaping supersonic aircraft to produce quieter sonic booms. As part of its efforts 

to understand how much sonic boom noise must be reduced to allow unrestricted 
32Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

overland flight, NASA conducted the first tests in a new facility for simulating 

sonic boom noise as heard indoors.

The new computational design tools under development can greatly decrease 

the time needed for designing air vehicles and allow industry to explore new configurations. NASA completed the first generation of the Integrated Design and 

Engineering Analysis (IDEA) software, which enables the rapid and automated 

conceptual design of a hypersonic air-breathing vehicle. Because of this new tool, 

the time to conduct a vehicle design and analysis was reduced from 3 months (with 

today’s methods) to less than 24 hours with the fully automated IDEA software 

tool. Another software tool was used to calculate the airflow through the scramjet 

engine of a hypersonic air-breathing vehicle, which was then compared with real 

flight data obtained from an Air Force flight. This comparison helps refine and 

improve the software, which is used to design scramjet engines.

NASA studied hypersonic planetary physics by obtaining unique Martian atmospheric pressures, heat shield temperatures, and heat shield recession data (loss of 

mass due to the ablation of the heat shield) from the instrumentation installed on 

the Mars Science Laboratory carrying the Curiosity rover. These highly unique 

data are being analyzed by researchers at NASA and universities in order to inform 

all future Mars landing missions and to enable reduced vehicle mass or a larger, 

more capable scientific payload.

Integrated Systems Research Program

Throughout the initial phase (FY 2010–FY 2012) of the Environmentally 

Responsible Aviation (ERA) project, a variety of tests and associated analyses were 

conducted with the goal of maturing promising technologies that would simultaneously reduce transport aircraft fuel burn, noise, and emissions. Through these tests, 

environmentally friendly aircraft technologies were validated for performance and 

matured to the point that they could be tested together and in relevant environments. Through a series of reviews and assessments conducted in FY 2012, NASA 

selected eight large-scale, integrated technology demonstrations to advance ERA 

research based on the potential benefit of the technologies to meet project goals, 

as well as the associated costs and risks. The integrated technology demonstrations 
33Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

build on work performed during the initial phase of the project and will focus on 

five areas: aircraft drag reduction through innovative flow-control concepts; weight 

reduction from advanced composite materials; fuel and noise reduction from 

advanced Ultra High Bypass (UHB) engines; emissions reduction from advanced 

engine combustors; and fuel consumption and community noise reduction through 

innovative airframe and engine integration designs. This integrated, relevantenvironment testing is the focus of the second phase of the ERA project, which 

began in FY 2013.

Based on data obtained during extensive ground test campaigns, NASA completed an assessment of two types of highly fuel-efficient jet engine concepts by 

comparing their performance in reducing the rate of fuel consumption and noise. 

One of the systems, referred to as Open Rotor, does not encase the engine fan 

blades in an engine housing as is typical in traditional jet engine designs. The 

second system, referred to as a UHB Turbofan, is a much more fuel-efficient version 

of the aircraft engine commonly used by airlines today. Research has validated that 

both engine concepts have the potential to dramatically reduce fuel burn. The 

Open Rotor shows greater potential for fuel burn reduction (–36 percent vs. –27 

percent), but at the price of a diminished noise-reduction benefit when compared to 

the UHB concept (–13 decibels [dB] vs. –24 dB). These results provide data to the 

aviation industry and regulatory community to help them make informed decisions 

on future aircraft propulsion systems, with a continual emphasis on reducing their 

impact on the environment.

NASA also conducted the final analysis of test data (in partnership with the 

FAA and the Boeing Company) for a Pultruded Rod Stitched Efficient Unitized 

Structure (PRSEUS) curved panel, which successfully demonstrated the viability 

of this integrally stitched composite technology concept for conventional commercial aircraft fuselage structures. The excellent performance of this concept shows 

promise in enhancing the structural integrity of aircraft while reducing overall 

structural weight.

As part of a collaborative effort with the FAA Technical Center, NASA conducted a flight test of a large (Ikhana MQ-9) unmanned aircraft equipped with 

ADS-B. This demonstration was a critical step in the development of a Live 

Virtual Constructive-Distributive Environment (LVC-DE), an innovative way 
34Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

to safely immerse a flying unmanned aircraft in the National Airspace System 

(NAS) through virtual techniques. The LVC-DE will provide the backbone for 

future flight tests (scheduled in FY 2015 and FY 2016) to validate the concepts 

and procedures developed by the project. In support of these flight tests, a comprehensive plan was developed that addresses, in an integrated manner, a number of 

the challenges whose resolution is vital for safe unmanned aircraft system (UAS) 

operations in the NAS. This plan also outlined the specific test objectives and 

concepts of operations for the LVC-DE flight tests that will integrate remotely operated unmanned aircraft with simulated air traffic to evaluate these technologies in 

a relevant environment.

Aeronautics Test Program

NASA’s Aeronautics Test Program annually evaluates, in coordination with 

the Department of Defense (DOD), the status of its assets to ensure that tactical 

maintenance and repairs are considered from a national point of view relative to 

long-term requirements and risks. In doing so, the program ensures the availability of a critical suite of aeronautical test facilities that are capable of supporting 

the research, development, testing, and evaluation goals and objectives for NASA 

and the Nation. Facility condition assessments were completed in FY 2012, which 

provided data to inform strategic investment decisions and to identify and address 

critical maintenance issues. NASA will continue to mitigate operational risks 

through periodic condition assessments and sound tactical and strategic investments to ensure a portfolio that is ready for those who need to test and validate.

NASA successfully executed more than 10,000 hours of ground testing and 

approximately 800 hours of flight testing for NASA and the Nation, achieving 

high overall customer satisfaction ratings and excellent facility availability and 

performance. Ground test examples include operations in Glenn Research Center’s 

(GRC’s) 9×15-Foot Low Speed Wind Tunnel for low-speed aerodynamic, aeromechanical, and aeroacoustic testing of a series of second-generation, counter-rotating 

(open rotor) blade sets to determine the efficiency and noise characteristics for 

advanced UHB engine applications. Flight test examples include a project titled 

Waveform and Sonic Boom Perception and Response (WSPR) at Dryden Flight 
35Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

Research Center (DFRC), which involved gathering first-ever qualitative data from 

supersonic flights of sonic boom impact and acceptability from a select group of 

more than 100 volunteer Edwards Air Force Base residents.

NASA also continued to address critical shortfalls identified in the 2012 National 

Aeronautics Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation Infrastructure Plan 

through efforts directed toward engine icing research at the Propulsion Simulation 

Laboratory at GRC and acoustic measurement at the 14×22-Foot Tunnel at Langley 

Research Center. Investments in test technology included advanced facility electronic systems required to meet modern research testing requirements and targeted 

investments in wind tunnel force measurement systems.

In addition, NASA completed a project to modify an existing G-III subsonic 

research aircraft testbed at DFRC, which will result in new experimental test 

capability to assess emerging flight technologies. One of the first intended uses of 

the aircraft is to enable NASA to explore and mature alternative unconventional 

aircraft designs with the potential to simultaneously meet research goals for community noise, fuel burn, and nitrogen oxides emissions.

Space Technology Mission Directorate

Space Technology enabled a new class of missions in FY 2012 by drawing on talent from the NASA workforce, academia, small businesses, and the broader space 

enterprise to deliver innovative solutions that dramatically improve technological 

capabilities for NASA and the Nation. A critical component to advancing our 

future in space is the rapid development and infusion of new technologies and 

capabilities; NASA is fueling an emerging aerospace economy and collaborating 

on the space technology needs of other Government agencies and the overall aerospace enterprise. NASA supports these objectives and contributes to the demands 

of larger national technology goals by investing in space technology.

In FY 2012, the Space Technology Program supported the Chief Technologist, 

who coordinates the Agency’s overall technology portfolio to identify development 

needs, ensure synergy, and reduce duplication.1

 By coordinating these efforts, along 

1. The Space Technology Mission Directorate did not exist officially until February 21, 2013. The 

Space Technology Program reported to the Chief Technologist.
36Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

with other technology programs within NASA, the Chief Technologist facilitates 

the integration of available and new technology into operational systems that support specific human-exploration missions, science missions, and aeronautics. The 

Space Technology Mission Directorate was established to focus on the development of crosscutting, advanced, and pioneering new technologies.

In FY 2012, Space Technology successfully demonstrated the feasibility of inflatable heat shields through the launch of the Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment-3 

(IRVE-3) from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Such heat shields offer the 

opportunity to significantly increase the landing mass and landing accuracy for 

future missions to other planets, such as Mars, and to provide significantly greater 

capability for return payloads to Earth.

Marking another FY 2012 accomplishment, the Mars Curiosity rover mission 

was successful with the MSL Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrument (MEDLI) 

on board. MEDLI streamed real-time atmospheric and heating data from sensors 

embedded within the vehicle’s heat shield. Data from MEDLI will help engineers 

design safer, more efficient entry systems for future missions. MEDLI was joined 

on the trip to Mars by technologies from six Small Business Innovation Research 

companies, each with their own role to enhance Curiosity’s primary mission.

Space Technology also involved universities and academic institutions in its 

development objectives through more than 350 fellowships, direct competitive 

awards, and partnerships between academia and NASA Centers and industry 

partners for its technology developments and demonstrations.
37Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

DOD

Aeronautics Activities

Fixed-Wing Vehicles

The Air Force continued flight testing the F-35 Lightning II. Tests during 

FY 2012 expanded the aircraft’s flight envelope and demonstrated night refueling 

and external weapons testing. The F-35A conventional takeoff and landing variant began its operational utility evaluation in September. The F-35B short takeoff/

vertical landing variant completed its first night landing on an aircraft carrier in 

October 2011 aboard the USS Wasp. The F-35B also completed flight testing with 

asymmetric weapons loads.

The final F-22 stealth fighter rolled off the production line and was delivered 

to the Air Force in May 2012. This ended the production of F-22s. A total of 195 

aircraft were built.

The Air Force began the live-fire test and evaluation (LFT&E) in-flight program 

for the KC-46A next-generation aerial refueling tanker. The LFT&E program is a 

comprehensive evaluation of the aircraft’s system-level vulnerabilities to threats 

expected in combat. The program includes live-fire tests, modeling, simulation, 

and analysis. Results of the LFT&E program are used by the Air Force and the 

Director of Operational Test and Evaluation to make independent assessments of 

the readiness of the aircraft to enter service. The KC-46A design is based on the 

767-200 platform.
38Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

Rotorcraft

The Army Aviation Missile Research Development and Engineering Center 

initiated the Multi-Role Rotor (MRR) program. The MRR program will develop 

and demonstrate active rotor technologies that improve hover and helicopter cruise 

performance and efficiency and reduce vibration and acoustic signatures of nextgeneration rotary wing aircraft.

The Army’s Chinook CH-147F made its first flight in June 2012. The CH-147F 

includes an upgraded digital automatic flight control system and other enhancements that its predecessor lacked. The Army also tested the adaptive vehicle 

management system, an advanced rotorcraft flight control system. These systems 

provide tactile cues through the control sticks for greater stability and improved 

safety in reduced visibility. A modified H-6 helicopter was used for these tests.

Balloon Flight Systems

On August 7, 2012, the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command 

(SMDC) conducted the first flight of the Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence 

Vehicle (LEMV) at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey. The first flight 

lasted for more than 90 minutes. The LEMV is a hybrid air vehicle capable of 

carrying multiple intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) payloads for 

more than 21 days at altitudes greater than 22,000 feet. The LEMV is a recoverable 

and reusable multi-mission platform that can carry a wide variety of sensors and 

equipment. The LEMV is intended to conduct persistent ISR missions and to serve 

as a communications relay platform. The primary objective of the first flight was to 

perform a safe launch and recovery of the LEMV. A secondary goal was to verify 

the flight control system’s operation. Additional objectives included airworthiness 

testing and demonstration, as well as system-level performance verification. All 

objectives were met during the first flight. The Army Space and Missile Defense 

Command Technical Center LEMV program office in Huntsville, Alabama, 

manages the program. During the first flight, the LEMV was crewed, though the 

air vehicle can also operate without crew. It can be forward-located to support 
39Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

extended operations from austere locations and is capable of beyond-line-of-sight 

command and control.

In May 2012, the Air Force terminated the Blue Devil 2 (BD2) Airship project. 

BD2 was initially scheduled for rapid deployment to Afghanistan in February 2012, 

only 18 months after the contract award. To date, the airship has not achieved 

the first test flight status. The Air Force assumed responsibility for BD2 from the 

Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in early 2011 but cancelled the program in favor of a conventional fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle 

(UAV) program.

The Army operated the Persistent Ground Surveillance System (PGSS) in 

Afghanistan throughout 2012. The PGSS uses TCOM, L.P.’s tactical aerostat family and Lockheed-Martin’s Persistent Threat Detection System (PTDS) payloads, 

providing sustained optical and infrared imaging, acoustic signature recognition, 

and communications relay to ground units. Field tests were also completed in 

FY 2012 for aerostats capable of carrying larger and heavier payloads and operating 

at a variety of altitudes.

The Department of Defense awarded a five-year, $50 million contract to 

Worldwide Aeros to develop Pelican, a small, rigid hybrid incorporating compressed helium to control lift.

Hypersonics

On November 17, 2011, the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command 

conducted the first test flight of the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (AHW) concept. The AHW is a first-of-its-kind glide vehicle, designed to fly within Earth’s 

atmosphere at hypersonic speed and long range. The AHW was launched from 

the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kauai, Hawaii, to the Reagan Test Site (RTS), 

Kwajalein Atoll, flying 2,300 miles in less than 30 minutes. The AHW flew a 

hypersonic, nonballistic glide path within the atmosphere while space, air, sea, and 

ground platforms collected vehicle performance data on all phases of the flight. 

The results support the deployment of prompt global strike technology. The objective of the test was to collect data on the hypersonic boost-glide technologies and 

test range performance for long-range atmospheric flight. A three-stage booster 
40Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

system launched the AHW glide vehicle and successfully deployed it on the desired 

flight trajectory. The Army Space and Missile Defense Command Technical 

Center AHW program office in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the program. The 

booster system and glide vehicle were developed by Sandia National Laboratories, 

Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the thermal protection system by the U.S. Army 

Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center. The 

Department of Defense is using AHW to develop and demonstrate technologies 

for Conventional Prompt Global Strike and will use the data collected to model 

and develop future hypersonic boost-glide capabilities.

The X-51A Waverider was flown for the third time in August. Waverider is an 

unpiloted, scramjet-powered hypersonic demonstration aircraft. In the August 

flight, Waverider was successfully released from a B-52 at an altitude of 50,000 

feet, and the solid rocket booster fired successfully, accelerating the vehicles to 

Mach 4.5. A failure in a tail control fin resulted in the loss of control of the vehicle, 

and the vehicle was destroyed 16 seconds after the solid rocket motor (SRM) was 

jettisoned and prior to the ignition of the scramjet engine.

Unmanned Aerial Systems

The Navy’s X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) made its first flight 

from the Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Maryland, in July 2012. Testing conducted during 2012 included an evaluation of the command interface, aerodynamic 

performance, and flight control systems.

The X-48C remotely piloted aircraft made its first flight in August at NASA 

Dryden. This version of the aircraft includes modifications to the predecessor 

(X-48B) to enhance the fan and jet noise shielding, as well as extensions to the 

after-center-body and wing-tip rudders. The engine was also changed from a triple-jet 

to a two-jet design. The X-48 family of vehicles is a joint research and development 

project between NASA, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and industry partners.

In June, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) concluded 

UAVForge, a crowdsourced competition program intended to solicit innovative 

ideas from the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) do-it-yourself community. DARPA 

selected 9 teams from 140 competitors that submitted videos demonstrating early 
41Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

flight behavior for their drones. The fly-off required each system to perform a vertical takeoff, navigate beyond the line of sight, land on a structure, and capture 

surveillance images before returning to the starting point. Although all the drones 

managed to take off and navigate, none completed the course objectives.

The Missile Defense Agency completed the first flight of Boeing’s Phantom Eye 

hydrogen-powered, high-altitude, unpiloted aircraft. Phantom Eye is designed to 

remain on station for up to four days, providing intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and other mission-support services.

In August, the Office of Naval Research completed the first fully autonomous 

vertical recovery of the Flexrotor aircraft. Flexrotor is a long-endurance, vertical 

takeoff/landing UAV intended to perform intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions.

Aircraft Engines, Subsystems, and Components, Along with Other 

Aeronautical Developments

The Department’s Computational Research and Engineering Acquisition 

Tools and Environments (CREATE) program was initiated to develop major 

improvements in engineering design and analysis by developing scalable, multidisciplinary computational products and tools. During FY 2012, CREATE’s Air 

Vehicles program (CREATE-AV) released three products: the fixed-wing analysis 

tool Kestrel v3.0; a rotorcraft analysis tool, Helios v3.0; and the grid-generation 

tool Capstone v3.0. Kestrel v3.0 adds automated overset capabilities for moving 

aircraft/body simulations. Helios v3.0 enables off-body adaptive mesh refinement and the capability to model multi-rotor designs. Capstone v3.0 allows for 

the cleanup of dirty geometry and the generation of surface and volume mesh 

models. CREATE is part of the Department’s High Performance Computing 

Modernization Program (HPCMP).

The Air Force incorporated advanced heads-up displays into the KC-46A to aid 

in refueling operations. These displays use computer-generated, three-dimensional 

views created by sensor fusion. In a related development effort, DARPA continued the development of the Multifunction Radio Frequency and Video Synthetic 

Aperture Radar programs, both of which used advanced millimeter-wave or 
42Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

extremely high frequency (EHF) radar to aid aircrews in visualizing through clouds 

or near ground clutter.

The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Adaptive Versatile Engine Technology 

(ADVENT) program completed tests that demonstrate the effective application of 

adaptive fan technology to turbine engine designs. ADVENT is seeking to improve 

efficiency through advancing the technology of engine components and through 

adaptive engine technology.

The Army’s Joint Precision Airdrop System and other airdrop programs delivered over 90 million pounds of supplies to deployed forces in Afghanistan. The 

High Speed Container Delivery System demonstrated the ability to accurately 

airdrop payloads of 16,000 pounds from as low as 250 feet from aircraft moving 

as fast as 250 knots.

Airborne Weapons Systems and Missiles

On February 15, 2012, the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command 

successfully completed a test flight of the Economical Target-1 (ET-1) at Eglin Air 

Force Base (AFB), Florida. The ET-1 missile was launched from the Santa Rosa 

Test Site with the support of the 46th Test Wing on Eglin AFB into the ocean area 

within the test range. The ET-1 is a rail-launched, theater-class tactical ballistic 

missile target. The ET-1 was launched using another new Army Space and Missile 

Defense Command product, the 25K Transportable Target Launcher (25K TTL), a 

transportable, mission-configurable 25,000-pound-capacity launcher developed to 

support Defense Department operational testing of theater-class tactical ballistic 

missile targets. The Army Space and Missile Defense Command Technical Center 

Test Execution Support Division in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the ET-1 and 

25K TTL programs.

The Missile Defense Agency’s Airborne Laser Test Bed program concluded, 

marking the end of a program that successfully demonstrated the ability to track, 

target, and shoot down missiles using a megawatt-class laser on an aircraft.

The Air Force successfully tested a Minuteman III Stage 1 SRM. Over 4,000 

Minuteman SRMs have been produced using the Air Force’s “warm line” production 
43Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

program, which strives to produce motors representative of the deployed motors and 

maintain critical skills and the supplier supply chain.

The 90th Missile Wing conducted a 4,800-mile, 30-minute test of the 

Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile in April. The missile was fired 

from Vandenberg AFB, and a single Mk21 reentry vehicle landed on target within 

the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site in the vicinity of the 

Kwajalein Atoll.

In May and June, the Missile Defense Agency and the Navy successfully intercepted ballistic missile targets using Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) Block 1B missiles. 

SM-3 Block 1B includes upgrades to the on-board signal processor and a throttleable solid divert and attitude-control system.

The Air Force successfully tested a new 92-inch-diameter solid rocket motor at 

the Arnold Engineering Development Complex. The motor used emerging technologies from the propulsion applications program and integrated them with the 

high-payoff rocket propulsion technology program. The technology may support 

future conventional strike and operationally responsive strike missions.

In April, the Navy conducted successful flight tests of four Trident II D5 fleet 

ballistic missiles. The tests were the 139th, 140th, 141st, and 142nd successful tests 

of the D5, marking an unprecedented record of reliability for large ballistic missiles 

or space launch vehicles.

The Army tested a new propulsion system for the Tube-Launched, Optically 

Tracked Wireless (TOW) anti-armor missile. This enhanced propulsion system 

doubles the system’s range and reduces flight time by one-third.

An upgraded version of the Joint Standoff Weapon (AM-15-iC-1) was successfully tested at the Point Magu Sea Range against a moving ship target. This prototype of the C-1 variant will become the military’s first network-enabled weapon. 

The C-1 includes a Link-16 interface capable of providing target updates in flight. 

Upgraded seeker software can also target a specific impact aim point on the target.

The Army conducted successful tests of the upgraded Patriot Air Defense 

System, including the Patriot Advanced Capability 3 (PAC-3) missile (MIM104C). PAC-3 was used to destroy a cruise missile target at the Utah Test and 

Training Range in April and a ballistic missile target over White Sands Missile 

Range in August.
44Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

Space Activities

Launch and Range Operations and Spacelift Developments

The Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Program continued to place 

Defense Department and intelligence community satellites into orbit successfully 

during FY 2012. With nine launches in FY 2012, the United Launch Alliance 

(ULA) continued its record of 100 percent success. Of these, seven of the nine 

launches were national security space (NSS) missions, including a Wide-band 

Global Satellite Communications System launch. In June, the EELV Program 

completed the first flight of the RS-68A hydrogen-fueled first-stage engine on a 

Delta IV heavy launch from Cape Canaveral.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Airborne Launch Assist 

Space Access (ALASA) program awarded launch system development concept 

contracts to Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Virgin Galactic. These development 

contracts call for designs of launch systems capable of delivering 100-pound payloads to low-Earth orbit for $1 million.

The United Launch Alliance and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, prime developer and engine provider to the Air Force’s EELV Program, respectively, completed 

the design of the RL-10C-1 upper stage engine and began initial testing and certification activities.

In May, the EELV Program successfully tested an upgraded GEM-60 solid rocket 

motor. The GEM-60 is used to boost the EELV Program’s Delta IV launch vehicle. 

The upgraded GEM-60 incorporates a vectorable nozzle and was qualified during a 

90-second burn in which it delivered 270,000 pounds-force of thrust.

Global Positioning System

In 2012, the Global Positioning System (GPS) maintained 0.8-meter user range 

error for the signal-in-space performance, far exceeding the published standard of 

3 meters’ accuracy.

The Military GPS User Equipment (MGUE) Increment 1 program began in 

September 2012. MGUE is the first increment of M-Code–capable GPS user 
45Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

equipment that will deliver significantly improved capability to counter current and 

emerging positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) threats and enable military 

operations in GPS-denied and Navigation Warfare (NAVWAR) environments, in 

which current and legacy receiver performance could be degraded.

Satellite Communications

On September 13, 2012, the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command 

(SMDC)/Army Strategic Command placed two nanosatellites into orbit using a 

United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launched from Space Launch Complex-3 

at Vandenberg AFB, California. These two nanosatellites were launched as part of 

the Army’s continuing effort to develop low-cost, tactically responsive space capabilities through the use of small satellite technologies. This is the second launch of 

SMDC-built nanosatellites (the first occurred in 2010). The satellites were launched 

in partnership with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) as part of the 

Operationally Unique Technologies Satellite (OUTSat) program. SMDC launched 

the two nanosatellites to provide ultra high frequency (UHF) communications to 

validate beyond-line-of-sight communications and data exfiltration capabilities for 

disadvantaged users. Launch operators confirmed the successful deployment of the 

spacecraft. The Technical Center’s Concept Analysis Lab serves as the ground station and has established and maintained contact with both nanosatellites. Testing 

using the two nanosatellites is ongoing.

Additionally, SMDC received approval and funding for three Joint Capability 

Technology Demonstrations (JCTDs) to further evaluate the ability of nanosatellites and responsive space to fill warfighter capability gaps. The SMDC Nanosatellite 

Program-3 (SNaP-3) will capitalize on SMDC–Operational Nanosatellite Effect 

(ONE) work to further demonstrate the ability of nanosatellites to extend beyondline-of-sight communications for disadvantaged users in challenging terrain. The 

Kestrel Eye JCTD will demonstrate responsive, persistent, affordable, “good enough” 

tactically actionable surveillance data to users in the field without further burdening national assets. The Soldier-Warfighter Operationally Responsive Deployer 

for Space (SWORDS) JCTD will build and launch a low-cost, dedicated launcher 

capable of placing nanosatellites in low-Earth orbit within days of notification. The 
46Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

Army Acquisition Executive designated the Program Executive Office Missiles 

and Space as the JCTD manager for each of these JCTDs, managing any residual 

capability left behind after JCTD completion, with the goal of continued acquisition to provide users with an enduring responsive space capability. The SMDC 

Technical Center Space Division in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the nanosatellite program. 

On May 4, 2012, the Air Force successfully launched the second Advanced 

Extremely High Frequency (AEHF-2) satellite to provide protected communications to U.S. and international military forces. The governments of Canada, the 

Netherlands, and the United Kingdom are key international partners with the 

United States in the AEHF Program.

The Navy launched the first of five Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) 

satellites on February 24, 2012, to support telecommunications for the joint warfighter. MUOS provides narrowband communications using two payloads: a legacy 

UHF capability and a new Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) 

payload. The MUOS constellation will replace the aging UHF Follow-On (UFO) 

constellation, allowing time for the joint force to transition from UFO to the more 

modern third-generation cellphone technology (i.e., WCDMA).

Space-Based Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance

The Air Force’s Commercially Hosted Infrared Payload (CHIRP) demonstration completed its nine-month base contract in July 2012 with extended operations. CHIRP, launched in September 2011, provided continuous quarter-disk 

Earth view north of the equator and westward to the horizon from the satellite 

Société Européenne des Satellites (SES)–2’s 87° west longitude geostationary slot. 

The CHIRP program validated the concept of dramatically reduced commercially 

hosted mission costs and abbreviated development schedule compared to dedicated 

spacecraft missions, with launch just 39 months from contract initiation. The mission demonstrated wide-field-of-view overhead persistent infrared surveillance for 

future missile warning/defense, intelligence gathering, and battlespace awareness.
47Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

Satellite Control and Space Situation Awareness

Two prototype radar systems supporting the Space Fence program demonstrated 

the ability to track objects in low-Earth orbit. The completed Space Fence system will provide unqueued surveillance of small objects and satellites in low- and 

medium-Earth orbit to provide spaceflight safety, early detection and custody of 

threats, and awareness to satellite operators.

The Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) System reached initial operating 

capability. SBSS improves the ability of the Department of Defense to detect and 

track space objects in orbit around Earth.

In 2012, the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office continued to support 

the on-orbit operations of the ORS-1 satellite, launched in June 2011 from NASA’s 

Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia. In addition to directly supporting the intelligence 

needs of joint force commanders, ORS-1 continued to advance technical, logistic, 

and launch objectives and capabilities required to rapidly deploy space-based support capabilities.

Other Space Developments

In May 2012, the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Massive Heat Transfer 

Experiment (MHTEX) completed 12 months of successful operation aboard the 

International Space Station. MHTEX demonstrated the ability to start thermal 

management from a variety of initial conditions and passively control temperatures from multiple heat-loading sources under varying environmental conditions. 

The key technology demonstrated by MHTEX is the advanced hybrid evaporator, 

which enables the system to start without the need for a dedicated pump to purge 

the system of bubbles.

In June, the second X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-2) landed at Vandenberg 

AFB, concluding a 469-day mission for the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. 

This flight more than doubled the duration of OTV-1, completed in 2010, after 

225 days in space. The Boeing-built, 29-foot-long X-37B conducted on-orbit experiments during this mission. The objective of the program is to demonstrate technologies required to reuse a space vehicle.

49Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

FAA

In 2012, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) continued moving toward 

its Next Generation Air Transportation System goals. Known as NextGen, it is a 

comprehensive overhaul of the entire National Airspace System (NAS) to make 

air travel more convenient and dependable while ensuring that flights remain safe, 

secure, and as hassle-free as possible.

In a continuous roll-out of improvements and upgrades, the FAA is building the 

capability to guide and track air traffic more precisely and efficiently to save fuel 

and reduce noise and pollution. NextGen is better for the environment and better 

for the economy.

NextGen also provides solutions to improve surface operations. This effort 

focuses on improved airport surveillance information and automation to support 

airport configuration management, runway assignments, and enhanced cockpit 

displays to provide increased situational awareness for controllers and pilots; a key 

step is sharing airport surface information with authorized stakeholders.

Accurate aircraft position information on the ground is critical to smooth airport operations. Precise arrival and location information makes it easier for air 

traffic controllers, airlines, and other flight operators to manage the complex task 

of moving hundreds of flights along taxiways and runways and to and from gates. It 

is what the aviation community refers to as surface situational awareness.

Airport Surface Collaborative Decision Making tools improve this awareness. 

They not only increase efficiency at the airport and help reduce delays, but also 

enhance safety. In 2012, one of those tools, known as Airport Surface Detection 
50Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

Equipment (ASDE-X) on System Wide Information Management (SWIM), provided access to surface data from 26 airports (with more to be added) through 

a single distribution point. Access to precise position data helps airlines manage 

delays. The data come from airport ground surveillance systems, which track airplanes on runways and taxiways and those aircraft flying within 5 miles of the 

airport; the systems are able to determine the aircraft’s precise position and identification. Controllers use this information as an advisory alerting capability, an 

additional safety tool that helps them keep aircraft out of each other’s way. While 

there are safety benefits for controllers, airlines can also use the data to validate 

the exact moment one of their flights touches down. As a result, flight operations 

centers (FOCs) are able to more efficiently coordinate the teams of people who 

meet the flight and get the aircraft ready for its next trip. In FY 2012, the FAA 

reached a major milestone in its move to a NextGen satellite-based navigation 

system when it published more than 3,000 Wide Area Augmentation System 

(WAAS) approaches nationwide. GPS alone does not meet the FAA’s navigation 

requirements for accuracy, integrity, and availability. WAAS corrects for GPS 

signal errors caused by atmospheric disturbances, timing, and errors in satellite 

orbit. It also provides vital information regarding the health of each GPS satellite. 

GPS, augmented with WAAS, provides the national airspace with a satellite-based 

capability to determine an aircraft’s airborne position with accuracy for en route 

navigation, nonprecision approach, and precision approach. The new technology—

cheaper and easier to install and maintain than traditional navigation aids—will 

lower minimums at many airports and give new access during bad weather. Using 

WAAS, aircraft can access over 2,500 runway ends in poor weather conditions 

with minimums as low as 200 feet. WAAS can even get pilots into places where 

the Instrument Landing System (ILS) may not be available. This milestone has 

an additional benefit for pilots and passengers across the national airspace as ILS 

technology fades and needs repair and maintenance: replacing it with the more 

precise technology is now an option.

In 2012, the FAA took on a new safety challenge—devising a plan to safely 

accelerate the integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems (UASes) into the 

NAS by September 30, 2015. Congress established this requirement in the FAA 

reauthorization act. In response, the FAA created a UAS Integration Office, 
51Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

bringing together specialists in aviation operations and safety as a portal for everything related to civil and public use of UASes in the NAS. The office achieved the 

first milestone among Congress’s UAS requirements—streamlining the process for 

public agencies to operate UASes in the NAS. Significant progress also included 

the development of a UAS Concept of Operations (ConOps) defining how the 

integration of UASes affects and is affected by NextGen capabilities and enabling 

technologies and operational improvements into the 2020s. Operational scenarios 

consider various UAS types in all classes of airspace. Combined with the FAA’s 

Integration of Civil UAS in the NAS Roadmap, the ConOps enables UAS stakeholders to view the transition from today’s accommodation of UAS operations to 

integration into all phases of flight.

Also in 2012, the UAS NextGen Demonstration—which involved FAA Air 

Traffic Operations, DHS Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the United States 

Air Force 45th Space Wing, and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center—showed how 

NextGen technologies provide information to advance UAS integration into the 

NAS. The FAA observed a CBP flight operating under an FAA-issued Certificate 

of Authorization. The observation included a pseudo pilot and a pseudo controller 

interacting with each other during off-nominal events induced by the research 

team. The research team assessed the ability of an independent Ground Based 

NAS Voice System prototype to restore communication between the pseudo UAS 

pilot and pseudo air traffic controller in the event of a lost-link/lost-communication 

scenario and also tested the viability of providing an independent Cockpit Display 

of Traffic Information (CDTI) system to aid a UAS pilot in tracking own-ship 

information in the event of lost link/lost communication. This system was integrated with ADS-B, the Traffic Information Service-Broadcast (TIS-B), and primary radar information for increased situational awareness of surrounding traffic.

Late in 2012, the FAA launched a one-year operational trial of a new approach 

to oceanic preferred routes. The Oceanic Conflict Advisory Trial (OCAT) is a system aimed at removing a potential bottleneck from oceanic preferred-route procedures. OCAT gives airline FOCs access to Web-based Advanced Technologies and 

Oceanic Procedures (ATOP) data drawn from the latest conflict probe algorithms. 

OCAT could replace the Dynamic Airborne Reroute Procedure, which enables 

flightcrews to consult with their airline’s FOC to determine whether a revised 
52Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

route, adapting to weather and other real-time variables, would enable them to 

reduce fuel consumption and emissions. The FOC can judge on its own whether 

its preferred clearance change appears to be free of conflicts with other flights. 

After the FOC has done whatever trial-and-error work is necessary and found the 

change to be acceptable, the flightcrew can request the change and the FAA control center can consider it under existing procedures. The potential bottleneck 

comes into play if the revised route might conflict with other traffic. In that event, 

the FAA control center, equipped with ATOP conflict probe capabilities, would 

have to deny the pilot’s request for a revision. The FOC and the pilot would go 

back to square one. With its launch over the Pacific Ocean, OCAT is available to 

participating airlines throughout the vast airspace of the Oakland Oceanic ATOP 

flight information region, the world’s largest. At nearly 19 million square miles, it 

covers nearly 10 percent of Earth’s surface.

The FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) licenses and 

regulates U.S. commercial space launch and reentry activities and the operation of non-Federal launch and reentry sites to protect public health and safety, 

safety of property, and national security and foreign policy interests of the United 

States. In addition, AST encourages, facilitates, and promotes U.S. commercial 

space transportation.

In FY 2012, there were a total of three FAA-licensed launches and zero permitted launches. No fatalities, serious injuries, or significant property damage to 

the uninvolved public occurred during these licensed events. Two were issued to 

Energia for launch from the Pacific Ocean on Zenith 3SL vehicles. The third was a 

SpaceX license for launch of the Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station 

(CCAFS) with the Dragon Reentry Capsule. The FAA also licensed the reentry of 

the Dragon capsule on this mission.

The Commercial Space Transportation Safety Program launched an ADS-B 

payload into space on two missions that reentered Earth’s atmosphere. In the first, 

ADS-B flew on a sounding rocket in April 2012 where the payload withstood a 

maximum acceleration of 16 g’s during a 12-second launch and successfully transmitted throughout the flight. During this flight, the payload provided information 

on the capability, limitations, and considerations for GPS-based systems in space 

launch and reentry environments. Tracking was conducted by FAA ground-based 
53Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

terminals in New Mexico and Texas, displaying the entry, descent, and landing of 

the rocket in real time at the William J. Hughes Technical Center. On the second 

mission, the payload flew at the Team America Rocket Challenge in May 2012 on 

a large amateur rocket and was tracked in real time by mobile equipment and the 

FAA ground-based terminals in Northern Virginia.

In FY 2012, AST issued five Launch Licenses for future launches to the following:

• Launch Operator License to Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch 

Services to conduct Atlas V launches from Vandenberg AFB.

• Launch-specific license to SpaceX to conduct the Falcon 9 flight 003 

launch from CCAFS.

• Reentry license to SpaceX to reenter Dragon C2 reentry vehicle from 

Earth orbit with a nominal landing in the Pacific Ocean. This was the 

first licensed mission involving the transport of cargo to and from the ISS.

• Launch-specific license to SpaceX to conduct Falcon 9 flights 004 and 005 

from CCAFS. This license covers two launches, which are the first 2 of 12 

NASA Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) missions.

• Reentry license to SpaceX to reenter Dragon CRS-1 and -2 reentry vehicles from Earth orbit with a nominal landing in the Pacific Ocean. This 

license covers two reentries.

AST issued just one Experimental Permit the same year to Scaled Composites 

to conduct SpaceShipTwo missions from Mojave. One Reusable Launch Vehicle 

(RLV) Mission Operator License was issued to Armadillo Aerospace to conduct 

STIG-B launches from Spaceport America in New Mexico. One license renewal 

was issued to Lockheed for Atlas V launches from CCAFS. One Safety Approval 

was issued to the National AeroSpace Training and Research (NASTAR) Center 

for the ability of its Falcon 12/4 Altitude Chamber to replicate pressures experienced at altitude levels.

AST conducted 91 safety inspections on over 36 different types. The goal of 

every AST safety inspection is to ensure public safety by verifying FAA licensee 

and permittee compliance with FAA regulations and license/permit terms and 

conditions. Inspectors traveled to various locations, including Cape Canaveral, 

Florida; Vandenberg AFB, California; Camden, Arkansas; Mojave, California; 

Kodiak, Alaska; Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia; Las Cruces, New Mexico; 
54Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

McGregor, Texas; Burns Flat, Oklahoma; Hawthorne, California; Long Beach, 

California; Jacksonville, Florida; Black Rock, Nevada; Southampton, Pennsylvania; 

and the equator.

To support all new and renewed licenses in FY 2012, AST carried out several environmental reviews. Specifically, AST issued the Final Environmental 

Assessment (EA) and Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the launch 

and reentry of SpaceShipTwo reusable suborbital rockets at the Mojave Air and 

Space Port, California. AST also issued the Final EA and FONSI to support the 

issuance of an Experimental Permit to SpaceX for operation of the Grasshopper 

vehicle at the McGregor Test Site, Texas. AST continued to monitor the New 

Mexico Spaceport Authority’s compliance with Federal historic preservation 

requirements and other requirements related to biological resources for the development of Spaceport America.

The FAA Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation (COECST) is a partnership of academia, industry, and government developed to address 

current and future challenges for commercial space transportation. In FY 2012, 

the COE-CST produced over 35 technical reports that help AST investigate and 

develop new regulations. These reports are also a vital resource for industry members who will draw upon the publicly available resource of research to bring their 

goods and services to the emerging commercial space market.

In previous years, AST has produced several informational annual reports on the 

state of the established and emerging industry segments directly related to commercial space transportation. These reports contained valuable information; were widely 

cited in the trade press; and were of interest to the public, the space industry, and 

the U.S. Government. Beginning in FY 2012, however, AST sought to minimize 

overlap and sometimes repetitive reporting by producing and releasing this information under the cover of one comprehensive document, The Annual Compendium of 

Commercial Space Transportation 2012. This report serves as reference, status report, 

and forecast and is structured to tell the commercial space industry story.

AST’s Space Transportation Infrastructure Matching Grants (STIM) program 

is solely discretionary and designed to fund projects that develop and expand commercial space transportation infrastructure. Three STIM grants were awarded 

in FY 2012. These went to the Front Range Airport Authority (Colorado); the 
55Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism (Hawaii); and the 

East Kern Airport District (Mojave, California).

Information about the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation, regulations, reports, and other documents can be found at http://ast.faa.gov.

57Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

DOC

During FY 2012, the Department of Commerce (DOC) continued to participate 

in the national management of the Global Positioning System (GPS) as a member 

of the National Executive Committee for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and 

Timing, the senior body that advises and coordinates Federal agencies on GPS 

matters. DOC hosted four meetings of the committee and its Executive Steering 

Group to discuss major policy issues, including protecting GPS users from potential 

interference due to a communications network (LightSquared) licensed to broadcast in frequencies next to those of GPS. Based on extensive testing and analysis, 

DOC’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) 

advised the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in February 2012 that 

there were no mitigation strategies that would both solve the interference issues 

and provide the company with an adequate commercial network deployment. 

DOC also collaborated with the members of the National Executive Committee 

to dispute patent claims filed by the United Kingdom that threatened to burden 

the GPS program and its users with licensing fees and royalties. These efforts were 

successful in preserving open access to GPS service in support of U.S. policy.

DOC continued to host the secretariat of the National Executive Committee 

and participate in its daily operations, including public outreach about GPS. DOC 

staff transformed http://www.gps.gov from a static Web site to a dynamic portal 

providing a robust foundation for the Government’s GPS outreach campaign. DOC 

consolidated two other GPS-related Federal Web sites into http://www.gps.gov prior 

to their discontinuation, improving public access to GPS information.

DOC participated in bilateral consultations, led by the State Department, with 

Japan and Europe to discuss cooperation on GPS issues. DOC’s Office of Space 
58Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

Commercialization continued to serve as the U.S. cochair of a U.S.-European 

working group that met twice during FY 2012 to discuss trade issues affecting satellite navigation markets.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NOAA’s environmental satellites are key tools for forecasting weather, analyzing 

climate, and monitoring hazards worldwide. In FY 2012, another year full of severe 

weather events and destructive natural disasters, NOAA was aided by the October 

2011 launch and operation of the first of our next generation of satellites, the Suomi 

National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP). Twenty-four-hour global coverage from 

NOAA’s satellites provides scientists and managers with a continuous stream of 

information used in preparation for events that will impact our climate, weather, 

and oceans. NOAA manages and operates three types of environmental satellites: Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES), Polar-orbiting 

Operational Environmental Satellites (POES), and ocean altimetry (Jason).

NOAA’s Geostationary Satellites

GOES continuously monitor the Western Hemisphere by circling Earth in a 

geosynchronous orbit 22,000 miles above the equator, meaning they remain over 

one position on the surface by orbiting at a speed matching that of Earth’s rotation. 

Information from GOES is used for short-term weather forecasting and severe storm 

tracking. GOES imagery is also used to estimate rainfall during thunderstorms and 

hurricanes for flash flood warnings, as well as estimate snowfall accumulation and 

overall extent of snow cover. This information helps meteorologists issue winter 

storm warnings and spring snow-melt advisories. In FY 2012, GOES-11 was decommissioned after 11 years in space and replaced by GOES-15, flown at 135° west and 

serving as “GOES-West,” while GOES-13 flew at 75° west and served as “GOESEast.” GOES-12 flew at 60° west and served as GOES–South America, providing 

extra coverage for meteorologists in that region.
59Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

NOAA’s Polar-Orbiting Satellites

POES circle Earth in an almost north-south orbit at an altitude of approximately 

517 miles, passing close to both poles. Earth constantly rotates counterclockwise 

underneath the path of the satellite, allowing a different view with each orbit. It 

takes the satellite approximately 1.5 hours to complete a full orbit. In a 24-hour 

period, the 14 orbits of each polar-orbiting satellite provide two complete views 

of weather around the world. POES provides full global coverage with advanced 

sensors for weather and climate data, collecting information on temperature, atmospheric conditions, wind speed, cloud formation, and drought conditions over all 

of Earth. In FY 2012, NOAA-19 served as NOAA’s primary polar-orbiting satellite, 

but NOAA was excited to launch and begin operation of the first of its next generation of polar-orbiting satellites, Suomi NPP, on October 28, 2011. Suomi NPP is 

a joint NOAA-NASA mission and serves as a bridge between NOAA’s current fleet 

of polar-orbiting satellites and the upcoming next-generation Joint Polar Satellite 

System (JPSS).

NOAA’s Ocean Altimetry Satellite

Principally NOAA, with its partners NASA, Centre National d’Études Spatiales 

(CNES), and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological 

Satellites (EUMETSAT), operates Jason-2, a sea surface topography mission that flies 

an altimeter to provide high-precision measurements of sea surface height. Because 

the temperature of the ocean and ocean currents can change the height of the sea 

and these characteristics can affect the world’s weather, including tropical storms, 

Jason-2 has been crucial to improvements in weather modeling and tropical storm 

intensification forecasting. Its follow-on, Jason-3, is currently under development.

NOAA’s Additional Space-Based Capabilities

In addition to those three main types of environmental satellites, NOAA also 

flies two other types of instruments on some of its satellites together with international partners.
60Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

Argos is a data collection and location relay system administered under an agreement between NOAA and Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) initiated 

in 1974. Through the Argos program, CNES provides sensors for flight on NOAA 

and European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites 

(EUMETSAT) satellites. These sensors collect a wide variety of in situ measurements, including data on atmospheric pressure, sea temperature, ocean current 

velocity, animal migration patterns, and river water levels.

Cosmicheskaya Sistyema Poiska Avariynich Sudov–Search and Rescue SatelliteAided Tracking (COSPAS-SARSAT) is an international satellite-aided searchand-rescue system that uses satellites to locate emergency beacons carried by ships, 

aircraft, or individuals and communicate location information to search-and-rescue 

authorities; the system has rescued over 35,000 people worldwide since 1982. The 

governing parties of the system are the U.S./NOAA, France/CNES, Russia, and 

Canada. NOAA provides space on its polar-orbiting satellites for the French processor and Canadian receiver.

International Agreements

On September 17, 2012, NOAA’s close partner, EUMETSAT, successfully 

launched the Meteorological Operational (MetOp)-B polar-orbiting satellite. 

Under existing agreements with NOAA, EUMETSAT launches and operates 

polar-orbiting environmental satellites in the midmorning orbit, NOAA in the 

afternoon orbit. Both agencies then share the data fully and openly. Together, 

EUMETSAT’s MetOp satellites and NOAA’s polar-orbiting spacecraft provide the 

majority of global data for numerical weather forecasts and provide observations 

that help predict environmental phenomena, including wildfires, volcanic eruptions, snow cover, sea ice, vegetation health, sea surface temperatures, and disaster 

mitigation. Each agency’s satellites carry similar sets of sensors—some used for 

forecasting, others for assessing surface conditions.
61Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

Figure 1. Artist’s rendering of the Suomi-NPP satellite. Figure 2. First image taken by Suomi NPP’s 

Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite 

(VIIRS) on November 21, 2011.

National Institute of Standards and Technology

In FY 2012, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) continued to provide Federal agencies and the aerospace industry with the research, 

guidance, standards, products, and services needed to advance the administration’s 

space agenda. These wide-ranging outputs fall into four main categories: 1) validation, measurement, and calibration; 2) manufacturing technology; 3) observation 

and sensing; and 4) spacecraft and living environments.

NIST supported accurate and compatible measurements made by the aerospace 

industry by providing Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) and calibration services. Customers used these SRMs and services to ensure the accuracy of their 

own instrument calibrations and the validity of their measurement methods. In 

2012, aerospace companies purchased 216 SRMs, representing a wide variety of 

metal alloys, biological materials, calibration solutions, and environmental materials. NIST provides the tools, methodologies, standards, and measurement services 

needed by aerospace parts manufacturers, assemblers, and NASA to maintain their 

accurate and traceable use of the International System of Units (SI) units of length, 

mass, and time, as well as their derived units (force, acceleration, sound pressure, and ultrasonic power). For example, NIST performed calibrations of length 

standards for U.S. aerospace companies to ensure that the dimensions of their 

manufactured parts conform to design specifications. Traceable NIST measurements (mass, force, vibration, acoustics, electricity, thermometry, humidity, flow, 
62Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

pressure, viscosity, fluid density, radiometry, and length) are essential for aircraft 

manufacturing. Further, in the manufacture of the company’s new 787 airplanes, 

every tool used in the assembly process has been calibrated in Boeing’s metrology 

laboratories with direct traceability to NIST. Structural testing of the airplane is 

performed by scores of load cells with capacities of up to 3.54 meganewtons (MN) 

(800 kilopounds-force [klbf]). These load cells are central to the structural testing 

of the first full-scale composite wing/titanium wing box. The load cells, used to 

analyze the integrity of the wing box structure, are directly traceable to NIST either 

through direct comparison with NIST-calibrated load cells or through calibration in 

the Boeing 221-kilonewton (kN) (50-klbf) force deadweight machine whose masses 

were calibrated at NIST. Other direct applications of NIST measurements included 

the use of NIST-calibrated weights to support wind tunnel applications; weighing 

airplanes; and torque, pressure, and force measurements.

NIST provided quality assessment of atomic data used by astronomers who are 

interpreting observations from NASA’s land- and space-based missions, including 

the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Far Ultraviolet 

Spectroscopic Explorer, and the Spitzer Infrared Observatory. In FY 2012, NIST 

provided results for atomic sulfur, neon, titanium, chromium, nickel, barium, 

strontium, iron, silver, mercury, and other elements of particularly strong current 

interest. For each type of atom, NIST provided a single, self-consistent set of best 

values from the frequently inconsistent, incomplete, and heterogeneous-quality 

data scattered across the open literature. NIST published these evaluated datasets 

in peer-reviewed scientific journals and disseminated them publicly through NIST’s 

online Atomic Spectra Database (http://www.nist.gov/pml/data/asd.cfm). These data 

are used as standards across the astrophysics community and facilitate the comparison of results from different astronomers. This work was partially funded by NASA.

NIST measured atomic properties required to make use of observations from 

NASA’s ultraviolet and infrared spaced-based observatories. Comprehensive data 

for iron and chromium atoms, two of the most important atoms for interpreting 

data from these observatories, were recently published by NIST. The NIST analyses 

provide more than an order of magnitude increase in accuracy compared to the 

previous data, which were over 30 years old. Additional data for chromium and 

cobalt are currently being analyzed. This work was partially funded by NASA.
63Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

NIST provided a new release of its online Atomic Spectra Database, v.4.1.1. 

Following this release, the average volume of data downloaded per month by all 

users doubled compared to the previous versions. This change indicates that data 

are of high importance. The new release features more than 10,000 spectral lines 

of neutral and singly ionized iron, new transition probability data of C I-II and 

N I-II, new data on spectra of singly and multiply ionized argon, and energy levels 

of the first few spectra of all chemical elements of the 5th, 6th, and 7th rows of the 

periodic table from Sr to Ac. In this last release, we also updated and extended 

transition probability data on sulfur (S I-XV); updated energy levels of Tc I, Ru II, 

Rh II, Ag I, Cd I, In I, Sn I, Sb I-II, Te I-II, and I I; and updated lists of spectral 

lines, including energy-level classifications for Tc I-II, Ru I-II, Rh I-II, Pd I-II, Ag I, 

Cd I, In I, Sn I, Sb I-II, Te I-II, I I-II, and Cs II. This work was partially funded 

by NASA.

NIST provided calibration services and research to enable the aerospace industry and Government agencies to obtain temperature, pressure, vacuum, humidity, and leak thermodynamic measurements traceable to international standards. 

Calibrations are used to provide traceability to maintain quality systems, for process 

control, and to qualify instrumentation for flight and space travel. For humidity, 

NIST delivered a simplified calibration standard that specifically allows microelectronics packages to easily undergo reliability analysis and failure testing prior to use 

in aerospace and satellite applications. In the area of temperature, NIST calibrated 

platinum resistance thermometers (PRTs) to monitor critical temperatures inside 

the Curiosity rover’s Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator. In 

vacuum, NIST performed calibrations of vacuum gauges and helium leak artifacts 

for NASA Johnson Space Center. NIST also calibrates high-accuracy pressure 

transducers used by NASA and the aerospace industry to ensure the accuracy 

of air data test sets needed for critical altitude flight instrumentation calibration 

and certification.

NIST used its new Measurement Service, Special Tests of Aperture Area, to provide accurate measurements of the area of optical apertures. Precision optical apertures are used in a variety of remote sensing instruments, such as satellite sensors, 

that measure the amount of optical radiation coming from Earth or the sun and 

in various radiometric standards needed to calibrate remote sensing instruments. 
64Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

NIST optical area measurements provide the surface area used in total and spectral 

irradiance measurements of the sun by satellite-based instruments such as the Total 

Irradiance Monitor (TIM) and Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SIM).

NIST provided calibration support for the infrared and optical sensors for several 

satellite missions under development: the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), the 

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite—R Series (GOES-R), and the 

Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM). NIST activities included the provision 

of radiometric standards, the validation of radiometric standards used by the sensor 

development teams, and the calibration and characterization of satellite sensors.

NIST collaborated with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) to 

develop photodetectors for space applications. With funding from NASA, NIST 

designed and fabricated nanotextured gallium nitride (GaN) and GaN nanowires 

that serve as raw material for photocathode detectors. Goddard collaborators activated the material with cesium and packaged the units into complete imaging 

systems. In FY 2012, we tested nanowires with graded doping and found that the 

nanowires had a higher quantum efficiency at 254 nanometers (nm) than any previously tested GaN samples. NIST collaborated with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

(JPL) on the development of superconducting nanowire single photon detectors 

(SNSPDs). SNSPDs are a type of single-single photon detector with extremely low 

noise and very-high-speed response. These devices are of interest to JPL for space 

communications and to NIST for various quantum information experiments. In 

FY 2012, NIST characterized various JPL devices. NIST also packaged some JPL 

devices with our self-aligned single-mode optical fiber packaging scheme.

NASA’s next-generation satellite observatories require new detectors with 

improved sensitivity and scalability. With NASA funding, NIST developed new 

detectors based on the voltage-biased superconducting transition-edge sensor 

(TES). The TES offers new capabilities for the detection of electromagnetic signals, 

from millimeter waves through x-rays. Following on their successful development 

at NIST, the TES has become the reference technology and a leading candidate 

for future NASA satellite missions at x-ray, millimeter, and submillimeter wavelengths, as well as for many NASA-funded ground-based and suborbital instruments (including balloon-borne instruments and instruments intended for the 

Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy [SOFIA]). More recently, NIST 
65Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

has developed integrated TES polarimeters for measuring the polarization of the 

cosmic microwave background. These devices incorporate multiple TESes per pixel 

to measure the power in the different polarizations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). This integrated detector utilizes fully micromachined silicon feedhorns for beam formation. This integrated detector technology has been deployed 

on the South Pole Telescope in early FY 2012. With NASA funding, NIST is 

also developing Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs) and 

SQUID-based multiplexers to read out large arrays of TES detectors in a manageable number of output channels. NIST is providing SQUID systems to many 

researchers, both at NASA Centers (GSFC and JPL) and in academia (including the 

California Polytechnic Institute, Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute 

of Technology, the University of California Berkeley, Princeton University, Cornell 

University, and others), who are working on NASA-funded projects. SQUIDs and 

SQUID multiplexers developed at NIST are currently deployed in many groundand balloon-based instruments (Atacama Cosmology Telescope [ACT], the 

Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization 2 [BICEP2]/Keck Array, 

the South Pole Telescope [SPT], the background-limited infrared-submillimeter 

spectrograph [BLISS], the Goddard Institut de RadioAstronomie Millimétrique 

[IRAM] Superconducting 2 Millimeter Observer [GISMO], SPIDER, the E and B 

Experiment [EBEX], and others) and will be used in most of NASA’s future TES 

instruments. Recent developments for improved detector readout include the demonstration of TES readout with dissipationless microwave SQUID multiplexers, the 

demonstration of code-domain multiplexers with subframe sampling for measurement of fast x-ray pulses, and new low-power SQUID amplifiers for use at focal 

plane temperatures.

In collaboration with GSFC (Microwave Sensors and Hydrological Sciences 

Branch), NIST demonstrated the world’s first SI-traceable brightness-temperature 

or radiance calibration of a microwave black-body target, as used in space-based 

radiometers that monitor Earth’s climate. NIST has designed the world’s first facility 

to precisely measure the performance of millimeter-wave antennas using a robotic 

arm. It will operate at first to 210 gigahertz (GHz) and ultimately to 600 GHz. This 

facility will allow NIST to perform accurate calibrations of radiometer antennas 

above 110 GHz, a capability currently not available to the aerospace community.
66Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

National Ocean Service

The devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11 claimed 

thousands of lives and left massive destruction in its wake—dumping an estimated 

1.5 million tons of debris into the marine environment. In response, NOAA used 

its satellites and its ocean models to monitor and predict the movement of this 

marine debris to ensure safe ocean transport and help coastal communities prepare 

for debris landfall.

NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey released GEOID12A, the latest model of 

the geoid (pronounced “jee-oid”), which can be described as the “shape” of mean 

sea level around the globe. Surveyors, engineers, and the scientific community use 

the geoid—a model derived through complex math and gravity measurements—

to measure surface elevations with a high degree of accuracy. While the science 

behind the construction of geoid models is very complex, one reason why we need 

such models is surprisingly simple: a small difference in height measurement on 

land determines which way water flows, and this makes the development of new 

and better geoid models an ongoing priority.

By providing a more accurate means of determining elevations, the new model 

will assist those involved in floodplain management, coastal and emergency 

response, port operations, and river flow monitoring. More accurate elevations also 

help lessen risks to coastal communities caused by hurricanes, storm surges, tsunamis, and other flood-related events. Engineering and other activities requiring 

accurate elevations also benefit, including precision agriculture and the construction and maintenance of dams, levees, roads, and other infrastructure.

NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey (NGS) defines and manages the National 

Spatial Reference System—the coordinate system that defines latitude, longitude, 

height, scale, gravity, orientation, and shoreline throughout the United States. The 

first major improvement to this reference system, NGS’s National Adjustment of 

2011 Project, integrated new position information for more than 80,000 survey 

marks with NGS’s more advanced Global Positioning System receiver-based control points. As a result, the coordinates of the Nation’s reference system are now 

consistent across space and time. Consistency in the National Spatial Reference 

System is critical because people rely on positioning data for countless engineering 
67Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

and scientific applications—to plan roads to improve traffic flow, to check the 

integrity of buildings, to ensure that airplanes land safely on the runway, and even 

to measure small changes in sea level over time. Surveyors and others use the reference system throughout the country to ensure that their positional coordinates 

are compatible with those determined by others so that when experts create maps; 

mark off property boundaries; and plan, design, and build roads, bridges, and other 

structures, everything matches up.

NOAA’s NGS is working to improve the Alaska/Arctic geodetic framework 

to ensure greater positioning accuracy and precision for latitude, longitude, and 

height. This precision is particularly important for hydrographic surveying and 

shoreline mapping to produce nautical charts and other products necessary for safe 

maritime transportation. Over the last couple of years, in support of this effort, 

NGS has collected over 347,000 square miles of gravity data across the Alaska/

Arctic region, compiled approximately 390 miles of Arctic shoreline and 933 miles 

of Alaska shoreline, and added over 40 stations to the network of Continuously 

Operating Reference Stations.

For every dollar American taxpayers spend on the National Geodetic Survey’s 

Coastal Mapping Program at NOAA, they receive more than $35 in benefits. This 

statistic was the result of an independent socioeconomic scoping study. The program provides critical baseline data to accurately map the U.S. shoreline. These 

data are important for national security, maritime shipping, and navigation. The 

program also provides geographical reference data needed to manage, develop, conserve, and protect coastal resources. Direct economic benefits of the program alone 

were estimated at $100 million—15 times program costs. Also, the study estimated 

that the Coastal Mapping Program supports 1,500 jobs outside of the program. 

NOAA derives shoreline data through various remote sensing technologies including aerial imagery, satellite imagery, and Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR).

The U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Program at NOAA 

launched a new online map (http://www.ioos.noaa.gov/observing/observing_assets/

glider_asset_map.html) that displays where partner data collection gliders are currently patrolling and where they have been. The map provides users with one-stop 

access to a current snapshot of where uncrewed, underwater gliders are located at 

sea. Once a glider returns from a mission, users can scroll over visualizations of 
68Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

collected data. Additionally, users can retrieve a historical collection of data from 

previous missions, reaching back to 2005. Eventually, this Web site will provide 

access to glider data for all IOOS regions and their partners, which will allow 

scientists easier retrieval of data for use in models and forecasting tools. This new 

online map comes in the same year that IOOS partners completed the first step in 

an effort to send a glider around the world. In May 2012, IOOS scientists recovered 

a glider after it completed a nearly 11-month-long first leg of the journey, traveling 

from the arctic waters of Iceland to the subtropical waters of the Canary Islands.

Recent advances in technology have made it possible to outfit animals with 

environmental data collection devices, just one of the practices in the emerging 

field of animal telemetry—using animals and technology to collect data remotely. 

In the ocean realm, these devices, or “tags,” can track animals over long distances 

for multiple years, collecting valuable data below the ocean surface from difficultto-reach places where conventional data collection techniques are technically or 

economically unfeasible. Data from tags attached to marine animals will soon flow 

to the IOOS. NOAA’s IOOS Program, along with other Federal, state, and academic partners, took significant steps toward establishing a U.S. Animal Telemetry 

Network, which would ultimately support IOOS with oceanographic and biological 

data. As part of this effort, the IOOS Program made progress in a couple of regions.

On the West Coast, IOOS and its partners made data from tagged marine 

mammals (primarily elephant seals) in the Pacific more accessible to ocean modelers from the Naval Oceanographic Office and the National Weather Service’s 

National Centers for Environmental Prediction. The modelers involved expressed 

enthusiasm about now having access to 8,000 ocean observations that were previously inaccessible. In the Great Lakes region, the Great Lakes Acoustic Telemetry 

Observation System is tracking more than 1,700 fish from four species to answer 

fisheries management and ecology questions. Tracking information will influence a 

range of fish population restoration actions.

The IOOS supported the intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations 

(GEO) effort to develop a global high frequency radar (HFR) network. HFR systems measure ocean surface current speed and direction along the coast to benefit 

search-and-rescue efforts, oil-spill response, harmful algal bloom (HAB) monitoring, water quality assessments, ecosystem assessments, and fisheries management. 
69Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

Over the last several years, the United States and other nations have developed 

national HFR networks. The related information technology infrastructures in 

these countries are now poised to go global, and countries are moving in that 

direction. The 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference allocated frequencies for international HFR operations in the 3- to 50-megahertz range, which is 

important because without established frequencies, any operational network suffers 

service interruptions due to interference. The frequency allocations agreed upon at 

the conference capped off more than five years of work by the U.S. IOOS Program 

and the Office of Radio Frequency Management to get permanent frequencies for 

HFR operations. Experts from the U.S. commercial sector and representatives from 

Japan, Australia, Korea, Canada, France, and Germany worked toward this decision as well. GEO is a voluntary partnership of governments and international 

organizations working to integrate the variety of Earth observation systems to 

support environmental decision making in an increasingly complex world. GEO 

provides a framework within which these partners can develop new projects and 

coordinate their strategies and investments.

In July 2012, NOAA and partners announced a new seasonal HAB forecast 

for Lake Erie. The forecast, developed by NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal 

Ocean Science (NCCOS) at the request of regional managers and stakeholders, 

predicted a mild bloom for the 2012 season, a welcome change for water utilities, 

recreational anglers, and others living and working on the lake who have endured 

increasingly severe algae blooms since 2008. The algae problem is caused by the 

blue-green alga Microcystis, which can produce toxins and overgrowths that harm 

fish, people, and the environment. The new seasonal forecast supplements weekly 

near-real-time forecasts—also developed by NCCOS—that help water treatment 

plant operators know when to use extra carbon filtration to preserve the quality 

of local drinking water. This planning information saves water companies money 

because it takes tons of additional activated charcoal to produce potable water during a HAB event. Data for the seasonal and weekly HAB forecasts come from an 

instrument called a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, 

carried aboard a NASA environmental observation satellite called Aqua.

During FY 2012, NOAA developed a Web-based collection of 7,800 historical 

U.S. shoreline topographic images—the earliest dating back to 1841. The NOAA 
70Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

Historical Shoreline Survey Viewer (http://specialprojects.nos.noaa.gov/tools/

shorelinesurvey.html) allows users to view these historical images in Google 

Earth along with current satellite-derived shoreline images to see how U.S. 

coastlines have changed over time. The tool also provides data download 

options for users who wish to conduct more advanced analyses in Geographic 

Information Systems.

International Trade Administration

Industry and Trade Policy

The Office of Transportation and Machinery (OTM) participated in the planning and implementation process for the Next Generation Air Transportation 

System (NextGen) through the interagency Joint Planning and Development 

Office (JPDO), which oversees the initiative. OTM staff initiated collaboration 

with the Aerospace Industries Association to form a NextGen Vendors Group 

to improve outreach to industry, garner market intelligence, create strategies for 

increased foreign market access, and build a catalog of NextGen-related products 

and services to help promote exports. OTM cohosted a matchmaking briefing 

for the NextGen Vendors Group at the Air Traffic Control (ATC) Global 2012 

Exhibition and Conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with foreign air navigation service providers.

OTM staff worked with the FAA, the Transportation Security Administration 

(TSA), NASA, and the U.S. Air Force (USAF) in preparations for the International 

Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) 12th Air Navigation Conference (ANC-12) 

in Montreal in November 2012, providing the Commerce perspective on various 

topics, including required navigational performance, remotely piloted aircraft, and 

satellite navigation. OTM staff worked with the FAA, the Export-Import (Ex-Im) 

Bank, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the Small Business Administration 

(SBA), the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the U.S. Trade and 

Development Agency (USTDA) to produce and distribute a brochure that lists 

U.S. Government sources of funding for air traffic management renovation projects around the world and provides information on U.S. vendors of NextGen 
71Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

equipment and services. The brochure fulfilled a request from ICAO member countries for addressing how members will finance required system upgrades. OTM also 

hosted a delegation of Nepalese officials (including the President of the Federation 

of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries), representatives from U.S. 

airport design companies, and officials from USTDA and Ex-Im Bank. The participants discussed current and planned airport and aviation infrastructure projects 

in Nepal, plans by the Nepalese Airlines Corporation to purchase supplemental 

aircraft, the potential market for new helicopters and general aviation aircraft, and 

the competitive market in Nepal.

OTM continued its participation in aviation security activities, including work 

on the JPDO Aviation Security Working Group. Through the JPDO, whose other 

members include DHS, DOD, and the FAA, OTM staff participated in meetings 

to improve interagency coordination of NextGen research and contributed to discussions of the potential impact of abnormal solar activity and high-altitude electromagnetic pulse events/attacks, leveraging International Trade Administration 

(ITA) and White House resources. OTM staff also facilitated meetings between 

aviation security trade associations and a delegation from the Netherlands looking 

to partner with U.S. firms to make The Hague the gateway to the European Union 

(EU) security market.

Throughout the year, OTM organized and led three meetings of the Industry 

Trade Advisory Committee for Aerospace Equipment (ITAC 1). The committee 

provides advice to the Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative on 

aerospace-related trade policy issues.

ITA continued to support the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on issues 

relating to the enforcement of U.S. rights under the World Trade Organization 

concerning trade in civil aircraft. In particular, OTM has provided support for 

the ongoing U.S.-EU trade dispute over subsidies to manufacturers of large civil 

aircraft, providing industry expertise in areas relating to changes in the market and 

actions of the major stakeholders.

ITA’s OTM and Office of Financial Service Industries (OFSI) continued to participate in the Group on the Sector Understanding on Export Credits for Civil 

Aircraft (the “Aircraft Sector Understanding,” or ASU) at the Organization for 

Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The governments of almost 
72Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

all countries with major aircraft manufacturers are signatories to the ASU, an 

annex to the OECD Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits, which 

establishes rules for export credit agencies. The OECD rules aim to ensure that 

government-provided export financing is not a competitive factor in civil aircraft 

sales competitions. A new ASU, which had been completed in early 2011, will go 

into full effect in 2013. As a member of the U.S. delegation, ITA helped ensure 

that the interests of industry were addressed as the new ASU was implemented 

and provided advice on how Ex-Im Bank programs affect the aerospace industry.

ITA and NOAA continued their active participation in the implementation of 

the current National Space Policies, which include industrial base and competitiveness issues. ITA’s OTM actively participated in the implementation of several 

actions that were identified in the June 2010 National Space Policy, which revised 

and updated several aspects of the previous policies. In order to ensure that commercial interests continue to be adequately addressed, OTM and NOAA continued to ensure that all of the policies’ implementation actions will improve U.S. 

industry’s competitiveness, stimulate the American economy, increase exports, and 

create U.S. jobs.

OTM continues to represent commercial remote sensing satellite industry interests within the Remote Sensing Interagency Working Group (RSIWG), led by the 

State Department. The RSIWG coordinates policy for the export of commercial 

remote sensing satellite systems and negotiates government-to-government agreements that address the safeguarding of those systems’ technology. The RSIWG 

consulted with several foreign countries on satellite cooperation and met with 

representatives from industry to understand the impact on industry.

ITA continued to play an important role in promoting U.S. aerospace trade 

interests as the industry faced mounting competition from abroad. ITA participated 

in and organized trade events and provided advocacy to support U.S. companies 

in international aerospace competitions, including commercial sales of aircraft, 

helicopters, airport construction, communications, and remote sensing satellites; 

commercial projects; and air traffic management projects.

In July 2012, ITA organized and supported the Commerce Department’s participation in the Farnborough International Airshow and arranged senior-level 

meetings for the Under Secretary for International Trade with foreign government 
73Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

and industry officials as well as U.S. industry executives. ITA’s OTM met with 

numerous U.S. and foreign government and industry officials to discuss ongoing 

policy issues impacting the competitiveness of U.S. industry.

Industry and Trade Promotion

In FY 2012, ITA’s U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service (US&FCS) Aerospace 

Team recorded 249 export successes valued at over $1.9 billion. An export success 

is an activity in which Department of Commerce personnel effectively assist a U.S. 

company with identifying new international sales channels or resolving an issue 

that is hindering an export sale. Commercial Service (CS) personnel impacted 

deals with small- and medium-sized companies, as well as larger corporations, such 

as Bell Helicopter, Boeing, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon.

The CS Aerospace Team held over 500 counseling sessions with U.S. aerospace 

companies, helping them to resolve international trade issues, identify new export 

markets and develop strategies for entering those markets.

The CS Aerospace Team participated in 45 domestic and international aerospace trade events at which CS Aerospace Team members supported U.S. industry 

with one-on-one counseling sessions, arranged individualized business-to-business 

meetings with international business partners, and provided additional export 

counseling services. ITA trade show support generated hundreds of trade leads 

for participating companies, allowing them to enter or expand their exports to 

international markets. These international trade events included the Farnborough 

International Airshow, the Aerospace Trade Mission to Canada, the Seoul Air 

Show, the South Africa Aerospace and Defense Show, the Dubai Air Show, and 

the Seattle Aerospace Defense Supplier Summit, among others.

Bureau of Industry and Security

Export Control Jurisdiction of Commercial Satellites and Related Components

Section 1248 of the National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2010 

(Public Law 111-84) provides that the Secretaries of Defense and State shall carry 
74Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

out an assessment of the risks associated with removing satellites and related 

components from the United States Munitions List (USML). The Departments 

delivered the 1248 Report to Congress in April 2012. The report summarizes a 

risk assessment of U.S. space export control policy, which concludes that most 

communication and lower-performing remote sensing satellites and related components can be moved from the USML to the Commerce Control List (CCL) 

without harm to national security. In particular, the Departments believe that the 

following items are more appropriately designated as dual-use items on the CCL 

and controlled under the Export Administration Regulations: communications 

satellites that do not contain classified components; remote sensing satellites with 

performance parameters below certain thresholds; and systems, subsystems, parts, 

and components associated with these satellites and with performance parameters 

below thresholds specified for items remaining on the USML.
75Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

DOI

The Department of the Interior has a responsibility to monitor land-cover conditions and changes in the United States. This responsibility includes monitoring 

wildlife habitat, coastal changes, fires, and natural resources. Many of the applications and techniques developed for analysis are also applied to global resource 

management and even planetary science. To effectively monitor these conditions 

and changes, Interior scientists rely on a number of remote sensing archives and 

capabilities. The Interior agencies work closely with commercial data providers, 

NASA analysts, and state agencies.

New Mexico’s Abandoned Mine Land Program used terrestrial light detection 

and ranging (LIDAR) data to support an engineering project in Silver City. The 

project involved evaluating and safeguarding the Legal Tender Mine upon which 

the surrounding community established a system of trails. Multiple open stopes 

(excavations) are scattered across the abandoned mine that is visited by local 

townspeople and often used by wildlife. Considering the community’s desire to 

continue to utilize the aboveground area as a hiking and biking area, an engineering contract was established to assess mine wall stability. Terrestrial LIDAR data 

were collected, and a high-definition laser scanning survey of the mine interior 

was provided to the engineers to create a three-dimensional (3D) visualization 

(figure 1) that was used to determine the stability and strength of the below-ground 

pillars and walls. This information is essential to support the recreational planning 

efforts for the site.
76Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

Figure 1. This image shows a side view of a LIDAR 3D model of the large underground chamber, pillars, and top surface draped with an aerial photograph.

Vegetation structure plays an important role in the partitioning of energy, the 

movement and fate of water, and the provision of habitat. How vegetation structure changes as a function of climate (phenology) is of interest for climate, carbon cycling, hydrologic, and biologic modeling, as well as resource management. 

Multiple sources of remotely sensed data are being used to develop metrics that 

provide insight into the changing phenology of vegetation in Shenandoah National 

Park, Virginia. The primary goals of this research are to develop efficient and accurate means of remotely sensing vegetation structure and to understand the importance of these measurements for hydrologic and biologic science. Increasing the 

length of record from remote sensing systems and continuing the development of 

new sensor technology and missions present both opportunities and challenges for 

the study of vegetation structure.

Conservation planners associated with the Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks 

(GCPO) and Gulf Coast Prairie (GCP) Landscape Conservation Cooperative 

(LCC) require contemporary and standardized vegetation maps from coastal Texas 

to Alabama. Marsh salinity zone maps are used by conservation planners to model 

habitat availability for priority taxa (e.g., waterfowl and alligator) and for understanding impacts to priority habitats. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) 

National Wetlands Research Center has been funded by the U.S. Geological 

Survey South Central Climate Science Center to map marsh vegetation salinity 
77Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

classes (i.e., fresh, intermediate, brackish, and saline) from Corpus Christi, Texas, 

to Mobile Bay, Alabama. Researchers from Texas A&M University-Kingsville and 

the University of Louisiana-Lafayette collected ground reference data via helicopter surveys. Imagery from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) 5 and Satellite Pour 

l’Observation de la Terre (SPOT) 4 and 5 were combined with elevation data 

and other ancillary data (e.g., National Wetlands Inventory [NWI] maps and the 

Coastal Change Assessment Program [C-CAP]). These data were classified into 

marsh salinity classes using classification and regression tree (CART) analyses and 

combined with existing classifications of marsh vegetation salinity in Louisiana to 

develop a contemporary and continuous coastal vegetation layer for much of the 

Gulf of Mexico coast.

Many low-lying U.S. coastal communities are threatened by tsunami hazards 

and could be inundated only minutes following a substantial local earthquake. 

To support tsunami preparedness efforts in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, USGS 

geographers modeled pedestrian-evacuation travel times using high-resolution 

imagery (e.g., 1-meter, 2011 National Agriculture Imagery Program [NAIP)] and 

LIDAR-derived, 1-meter elevation data. Modeling results were merged with various 

population data to estimate the number of people in each community who might 

not have enough time to evacuate before waves arrived from tsunamis associated 

with a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake. This information has helped the 

state of Washington begin planning for tsunami vertical-evacuation structures in 

southwest Washington.

Oblique digital photography was collected along the coast in the aftermath of 

Hurricane Sandy from Montauk Point, New York, to Cape Lookout, North Carolina, 

from November 4 through November 6, 2012. The imagery allowed scientists to 

document and assess the damage caused by the storm, capturing the scope of the 

event throughout the entire impact zone. The data were collected using a Nikon D1X 

digital camera while flying along the coastline at an elevation of 500 feet and about 

1,000 feet offshore. The platform used for this flight was a Piper Navajo Chieftain. 

GPS data collected during the flight allowed geolocation of the imagery.

Collection of the post-Sandy imagery is part of an ongoing effort to document 

the effects of severe coastal storms. More than 43 flights during the past 17 years 

have documented both pre- and post-storm conditions along the coast. This 
78Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

imagery is used to analyze conditions following a storm, to help direct responders 

and researchers to areas of high impact after a storm, and to inform the public of 

the impact of the storm through the USGS Web site, often before people are able 

to return to their property.

Sagebrush ecosystems are among the most abundant and threatened habitats in 

North America. Exotic plant invasions, oil and gas drilling, housing developments, 

altered fire patterns, over-grazing, climate change, and other factors all contribute 

to the degradation and fragmentation of sagebrush ecosystems. These impacts can 

have detrimental effects on species that depend on sagebrush, such as sage grouse. 

Effective management and preservation of habitats require long-term landscape 

knowledge that is local in detail. Geographic Information Systems (GISes) utilizing 

satellite imagery can provide these kinds of information, but sagebrush habitats 

have traditionally proven to be a difficult environment for remote sensing. In 2006, 

the USGS Fort Collins Science Center (FORT) and Earth Resources Observation 

and Science (EROS) Center, in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management 

(BLM), began an effort to combine intensive, targeted field sampling with three 

resolutions of satellite imagery to map and characterize sagebrush habitat for the 

entire state of Wyoming.

BLM staff are studying the impacts of agriculture development on water 

resources in a remote region along the Nevada-Utah border. BLM utilized historical Landsat imagery to build a chronology of land-use changes in the region. Given 

a rich archive of scenes dating back decades, Landsat is the only data source of its 

kind with the required spatial and temporal detail to enable BLM to build such a 

database. BLM evaluated 76 Landsat scenes dating back to 1995 in order to build 

a detailed image-based chronology of center pivot agricultural field establishment.

Tidewater glaciers are a prominent feature along the southeastern and southcentral coasts of Alaska and play an important role in landscape and ecosystem 

processes. Many tidewater glaciers calve large icebergs into the marine environment; the icebergs then provide important resting and pupping areas for harbor 

seals, a species of conservation concern in Alaska. Glacier Bay National Park historically supported one of the largest aggregations of harbor seals in Alaska, but the 

population has declined by up to 75 percent since 1992. Glacier Bay National Park, 

in collaboration with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute and 
79Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

the National Marine Mammal Laboratory, is using GPS, GIS, and remote sensing 

technologies to monitor trends in the abundance of harbor seals in Glacier Bay 

and to assess the relationship between the availability of glacial ice and harbor 

seal spatial distribution. Aerial digital imagery of the primary glacial ice site at 

Johns Hopkins Inlet provides a permanent record of seal distribution and captures 

important information regarding ice conditions and characteristics in Glacier Bay.

The National Park Service (NPS) Alaska Regional Office GIS team has been 

using the newest SPOT 5 satellite imagery to update hydrography features in the 

National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) within Denali National Park and Preserve. 

The NHD is the surface water layer of the USGS National Map, which contains 

features such as lakes, ponds, glaciers, streams, rivers, canals, dams, and stream 

gages. Much of the current NHD in Alaska was derived from original USGS 

topographic mapping based on 1950s aerial photography and compiled at a scale 

of 1:63,360. Compared to current imagery and spatial layers that are derived from 

more recent mapping efforts, the older data contain positional inaccuracies and 

cartographic inconsistencies (e.g., disconnected rivers, streams flowing uphill, and 

displaced water bodies). Given the natural changes in surface hydrology due to 

the dynamic nature of water flow and the accelerating influence of the changing 

climate, updating the original NHD for Alaska is a key mapping priority.

The NPS Alaska regional compliance team frequently uses aerial photography 

and satellite imagery to convey resource conditions and locations to the public in 

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documents. These images accurately 

portray the lay of the land and affected resources, and the reviewers find them 

aesthetically pleasing and informative. Satellite imagery has been used in conjunction with wetlands field data for a proposed access road through a sensitive area to 

a new barge landing location near Brooks Camp in Katmai National Park. This 

information has been used by engineers to realign the landing site and storage area 

to avoid wetlands except for a small culvert for drainage between two wetlands. 

This imagery is extremely helpful for communications with staff such as planners 

and engineers and with the general public.

Mining Coal Basin Mine deposits in Pitkin County, Colorado, began in 1895 

and continued until 1908, when production ceased for many years. Mid-continent 

Resources began producing coking coal at the Coal Basin Mine in 1956 and 
80Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

continued until the mine shut down in 1991. The state of Colorado wanted to 

test the utility of an Unmanned Aircraft System to map abandoned mine land 

features as well as vegetation cover on the site. In 2012, Office of Surface Mining 

(OSM) inspectors and USGS and BLM Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) staff 

supported the state in collecting high-resolution images using an RQ-11A Raven 

UAS. The Coal Basin Mine site is at 10,000 feet in elevation. The high elevation, 

associated low air pressures, and high winds proved to be problematic for consistent 

collection of imagery. However, important information was gathered on this mission to determine the capability of the RQ-11A Raven at high altitudes.

The New Mexico Abandoned Mine Land Program has used remote sensing 

techniques to monitor land cover change over time. High-resolution satellite 

images and aerial photography, in conjunction with ground surveys, were used to 

measure reclamation success for the Swastika Mine and the Dutchman Canyon 

project in northern New Mexico. The objectives of using remotely sensed data 

in this project were to 1) develop a baseline dataset to support multi-year change 

detection analysis of vegetation and stream channel form over a large area and 

2) develop the methodology to apply to other potential reclamation projects. The 

geomorphic reclamation plan called for the coal spoils to be redistributed and buried beneath a reformed valley. The reclamation also reformed the drainages to a 

more natural landform. After the geomorphic reclamation construction process, 

wetland vegetation was planted in and along the channel. Final plantings of willow and cottonwood poles, native shrubs, and seeds of grass/forb mixes is expected 

before summer 2013.

Earth’s natural satellite (the moon) is currently under observation by the 

NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft. USGS Astrogeology 

staff are involved in a number of studies as part of the science team for the Lunar 

Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, which is obtaining hundreds of terabytes of highresolution (0.5–2-meter-per-pixel) images of the moon; the DIVINER infrared 

imaging spectrometer; and the Miniature Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) radar system, 

which produces 7.5-meter-per-pixel views inside the permanently shadowed polar 

craters where ice may be found. Controlled mosaics of the optical and radar images 

produced by Astrogeology are setting records as the largest products of these types 

in the history of lunar exploration. Astrogeology scientists are playing a leading 
81Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

role in cataloging and understanding the diversity of explosive volcanic features on 

the Moon, some of which could contain high concentrations of materials useful for 

future astronauts. Several “new” or previously unrecognized small lunar volcanoes 

have been identified recently, suggesting that these kinds of eruptions were much 

more common on the moon than believed earlier.

Mars is a major focus of U.S. and international space programs, with five currently operational spacecraft: Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, Mars Exploration 

Rover Opportunity, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and Mars Science Laboratory 

Curiosity. The USGS Astrogeology Science Center is involved in all of these missions as science team members and supports mission operations, ground software 

development, and data archiving. The USGS leads the development of software to 

process raw images into geolocated data products and the creation of topographic 

maps from imagery. The topographic maps have been especially useful in planning 

the traverses of the Mars rovers, in finding landing sites that are devoid of rocky 

terrain and slopes, and in adjusting the software parameters for the altitude-sensing 

radar systems used by Mars landers. Data and imagery returned by the rovers confirm the accuracy of the USGS topographic maps. Science research subjects range 

from bizarre solar-powered “geysers” in the dry-ice polar caps to giant turbulent lava 

flows that formed in the last few million years, and from imaging microscopic salt 

grains to global-scale rearrangement of windblown dust.

Information on the potential, locations, and mechanisms of carbon sequestration is essential in order to formulate carbon management and sequestration policies and strategies. This USGS project fulfills the requirements of section 712 of 

the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 by conducting a comprehensive assessment of the potential for carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas 

emissions reductions from terrestrial ecosystems across the United States. Remote 

sensing information from satellites (e.g., Landsat and MODIS) has been used to 

quantify the spatial and temporal dynamics of land-use and land-cover change, 

disturbances (insects, hurricanes, fire, etc.), and ecosystem performance (e.g., net 

primary productivity) that are essential for this assessment.

In 2012, the USGS completed mapping historical wildfires (1972 to 2010) for 

the full Mojave bioregion of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah using Landsat 

data. This work documented wildfire information related to burn perimeters, 
82Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

severity, frequency, and post-fire vegetation characteristics, which is useful to 

local, state, and Federal land managers. A statistically robust field sampling of current vegetation and seedbank characteristics continued in 2012. This project is 

expected to result in a better understanding of the effects of fires in the Mojave 

Desert ecosystem and treatment effectiveness.

In summer 2010, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural 

Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) launched the Migratory Bird Habitat 

Initiative (MBHI) in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The goal of 

the program is to enhance migratory bird habitat on private lands and thus offset 

habitat loss caused by the oil spill. Rice fields and other lands that could be flooded 

were managed to create mudflats during the migration period. In collaboration with 

NRCS and the University of Delaware, researchers at the USGS National Wetlands 

Research Center used weather surveillance radar, a mobile marine radar system, a 

thermal infrared camera, and ground-based visual counts to assess migratory bird 

use of fields enrolled in the MBHI. The weather radar analyses included MBHI fields 

within 80 kilometers of the weather radars located at Houston, Texas; Lake Charles, 

Louisiana; Memphis, Tennessee; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Paducah, Kentucky. 

In the region around Lake Charles, additional mobile radar, thermal imaging, and 

visual surveys were conducted on 12 sites (69 fields). Preliminary radar data analysis 

indicates that the bird density of MBHI fields increased in response to the management activities implemented in September and October.

In the arid Southwest, much remains unknown about how migratory birds use 

different habitats when they stop to rest and refuel during migration. The relatively unpopulated and remote expanses of the West present logistical and cost 

challenges to field-based studies of migration ecology. USGS scientists at the Fort 

Collins Science Center and the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center turned 

to data collected remotely by weather surveillance radars (Weather Surveillance 

Radar 88 Doppler [WSR-88D]) and satellites (land-use and land-cover data from 

the USGS National Map Seamless Server). These data sources were used to calculate the densities and distributions of migrating birds using different stopover 

habitats across the southwestern United States. Results indicate that parts of 

Arizona and New Mexico upland forest support high densities of migrants, as do 

human-developed habitats located in areas with little upland forest. Scrub/shrub 
83Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

and grassland habitats support low to intermediate densities, but because these 

habitats dominate the southwestern landscape, they may support larger numbers 

of migrating birds than previously recognized. These results are important to those 

working to conserve migratory birds in the Southwest.

The only wild and self-sustaining population of whooping cranes migrates 

through the Central Flyway of North America, traveling between wintering grounds 

along the Gulf Coast of Texas and breeding grounds in Canada. Over the past few 

decades, growth of this population has been positive and steady, but, with only 

approximately 300 individuals, recovery remains tenuous. In an effort to recognize 

and quantify potential barriers to recovery, USGS and other project partners have 

captured 57 cranes and marked them with Platform Transmitting Terminals with 

GPS capabilities. These transmitters use a satellite uplink and acquire multiple GPS 

locations per day over several years. The precision of the GPS data allows researchers to discover where birds reside during the breeding season in Canada, during 

the winter season in coastal Texas and other previously unknown areas, and at 

hundreds of stopover sites on public and private lands during migrations each spring 

and fall. Analysis of these data provides reliable scientific information to assist the 

Canadian Wildlife Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in 

future management and recovery efforts for this species.

The Eastern Population (EP) of Sandhill cranes is rapidly expanding in size and 

geographic range. The core of their breeding range is in Wisconsin, Michigan, 

and southern Ontario; however, the EP range has expanded in all directions as 

the population has grown. Little is known about the geographic extent of breeding, migration, and wintering ranges of EP cranes or about the migration chronology and use of staging areas. Between 2009 and 2012, GPS satellite Platform 

Transmitting Terminals (PTTs) were attached to 30 EP Sandhill cranes to assess 

their movements throughout the year. Cranes were tagged at refuges in Indiana, 

Minnesota, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. Location and migration data for these birds 

are currently being received from Collecte Localisation Satellites (CLS) America, 

Inc., Maryland, translated by software developed by North Star Science and 

Technology, LLC, Maryland, and viewed using Environmental Systems Research 

Institute (Esri) ArcGIS software.
84Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

The Migratory Bird Program within the USFWS is currently undertaking 

multiple research projects to evaluate the effects of climate change on migratory 

bird populations in North America. The goal is to adapt monitoring programs 

and population models that inform the harvest management of waterfowl species 

in the face of climate change. National Environmental Prediction Center North 

American Regional Reanalysis (NCEP/NARR) climate data and percent surface 

water products derived from MODIS (Yellowstone Ecological Research Center 

Customized Online Aggregation & Summarization Tool for Environmental Rasters 

[COASTER], http://COASTERdata.net) provide information on historical trends 

in precipitation, temperature, and waterfowl habitat conditions in the Canadian 

and U.S. prairies. These data, along with waterfowl population data from the longterm Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey, are used to model spatial 

patterns in density dependence and waterfowl population response to changing 

habitat conditions. Incorporating climate change predictions into these models, 

in the form of temperature and precipitation trends, allows scientists to simulate 

how population distributions and dynamics may shift and to identify strategies to 

adapt monitoring efforts and harvest management models in order to better manage waterfowl populations in the face of a changing climate.

Malheur Lake at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon, 

is the largest freshwater marsh in the western United States and historically one 

of the most productive migratory waterbird habitats along the Pacific Flyway. The 

lake’s size is highly dynamic, a result of being shallow, within a closed basin, and 

replenished primarily by runoff from spring snowmelt. To improve our baseline 

knowledge for habitat management and monitoring, a terrain model of the lake 

bottom was needed in order to construct a better area-depth-volume relationship 

and evaluate lake-size averages and extremes. LIDAR data and traditional surveying 

methods are unsuitable because of water and substrate composition. Shorelines were 

delineated from a series of freely available Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite images 

from 1985 through 2011. Image dates were compared to historical lake-level staff 

gage readings. From the imagery, “contour” lines were delineated around the lake 

shoreline to help define a large portion of a new terrain model. The analysis showed 

that the lake area typically fluctuates between an average low of 25,000 acres and an 

average high of 45,000 acres, with recent extremes of 500 and 124,000 acres.
85Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

The USGS uses Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite 

data and weather information to assess fuel conditions and create the Fire Potential 

Index (FPI) to identify areas most susceptible to fire ignition. The forecast for large 

fire probability has been improved to include all land nationwide. The forecast is 

based upon historical large fire occurrence from the Monitoring Trends in Burn 

Severity project and FPI. The USGS produces seven-day forecast maps showing 

the probability distributions for the number of ignitions and number of large fires 

(>1,000 acres) for each Predictive Service Area (PSA).

Historically, fire has been influential in shaping and maintaining the biotic 

components of the Greater Everglades ecosystem. As a result, Everglades National 

Park has been at the forefront of NPS fire policy development. In 1948, Everglades 

National Park was the first to allow prescribed burns and one of the first parks 

to develop a fire management plan. Big Cypress National Preserve began its fire 

program in 1978. Since then, fire management researchers have acquired a substantial amount of wildfire history data in the form of paper records, tabular data, 

fire perimeters hand drawn on 1:24,000-scale USGS topographic maps, aerial 

photography from 1940 to 2010, and GPS perimeters. Fire history geodatabases 

were constructed from this collection of data to describe in detail the location and 

attributes of fires that have occurred from 1948 through 2011. The important role 

of wildfire on the landscape makes the availability of these data in a GIS format 

vital for many park planning and operational functions, including ongoing fire 

management activities, fire ecology studies, and a variety of resource management 

issues related to the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan.

There is a growing consensus that natural disturbances will intensify under 

forecasted global climate change. The southwestern United States, for example, is 

expected to undergo both extended periods of drought and longer wildfire seasons. 

The temporal response of desert grassland communities to the effects of drought 

and fire is being examined using a time series of Landsat Thematic Mapper images 

from 1984 through 2011 (n = 309 scenes). The study area is the 474-squarekilometer Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge (BANWR) in Arizona, where 

refuge managers and surrounding private landowners have focused on repeated, 

prescribed fire as the primary habitat restoration tool for these grasslands.
86Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

A time series of vegetation cover using the Soil-Adjusted Total Vegetation Index 

(SATVI) was calculated by a science team. The SATVI was independently calibrated and validated with plot data from multiple long-term grassland monitoring 

databases in the region. Using a comprehensive fire atlas that contained 25 years of 

mapped information from 211 prescribed fires and wildfires, we 1) located grassland 

areas with multiple overlapping fire, 2) correlated periods of fire and drought based 

on the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), and 3) stratified our sample areas by 

fire return and drought periodicity. Within these areas, we collected total vegetation cover information using 20-meter × 50-meter line intercept plots (n = 91) and 

calculated cover of bare soil, annuals, native and non-native grasses, woody plants, 

and overall species richness.

Vegetation sampling and remote sensing results indicate that grass and woody 

plant covers in areas that received multiple (four) prescribed fires were indistinguishable from those found in unburned areas when those prescribed fires occurred 

in years when the growing season experienced extremely low precipitation and, 

ultimately, the positive ecological effects from earlier fire were negated. Areas 

that had fewer prescribed burns but were followed by average or slightly below 

average precipitation had higher grass cover and lower woody cover than matched 

unburned areas. The results provide range managers with information to understand the optimal timing of prescribed burning and fire suppression activities that 

promote ecosystem resilience and habitat restoration.

The USGS, working in partnership with the interagency Multi-Resolution 

Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium, is producing the next version of the 

National Land Cover Database (NLCD). NLCD 2011 data products are derived 

from Landsat and quantify land cover and urban imperviousness changes between 

2006 and 2011 for the conterminous United States and Alaska at 30-meter resolution. Monitoring land-cover change with scientifically credible geospatial data 

layers provides support for a broad spectrum of applications in land management, 

environmental studies, modeling, and policy decisions. These data (and associated 

products) require continuous production, updating, and improvement to provide 

the most relevant land-cover information for the Nation, with updates planned at 

five-year intervals. All NLCD information can be accessed at http://www.mrlc.gov.
87Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

The Monitoring Climate and Landscape Change in the Desert Southwest 

research program utilizes a combination of in situ and remote sensing technologies 

and algorithms to monitor the changing landscape of the Navajo Nation due to 

climatological influences. The tribal land, equivalent in size to the state of West 

Virginia, is the least instrumented and least climatologically studied area of the 

United States. Landsat, MODIS, and GOES imagery; GPS; terrestrial LIDAR data; 

weather station data; and time-series imagery are being combined and correlated to 

develop novel remote sensing algorithms to determine drought impact and severity, dust storm vulnerability, and sand dune mobility. These methodologies are 

intended to help the Navajo Nation and the surrounding region better assess and 

plan for impacts of climatic change on the reservation.

Land use in areas near or adjacent to protected areas can influence the success of protected areas as a conservation method. The USGS Western Geographic 

Science Center developed a methodology to assess the threat of future land-use 

conversions to California’s protected areas under different climate/emission scenarios. Utilizing spatially explicit, annual, scenario-based projections of land use and 

land cover (LULC) from 2006 to 2100 produced by the USGS LandCarbon project 

(based on data sources derived from the Landsat archive), USGS staff examined 

scenario outcomes at the state level and by conversion type. We determined the 

amount of protected area for each of California’s unique ecoregions and mapped 

the footprint of projected LULC change per scenario. Conversion potential was 

examined spatially against protected areas to identify potential threats to existing 

protected areas. Variability between scenario outcomes enabled the identification 

of ecoregions particularly susceptible to LULC change pressures. The identification of protected areas in close proximity to lands with a high likelihood of future 

conversion can help prioritize future conservation efforts.

The USGS conducts national-scale mineral resource and geoenvironmental 

assessments to map and characterize mineral exposures related to mined and 

unmined hydrothermally altered rocks and mine waste. The presence and mineralogy of altered rocks are important factors determining the occurrence of concealed 

mineral deposits. Investigations have determined that sulfide-bearing altered rocks 

and mine waste are diffuse sources of acidic solutions that can transport metals 
88Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

into the hydrologic system. These rocks and waste materials contain minerals that 

can be identified using spectral analysis remote sensing data.

The Landsat Program is a joint effort of the USGS and NASA to gather Earth 

resource data using a series of moderate-resolution land-observing satellites that 

can record both natural (floods, wildfires, insect damage, invasive species) and 

human-induced (forest clearcuts, crop types, agricultural irrigation) changes on 

the landscape. Whereas NASA’s role is the development and launch of Earthobserving instruments and spacecraft, the USGS is responsible for satellite flight 

operations and all ground data reception, processing, archiving, product generation, and distribution. For over 40 years, the primary objective of the Landsat 

Program has been to record land-surface conditions across the globe through the 

collection of consistently calibrated image data.

In fiscal year 2012, the Landsat operations team at the USGS Earth Resources 

Observation and Science (EROS) Center entered over 150,000 new Landsat  5 

and 7 images into the Landsat archive, plus more than 600,000 historical Landsat 

images provided by current or former International Cooperator receiving stations. 

During the same period, users downloaded over 3 million Landsat scenes from 

EROS servers, with each scene covering over 12,000 square miles. Also, most of 

the final work was completed at EROS by the Landsat 8 ground-system development team in preparation for the February 11, 2013, launch of the satellite.

To assess the uses and value of Landsat imagery, social scientists and economists 

at the USGS Fort Collins Science Center completed an extensive, highly informative survey of Landsat imagery users, with followup surveys planned to provide 

longitudinal data on how the users and uses of the imagery are changing over time 

in response to changes in the provision of the imagery. The 2012 survey was completed by over 11,000 people registered as Landsat users with USGS. The results 

show that Landsat imagery is applied in projects at numerous scales around the 

globe by users in many sectors. Landsat imagery is highly valued by these people, 

who identified considerable economic benefits from the use of the imagery. Also 

in 2012, case studies focusing on the use of Landsat imagery in water, forestry, and 

mineral and energy exploration applications provided an in-depth look at the market and nonmarket value of the imagery. These efforts document the widespread 

and increasing use and value of Landsat imagery.
89Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

After a major disaster, satellite images or aerial photographs are frequently the fastest, most effective way to determine the scope and severity of the event. With that 

goal, the USGS operates the Hazard Data Distribution System (HDDS) to process 

and deliver satellite and aerial imagery in near-real time during natural or humancaused disasters (e.g., hurricanes or oil spills). For example, after Hurricane Katrina 

struck New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2005, Landsat satellite images showed when and 

where the floodwaters drained. High-resolution satellite imagery showed the landscape and building damages before and after the magnitude-7 earthquake hit Haiti 

in January of 2010. More recently, the USGS used satellite imagery to help assess the 

scope of damage from Hurricane Sandy. The imagery is available to all U.S. emergency management officials at the Federal, state, local, and tribal levels.

Remote sensing information from Landsat and similar moderate-resolution, 

Earth-observing satellites provides measurable economic benefits to society. For 

a case study of 35 counties in northeastern Iowa, USGS scientists and economists demonstrated the value of information (VOI) from remote sensing by using 

improved agricultural production and nitrate-leaching estimates enabled by Earthobserving satellites. As compared to the situation without satellite information, 

these estimates can provide additional benefits to society through a more optimal 

allocation of production without sacrificing public health and groundwater quality 

in an agricultural region. In Iowa, groundwater pumped from aquifers is used as the 

source for drinking water by as many as 80 percent of residents. For this application 

in northeastern Iowa, the marginal benefit of the VOI (in 2010 dollars) is estimated 

to be $838 million ± $197 million per year, which corresponds to a net present value 

of $38.1 billion ± $8.8 billion for that flow of benefits into the foreseeable future.

A $3.5 million, 5-year grant from NASA’s Making Earth System Data Records 

for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) Program was recently awarded to 

a USGS-led multi-agency team of scientists studying future global food security. 

The proposal is entitled “Global Cropland Area Database (GCAD30) Through 

Landsat and MODIS Data Fusion for the Years 2010 and 1990 and Its Dynamics 

over Four Decades Using AVHRR and MODIS.” The main goal of this project 

is to produce consistent and unbiased estimates of global agricultural cropland 

areas, types, watering methods, and cropping intensities using multi-sensor Earth 

Observation Data from satellites and cropland mapping algorithms. The project 
90Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

will create a Global Cropland Area Database consisting of four distinct products: 

cropland extent/area, crop type, irrigated versus rainfed crops, and cropping intensity. The data and products will make a significant contribution toward addressing 

global water and food security in the 21st century, taking into consideration the 

complexities of ballooning populations; greater nutritional demands from expanding economies; and the virtual water and food trade in modern, globally interlinked economies.

Using remote sensing and non–remote sensing approaches, current research 

presents an exhaustive overview of global croplands and their water use. Global 

cropland area estimates from different studies are quite close and range between 

1.47 and 1.53 billion hectares. However, significant uncertainties exist in determining irrigated areas that consume nearly 80 percent of all water used by humans. 

The estimates show that the total water use by global croplands varies between 

6,685 and 7,500 cubic kilometers per year and that of this total, around 4,586 cubic 

kilometers per year is consumed by rainfed croplands (green water use) and the 

rest is consumed by irrigated crops (blue water use). Irrigated areas use about 

2,099 cubic kilometers per year (1,180 cubic kilometers per year of blue water and 

the rest from rain that falls over irrigated croplands). However, 1.6 to 2.5 times the 

blue water required by irrigated croplands is actually withdrawn from reservoirs or 

groundwater, suggesting an irrigation efficiency of only between 40 and 62 percent. 

The weaknesses, trends, and future directions to precisely estimate the global croplands are examined. Finally, the research links global croplands and their water use 

to a paradigm for ensuring future food security.

Agricultural irrigation is a primary use of fresh water in the United States. It 

is difficult to accurately quantify the amount of water used for irrigation at large 

spatial scales. Remote sensing has been successfully used to map the amount of 

land under irrigation through time, particularly in arid regions. However, operational use of remote sensing to quantify water use for irrigation has not yet been 

realized. In addition, in the eastern United States, relatively lush nonagricultural 

vegetation cover, humid conditions, and smaller patch sizes of agricultural fields 

pose additional challenges for mapping irrigated land and for estimating water use 

through irrigation. The USGS Eastern Geography Science Center is exploring 

the combination of remotely sensed and detailed ground-based data to estimate 
91Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

water use for irrigation on intra-annual timescales in the East. The research leverages USGS remote sensing expertise and local knowledge of irrigation practices to 

develop and improve tools for water resource management.

To meet the demands of food security early warning, the Famine Early Warning 

Systems Network (FEWS NET) has prioritized the development and implementation of alternate capabilities to monitor growing-season conditions using satellite 

imagery and models. A new FEWS NET remote sensing product provides estimates 

of actual evapotranspiration (ETa), which is directly proportional to crop yield. The 

estimate is based on the Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEBop) 

model, expected to be published in 2013 in the Journal of American Water Resources 

Association (Senay et al.). The ETa products are important because drought is the 

climate hazard that most threatens rural livelihood systems in countries that 

receive the great majority (between $1 and $2 billion) of annual food assistance 

provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development through the Office of 

Food for Peace. In these countries, it is difficult to characterize location, condition, 

and magnitude of emerging food production problems due to sparsely located and 

late-reporting climate stations and extension services.

The ETa product monitors actual vegetation water use in near-real time across 

rainfed and irrigated agriculture, natural vegetation, and wetlands. Using MODIS 

data, the product is currently operational to a 1-kilometer resolution on eight-day, 

monthly, and seasonal time steps for Africa, central and southern Asia, and the 

conterminous United States.

The Bureau of Reclamation routinely monitors more than 3.5 million acres of 

agriculture and riparian vegetation along the Lower Colorado River from Hoover 

Dam to the Southerly International Boundary. Data generated include crop and 

riparian types, acreages, and associated water-use estimates. Remote sensing and 

GIS are the primary tools used for this activity. These data assist Reclamation 

in accounting for water use by each state and individual water user, analyzing 

needs, verifying fallowed lands for conservation programs, and performing other 

water management.

The Bureau of Reclamation is charged with measuring consumptive water use 

(water that is removed from a watershed) within the Colorado River Basin. Irrigated 

agriculture accounts for the majority of consumptive use. Historically, Reclamation 
92Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

staff have combined estimates of crop acreage with local weather and crop development information to estimate seasonal consumptive water use by agriculture, but 

actual water use can decline from reference values due to crop stress caused by 

salinity problems, damage due to pests or disease, or water shortage. Reclamation 

scientists are researching the use of remote sensing–based energy balance models 

to map actual consumptive water use by agricultural crops. Because crops under 

stress exhibit changes in surface reflectance and emitted thermal radiation, satellite measurements of these variables can be used in the energy balance models to 

provide a better estimate of actual consumptive use than traditional methods.

Remotely sensed measurements of surface albedo (reflectance) and emitted thermal radiation are used to estimate the net radiation available to drive the evapotranspiration (ET) process at each pixel location. Vegetation index values derived 

from satellite imagery are used to estimate the amount of heat lost to the soil and 

the air at each pixel. The residual net minus losses to soil and air represents the 

energy available to evaporate water at each pixel. The residuals are summed for 

a 24-hour period and converted to a daily depth of evaporated water, and local 

weather data are used to estimate daily water use between image acquisition dates. 

Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) 

images are uniquely suited for this work because 1) they offer the spectral bands 

in the visible through thermal wavelengths needed to characterize net radiation, 

2) their spatial resolution is adequate for mapping ET within individual agricultural 

fields, and 3) they are acquired on a frequent schedule that allows characterization 

of crop phenological development.
93Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

FCC

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) formulates rules and administers proceedings to facilitate the provision of commercial satellite services in the 

United States. It also issues licenses for the launch and operation of all nongovernmental U.S. satellites. Internationally, the FCC coordinates satellite radiofrequency usage with other countries. The FCC’s activities in FY  2012 related 

primarily to commercial communications satellites and Earth observation satellites.

The FCC took several significant actions in administrative and rule-making proceedings in FY 2012. In March 2012, the FCC released a Notice of Inquiry seeking 

comment on potential ways to free up radio frequencies to address the increased 

demand for mobile broadband services by removing unnecessary barriers to flexible 

use of 40 megahertz of radio frequencies currently assigned to the Mobile Satellite 

Service (MSS) in the 2-gigahertz band. In September 2012, the FCC began a comprehensive review of licensing and operating rules for satellite services by releasing 

a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposed changes in Part 25 of the FCC 

rules. The proposals were designed to modernize the rules to better reflect evolving 

technology, eliminate unnecessary technical and information filing requirements 

for applicants requesting space and earth station licenses, and reorganize and simplify existing requirements.

During FY 2012, the FCC, together with the National Telecommunications 

and Information Administration (NTIA), continued a testing process concerning interference with Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers that might be 

caused under a proposal by LightSquared Subsidiary, LLC, an MSS licensee, to 
94Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

use radio-frequency spectrum allocated to MSS for a terrestrial service that would 

provide mobile broadband service. Based on findings and recommendations from 

NTIA, on February 15, 2012, the FCC concluded that it was highly unlikely that 

LightSquared would be able to resolve interference concerns satisfactorily. The 

FCC therefore sought public comment on two proposals—setting aside a 2011 

order that conditionally approved the LightSquared proposal and modifying 

LightSquared’s satellite license to suspend LightSquared’s authority for terrestrial 

operations indefinitely.

On December 12, 2011, the FCC issued its third report and analysis of competitive market conditions with respect to domestic and international satellite communications services. The report focused on the 2008, 2009, and 2010 calendar years.

The FCC authorized a number of commercial communication satellite launches 

and operations. The authorizations include the following:

• October 14, 2011: To ViaSat, Inc., to launch and operate a satellite at the 

longitude 115.1° west orbit location.

• February 23, 2012: To Intelsat License, LLC, to launch and operate a 

replacement C-/Ku-band satellite at the longitude 53.0° west orbit location.

• March 15, 2012: To Intelsat License, LLC, to launch and operate a replacement C-/Ku-band satellite at the longitude 72.1° east orbit location.

• June 12, 2012: To EchoStar Satellite Operating Corporation to launch and 

operate a satellite at the longitude 101.9° west orbit location.

• June 22, 2012: To EchoStar Satellite Operating Corporation to launch and 

operate a satellite at the longitude 61.5° west orbit location.

• July 12, 2012: To DIRECTV Enterprises, LLC, to launch and operate a 

satellite at the longitude 79.0° west orbit location.

• July 26, 2012: To Intelsat License, LLC, to launch and operate a replacement C-/Ku-/Ka-band satellite at the longitude 68.5° east orbit location.

• August 3, 2012: To Hughes Network Systems, LLC, to launch and operate 

a satellite at the longitude 77.3° west orbit location.

• September 19, 2012: To Skybox Imaging, Inc., to launch and operate two 

nongeostationary remote sensing satellites.

The FCC granted a number of license modifications and Special Temporary 

Authorizations for satellite networks. Many involved routine testing or redeployment 
95Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

of satellites within a multi-satellite system. Several of these actions, however, warrant particular mention:

• October 26, 2011: The FCC granted DIRECTV Enterprises, LLC, authorization for a geostationary satellite at the longitude 99° west orbit location 

to expand its coverage to Puerto Rico.

• February 24, 2012: The FCC granted SES Americom, Inc., authorization 

to relocate satellite AMC-2 to operate at the longitude 4.98° east orbit 

location in accordance with International Telecommunication Union 

(ITU) filings of Sweden.

• February 24, 2012: The FCC granted SES Americom, Inc., authorization 

to relocate satellite AMC-5 to operate at the longitude 80.90° west orbit 

location in accordance with ITU filings of Argentina.

• June 28, 2012: The FCC granted SES Americom, Inc., authorization to 

relocate the AMC-3 satellite to operate at the longitude 67° west orbit 

location in accordance with International Telecommunication Union filings of Colombia on behalf of the Andean Community.

The FCC added three non-U.S.-licensed space stations to its permitted space 

station list to allow these space stations to provide domestic and international 

satellite service to U.S. earth stations that have routine technical parameters.

Specifically, on October 13, 2011, the FCC added Gibraltar’s NSS-703 space station 

using the C-band and Ku-band at the longitude 47.05° west orbit location to the 

permitted list. On March 15, 2012, the FCC added the Netherlands’ SES-4 space 

station using the C-band and Ku-band at the longitude 22° west orbit location to 

the permitted list. On April 11, 2012, the FCC added Telesat Canada’s ANIK F3 

space station using the Ka-band at the longitude 118.7° west orbit location to the 

permitted list.

The FCC also granted a number of requests for non-U.S.-licensed space stations to 

provide service in the United States on a nonroutine basis, including the following:

• June 29, 2012: The FCC granted, with conditions, Brazil’s Star One C3 

space station access to the United States market using the Ku-band at the 

longitude 75° west orbit location.
96Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

• July 27, 2012: The FCC granted the United Kingdom’s Jupiter 97W space 

station access to the United States market using the Ka-band at the longitude 97.1° west orbit location.

• August 1, 2012: The FCC granted the United Kingdom’s Jupiter 91W 

space station access to the United States market using the Ka-band at the 

longitude 90.9° west orbit location.
97Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

USDA

USDA Foreign Agricultural Service

The Foreign Agricultural Service’s (FAS) Office of Global Analysis (OGA) 

served as a major source of objective and reliable global agricultural production 

information to the World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB), the primary 

source of the USDA’s global commodity outlook. The outlook reports for FY 2012 

provided public access to information affecting world food security and became 

crucial to decisions affecting U.S. agriculture, trade policy, and food aid. Reports 

included regional, national and subnational monitoring and analysis of crop conditions, yield potential, and the impact of events affecting crop production.

The satellite imagery resources were managed through the USDA’s Satellite 

Imagery Archive (SIA) program. The SIA program was established by the USDA’s 

Remote Sensing Coordinating Committee (RSCC), which is chaired by the 

USDA’s Office of the Chief Information Officer. The SIA fulfilled its mission of 

providing USDA-wide, cost-effective sharing of satellite data through a centralized 

purchasing, receipt, inventory, storage, and dissemination to USDA agencies of 

satellite imagery. The following agencies participated in the program: FAS, the 

Risk Management Agency (RMA), the National Agricultural Statistics Service 

(NASS), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the Natural Resources Conservation 

Service (NRCS), the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), and the Farm Service 

Agency (FSA).
98Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

The success of USDA’s SIA was also a practical demonstration of collaborative agreements with NASA, NOAA, the USGS, and the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency (NGA). During FY 2012, the USDA satellite imagery library 

enabled all USDA agencies to access satellite imagery at substantially reduced 

individual agency cost. The key performance indicators of the program were 

measured by timely distribution and receipt of requested satellite imagery and the 

provision of bulk satellite imagery at a measurable economic benefit to the USDA 

agencies. In addition, FAS OGA performed the physical management of the SIA 

facility and the online Archive Explorer (AE) system at http://www.pecad.fas.usda.

gov/archive_explorer/default.aspx. The Archive Explorer, a Web-enabled browse and 

search tool, allowed users to browse, select, and retrieve the contents of the SIA.

U.S. Forest Service

As the primary forestry agency of the United States and the largest agency in the 

USDA, the USDA Forest Service (USFS) continues to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation’s forests and grasslands. This work is conducted 

via three specific agency mission areas: Research and Development (USFS R&D), 

the National Forest System (NFS), and State and Private Forestry (USFS S&P).

USFS R&D conducts research to address forestry and natural resource issues 

both internationally and domestically, including the development of relevant science and technologies. Partnerships with states, tribes, and other Federal agencies, as well as universities and private industry, are integral to accomplishment 

of the USFS R&D mission. Additionally, the USFS administers and manages 155 

national forests and 20 national grasslands collectively known as NFS lands. These 

lands encompass 193 million acres in 44 states and Puerto Rico and are managed 

for the purpose of sustainable multiple uses to meet the diverse needs of people. 

Lastly, USFS S&P provides assistance to private landowners and state, tribal, and 

community forestry agencies in the stewardship of approximately 500 million acres 

of non-Federal forest lands throughout the United States. This assistance includes 

the provision of information and support to partner agencies to protect forests from 

wildland fires, insects, disease, and invasive plants.
99Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

To address the data needs of these USFS mission areas in FY 2012, the USFS 

collaborated with NASA, as well as NOAA, the USGS, and other agencies, to 

apply operational satellite and airborne imagery and the most advanced remote 

sensing and geospatial technologies. Specific FY 202 USFS accomplishments are 

summarized below.

• Collected comprehensive EOS, MODIS, and Suomi NPP VIIRS direct 

broadcast data for the United States and Canada and completed operational processing and dissemination of relevant fire-mapping and geospatial data products to fire managers and the general public (http://

activefiremaps.fs.fed.us).

• Continued activities with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Direct 

Readout Laboratory under a USFS-NASA interagency agreement to 

test and operationally implement direct readout technologies to support 

resource management including land, atmosphere, and ocean science processing algorithms for EOS and Suomi NPP sensors (http://directreadout.

fs.fed.us).

• Continued utilizing MODIS imagery for operational detection of forest 

damage and changing forest health conditions in our Nation’s forests 

(http://foresthealth.fs.usda.gov/portal/Flex/FDM?dL=0).

• Collaborated with NASA and USFS science partners to participate in 

Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission workshops and respond to 

NASA Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) 

Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for potential applications using SMAP 

observational data/science products.

• Continued to distribute 250-meter forest attribute data surfaces derived 

from MODIS imagery and other geospatial predictor data using nearest 

neighbor imputation methods (http://fsgeodata.fs.fed.us/rastergateway/

forest_type/index.php).

• Continued to distribute 250-meter forest carbon estimates derived from 

MODIS imagery and other geospatial predictor data using nearest neighbor imputation methods (http://fsgeodata.fs.fed.us/rastergateway/biomass/

index.php).
100Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

• Continued conducting operational crewed wildfire mapping missions 

in FY 2012 using Autonomous Modular Sensor (AMS) via coordination between the USFS, NASA Ames Research Center, and the NASA 

Airborne Sciences Program.

• Continued coordination with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on 

testing and evaluation of the Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric 

Correction (MAIAC) for MODIS and its potential use for land and atmosphere remote sensing applications.

• Coordinated with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on evaluating 

test data collected by the Goddard LiDAR Hyperspectral and Thermal 

(G-LiHT) sensor for potential land remote sensing and resource management applications.

• Operationally applied Landsat 5 TM, Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic 

Mapper (ETM), and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) imagery to map the location, extent, and severity of approximately 200 large 

wildfires in FY 2012–13 to support post-fire emergency stabilization/

hazard mitigation activities and forest restoration planning/management activities (http://www.fs.fed.us/eng/rsac/baer and http://www.fs.fed.us/

postfirevegcondition).

• Continued to operationally apply Landsat 4/5 TM and Landsat 7 ETM 

imagery to inventory and map and characterize historical large fires to 

assess the effectiveness of national fire management policies as part of 

the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) project. MTBS mapping activities through FY 2013 include the completion of 17,025 historical fires (~120 million burned acres) spanning from 1984 to 2011 (http://

www.mtbs.gov).

• Coordinated with the University of Maryland, NASA, and the USGS 

to execute and test Landsat 8 and VIIRS I-band prototype fire detection 

algorithms and evaluate derived output products to support USFS operational fire support activities.

• Continued technology transfer activities between the USFS and NASA 

Ames Research Center regarding unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and 

related technologies under the auspices of the NASA-USFS Wildfire 
101 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

Research Applications Partnership and a USFS-NASA interagency agreement (http://geo.arc.nasa.gov/sge/WRAP/index.html).

• Coordinated with NASA Ames Research Center on the final development of the Wide Area Imager (WAI) (developed under the NASA 

Small Business Innovation Research [SBIR] program) and subsequent 

fire-mapping demonstration missions.

• Used Landsat 5 TM, Landsat 8 OLI, and National Agriculture Imagery 

Program (NAIP) imagery to initiate and complete mid-level vegetationmapping products for National Forest lands and adjacent land areas 

throughout the country.

• Used Landsat 5 TM, Landsat 8 OLI, and NAIP imagery to model Tree 

Canopy Cover (TCC) for the entire continental U.S. as part of the MultiResolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium National Land 

Cover Database 2011 update.

• Used Landsat TM/ETM/OLI and MODIS imagery to map and assess 

damage to forests in the immediate aftermath of severe storms and other 

catastrophic events during FY 2012–13 (e.g., Hurricane Sandy in 2012).

• Completed an assessment in coordination with the EPA of the effects 

of land-cover change on water quality using Landsat TM/ETM timeseries stacks to detect and monitor forest land-cover change in the Lake 

Superior and Lake Michigan watersheds from the mid-1980s to the present. This activity has been extended to include Lake Huron, Lake Erie, 

and Lake Ontario as well.

• Used Landsat TM/ETM/OLI and NAIP imagery in conjunction with 

other core geospatial datasets to conduct ecological and soil-type mapping on NFS lands; this imagery is used by the USFS, NRCS, and other 

agencies for resource management, planning, and decision making (http://

www.fs.fed.us/eng/rsac/programs/teui/about.html).

• Continued to use Landsat TM/ETM time-series stacks, NAIP imagery, 

and USFS Forest Inventory and Analysis plot data to support carbon and 

biomass monitoring for 55 selected forested sites across the United States 

in support of the North American Forest Dynamics (NAFD) Project 

(http://daac.ornl.gov/NACP/guides/NAFD_Disturbance_guide.html).
102Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

• Continued to develop standards and practices for integrating LIDAR into 

forest and resource management (defining acquisition specifications, data 

quality assessment, analysis/modeling procedures for forest parameters, 

etc.). This is relevant to recent and potential USFS/NASA JPL LIDAR 

collaboration such as the acquisition and processing of hyperspectral 

imagery (from the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer 

[AVIRIS]) and LIDAR data for the 2013 Rim Fire in California.

National Agricultural Statistics Service

The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) used remote sensing data 

to construct and sample area frames for agricultural statistical surveys, estimated 

crop area and yield, continued investigations of a NASA science grant on crop 

progress/condition, began contributing to a new NASA science grant on fallowed 

California agricultural land, and published papers on a Web-service-based application for exploring and disseminating geospatial data products, as well as methods 

to derive a new cultivated dataset. The cultivated dataset was published via the 

CropScape Web portal. NASS used remote sensing data and techniques to improve 

the quality and accuracy of its statistics. For example, NASS used Landsat imagery, 

digital NAIP orthophoto quadrangles, and other remotely sensed inputs for the 

contiguous United States (CONUS) and Puerto Rico to select the yearly areabased samples for the June Agricultural Survey. In addition, NASS updated an 

area-based sampling frame for Oklahoma.

NASS began implementing a new Cropland Data Layer (CDL)–based automated 

stratification method into NASS Area Frame operations. Analysts derived remote 

sensing–based acreage indications from a crop-specific land-cover categorization 

in the CDL. The new Oklahoma frame was built at reduced cost with improved 

objectivity, efficiency, and accuracy when compared with the previous frame. The 

CDL data are used as the basis for the objective stratification of NASS Area Frame 

primary sampling units (PSUs) rather than visual interpretation of aerial photography or satellite data.

The remote sensing acreage estimation program used Disaster Monitoring 

Constellation (DMC) satellite data to produce crop acreage estimates for crops at 
103 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

the state and county levels for 41 states during the 2012 crop year. Acreage estimates 

were created for 18 different crops covering all market-sensitive crops and states. 

With the expanded coverage and timeliness, NASS’s Agricultural Statistics Board 

(ASB) was able to utilize the remote sensing acreage indications as independent 

input for setting the official estimates for their monthly Crop Production Reports. 

Primary satellite imagery inputs came from the Foreign Agricultural Service 

Satellite Imagery Archive, which provided 1,659 DMC images through a cooperative partnership. In addition, NASS distributed the CDL for 48 states to stakeholders for the previous 2011 crop season via the USDA Geospatial Data Gateway and 

the CropScape data visualization portal at http://nassgeodata.gmu.edu/CropScape.

NASS utilized MODIS normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) products 

for modeling corn and soybean yield indications over the 12 largest production 

states. Updated yield estimates were delivered operationally to the ASB as an 

independent indication for setting official August, September, and October yield 

estimates by state, district, and county. New to 2012 activities were the inclusion of 

MODIS land surface temperature (LST) products that provided another independent variable for yield estimation.

NASS continued work with George Mason University on a NASA-funded science grant titled “A National Crop Progress Monitoring System Based on NASA 

Earth Science Results.” Research focused on crop growth modeling, crop phenology 

stage detection algorithm development, system prototyping and implementation, 

and crop progress ground truth data collection for validation. Prototyping efforts 

continued on a Web-based national vegetation condition geospatial monitoring 

application based on MODIS data products and incorporated several vegetation 

metric indices for vegetation greenness and drought anomaly assessment.

NASS has fully implemented a new CDL-based automated stratification method 

into NASS Area Frame operations. As a result, new state area frames are being 

built at reduced cost with improved objectivity, efficiency, and accuracy. The CDL 

data are used as the basis for the objective stratification of NASS Area Frame 

primary sampling units rather than visual interpretation of aerial photography or 

satellite data.
104Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

USDA Farm Service Agency

The Farm Service Agency (FSA) administered farm commodity, credit, conservation, disaster, and loan programs as laid out by Congress through a network of 

Federal, state, and county offices. Geospatial systems and data played a fundamental role in the management of FSA’s programs. The agency maintained a nationally consistent geospatial dataset representing farm and field boundaries known 

as Common Land Units (CLUs). FSA used CLUs, digital soil surveys, 1-meter 

imagery, satellite imagery, and other datasets for program implementation, management, and monitoring, as well as for response and recovery efforts during natural 

disasters. FSA also utilized NASS remotely sensed data for analysis of commodity 

and conservation programs.

FSA used remotely sensed data to digitize conservation practices on farms participating in the Conservation Reserve Program, a cost-sharing and rental payment 

program that encourages farmers to convert highly erodible cropland or other environmentally sensitive acreage to vegetative cover. FSA used several satellite and 

locally collected datasets in conjunction with weather data to immediately respond 

to and coordinate efforts with other Federal, state, and local agencies for disaster 

response activities. Some examples include Missouri River flooding, spring flash 

flooding in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and extreme drought in southwestern states. 

These data were also used during the recovery period to assist impacted producers 

and support FSA administration of the Emergency Loan, Emergency Conservation, 

and Livestock Indemnity Programs.

As the primary source of aerial imagery for the USDA, FSA administered NAIP, 

leveraging partnership funds from other Federal entities to acquire imagery during 

the growing season over CONUS. In 2012, FSA collected imagery for 22 states 

and initiated the AgSat Blanket Purchase Agreement through which the collection of imagery in non-CONUS regions to support agency work for the agriculture 

producer was made possible. NAIP, as well as FSA’s large imagery archive, was 

accessible to the public through the USDA Geospatial Data Gateway, via Web 

services, and on media.
105 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is the primary Federal 

agency working with private landowners to help protect and conserve the Nation’s 

natural resources. For more than 50 years, the NRCS has used remote sensing 

products to carry out conservation programs. Aerial and satellite imagery processed 

in the form of digital orthoimagery remains the primary remote sensing product 

used by NRCS to inventory, monitor, manage, and assess our natural resources in 

GIS nationwide.

Elevation

NRCS acquired and integrated LIDAR data partnership efforts and is implementing an efficient data management system in order to create an enterprise 

solution for high-resolution elevation data that meet NRCS business needs. This 

will also contribute to a seamless, national elevation dataset in partnership with 

the National Digital Elevation Program (NDEP) (http://www.ndep.gov). NRCS also 

supports the Alaska Mapping Imitative Partnership to acquire elevation data for 

the state using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IfSAR) data where cloud 

cover and remote locations preclude the use of LIDAR over much of the state.

This data will support the strategic goals to

• get more conservation on the ground and

• increase organizational effectiveness and efficiency.

High-accuracy elevation data are required to streamline NRCS workflow processes in support of resource and conservation planning, soil survey, and engineering applications. This will benefit the products and services provided by the 

disciplines of soil conservation, soil science, engineering, and others to accomplish 

mission-critical objectives:

• Advance the performance of voluntary, incentive-based conservation.

• Proactively recognize and address emerging natural resource issues.

• Improve quality and accountability to deliver better products and services.

Currently, LIDAR data are being utilized extensively in agricultural and forestry settings and other resource assessment applications. The information 
106Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

provides land-use managers with accurate topographic data to install and implement conservation practices. However, new uses are being explored, particularly 

in urbanized settings, where precise elevation data on buildings, bridges, levees, 

dikes, and flood-control structures is helpful for emergency response and homeland 

security purposes.

Benefits to NRCS by participating in high-resolution elevation projects include 

the following:

• New data allow out-of-date USGS topographic maps in the service centers 

to be replaced.

• The quality of the LIDAR is superior to legacy USGS products.

• Better-quality elevation data support better decisions and analysis far beyond 

our existing capabilities and put us at the forefront of emerging technologies.

• Better-quality elevation data produce more accurate orthoimagery products.

• Partnerships with NDEP to purchase LIDAR save NRCS money by lowering the cost per unit and expanding the areas of interest.

LIDAR can be used for the following:

• Planning and design alternatives for Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) 

wetland restoration. Particularly valuable for studying off-site effects of 

practices and limiting in-field surveying required.

• Planning and design alternatives for conservation ponds and flood-retarding 

and grade-stabilization structures.

• Breach routing analysis for determining dam hazards and developing 

emergency action plans.

• Flood modeling for studying/quantifying cumulative effects of proposed 

flood-retarding structures in a watershed for benefit-cost analysis.

• Terrace, waterway, and diversion planning and partial at-desk design, limiting in-field survey to finite areas and circumstances.

• Improved placement of soil map unit boundaries based on topographic 

position, modeling ecological land types, and visualization for overall 

improvement of conservation planning.

The Conservation Engineering Division, Conservation Planning and Technical 

Assistance Division, Easement Programs Division, Ecological Sciences Division, 

Resources Inventory and Assessment Division, and Soil Survey Division will 
107 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

all benefit from high-resolution elevation data. Programs such as Conservation 

Planning, Conservation of Grazing Lands, the Conservation Reserve Program, 

the Customer Service Toolkit, the Emergency Watershed Protection Program, the 

Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the Grassland Reserve Program, the 

Healthy Forest Reserve Program, the Rapid Watershed Assessment, the Soil Survey 

Program, the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Program, the Watershed 

Rehabilitation Program, and the Wetlands Reserve Program are just a few of the 

programs that can benefit from these data.

Aerial Imagery

By partnering with the USDA Farm Service Agency and other Federal and state 

agencies, the NRCS acquired statewide 1-meter orthoimagery for 19 states and 

parts of Alaska, Hawaii, and the Pacific Basin. NRCS participates in many Federal 

Government interagency coordination committees such as the National Digital 

Orthophoto Program and the National Digital Elevation Program to avoid duplication of orthoimagery and digital elevation acquisitions. The USDA Geospatial 

Data Gateway Web site made available all orthoimagery purchased by the NRCS 

to internal users and the general public.

NRCS orthoimagery acquisitions for Hawaii and the Pacific Basin use predominately high-resolution commercial satellites from DigitalGlobe. All acquisitions 

were contracted at USDA-FSA-APFO (Aerial Photography Field Office), USGSEDC (EROS Data Center) or DOD-NGA. All orthoimagery acquisitions are at 

0.6-meter resolution or higher and 4–8 multi-spectral bands depending on the satellite sensor. NRCS acquired imagery in FY 2012 for Hawaii (the islands Hawai ́i 

and Kaho ́olawe) and the U.S. Pacific Basin (Guam, the Commonwealth of the 

Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and the Marshall Islands).

NRCS orthoimagery acquisitions for Alaska used a combination of aerial 

cameras and satellite sensors, depending on the location. Aerial cameras at a 

1-meter ground resolution were used at an area northeast of Fairbanks called 

Yukon Flats and an area southeast of Fairbanks called Delta Junction. NRCS 

used high-resolution commercial satellites from DigitalGlobe for Fairbanks, Fort 

Wainwright, Glenallen, and Naknek. These acquisitions were for 0.6-meter, 
108Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

8-band digital orthoimagery. NRCS used satellite contracts with DOD-NGA and 

USDA-FSA-APFO.

The NRCS used the USDA Small Area Aerial Photography Contract to acquire 

high-resolution aerial photography (4" ground-resolving distance) and scans over 

72,455 confidential statistical sites to collect natural resource data for the annual 

National Resources Inventory (NRI) program in the CONUS. The NRCS also 

contracted for aerial photography over 450 NRI sites in Puerto Rico and the U.S. 

Virgin Islands, as well as 375 sites in Hawaii. The NRCS also used the USDA 

Small Area Aerial Photography Contract to acquire 21,811 photos over 13,114 

Stewardship Land easements in CONUS and Hawaii. Nationally, Stewardship 

Lands easements cover approximately 2.71 million acres, and the imagery is used 

to monitor restoration efforts on each property enrolled. NRCS also used the Small 

Area Contract to acquire 2,050 photos for random status reviews of tracts in Iowa. 

The photos were used to make determinations on conservation compliance, wetland conservation, and early-release Conservation Reserve Program provisions.

Satellite Remote Sensing

The NRCS continued using satellite imagery from the USGS Hazard Data 

Distribution System to respond to natural disasters like the New Mexico wildfires. 

For the New Mexico fires, NRCS provided pre- and post-event imagery from satellite and aerial sources via Web services to state offices supporting their ability to 

deliver Emergency Watershed Protection assistance.

Positioning, Navigation, and Timing

The NRCS and the clients it serves utilize space-based positioning, navigation, 

and timing (PNT) solutions on a daily basis all year round. NRCS users of spacebased PNT continue to enjoy unsurpassed coverage of the Global Positioning 

System (GPS). Although the stated policy for constellation sustainment is 24 

satellites, the NRCS has derived increasing benefits from the current 28-satellite 

configuration and hopes to continue to do so. Positioning accuracy and satellite availability continue to be the cornerstones of GPS that NRCS has come to 
109 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

heavily rely on for performance of its mission across CONUS, the Pacific Basin, 

the Caribbean, and Alaska. The NRCS also enjoys the increased precision and 

accuracy obtained from space-based position correction provided by the FAA Wide 

Area Augmentation System (WAAS).

• NRCS employees in field service centers across the country utilize handheld GPS devices or handheld computers with GPS to spatially capture 

resource concerns and inventory locations. The locations are incorporated into the Customer Service Toolkit and are utilized for the preparation of conservation plans and plan alternatives. The Customer Service 

Toolkit is a value-added augmentation to the USDA Enterprise GIS software known as ArcGIS.

• NRCS grazing lands specialists utilized space-based PNT to navigate to 

hundreds of sample locations scattered across the United States as part 

of the 2012 Grazing Lands National Resources Inventory. Intensive data 

collection to determine vegetative composition and grazing land health 

was performed on each of the sites visited.

• NRCS engineers utilize survey-grade, high-accuracy GPS that replaces 

legacy line-of-sight systems in many areas of the United States. The engineers integrate surveyed GPS data with LIDAR elevation data to produce 

designs and visualizations of projects.

• The NRCS provides technical guidance for nutrient management and 

irrigation water management to agriculture producers across the country. 

Many of these producers are users of precision agriculture and precision 

guidance technology that is enabled by the use of space-based PNT.

111 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

NSF

The National Science Foundation (NSF) continued to serve as the lead Federal 

agency for the support of ground-based astronomy and space science. Through the 

Divisions of Astronomical Sciences, Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, and 

Physics, as well as through the Office of Polar Programs, the NSF sponsored a broad 

base of observational, theoretical, and laboratory research aimed at understanding the states of matter and physical processes in the universe. Areas of research 

ranged from the most distant reaches of the universe and the earliest moments 

of its existence to nearby stars and planets, including our own sun and planetary 

system, as well as Earth’s atmosphere and space environment.

Division of Astronomical Sciences

The Division of Astronomical Sciences (AST) supported the development of 

advanced technologies and instrumentation for astronomical sciences, in addition 

to providing core support for the optical and radio observatories whose state-of-theart instrumentation and observing capabilities are accessible to the community on 

the basis of scientific merit. The NSF’s national astronomical facilities included the 

National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the Arecibo Observatory (AO), 

the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), and the National Solar 

Observatory (NSO). The NSF also served as the executive agency for the Gemini 

Observatory—an international partnership operating optical/infrared telescopes 
112Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres—providing the United States’ 

share of support for the program.

AST, in partnership with Europe, Canada, Japan, and Taiwan, continued construction on the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an 

interferometer located near San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. FY 2012 saw delivery 

of the final North American antennas. Fifty-two antennas have been transported 

to the 16,500-foot high-altitude site for commissioning and science operations. 

Science observations by the community, begun during FY 2011, continued using a 

16-element subset of the full array.

AST continued its oversight of the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) 

(formerly the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope [ATST]), the next-generation 

U.S. ground-based solar telescope. The ATST, a collaboration of scientists from 

22 institutions representing a broad segment of the U.S. solar physics community, 

previously earned the strong recommendation of the National Research Council 

of the National Academy of Sciences. When completed in 2019, the ATST will 

be the world’s flagship ground-based telescope designed specifically for the study of 

solar magnetic fields on scales as small as 30 kilometers. Fabrication of the major 

telescope subsystems and instruments continued in FY 2012, and the primary 

mirror blank was cast. After nearly 30 months’ delay resulting from a challenge 

by a native Hawaiian group, final permits from the state of Hawaii authorizing 

construction to begin on the site on Haleakala peak on Maui were issued and site 

activities began. The impacts of the delay on cost and schedule were evaluated in 

a comprehensive recosting exercise, the results of which were under external and 

internal review as FY 2012 closed.

In FY 2012, AST provided continued funding for the design and development 

(D&D) of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) and began meeting the 

requirements to authorize construction support. LSST is a joint project of the NSF 

and the Department of Energy (DOE), with private and international partners; an 

interagency joint oversight group met biweekly, both internally and with representatives from the project, throughout FY 2012. The LSST Project will produce a 

purpose-built wide-field survey telescope and use the attached 3.3-gigapixel camera 

to image the entire accessible sky repeatedly for at least 10 years, producing more 

than 20 terabytes of data nightly. The LSST database will enable breakthrough 
113 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

research not just in cosmology (dark energy and dark matter), but also in galactic structure and solar system astronomy. LSST also opens up the time domain 

and will revolutionize the study of transient events. DOE supports the camera; 

NSF supports the telescope, site, and data systems. Following reviews in FY 2011, 

DOE issued CD-1 approval (“Approve Alternative Selection and Cost Range”) in 

April 2012. In May 2012, additional external reviews, recommended by previous 

panels, further endorsed the project. In July 2012, the NSF and DOE signed a 

Memorandum of Understanding setting out their respective responsibilities for the 

LSST Project. Also in July 2012, the National Science Board gave permission to 

the NSF Director to add funding for LSST within the Major Research Equipment 

and Facility Construction (MREFC) account in a future budget request. Private 

funding supported long lead-time items and risk reduction, especially the continued polishing of the primary/tertiary mirror, and further work on hardware development of the detectors. The interest and support by both research and education 

communities continued to be strong, with specialist workshops and dedicated sessions at meetings of the American Astronomical Society.

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) is a 6-meter-diameter millimeterwave telescope located at 5,200 meters (17,000 feet) on Cerro Toco in the Atacama 

Desert of northern Chile, near the ALMA site. It is designed to measure minute 

variations in intensity of the cosmic microwave background (CMB, the radiation 

at microwave wavelengths that is a remnant of the Big Bang) to study how the 

universe began, what it is made of, and how it evolved to its current state. ACT is a 

dedicated special-purpose telescope and is equipped with a state-of-the-art customized camera with detectors cooled to one-third of a degree above absolute zero. 

During FY 2012, the telescope continued to operate successfully in its fourth year 

of full science operations, obtaining measurements that span size scales on the sky 

two to three times finer than any previous experiment to measure the microwave 

background. Under renewed funding, work was begun to upgrade and expand the 

bolometer cameras and add polarization measurement capability. The new receiver 

was cooled to 100 millikelvins (mK) multiple times, and tests of the first sciencegrade detectors took place. A detector test facility developed at Princeton came 

into full operation. An anti-reflection coating facility was set up at the University 

of Michigan to develop coatings using grooved silicon. The telescope and site have 
114Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

been upgraded to accommodate the new receiver. The major scientific findings of 

FY 2012 included 1) a new way to measure dark energy using the lensing of the 

CMB, 2) the first detection of the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect (predicted over 

40 years ago), and 3) the discovery and multi-wavelength followup of “El Gordo,” 

the brightest and most massive known cluster of galaxies in the distant universe.

The POLARBEAR telescope is a 3.5-meter-diameter off-axis millimeter-wave 

antenna designed to measure the polarization of the cosmic microwave background 

radiation. The observatory is located near the ACT and ALMA facilities on the 

Atacama plateau in Chile. The telescope was successfully commissioned at the 

remote site during FY 2012 and is being used to measure the linear polarization 

of the cosmic microwave background to search for so-called B-modes, which, if 

detected, will open up a new window on the early universe and the physics of 

inflation. Unlike previous radio telescopes, POLARBEAR was designed for a very 

large field of view to accommodate a large imaging camera. Wide-area coverage 

is key to obtaining a broad sampling of the microwave background sky and high 

signal-to-noise measurements.

Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences

The Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences’ (AGS) high-altitude aircraft, the Gulfstream V (GV), is a highly modified and instrumented midsize jet 

operated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), a Federally 

Funded Research and Development Center of the NSF. The High-performance 

Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research (HIAPER) GV is 

FAA-certified to operate at 51,000 feet, and its ability to fly for long durations (over 

12 hours), its long range (over 6,000 kilometers), and its scientific payload capacity (6,000 pounds) have enabled scientific research previously not possible with 

existing platforms. The GV is the most advanced airborne research platform in 

the U.S. civilian fleet. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) recently completed 

modifications, including advanced instrumentation, to a Gulfstream 550 that can 

collaborate with the NSF’s GV aircraft in scientific campaigns. During FY 2012, 

the DLR’s 550 staff and the GV’s staff continued collaboration on instrument 

pod development and shared instrumentation. In FY 2012, the GV continued to 
115 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

conduct long-duration flights for the HIAPER Pole to Pole Observations (HIPPO) 

deployment to study the carbon cycle and greenhouse gases as part of a multiyear campaign. The HIAPER GV also participated in additional field projects during FY  2012 and remained one of the world’s most advanced airborne 

research platforms.

NCAR’s Research Aircraft Facility continued to operate and maintain the 

GV through FY 2012, and the GV’s expected lifetime is 10 to 25 years, during 

which new instrumentation innovations will be continually integrated onto the 

airframe as appropriate. NCAR also operated and maintained the NSF’s heavylift C-130Q research aircraft. In FY 2012, the C-130Q participated in the Ice in 

Clouds—Tropical (ICE-T) experiment, flying through cumulonimbus clouds in the 

vicinity of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. The primary goal of ICE-T was to 

understand how ice particles originate in these clouds and how they impact the 

subsequent spread of ice in clouds from this climatologically important region.

The AGS Geospace Section (GS) supported a wide variety of research programs 

in space science in FY 2012. These included the funding of advanced radar systems 

to study the ionosphere and magnetosphere, ground-based optical equipment to 

study the aurora and airglow, partial support to ground-based solar telescopes and 

instruments, and a wide-ranging portfolio of basic research in space physics. Major 

GS-funded activities in FY 2012 included the Geospace Facilities (GF) program; the 

Space Weather Research (SWR) program; the Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics 

of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) program; the Geospace Environment Modeling 

(GEM) program; and the Solar, Heliosphere, and INterplanetary Environment 

(SHINE) program.

The National Space Weather Program (NSWP) is a multi-agency Federal program aimed at mitigating the adverse effects of space weather on the Nation’s 

technological infrastructure by providing timely, accurate, and reliable space environment observations, specifications, and forecasts.

In addition, during FY 2012, a formal NSF Science and Technology Center 

called the Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling (CISM) completed its 

10-year program to develop and test an end-to-end computer simulation for space 

physics research and applications. CISM’s coupled models simulated the processes 

by which energy from the sun and solar wind propagates to Earth, as well as the 
116Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

resulting effects on Earth’s magnetosphere, ionosphere, and thermosphere. CISM 

researchers integrated these results with education and outreach activities. An 

effective knowledge transfer program also ensured that CISM shared these models 

for use in operational space weather forecasting centers of the United States Air 

Force and NOAA.

Throughout FY 2012, the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) 

for space weather research, cosponsored by the NSF and NASA and located at 

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, continued to provide the research community with access to state-of-the-art space weather models and conducted important model validation activities necessary for the transition of research models to 

operational use.

Research facilities remained as the key component of GS efforts. The Geospace 

Facilities program in FY 2012 continued to enable basic research on the structure 

and dynamics of Earth’s upper atmosphere. In particular, the CEDAR and GEM 

programs conducted research efforts utilizing these facilities. Throughout FY 2012, 

observations made by the Advanced Modular Incoherent-Scatter Radar (AMISR) 

at Poker Flat, Alaska, demonstrated the unique capabilities of this new instrument, 

including its ability to image the ionospheric effects of auroral particle precipitation in three dimensions. These observations provided a wealth of data particularly 

useful to modelers interested in validating space weather models. A second AMISR 

system has been operating at Resolute Bay in Arctic Canada since 2009. This radar 

is ideally situated to observe the properties of the ionosphere in the polar cap, a 

region that is characterized by high ionospheric variability that often causes disruption of important navigation and communication systems.

GS also continued to support the study of magnetospheric physics within the 

international Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) consortium 

through the addition of new radar installations in central Oregon and Adak, 

Alaska. Along with two other midlatitude SuperDARN radars that had been constructed in southern Virginia and central Kansas in 2009, the new sites extended 

the longitudinal coverage of this growing instrument chain.

In FY 2012, GS continued to support its program for CubeSat-based small satellite science missions for Geospace and atmospheric research and education. Two 

NSF-funded CubeSat missions were launched successfully in September 2012 as 
117 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

part of NASA’s Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) program and with 

support from the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) CubeSat office. This 

brings the total number of satellites launched and operated successfully in space 

so far under this program to four. Both of the CubeSats launched earlier produced 

first-of-their-kind observations and findings during FY 2012 that formed the basis 

for scientific and engineering publications. During the fourth CubeSat competition 

in May 2012, GS received proposals for a total of 25 new missions. As was the case 

for the previous CubeSat solicitations, the quality of the proposals in terms of 

both scientific creativity and technological innovation was exceptional. For lack of 

funding, no additional new projects were started in FY 2012.

GS continued support for the satellite-based Active Magnetosphere and 

Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment (AMPERE) through FY 2012. 

AMPERE utilized the 66 networked satellites of the existing Iridium constellation 

to create a new facility for collecting geomagnetic field data. The AMPERE facility 

has provided the first-ever real-time observations of the electric currents that link 

Earth’s magnetosphere and ionosphere and the first-ever continuous, global observations for tracking geomagnetic storm-time dynamics. Geomagnetic storms occur 

when charged particles emitted by solar flares interact with Earth’s magnetosphere. 

Such storms can cause major disruptions of power and communications systems 

on the ground. The AMPERE data server facility has been established and placed 

online, and data for the years 2010 through 2012 have been made freely available 

to researchers, with new data being added continually.

The GS solar physics community also continued to benefit from the Division of 

Astronomical Sciences’ ongoing efforts to develop and manage the DKIST being 

constructed in Hawaii. Also in FY 2012, GS continued to provide oversight for 

much-needed upgrades at the Owens Valley Solar Array in California.

In FY 2012, the AGS Atmosphere Section (AS) continued to support the 

Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate 

(COSMIC). The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and 

its collaborator, Taiwan’s National Space Organization (NSPO), designed and built 

the COSMIC six-satellite constellation, which was launched on April 14, 2006, 

with the support and assistance of the USAF’s Space Test Program (STP). Shortly 

thereafter, data became available from the three payloads: the special space-based 
118Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

GPS radio occultation (RO) receivers, the so-called Tiny Ionosphere Photometers, 

and the Tri-Band Beacons. These data have been provided freely to the world scientific community.

COSMIC radio occultation data have been assimilated at many operational 

weather prediction centers, including the U.S. National Centers for Environmental 

Prediction (NCEP), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts 

(ECMWF), Météo France, the United Kingdom’s Met Office, Meteorological 

Service of Canada, Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau, and others. All of these 

centers have reported that RO data are having a significant positive impact on 

numerical weather forecasts. In ionospheric studies, COSMIC RO data have accelerated the development of physical models for space weather prediction by providing dense, accurate, and global electron-density measurements. These data are 

used for model testing and initialization, including for the response of the global 

ionosphere to the impact of solar storms.

During FY 2012, all six COSMIC satellites were operating and providing data. 

On average, COSMIC produced from 1,500 to 2,000 GPS RO soundings per 

day. Ninety percent of these were processed and delivered to operational centers 

within 3 hours. COSMIC has supported more than 1,100 registered users from 52 

countries. In collaboration with UCAR’s Unidata, COSMIC soundings have been 

provided in real time to support the university community.

Office of Polar Programs

For FY 2012, the NSF’s Office of Polar Programs (OPP) sponsored a number 

of projects in ground-based space science and astronomy. Full-scale observations 

at the U.S. Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station continued with the 10-meter 

off-axis radio telescope (South Pole Telescope, or SPT), with a program of measurements of the CMB. Observations were completed with BICEP2 (Background 

Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization 2), a small-aperture (25-centimeter) 

telescope also focusing on the CMB. The High Elevation Antarctic Terahertz 

(HEAT) robotic telescope, an 80-centimeter telescope, was deployed at Ridge A 

(East Antarctic Plateau, 930 kilometers north from the South Pole Station along 

~73° east meridian) in January to make spectroscopic maps of the Milky Way in 
119 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

frequency bands from 0.5 to 2 terahertz (600 to 150 microns wavelength). The 

IceCube Neutrino Observatory (ICNO), jointly operated at the South Pole by OPP 

and NSF’s Division of Physics, continued data collection of high-energy neutrino 

events through FY 2012 as well.

Recent scientific results from SPT provide new support for the most widely 

accepted explanation of dark energy, the mysterious force that is responsible for the 

accelerating expansion of the universe. These results are also beginning to home in 

on the masses of the neutrinos, the most abundant particles in the universe, which 

until recently were thought to be without mass. In 2012, SPT has begun its second 

major observing project—to search for the CMB polarization with a new powerful 

detector, focusing on gravitational lensing and targeting the polarization’s B-mode 

to find imprints of primordial, inflation-induced gravitational waves. The BICEP2 

telescope obtained an upper limit to the CMB’s B-mode signal.

Through FY 2012, ICNO collected data for almost 2 years (23 months) from 

a complete array of 86 strings of optical photodetectors deployed in deep ice 

under the South Pole Station in Antarctica at a depth between 1.4 kilometers 

and 2.4 kilometers. This makes ICNO the largest (by volume—1 cubic kilometer) 

neutrino detector in the world available for science observations. Data collection continued with the advance filtering and reconstruction of neutrino events. 

ICNO’s results published in 2012 provide new insights into the origin of cosmic 

rays, finding surprisingly that gamma-ray bursts produce no neutrinos, which challenges 15 years of predictions from the theory that gamma-ray bursts produce the 

highest-energy cosmic rays.

121 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

DOS

The Department of State (DOS) carries out diplomatic efforts to support U.S. 

space policies and programs internationally. DOS supports U.S. civil space activities through the negotiation of bilateral and multilateral agreements with partner 

countries and leads U.S. participation in numerous international space and technological activities and international organizations. DOS also maintains outreach 

programs to advance U.S. space and foreign policy objectives.

DOS continued to represent the United States in the United Nations Committee 

on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS) and its two subcommittees. 

With numerous countries and private-sector entities now engaged in space activities, DOS considers promoting the safe and responsible use of space by all current and future spacefaring nations a vital goal. At UNCOPUOS, State led U.S. 

participation in the Working Group on Long-Term Sustainability of Outer Space 

Activities. This working group is tasked with examining and proposing voluntary 

best practices guidelines to ensure the safe and sustainable use of outer space for 

peaceful purposes and the benefit of all countries. Its Terms of Reference were 

finalized in 2011, and in the same year, the Working Group formed four expert 

groups to discuss interrelated topics relevant to long-term space sustainability such 

as the connection between sustainable development on Earth and the sustainability of space activities, space situational awareness, space debris, space weather, 

and regulatory issues. The expert groups met at the UNCOPUOS June meeting 

and held informal meetings on the margins of the International Astronautical 

Conference (IAC) in Cape Town, South Africa. Still building on the results of the 

International Heliophysical Year and the International Space Weather Initiative to 

improve international cooperation in understanding the impact of space weather 
122Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

on satellites and Earth’s environment in general, DOS continued to promote space 

weather as an important foreign policy topic worldwide.

In FY 2012, DOS continued its strategic international efforts to implement the 

National Space Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Policy, as well 

as the U.S. National Space Policy. DOS coordinated and led interagency meetings to prepare for the seventh annual meeting of the International Committee 

on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG-7), held November 4–9, 2012, in 

Beijing. DOS served as the cochair of the eighth meeting of the ICG Providers’ 

Forum and the intersessional meeting of the Working Group on Compatibility and 

Interoperability, both of which were held in June 2012.

Also in June 2012, DOS organized a workshop on global navigation satellite 

systems (GNSS) interference detection and mitigation (IDM), held in Vienna, 

Austria. This was a result of a formal ICG recommendation adopted during ICG-6 

in 2011, and participants included China, the European Union (EU), Japan, 

Russia, the United States, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 

the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and Malaysia. The workshop produced six preliminary outcomes for further discussion at ICG-7: 1) ICG 

should develop educational materials on interference sources; 2)  ICG should 

identify an official monitoring center recognized by ITU; 3) ICG providers should 

exchange information on domestic spectrum management applicable to GNSS; 

4) ICG should compare the ITU interference report to the report form used by the 

United States and others to make guidelines for future reporting; 5) ICG should 

provide guidelines to providers who wish to contribute to interference reporting; and 6) ICG and providers should identify experts to participate in the next 

IDM workshop.

The United States and the European Union continued close cooperation under 

the auspices of the 2004 GPS-Galileo Cooperation Agreement. The second plenary 

meeting held under the U.S.-EU and Its Member States GPS-Galileo Cooperation 

Agreement of 2004 (Agreement) was hosted by the United States at the State 

Department in Washington, DC, on June 27, 2012. This plenary, the first since 

the Agreement was fully ratified in December 2011, reviewed proposed Terms of 

Reference for each Working Group, to include uniform language on the treatment 
123 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

of intellectual property (IP), and reviewed progress by the Galileo Public Regulated 

Service (PRS) discussion group.

The United States and Japan held three days of technical, GPS, and civil 

space–related discussions on January 17–19, 2012, in Washington, DC. The Earth 

Observation (EO) Workshop on January 17 recognized the importance of openly 

exchanging satellite-based EO data but also called for studies to determine the 

usefulness of data supplied by Japan to U.S. users. The GPS Plenary on January 18 

pursued planning for a workshop on interference detection and mitigation to 

improve GNSS service in the Asia-Pacific region. The Civil Space Dialogue on 

January 19 addressed a draft U.S.-Japan framework agreement on space cooperation, information sharing with Japan on the uncontrolled reentry of satellites, the 

continuation of International Space Station operations after 2016, and exchanges 

of views on the European Union’s proposed International Code of Conduct for 

Outer Space Activities and the Study on the Long-Term Sustainability of Outer 

Space Activities.

The sixth meeting of the U.S.-EU Space Policy Dialogue was held in Prague 

November 28–29, 2012. The two sides reviewed progress in GPS-Galileo cooperation and efforts to improve the sustainability of outer space operations, including 

through ongoing discussions in this area in UNCOPUOS and the proposed Code 

of Conduct for Outer Space Activities. It was agreed to hold bilateral workshops 

on space situational awareness and critical infrastructure protection of space- and 

ground-based assets. The two sides agreed to expand their extensive bilateral work 

on EO satellites, including promoting the open and free exchange of civil EO satellite data, cooperating on a Joint Polar System of weather satellites, and working to 

use EO satellites to better understand climate change. The meeting also reviewed 

progress toward the U.S.-hosted International Space Exploration Forum in January 

2014, which will build upon efforts to promote global cooperation in this area that 

started at the November 2011 EU-hosted Lucca Conference on Space Exploration.

The Russian embassy in Washington, DC, met with DOS representatives on 

May 22, 2012, to propose the start of consultations for possible cooperation in the 

monitoring of civil Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) signals in the 

United States. The proposal was part of a larger Russian effort to expand their 
124Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

monitoring capability worldwide in order to improve the accuracy of positioning 

and timing corrections applicable to both GPS and GLONASS.

Representatives of the United States and the Russian Federation met in Vienna 

on June 9, 2012, to reaffirm their intentions to discuss matters relating to GPS 

and GLONASS cooperation. Both sides reaffirmed that the United States and the 

Russian Federation intended to continue to provide the GPS and GLONASS civil 

signals appropriate for commercial, scientific, and safety-of-life use on a continuous, 

worldwide basis, free of direct user fees. Throughout the remainder of FY 2012, U.S. 

technical experts sought more details about the May 22, 2012, Russian proposal in 

multiple informal meetings on the margins of other international meetings.

DOS supported a strong public outreach and diplomatic campaign to underscore 

the reliability and accuracy of GPS. DOS speakers gave presentations at many 

international conferences, including the Moscow International GNSS Conference, 

meetings of the international section of the Civil GPS Service Interface 

Committee, and the annual Institute of Navigation PNT conference.
125 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

DOE

The Department of Energy (DOE) participates in the national effort to further 

U.S. interests in space. Three organizations within DOE provide this capability: the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Defense 

Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development (DNN R&D), the DOE 

Office of Science, and the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE).

Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research 

and Development

The Nuclear Detonation Detection program builds the Nation’s operational 

sensors to monitor the entire planet from space to detect and report surface, 

atmospheric, or space nuclear detonations (NuDets). The Space-based Nuclear 

Detonation Detection subprogram provides much of the Nation’s capability to 

detect, report, locate, and identify nuclear explosions using orbiting satellites. 

The DNN R&D develops, builds, and delivers these satellite payloads to meet 

interagency performance and schedule commitments and provides launch and onorbit operational support for the current generation of the U.S. NuDet Detection 

System (USNDS).

Since the Vela satellite program began in 1960, NNSA and its predecessors have 

provided the underlying science and technology capability for space-based detection of foreign nuclear weapon detonations to meet test ban treaty monitoring and 

missile warning needs. Today, these associations continue and have expanded to 

include military support missions and space control. These efforts span decades of 

overlapping generations of instruments deployed on multiple platforms in different 
126Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

orbital configurations. NNSA continues full-scale production and delivery of sensor packages to ensure that payloads are ready, as needed, to meet national security 

requirements. To ensure that the technologies and capabilities developed for the 

program support stakeholder needs, DNN R&D actively engages in intergovernmental working groups that reduce duplication among agencies, bring new user 

requirements to the fore, and improve the quality of relevant technology across 

the funding agencies. Strong synergy exists between the work performed in the 

USNDS program and planetary science and astrophysics. The current gamma-ray 

spectrometers used for USNDS have a shared heritage with the NASA Swift mission, which evolved from earlier USNDS sensors. This mission exemplifies how 

collaboration between National Laboratories and NASA for astrophysics has benefited USNDS capabilities and vice versa. Additionally, the NASA Living With 

a Star Program contributes to, and is benefited by, the NNSA-developed payloads 

that monitor and operate in the near-Earth space environment.

The NNSA weapons laboratories, most notably Los Alamos National Laboratory 

(LANL) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), supply the science, technology, and engineering required for USNDS, with Lawrence Livermore National 

Laboratory (LLNL) contributing to the end-to-end testing of USNDS. These 

NNSA laboratories have unique and comprehensive capabilities in understanding 

nuclear weapons, as well as knowledge of the signatures and observables associated with a nuclear detonation and the propagation of signals from the weapon 

to the sensor. Moreover, these laboratories provide capabilities in the design, 

construction, calibration, deployment, and operation of satellite-based detection 

instruments, along with detailed modeling and analysis. As the basis for 24/7/365 

global monitoring, the user/operations communities routinely receive analysis, 

insights, and computer codes based on this research. These capabilities represent 

an important noncommercial source of national space expertise and competency 

that NNSA is committed to sustaining and nourishing.

Two payloads built by NNSA at these laboratories accomplish the NuDets reporting mission—the Global Burst Detector (GBD) and the Space and Atmospheric 

Burst Reporting System (SABRS). The GBD payload is hosted on all GPS satellites. The SABRS payload is carried on satellite hosts in geosynchronous orbit. In 

order to maintain a vital capability to design and implement these systems, DNN 
127 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

R&D supports demonstration-validation payloads to explore new technologies and 

new sensing modalities and to increase the technology readiness level (TRL) for 

parts that might be used in future payload designs.

Office of Science

The DOE Office of Science (SC) supports several activities that contribute 

to a broad range of space interests. These activities include SC fundamental 

research that is of mutual interest to the NASA mission and NASA researchers, collaborative research efforts with NASA, and the operation of SC scientific 

facilities that are available to NASA and the broader scientific community for 

space-related research.

SC supports fundamental research in plasma science that contributes to 

SC-NASA mutual interests in knowledge of magnetospheric/ionospheric, solar, 

and astrophysical systems. A major area of research supported by SC’s Office of 

Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) is centered on developing a comprehensive understanding of astrophysical magnetized-plasma processes, including particle acceleration in cosmic gamma ray bursts, magnetic reconnection and turbulent processes 

in Earth’s magnetosphere and the solar corona, the formation and evolution of 

astrophysical jets, and dynamo processes creating planetary/galactic magnetic field 

structures. Some specific examples are 1) large-scale plasma simulation codes that 

are applied to study space weather; 2) the Large Plasma Device (LAPD) at the 

University of California, Los Angeles, which enables controlled studies of Alfven 

waves that carry energy and momentum from the sun to Earth and throughout the 

universe; 3) the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX) at Princeton Plasma 

Physics Laboratory (PPPL), which permits laboratory studies of reconnection in 

Earth’s magnetotail; 4) the Magneto-Rotational Instability facility (MRI), also at 

PPPL, which elucidates the physics of accretion disks around black holes; and 5) a 

newly established center at PPPL in partnership with the Max Planck Society that 

specifically explores the application of plasma science to astrophysical problems. In 

addition, FES sponsors unmagnetized-plasma research that uses lasers and lightsource x-rays to probe the properties of warm dense matter similar to that found in 

planetary cores.
128Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

Projects funded by the Office of Science and executed through joint collaboration with NASA include the development of experimental techniques of 

fundamental physics for use in space to investigate high-priority national science 

objectives. Examples of these efforts include the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer 

(AMS) and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (FGST). The AMS, also designated AMS-02, is a particle physics experiment designed and built primarily by SC 

and launched on the Space Shuttle in May 2011. AMS-02 is now mounted on the 

International Space Station, where it searches for various types of unusual matter 

by measuring cosmic rays. Among the experiment’s science goals are the search 

for evidence of dark matter and cosmic domains of antimatter. The Large Area 

Telescope (LAT), the primary instrument on NASA’s FGST, is a particle physics 

detector in space to study the gamma-ray sky. SC managed the LAT fabrication 

and now operates the LAT Science Operations Center. Researchers use the data to 

learn about high-energy acceleration mechanisms generated by supermassive black 

holes and supernovae and to search for dark matter.

The Office of Science and NASA engage in collaborative research efforts in the 

areas of atmospheric science and environmental phenomena. The SC and NASA 

completed a successful joint experiment in 2011, the Midlatitude Continental 

Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E), at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement 

Climate Research Facility’s (ARM) Southern Great Plains (SGP) site in central 

Oklahoma, resulting in several publications by teams of DOE and NASA scientists. 

Findings from this experiment support the development of model improvements 

and critical algorithms for the NASA Global Precipitation Mission satellite. NASA 

scientists are co-investigators in the DOE experiment, the Marine ARM GPCI1

Investigation of Clouds (MAGIC), that is studying marine clouds by deploying the 

Second ARM Mobile Facility (AMF2) on the Horizon Lines container ship Spirit 

making regular transects between Los Angeles and Hawaii from October 2012 to 

September 2013. In addition, the NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory–2 (OCO-2) 

Science/Validation Team has deployed ground-based solar-viewing Fourier transform 

spectrometer (FTS) mobile laboratories at the DOE ARM SGP and Darwin Tropical 

West Pacific (TWP) sites for several years; this is scheduled to continue through 

1. GPCI: Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Cloud System Studies (GCSS) 

Pacific Cross-section Intercomparison; GPCI is a project comparing data from the major climate 

models.
129 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

2016. These data have been utilized to validate space-based CO2 retrievals from a 

variety of different NASA satellite instruments.

Since astronauts are spending more time in space, NASA has long been engaged 

in working on ground-based studies to understand the possible risks to human 

beings exposed to space radiation. The Office of Science has been working with 

NASA in a couple of areas to help support NASA’s mission interests in this area of 

concern. SC provides scientific user facilities for the scientific community, including particle accelerators and ion beams for biological and electronic systems radiation studies. The NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) was established at 

DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) to study the radiobiological effects 

of using beams of heavy ions extracted from BNL’s Booster accelerator that are also 

produced to deliver into SC’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider facility. Jointly managed during the four-year construction period by SC and NASA’s Johnson Space 

Center, the NSRL facility provides a leading capability for radiobiology studies in 

the United States. In addition, since FY 2001, DOE and NASA have engaged in 

coordinated efforts to better understand and predict the health risks associated 

with exposure to low-dose radiation. SC’s Low Dose Radiation Research Program 

has coordinated with NASA’s Space Radiation Project within NASA’s Human 

Research Program. The SC Low Dose program focuses on doses of radiation measured at or below current workplace exposure limits; current collaborations are 

limited due to a decreasing emphasis on human radiation research within SC’s 

research portfolio.

Office of Nuclear Energy

The Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) supports NASA’s space science and exploration programs by maintaining the necessary nuclear facilities’ infrastructure 

capabilities to produce and deliver power systems for Federal user agencies, such 

as NASA. These capabilities, funded by DOE, support NE’s production of space 

radioisotope power systems for current space mission applications. The Office 

of Nuclear Energy also conducts research and development for NASA-funded 

radioisotope power system and space reactor power and propulsion system 

technology programs.
130Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

DOE and its predecessors have provided radioisotope power systems (RPSs) that 

have safely enabled deep space exploration and national security missions for over 

five decades. Radioisotope power systems convert the heat from the natural radioactive decay of plutonium-238 (Pu-238) into electricity. RPSs are capable of producing either heat or electricity for decades under the harsh conditions encountered 

in deep space. They have proven to be safe, reliable, and maintenance-free in missions to study the Moon and all of the planets in the solar system except Mercury. 

Systems that utilize RPS-powered systems are currently in many different stages of 

their mission lives. The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover landed on Mars 

in August 2012. Curiosity is the largest and most capable rover ever sent to another 

planet and is powered by a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator 

(MMRTG) that was designed, built, and delivered by DOE. It is currently exploring 

Mount Sharp, in Gale Crater on Mars. Voyagers 1 and 2, each powered by three 

Multi-Hundred Watt RTGs, left Earth in 1977 to conduct a grand tour of the outer 

planets. Voyager 2 is continuing to explore the heliosheath on the edge of the solar 

system, while Voyager 1, at more than 11 billion miles from Earth, is the farthest 

humanmade object from Earth—and, as of August 2012, it is the first such object to 

enter interstellar space. Both spacecraft remain operational and are sending back 

useful scientific data after over 35 years of operation; they are expected to continue 

functioning until 2025. The Cassini mission launched in 1997 and entered orbit 

around Saturn in 2004. The Cassini spacecraft uses three DOE-supplied General 

Purpose Heat Source (GPHS)–RTGs and is the largest spacecraft ever launched 

to explore the outer planets. It is successfully returning data and images of Saturn 

and its surrounding moons, using a broad range of scientific instruments, and is 

expected to continue to operate until at least 2017. The New Horizons spacecraft, 

launched in 2006 and powered by a single GPHS-RTG, is the fastest spacecraft to 

ever leave Earth. New Horizons has already returned images and scientific data 

from Jupiter and will continue its journey of 3 billion miles to study Pluto and its 

moon, Charon, in 2015. It may also go on to study one or more objects in the vast 

Kuiper Belt, the largest structure in our planetary system.

DOE is working with NASA to develop an Advanced Stirling Radioisotope 

Generator (ASRG). This radioisotope power system uses dynamic energy conversion for greater system efficiency than that of an RTG. The system was offered for 
131 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

use on the competed Discovery-12 Mission to be launched as early as 2016, but an 

ASRG-powered mission was not selected.

The stockpile of Pu-238 used to power these missions to explore the solar system 

and for other Government applications is limited. NE is working with NASA to 

reestablish domestic Pu-238 production in order to ensure continued availability of these power systems for future science missions. DOE received funds from 

NASA in late FY 2011 to reestablish this capability and initiated the Pu-238 

Supply Project in FY 2012. The project will use existing facilities at the Oak Ridge 

National Laboratory (ORNL) and the Idaho National Laboratory. In 2012, the 

project completed initial subscale tests of targets containing neptunium-237 (Np237) in an existing reactor at ORNL to determine the parameters for full-scale 

target irradiation of Np-237 targets to produce Pu-238.

133 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

The Smithsonian Institution continued to contribute to national aerospace 

goals through the activities of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory 

(SAO), which, together with the Harvard College Observatory in Cambridge, 

Massachusetts, forms the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). 

Through this organization, more than 300 scientists engaged in a broad program of 

research in astronomy, astrophysics, Earth and space sciences, 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.

In FY 2012, exoplanets, or planets orbiting distant stars, continued to be a hot 

topic. SAO astronomers announced the discovery of the first two Earth-sized planets, with diameters of 8,200 miles or less. Both orbit the same star at distances 

much closer than Mercury orbits our sun, making them too hot for life.

Researchers also discovered a unique double-planet system where a lava world 

experiences a “planetrise” every time it nears its Jupiter-like neighbor. When the 

two planets experience a conjunction every 97 days, they are separated by only 

1 million miles. As a result, the larger world appears five times bigger than the full 

moon in its neighbor’s sky.

SAO continued to be at the forefront of a decades-long effort to map the universe. In August 2012, researchers unveiled the largest three-dimensional (3D) map 

of galaxies ever created. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey III cataloged more than 

1 million galaxies out to a distance of 6 billion light-years—almost halfway across 

the visible universe. It also mapped quasars—giant black holes actively feeding on 

stars and gas—up to 12 billion light-years from Earth.

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, launched in August 2003, continues to produce 

exciting new views of the universe at infrared wavelengths. Spitzer is the fourth 
134Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

and final space telescope in NASA’s Great Observatory series. Spitzer’s Infrared 

Array Camera (IRAC) was developed at SAO and constructed at the NASA 

Goddard Space Flight Center. Spitzer is operated for NASA by the Jet Propulsion 

Laboratory. Spitzer’s “cold mission” lasted more than 5.5 years and was terminated 

by the depletion of its liquid-helium coolant on May 15, 2009. However, two of the 

cameras in IRAC, at 3.6- and 4.5-micron wavelengths, continue to operate during 

the new “warm mission” phase.

SAO scientists, in collaboration with the Spitzer Science Center, continue to 

play an important role in the operation of IRAC, the data analysis, and its use for 

astronomical observations.

In FY 2012, SAO astronomers published data from the Spitzer Extended Deep 

Survey (SEDS). SEDS is a unique undertaking, covering 1.5 square degrees of the 

sky in the near infrared with Spitzer’s IRAC instrument to observe the faintest 

objects ever seen on a field of this size. SEDS also benefits from extensive coverage 

by allied teams, particularly using the Hubble Space Telescope. The combination 

of the IRAC catalogs with those from Hubble has already resulted in numerous 

other discoveries, including galaxies seen as they were when the universe was in 

its infancy. In addition, after integrating all the light from all sources seen in the 

SEDS field, SAO researchers concluded that at least half of the enigmatic “extragalactic background light” must originate in discrete objects (galaxies) rather than 

coming from an ill-defined, diffuse source.

Spitzer/IRAC observations also discovered four extremely reddened infrared 

sources that were not detected at visible or near-infrared wavelengths by very 

deep observations with the Hubble Space Telescope. The nature of these objects 

remains a mystery. One possibility is that these objects are galaxies in the early 

universe with an old population of stars.

In FY 2012, SAO astronomers released the results of a Spitzer survey of the 

Cygnus-X star-forming region. Cygnus-X is one of the brightest regions of the sky 

at all wavelengths and is one of the richest known massive star-formation regions 

in the galaxy. Massive stars are important because their energetic winds and ultraviolet flux have major effects on molecular clouds and galactic structure. They are 

important influences in the enrichment of the interstellar medium and provide 

feedback to the star-formation process. A large fraction of stars form in massive 
135 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

clusters, including stars like our sun, so such a study is important in understanding 

our own origins. However, massive star formation is not well understood.

SAO astronomers surveyed about 25 square degrees in the Cygnus-X region 

using Spitzer. They detected approximately 4 million sources and performed a 

search for protostars, or newly forming stars, at various stages of evolution. They 

found approximately 1,200 deeply embedded protostars, 2,600 protostars with dusty 

envelopes, and 24,000 protostars with disks, which are possibly forming planetary 

systems. This sample of protostars is larger than the total number discovered by 

Spitzer in all other surveys combined at that point.

The Chandra X-ray Observatory is NASA’s flagship mission for x-ray astronomy, 

and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory has operated the mission on 

behalf of NASA since its launch in 1999.

During FY 2012, scientists using Chandra made many significant and exciting 

discoveries. Among them was an exceptional galaxy cluster that was the largest 

ever seen in the distant universe. Galaxy clusters, the largest objects in the universe that are held together by gravity, form through the merger of smaller groups 

or subclusters of galaxies. Because the formation process depends on the amount 

of dark matter and dark energy in the universe, clusters can be used to study these 

mysterious phenomena. The newly discovered galaxy cluster is the most massive, 

is the hottest, and gives off the most x-rays of any known cluster at its distance of 

7 billion light-years or beyond.

Later in FY 2012, other astronomers made another remarkable discovery involving a separate galaxy cluster that is slightly closer to Earth at a distance of 5.7 billion light-years. This cluster became known as the Phoenix Cluster not only for 

the constellation in which it is found, but also for its remarkable properties. For 

example, stars are forming in the Phoenix Cluster at the highest rate ever observed 

for the middle of a galaxy cluster. While galaxies at the center of most clusters may 

have been dormant for billions of years, the central galaxy in this cluster seems to 

have come back to life with a new burst of star formation.

Researchers also used Chandra to discover an extraordinary outburst produced 

by a black hole in a nearby galaxy called M83, which has provided direct evidence 

for a population of old, volatile stellar black holes during FY 2012. The Chandra 

observations provided new insight into the nature of a mysterious class of black 
136Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

holes that can produce as much energy in x-rays as a million suns radiating at 

all wavelengths.

In FY 2012, Chandra launched a new exhibit called “Here, There, and 

Everywhere” to illustrate how familiar phenomena on Earth and across the universe are connected by basic physical laws. This exhibit will travel to 30 locations, 

including libraries and other public spaces, from 2012 through 2015.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory provides better-than-high-definition-quality 

images of the sun’s surface and outer atmosphere. SAO is a major partner in the 

Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA)—a group of four telescopes that photograph the sun in 10 different wavelength bands, or colors, once every 12 seconds.

The Hinode mission is a joint U.S.-Japanese-European mission designed to study 

the detailed physics of the sun’s atmosphere. SAO is the lead institution on the 

X-ray Telescope (XRT) on the Hinode spacecraft. The XRT is a telescope that 

images energetic x-rays that are produced in the hottest parts of the sun’s corona.

AIA and Hinode XRT observations formed the bases of the thesis work by a 

graduate student supported by SAO. In this work, mathematical magnetic-field 

models are constructed that are consistent with the high-resolution AIA and XRT 

observations. These models show how magnetic energy is stored in the corona, as 

well as the conditions that are needed to release the energy quickly in flares and 

coronal mass ejections.

In FY 2012, XRT provided stunning images of the structure of regions of activity 

in the sun’s atmosphere. These regions are locations where large solar eruptions 

originate. The images from XRT allowed scientists to systematically study the 

structure and evolution of the magnetic fields within these regions, leading to a 

better understanding of the conditions that can cause large eruptions.

Also in FY 2012, the NASA suborbital rocket Hi-C was flown from White Sands 

Missile Range. SAO built the telescope for this mission and provided critical technical and scientific support. Hi-C produced the highest-resolution images of the 

solar corona ever made. It identified (for the first time) braided structures within 

coronal loops. Data from the Hi-C mission resulted in more than 15 refereed publications, the most ever for any rocket flight.

In public outreach, SAO continued its popular monthly Observatory Night 

lectures and observing sessions. Begun by observatory director Harlow Shapley 
137 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

in 1930, these public nights offer the local community an opportunity to learn 

about the latest advances in astronomy as well as view the moon, stars, and planets 

through a variety of telescopes. Attendees routinely fill the observatory auditorium 

and a nearby overflow room to capacity. The lectures are Webcast live and archived 

online to reach a broader audience.

SAO participated in the sixth annual Cambridge Science Festival—a celebration showcasing the leading edge in science, technology, engineering, and 

mathematics. This multifaceted, multicultural event takes place every spring in 

Cambridge, Massachusetts.

SAO hosted a special event to view the planet Venus transiting across the face 

of the sun. The next such transit will not occur until 2117. SAO also provided 

occasional Author’s Night programs, as well as Sci-fi Movie Nights that explored 

the theme “Everything I learned about science, I learned at the movies.”

In FY 2012, a new exhibition, developed jointly by SAO and the Smithsonian’s 

National Museum of Natural History, revealed the dynamic and evolving universe through breathtaking photographs and informative captions. “The Evolving 

Universe” explored how the stars, galaxies, and universe undergo the same stages 

as life on Earth: from birth to maturity and, eventually, to death. This remarkable 

journey from present-day Earth to the far reaches of space and time was on view in 

the museum in Washington, DC, through July 2013.

In FY 2012, NASM continued to educate and inspire the public through exhibits, research, and education programs, including discovery stations, lecture series, 

family educational events, publications, and intern training. In terms of major 

artifact acquisitions, NASM received from NASA significant artifacts associated 

with the Space Shuttle Program, newly available after the program ended in 2011. 

Among those objects acquired was Space Shuttle Discovery, placed on display at 

the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Dulles, Virginia. The Discovery exhibit was 

opened with a four-day festival highlighting the history of this notable spacecraft. 

Other exhibitions opened this year included “Jet as Art” and “Fly Marines: The 

Centennial of Marine Corps Aviation 1912–2012.”

Staff members in NASM’s Center for Earth and Planetary Studies (CEPS) continued to participate on the science teams of several spacecraft missions. Three 

of six full-time CEPS scientists served on mission teams during the year. Dr. John 
138Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

Grant is a Participating Scientist for the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission 

that is currently operating on Mars. He is a chair of the MER Science Operations 

Working Group, and in that capacity he leads day-to-day science planning for the 

Opportunity rover. He conducts real-time mission planning using a data station 

installed on-site at CEPS. CEPS staff are also on the science teams for the Mars 

Science Laboratory; the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere 

Sounding instrument on Mars Express; both the High Resolution Imaging 

Science Experiment and the Shallow Subsurface Radar instruments on the Mars 

Reconnaissance Orbiter; the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter; and the MErcury 

Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission to Mercury.

CEPS continued its active research program in planetary and terrestrial geology 

and geophysics using remote sensing data from Earth-orbiting satellites, as well as 

piloted and unpiloted space missions. The scope of research activities included 

work on the moon, Mars, Earth, and Mercury. Research topics included lunar 

tectonic studies, comparative planetology, aeolian processes on terrestrial planets, lunar and Martian radar studies, Martian valley networks and impacts, and 

Mercury surface features. Dr. Ross Irwin received a 2012 Presidential Early Career 

Award for Scientists and Engineers for his work on the role of water in shaping the 

landscape of Mars.

In addition, during FY 2012, NASM completed 8 new books and a total of 

18 articles in history. In science, NASM CEPS authored or coauthored 19 peerreviewed papers and 50 abstracts.
139

Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

ppendice
140Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

Appendix A-1

U.S. Government Spacecr

(Includes spacecraft from cooperating countries launched by U.S. launch vehicles.)

Calendar Year

Earth Orbita Earth Escapeb

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 1b

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 32c 0 0 0

1992 26c 0 1 0

1993 28c 1 1 0

1994 31c 1 1 0

1995 24c, d 2 1 0

1996 30 1 3 0

1997 22e 0 1 0

1998 23 0 2 0

1999 35 4 2 0

2000 31f 0 0 0

2001 23 0 3 0

2002 18 0 0 1b

2003 28c, f 0 2 0

2004 8c 0 1 0

2005 10 0 2 0

2006 20d 0 2 0

2007 16 2 2 0

2008 22f 0 0 0

2009 24f 1 0 0

2010 15 0 0 0

2011 16 1 3 0

2012 (through September 30, 2012) 10 0 0 0

TOTAL 1,693 157 109 16

a. The criterion of success or failure used is attainment of Earth orbit or Earth escape rather than judgment of mission success. “Escape” flights 

include all that were intended to go to at least an altitude equal to lunar distance from Earth.

b. This Earth-escape failure did attain Earth orbit and, therefore, is included in the Earth-orbit success totals.

c. This excludes commercial satellites. It counts separately spacecraft launched by the same launch vehicle.

d. This counts various sets of microsatellites as a single payload.

e. This includes the Small Spacecraft Technology Initiative (SSTI) Lewis spacecraft that began spinning out of control shortly after it achieved 

Earth orbit.

f. This includes American spacecraft not launched in the U.S.
141 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

Appendix A-2

World Record of Space Launches S

in Attaining Earth Orbit o

(Enumerates launches rather than spacecraft; some launches orbited multiple spacecraft.)a

Calendar 

Year

United

Statesb

USSR/

CIS Francec Italyc Japan

People’s 

Republic

of China Australia

United

Kingdomc

European 

Space

Agency India Israel Iran

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 1 1

1971 30 83 1 2 2 1 1

1972 30 74 1 1

1973 23 86

1974 22 81 2 1

1975 27 89 3 1 2 3

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 62 2 1 9 1

1992 31 55 2 3 7 2

1993 24 45 1 1 7

1994 26 49 2 5 6 2

1995 27 33 1 2 12 1

1996 32 25 1 3 10 1

1997 37 28 2 6 12 1

1998 34 24 2 6 11

1999 32 26 4 10 1

2000 30 34 5 12

2001 23 23 1 1 8 2

2002 18 23 3 4 11 1 1

2003 26 21 2 6 4 2

2004 19 22 8 3 1

2005 16 26 2 5 5 1

2006 15 16 5 3 5

2007 25 33 3 13 8 3 1

2008 19 26 1 11 7 3

2009 25 29 3 4 9 4 1

2010 15 30 2 15 6 1 1

2011 17 33 3 18 7 3 1

2012* 10 18 2 13 6 2 1

*(through September 30, 2012)

TOTAL 1,444 2,937 10 8 81 165 1 1 210 34 6 3

a. This includes commercial expendable launches and launches of the Space Shuttle as well as launches to useless orbit.

b. Launches from U.S.-Russia joint platform included in U.S. totals.

c. Since 1979, all launches for ESA member countries have been joint and are listed under ESA.
142Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

Appendix B

Successful Launches to Orbit on U

October 1, 2011–September 30, 2012

Launch Date

Spacecraft Name

COSPAR* Designation

Launch Vehicle Mission Objectives

Apogee and

Perigee (km),

Period (min),

Inclination to Equator (°) Remarks

October 28, 2011

Suomi NPP

2011-061A

Delta 2-7920

Meteorology 818

811

101.1

98.7

Renamed Suomi National Polar-orbiting 

Partnership (NPP) from National PolarOrbiting Operational Environmental 

Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory 

Project (NPP)

November 26, 2011

Mars Science Laboratory

2011-070A

Atlas 5-541

Planetary science 325

166

89.4

28.9

January 20, 2012

WGS F4

2012-003A

Delta 4M+5,4

Military communications 66,960

503

1,332.4

23.9 

Wideband Global Satellite 

Communications (SATCOM) (WGS)

February 24, 2012

MUOS 1

2012-009A

Atlas 5-551

Military communications 34,410

220

604.9

26

Mobile User Objective System (MUOS)

April 3, 2012

USA 234 (NROL-25)

2012-014A

Delta 4M+5,2 

Military/classified 1,096

1,084

106.9

122

May 4, 2012

AEHF 2

2012-019A

Atlas 5-531

Military communications 45,969

26,171

1,450.6

4.5

Advanced Extremely High Frequency 

(AEHF)

May 22, 2012

Dragon C2+

2012-027A

Falcon 9

International Space Station 406

392

92.5

51.6

Dragon C2/C3

June 13, 2012

NuSTAR

2012-031A

Pegasus XL

Space science 639

620

97.3

6

Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array 

(NuSTAR)

June 20, 2012

USA 236 (NROL-38)

2012-033A

Atlas 5

Military/classified 35,886

862

645.9

20.7

June 29, 2012

USA 237 (NROL-15)

2012-034A

Delta 4H

Military/classified 35,674

219

629.2

August 30, 2012

RBSP-A/B 

2012-046A-B

Atlas 5-401

Earth science 330,715

601

359.2

10.1

Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP)

Renamed Van Allen Probes

September 13, 2012

STS-134/Endeavour 

2011-020A

Space Shuttle

*U.N. Committee on Space Research

Military/classified 1,051

511

100.4

64.5

Carried OUTsat (Operationally 

Unique Technologies Satellite) and 

released 11 CubeSats
143 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

Appendix C

Human Spacefli

October 1, 2011–September 30, 2012

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew

Flight Time 

(d:h:min) Highlights

Soyuz TMA-22

(Expedition 29)

Soyuz TMA-03M

(Expedition 30)

November 13, 2011

December 21, 2011

Anton Shkaplerov 

Anatoly Ivanishin

Dan Burbank

Oleg Kononenko 

Andre Kuipers

Don Pettit

165:08:31

192:19:58

Final planned flight for the SoyuzTMA design

Considered the first normal flight of 

the Soyuz TMA-M spacecraft (the 

prior two were seen as test flights)

Soyuz TMA-04M

(Expedition 31)

Shenzhou 9

May 14, 2012

June 16, 2012

Joe Acaba 

Gennady Padalka 

Sergei Revin

Jing Halpeng

Liu Wang

Liu Yang

124:23:52

12:15:24

First commercial resupply by the 

SpaceX Dragon

China’s first women in space 

China’s longest spaceflight to date

First crewed docking to the Chinese 

Tiangong 1 Space Laboratory Module

Soyuz TMA-05M

(Expedition 32)

July 14, 2012 Sunita Williams 

Yuri Malenchenko

Akihiko Hoshide

126:22:16 First boost above 400 km mean altitude

First CubeSat deployment from the 

Kibo Robotic Arm
144Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

Appendix D-1A

Space Activities of the U.S.

HISTORICAL TABLE OF BUDGET AUTHORITY

(in millions of real-year dollars)

FY

NASA 

Total

NASA 

Space DOD Othera DOEb DOC DOI USDA NSFc DOT Total Space

1959 331 261 490 34 34 785

1960 524 462 561 43 43 1,066

1961 964 926 814 68 68 1,808

1962 1,825 1,797 1,298 199 148 51 3,294

1963 3,673 3,626 1,550 257 214 43 5,433

1964 5,100 5,016 1,599 213 210 3 6,828

1965 5,250 5,138 1,574 241 229 12 6,953

1966 5,175 5,065 1,689 214 187 27 6,968

1967 4,966 4,830 1,664 213 184 29 6,707

1968 4,587 4,430 1,922 174 145 28 0.2 1 6,526

1969 3,991 3,822 2,013 170 118 20 0.2 1 31 6,005

1970 3,746 3,547 1,678 141 103 8 1 1 28 5,366

1971 3,311 3,101 1,512 162 95 27 2 1 37 4,775

1972 3,307 3,071 1,407 133 55 31 6 2 39 4,611

1973 3,406 3,093 1,623 147 54 40 10 2 41 4,863

1974 3,037 2,759 1,766 158 42 60 9 3 44 4,683

1975 3,229 2,915 1,892 158 30 64 8 2 54 4,965

1976 3,550 3,225 1,983 168 23 72 10 4 59 5,376

TQ* 932 849 460 43 5 22 3 1 12 1,352

1977 3,818 3,440 2,412 194 22 91 10 6 65 6,046

1978 4,060 3,623 2,738 226 34 103 10 8 71 6,587

1979 4,596 4,030 3,036 248 59 98 10 8 73 7,314

1980 5,240 4,680 3,848 231 40 93 12 14 72 8,759

1981 5,518 4,992 4,828 234 41 87 12 16 78 10,054

1982 6,044 5,528 6,679 313 61 145 12 15 80 12,520

1983 6,875 6,328 9,019 327 39 178 5 20 85 15,674

1984 7,458 6,858 10,195 395 34 236 3 19 103 17,448

1985 7,573 6,925 12,768 584 34 423 2 15 110 20,277

1986 7,807 7,165 14,126 477 35 309 2 23 108 21,768

1987 10,923 9,809 16,287 466 48 278 8 19 112 1 26,562

1988 9,062 8,322 17,679 741 241 352 14 18 115 1 26,742

1989 10,969 10,097 17,906 560 97 301 17 21 121 3 28,563

1990 12,324 11,460 15,616 506 79 243 31 25 124 4 27,582

1991 14,016 13,046 14,181 772 251 251 29 26 211 4 27,999

1992 14,317 13,199 15,023 798 223 327 34 29 181 4 29,020

1993 14,310 13,064 14,106 731 165 324 33 25 180 4 27,901

1994 14,570 13,022 13,166 632 74 312 31 31 179 5 26,820

1995 13,854 12,543 10,644 759 60 352 31 32 278 6 23,946

1996 13,884 12,569 11,514 828 46 472 36 37 231 6 24,911

1997 13,709 12,457 11,727 789 35 448 42 39 219 6 24,973

1998 13,648 12,321 12,359 839 103 435 43 39 213 6 25,519

1999 13,653 12,459 13,203 982 105 575 59 37 200 6 26,644

2000 13,601 12,521 12,941 1,056 164 575 60 44 207 6 26,518

2001 14,230 13,304 14,326 1,062 145 577 60 36 232 12 28,692

2002 14,868 13,871 15,740 1,180 166 644 64 28 266 12 30,791

2003 15,364 14,360 19,388 1,305 191 649 74 42 337 12 35,053

2004 15,379 14,322 19,115 1,464 209 745 71 61 366 12 34,901

2005 16,198 15,234 19,690 1,551 229 807 70 73 360 12 36,475

2006 16,623 15,765 22,114 1,647 245 860 82 84 364 12 39,526

2007 16,285 15,568 22,418 1,680 200 912 87 65 404 12 39,666

2008 17,117 16,502 24,795 1,698 195 862 90 59 479 13 42,995

2009 17,775 17,275 26,528 1,868 200 1,078 64 27 485 14 45,671

2010 18,725 18,228 26,463 2,057 203 1,261 67 27 484 15 46,748

2011 18,432 17,898 27,234 2,186 229 1,444 66 20 412 15 47,318

2012 17,773 17,203 26,677 2,580 199 1,876 76 7 406 16 46,460

a. The Other column is the total of the non-NASA and non-DOD budget authority figures that appear in the succeeding columns. The total is 

sometimes different from the sum of the individual figures because of rounding. The Total Space column does not include the NASA Total column because the latter includes budget authority for aeronautics as well as space. For the years 1989–1997, this Other column also includes small 

figures for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Also includes $2.1 billion for the replacement of Space Shuttle Challenger in 1987.

b. The DOE has recalculated its space expenditures since 1998.

c. The NSF has recalculated its space expenditures since 1980, making them significantly higher than reported in previous years.

* Transition Quarter
145 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

Appendix D-1B

Space Activities of the U.S.

HISTORICAL TABLE OF BUDGET AUTHORITY

(in millions of inflation-adjusted FY 2012 dollars)

FY

Inflation 

Factors

NASA 

Total

NASA 

Space DOD Othera DOEb DOC DOI USDA NSFc DOT Total Space

1959 6.269 2,075 1,636 3,072 213 213 4,921

1960 6.181 3,239 2,856 3,467 266 266 6,589

1961 6.105 5,885 5,653 4,969 415 415 11,037

1962 6.017 10,982 10,813 7,811 1,197 891 307 19,821

1963 5.951 21,859 21,580 9,225 1,529 1,274 256 32,334

1964 5.878 29,976 29,482 9,398 1,252 1,234 18 40,132

1965 5.809 30,495 29,844 9,143 1,400 1,330 70 40,387

1966 5.709 29,547 28,919 9,643 1,222 1,068 154 39,784

1967 5.589 27,754 26,994 9,300 1,190 1,028 162 37,485

1968 5.416 24,843 23,993 10,410 943 785 152 1 5 35,346

1969 5.232 20,880 19,996 10,531 891 617 105 1 5 163 31,418

1970 5.004 18,745 17,749 8,397 706 515 40 5 5 140 26,851

1971 4.747 15,718 14,721 7,178 769 451 128 9 5 175 22,668

1972 4.521 14,950 13,884 6,361 603 249 140 27 9 178 20,847

1973 4.317 14,703 13,352 7,006 636 233 173 43 9 179 20,994

1974 4.136 12,562 11,412 7,305 654 174 248 37 12 182 19,371

1975 3.859 12,459 11,248 7,300 609 116 247 31 8 207 19,157

1976 3.493 12,399 11,264 6,926 588 80 251 35 14 207 18,777

TQ* 3.259 3,037 2,767 1,499 140 16 72 10 3 39 4,406

1977 3.159 12,061 10,867 7,620 611 69 287 32 19 204 19,098

1978 3.032 12,310 10,985 8,302 685 103 312 30 24 215 19,972

1979 2.840 13,055 11,447 8,624 704 168 278 28 23 207 20,775

1980 2.629 13,774 12,302 10,115 607 105 244 32 37 189 23,024

1981 2.415 13,328 12,058 11,662 566 99 210 29 39 189 24,285

1982 2.199 13,290 12,155 14,686 688 134 319 26 33 175 27,529

1983 2.058 14,149 13,023 18,562 673 80 366 10 41 175 32,258

1984 1.971 14,703 13,520 20,099 778 67 465 6 37 203 34,397

1985 1.901 14,396 13,164 24,271 1,110 65 804 4 29 209 38,545

1986 1.841 14,375 13,193 26,010 878 64 569 4 42 198 40,080

1987 1.800 19,657 17,652 29,310 838 86 500 14 34 201 2 47,801

1988 1.753 15,884 14,587 30,987 1,299 422 617 25 32 202 2 46,873

1989 1.698 18,629 17,148 30,411 951 165 511 29 36 206 5 48,510

1990 1.635 20,149 18,736 25,531 827 129 397 51 41 202 7 45,094

1991 1.577 22,102 20,572 22,362 1,218 396 396 46 41 333 6 44,152

1992 1.519 21,751 20,052 22,823 1,212 339 497 52 44 275 6 44,087

1993 1.481 21,188 19,344 20,886 1,082 244 480 49 37 266 6 41,312

1994 1.449 21,109 18,866 19,075 916 107 452 45 45 260 7 38,858

1995 1.419 19,656 17,796 15,102 1,076 85 499 44 45 394 9 33,975

1996 1.389 19,290 17,463 15,997 1,150 64 656 50 51 321 8 34,610

1997 1.363 18,686 16,980 15,985 1,076 48 611 57 53 299 8 34,041

1998 1.338 18,266 16,490 16,541 1,124 138 582 58 52 286 8 34,155

1999 1.322 18,044 16,466 17,449 1,298 139 760 78 49 264 8 35,213

2000 1.304 17,740 16,332 16,879 1,377 214 750 78 57 270 8 34,588

2001 1.279 18,200 17,015 18,323 1,358 185 738 77 46 297 15 36,696

2002 1.250 18,579 17,333 19,669 1,475 207 805 80 35 332 15 38,477

2003 1.229 18,886 17,652 23,832 1,604 235 798 91 52 414 15 43,088

2004 1.205 18,526 17,253 23,027 1,764 252 897 86 73 441 14 42,043

2005 1.175 19,031 17,899 23,134 1,822 269 948 82 86 423 14 42,855

2006 1.138 18,915 17,939 25,164 1,874 279 979 93 96 414 14 44,977

2007 1.100 17,921 17,132 24,671 1,849 220 1,004 96 72 445 13 43,652

2008 1.069 18,296 17,638 26,502 1,815 208 921 96 63 512 14 45,955

2009 1.045 18,568 18,046 27,712 1,951 209 1,126 67 28 507 15 47,708

2010 1.031 19,312 18,800 27,293 2,121 209 1,301 69 27 499 15 48,214

2011 1.021 18,819 18,274 27,806 2,231 234 1,474 67 20 421 15 48,311

2012 1.000 17,773 17,203 26,677 2,580 199 1,876 76 7 406 16 46,460

a. The Other column is the total of the non-NASA and non-DOD budget authority figures that appear in the succeeding columns. The total is 

sometimes different from the sum of the individual figures because of rounding. The Total Space column does not include the NASA Total 

column because the latter includes budget authority for aeronautics as well as in space. For the years 1989–1997, this Other column also includes 

small figures for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Also includes $2.1 billion for replacement of Space Shuttle Challenger in 1987.

b. The DOE has recalculated its space expenditures since 1998.

c. The NSF has recalculated its space expenditures since 1980, making them significantly higher than reported in previous years.

* Transition Quarter
146Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

Appendix D-2

Federal Space Activiti

(in millions of dollars by fiscal year)

Federal 

Agencies

Budget Authority Budget Outlays

2010 

actual

2011 

actual

2012 

actual

2013 

est.1

2010 

actual

2011 

actual

2012 

actual

NASA2 18,222 17,898 17,203 16,335 18,406 17,017 16,606

DOD3 26,463 27,234 26,677 25,555 24,142 25,924 26,457

DOE4 203 229 199 185 204 177 158

DOC 5 1,398 1,444 1,876 1,865 567.1 803.2 1,074.3

DOI 67 66 76 75 67 66 76

USDA 26.6 19.5 6.7 6.4 21.6 18.1 17.3

DOT 15 15 16 15 15 15 16

NSF6 484 412 406 401 515 543 489

(1) FY 2013 figures incorporate the effect of sequestration.

(2) NASA program budgets reflect only direct program costs. Indirect costs are budgeted within the Cross Agency Support Programs account 

(captured within the Federal Space Activities Budget table).

(3) DOD FY 2011, 2012, and 2013 figures for Budget Authority and Outlays are estimated at the time of preparing this report.

(4) Department of Energy budget figures do not include any physics research and operations funding for ground-based experiments managed in the 

High Energy Physics program.

(5) Beginning in 2010, the Department of Commerce has defined the entire National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service 

budget that is within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as a space activity. Prior years did not include some 

items, such as NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center archives and Comprehensive Large Array-data Stewardship System (CLASS). The 

Budget Outlays columns reflect dollars “costed” in a fiscal year specific to that same fiscal year’s appropriated dollars.

(6) Totals for NSF include Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) and all telescope activities. Outlay information includes American Recovery 

and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
147 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

Appendix D-3

Federal Aeronautics Activit

(in millions of dollars by fiscal year)

Federal 

Agencies

Budget Authority Budget Outlays

2010 

actual

2011 

actual

2012 

actual

2013 

est.1

2010 

actual

2011 

actual

2012 

actual

NASA2 497 534 570 530 500 601 584

USDA 55.4 37.1 36.9 34.5 52.6 35.3 36.8

DOD3 14,166 14,170 1,4221 1,4099 13,573 13,577 13,509

DOI 28 24 27 26 29 25 27

DOT 3,104 2,905 2,884 2,733 2,742 2,895 3,102

(1) FY 2013 figures incorporate the effect of sequestration.

(2) NASA program budgets reflect only direct program costs. Indirect costs are budgeted within the Cross-Agency Support Programs account (captured within the Federal Space Activities Budget table).

(3) DOD FY 2011, 2012, and 2013 figures for Budget Authority and Outlays are estimated at the time of preparing this report.

149 c Fiscal Year 2012 Activiti

ronyms

25K TTL 25K Transportable Target Launcher

3D three-dimensional

A

AAR Airport Arrival Rate

ACM Adjacent Center Metering

ACT Atacama Cosmology Telescope

ADS-B Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast

ADVENT Adaptive Versatile Engine Technology

AE Archive Explorer

AEHF Advanced Extremely High Frequency

AES Advanced Exploration Systems

AFB Air Force Base

AGS NSF Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences

AHW Advanced Hypersonic Weapon

AIA Atmospheric Imaging Assembly

ALASA Airborne Launch Assist Space Access

ALMA Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array

AMF2 Second ARM Mobile Facility

AMISR Advanced Modular Incoherent-Scatter Radar

AMPEREA Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment

AMS Autonomous Modular Sensor; Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer

AMSU Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit

ANC Air Navigation Conference

AO Arecibo Observatory

APFO Aerial Photography Field Office

ARED Advanced Resistive Exercise Device

ARM Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility

ARMD Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

ARRA American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

ARS Agricultural Research Service

AS NSF Atmosphere Section

ASB Agricultural Statistics Board

ASDE-X Airport Surface Detection Equipment

ASIAS Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing

ASRG Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator

AST FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation; NSF Division of Astronomical Sciences

ASU Aircraft Sector Understanding, short for Group on the Sector Understanding on Export

Credits for Civil Aircraft

ATC Air Traffic Control

ATK Alliant Techsystems

ATOP Advanced Technologies and Oceanic Procedures

ATST Advanced Technology Solar Telescope

ATV Automated Transfer Vehicle

AVHRR Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

AVIRIS Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer
150Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

B

BANWR Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge

BD2 Blue Devil 2

BICEP2 Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization 2

BLISS background-limited infrared-submillimeter spectrograph

BLM Bureau of Land Management

BNL Brookhaven National Laboratory

C

C-CAP Coastal Change Assessment Program

CART classification and regression tree

CBP Customs and Border Protection

CCAFS Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

CCiCap Commercial Crew integrated Capability

CCL Commerce Control List

CCMC Community Coordinated Modeling Center

CCP Commercial Crew Program

CCSDS Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems

CDL Cropland Data Layer

CDTI Cockpit Display of Traffic Information

CEDAR Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions

CEPS Center for Earth and Planetary Studies

CfA Center for Astrophysics

CHIRP Commercially Hosted Infrared Payload

CISM Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling

CLASS Comprehensive Large Array-data Stewardship System

CLS Collecte Localisation Satellites

CLU Common Land Unit

CMB cosmic microwave background

CME coronal mass ejection

CNES Centre National d’Études Spatiales

COE-CST Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation

CoNNeCT Communications, Navigation, and Networking reConfigurable Testbed

ConOps Concept of Operations

CONUS contiguous United States

COSMIC Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate

COSPAS-SARSAT Cosmicheskaya Sistyema Poiska Avariynich Sudov–Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking 

COTS Commercial Orbital Transportation Services

CPC Certification Products Contract

CREATE Computational Research and Engineering Acquisition Tools and Environments

CREATE-AV Computational Research and Engineering Acquisition Tools and Environments Air Vehicles

CRS Commercial Resupply Services

CS Commercial Service

D

D&D design and development

DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

dB decibel

DFRC Dryden Flight Research Center

DHS Department of Homeland Security

DKIST Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope

DLR German Aerospace Center
151 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

DMC Disaster Monitoring Constellation

DNN R&D Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development

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

E

EA Environmental Assessment

EBEX E and B Experiment

ECMWF European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts

EDA Efficient Descent Advisor

EDC EROS Data Center

EELV Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle

EFT-1 Exploration Flight Test 1

EGS Exploration Ground Systems

EHF extremely high frequency

EISA Energy Independence and Security Act

ELaNa Educational Launch of Nanosatellites

EMFISIS Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument Suite and Integrated Science

EMU Extravehicular Mobility Unit

EO Earth Observation

EOS Earth Observing System

EP Eastern Population

EPA Environmental Protection Agency

ERA Environmentally Responsible Aviation

ERDC Engineer Research and Development Center

EROS Earth Resources Observation and Science

ESA European Space Agency

ESD Exploration Systems Development

Esri Environmental Systems Research Institute

ET evapotranspiration

ET-1 Economical Target-1

ETa actual evapotranspiration

ETM Enhanced Thematic Mapper

ETM+ Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus

EU European Union

EUMETSAT European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites

Ex-Im Bank Export-Import Bank

F

FAA Federal Aviation Administration

FAS Foreign Agricultural Service

FCC Federal Communications Commission

FES Fusion Energy Sciences

FEWS NET Famine Early Warning Systems Network

FGST Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

FOC flight operations center

FONSI Finding of No Significant Impact

FORT USGS Fort Collins Science Center
152Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

FPI Fire Potential Index

FS Forest Service

FSA Farm Service Agency

FTS Fourier transform spectrometer

G

G-LiHT Goddard LiDAR Hyperspectral and Thermal

GALEX Galaxy Evolution Explorer

GaN gallium nitride

GBD Global Burst Detector

GCAD30 Global Cropland Area Database

GCP Gulf Coast Prairie

GCPO Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks

GCSS GEWEX Cloud System Studies

GEM Geospace Environment Modeling

GEO Group on Earth Observations

GEWEX Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment

GF Geospace Facilities

GHz gigahertz

GIS Geographic Information System

GISMO Goddard IRAM Superconducting 2 Millimeter Observer

GLONASS Global Navigation Satellite System

GNSS global navigation satellite systems

GOES Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites

GPCI GCSS Pacific Cross-section Intercomparison

GPHS General Purpose Heat Source

GPS Global Positioning System

GRACE Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment

GRAIL Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory

GRC Glenn Research Center

GS NSF Geospace Section

GSFC Goddard Space Flight Center

GV Gulfstream V

H

HAB harmful algal bloom

HDDS Hazard Data Distribution System

HEAT High Elevation Antarctic Terahertz

HEOMD Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate

HFR high frequency radar

HIAPER High-performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research

HIPPO HIAPER Pole to Pole Observations

HIRS High-resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder

hot DOG hot dust-obscured galaxy

HPCMP High Performance Computing Modernization Program

HRJ hydro-treated renewable jet

HRP Human Research Program

HST Hubble Space Telescope

HTV3 HII Transfer Vehicle
153 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

I

IAC International Astronautical Conference

IBEX Interstellar Boundary Explorer

ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization

ICE-T Ice in Clouds—Tropical

ICESat Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite

ICG International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems

ICNO IceCube Neutrino Observatory

ICPS Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage

IDEA Integrated Design and Engineering Analysis

IDM interference detection and mitigation

IFR Instrument Flight Rules

IfSAR Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar

ILS Instrument Landing System

IOOS Integrated Ocean Observing System

IP intellectual property

IRAC Infrared Array Camera

IRAM Institut de RadioAstronomie Millimétrique

IRVE-3 Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment-3

ISR intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance

ISS International Space Station

ITA International Trade Administration

ITAC Industry Trade Advisory Committee

ITU International Telecommunication Union J

JASD Joint Agency Satellite Division

JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

JCTD Joint Capability Technology Demonstrations

JPDO Joint Planning and Development Office

JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory

JPSS Joint Polar Satellite System

JSC Johnson Space Center

JWST James Webb Space Telescope K

klbf kilopounds-force

kN kilonewton

KSC Kennedy Space Center L

LANL Los Alamos National Laboratory

LAPD Large Plasma Device

LAT Large Area Telescope

LCC Landscape Conservation Cooperative

LDCM Landsat Data Continuity Mission

LEMV Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle

LEO low-Earth orbit
154Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

LFT&E live-fire test and evaluation

LIDAR Light Detection and Ranging

LLNL Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

LOX liquid oxygen

LRO Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

LSP Launch Services Program

LSST Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

LST land surface temperature

LSTO Launch Service Task Order

LULC land use and land cover

LVC-DE Live Virtual Constructive-Distributive Environment

M

MAGIC Marine ARM GPCI Investigation of Clouds

MAIAC Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction

MBHI Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative

MBSU Main Bus Switching Unit

MC3E Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment

MEaSUREs Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments

MEDLI MSL Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrument

MER Mars Exploration Rover

MetOp Meteorological Operational

MGUE Military GPS User Equipment

MHTEX Massive Heat Transfer Experiment

MIB Mishap Investigation Board

Mini-RF Miniature Radio Frequency

mK millikelvin

MLM Multipurpose Laboratory Module

MMRTG Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator

MN meganewton

MODIS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer

MoonKAM Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students

MPCV Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle

MREFC Major Research Equipment and Facility Construction

MRI Magneto-Rotational Instability

MRLC Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics

MRR Multi-Role Rotor

MRX Magnetic Reconnection Experiment

MSFC Marshall Space Flight Center

MSL Mars Science Laboratory

MSS Mobile Satellite Service

mt metric ton

MTBS Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity

MUOS Mobile User Objective System

N

NAFD North American Forest Dynamics

NAIP National Agriculture Imagery Program

NAS National Airspace System

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASM National Air and Space Museum

NASS National Agricultural Statistics Service
155 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

NASTAR National AeroSpace Training and Research

NAVWAR Navigation Warfare

NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research

NCCOS National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science

NCEP/NARR National Environmental Prediction Center North American Regional Reanalysis

NDEP National Digital Elevation Program

NDVI normalized difference vegetation index

NE DOE Office of Nuclear Energy

NEN Near Earth Network

NEPA National Environmental Policy Act

NextGen Next Generation Air Transportation System

NFS National Forest System

NGA National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

NGS National Geodetic Survey

NHD National Hydrography Dataset

NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology

NLCD National Land Cover Database

NLS NASA Launch Services

nm nanometer

NNSA National Nuclear Security Administration

NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NOAO National Optical Astronomy Observatory

Np-237 neptunium-237

NPOESS National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System

NPP NPOESS Preparatory Project; National Polar-orbiting Partnership (with Suomi)

NPS National Park Service

NRAO National Radio Astronomy Observatory

NRCS Natural Resources Conservation Service

NRI National Resources Inventory

NRO National Reconnaissance Office

NSF National Science Foundation

NSO National Solar Observatory

NSPO Taiwan’s National Space Organization

NSRL NASA Space Radiation Laboratory

NSS national security space

NSWP National Space Weather Program

NTIA National Telecommunications and Information Administration

NuDets nuclear detonations

NuSTAR Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array

NWI National Wetlands Inventory

O

OCAT Oceanic Conflict Advisory Trial

OCO Orbiting Carbon Observatory

OCT Office of the Chief Technologist

OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

OFCM Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology

OFSI Office of Financial Service Industries

OGA Office of Global Analysis

OLI Operational Land Imager

OLTARIS On-Line Tool for the Assessment of Radiation in Space

ONE Operational Nanosatellite Effect

OPP Office of Polar Programs
156Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

ORNL Oak Ridge National Laboratory

ORS Operationally Responsive Space

OSC Orbital Sciences Corporation

OSM Office of Surface Mining

OTM Office of Transportation and Machinery

OTV Orbital Test Vehicle

OUTSat Operationally Unique Technologies Satellite

P

PAC-3 Patriot Advanced Capability 3

Pan-STARRS1 Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System

PDSI Palmer Drought Severity Index

PGSS Persistent Ground Surveillance System

PNT positioning, navigation, and timing

POES Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites

PPPL Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

PRS Public Regulated Service

PRSEUS Pultruded Rod Stitched Efficient Unitized Structure

PRT platinum resistance thermometer

PSA Predictive Service Area

PSU primary sampling unit

PTDS Persistent Threat Detection System

PTT Platform Transmitting Terminal

Pu-238 plutonium-238

R

R&D Research and Development

RAD Radiation Assessment Detector

REPT Relativistic Electron Proton Telescope

RFP Request for Proposal

RLV reusable launch vehicle

RMA Risk Management Agency

RO radio occultation

ROSES Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences

RPS radioisotope power system

RPT Rocket Propulsion Test

RSCC Remote Sensing Coordinating Committee

RSIWG Remote Sensing Interagency Working Group

RTS Reagan Test Site

S

S&P State and Private Forestry

SAA Space Act Agreement

SABRS Space and Atmospheric Burst Reporting System

SAO Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

SATCOM Wideband Global Satellite Communications

SATVI Soil-Adjusted Total Vegetation Index

SBA Small Business Administration

SBIR Small Business Innovation Research

SBSS Space Based Space Surveillance

SC DOE Office of Science
157 Fiscal Year 2012 Activities

SCaN Space Communications and Navigation

SDR System Definition Review

SEDS Spitzer Extended Deep Survey

SEM Space Environment Monitor

SES Société Européenne des Satellites

SGP Southern Great Plains

SHINE Solar, Heliosphere, and INterplanetary Environment

SI International System of Units

SIA Satellite Imagery Archive

SIM Spectral Irradiance Monitor

SLS Space Launch System

SM-3 Standard Missile 3

SMAP Soil Moisture Active Passive

SMD Science Mission Directorate

SMDC Space and Missile Defense Command

SN Space Network

SNaP-3 SMDC Nanosatellite Program-3

SNL Sandia National Laboratories

SNSPD superconducting nanowire single photon detector

SOFIA Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies

SPOT Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre

SPT South Pole Telescope

SQUID Superconducting Quantum Interference Device

SRB solid rocket booster

SRM solid rocket motor; Standard Reference Material

SRR Systems Requirements Review

SSC Stennis Space Center

SSEBop Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance

STEREO Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory

STIM Space Transportation Infrastructure Matching Grants

STP Space Test Program

Suomi NPP Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership

SuperDARN Super Dual Auroral Radar Network

SWIM System Wide Information Management

SWORDS Soldier-Warfighter Operationally Responsive Deployer for Space

SWR Space Weather Research

T

TBFM Time Based Flow Management

TCC Tree Canopy Cover

TDRS Tracking and Data Relay Satellite

TDRSS Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System

TES transition-edge sensor

THEMIS Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms

TIM Total Irradiance Monitor

TIS-B Traffic Information Service-Broadcast

TM Thematic Mapper

TOW Tube-Launched, Optically Tracked Wireless

TRACON Terminal Radar Approach Control

TRL technology readiness level

TSA Transportation Security Administration

TWP Tropical West Pacific
158Aeronautics and Space Report of the President

U

UAS Unmanned Aircraft System

UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

UCAR University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

UCAS Unmanned Combat Air System

UFO UHF Follow-On

UHB Ultra High Bypass

UHF ultra high frequency

ULA United Launch Alliance

ULS United Launch Services

UNCOPUOS United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space

US&FCS U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service

USAF U.S. Air Force

USDA U.S. Department of Agriculture

USFS U.S. Forest Service

USFWS U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

USGS United States Geological Survey

USML United States Munitions List

USNDS U.S. NuDet Detection System

USTDA U.S. Trade and Development Agency

V

VIIP Visual Impairment/Intracranial Pressure

VIIRS Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite

VOI value of information

W

WAAS Wide Area Augmentation System

WAI Wide Area Imager

WAOB World Agricultural Outlook Board

WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access

WGS Wideband Global SATCOM

WISE Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer

WRP Wetlands Reserve Program

WSPR Waveform and Sonic Boom Perception and Response

WSR-88D Weather Surveillance Radar 88 Doppler

WSTF White Sands Test Facility

X

XRT X-ray Telescope
NP-2014-10-1282-HQ