National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration

Volume 35, Numbers 1 and 2 First and Second Quarter 2018

NASA HISTORY DIVISION

OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS

IN THIS ISSUE:

1 From the Chief Historian

1 Welcome, Robyn Rodgers— 

NASA’s New Chief Archivist

3 Happy 60th Birthday, NASA

5 News from Headquarters and 

the Centers

16 Other Aerospace History News

19 NASA History Program Digital 

Archives Working Group

20 Recent Publications

24 Unfolding History

25 Upcoming Meetings

26 A Brief Look at the NASA 

Meatball

27 Image in NASA History

FROM

THE CHIEF 

HISTORIAN

This ed ition of NASA History’s 

News & Notes may be 

late, but it is full of 

good news. My apologies to you for the late delivery, but we had a bit 

of a perfect storm of personnel shortages early 

this year that left us extremely short-handed 

in January and February. We’re beginning 

to catch up now—and that is largely thanks 

to the superb efforts of the team here in the 

History Division, as well as the addition of a 

few new members of the team. As mentioned 

in our last issue, after doing a fantastic job 

for us last fall, Will Thompson headed off 

to Virginia Tech for graduate school at the 

start of this year. Due to a contract transition, we wound up without a replacement 

for that important position until the end of 

February. If you are wondering who could 

possibly replace Will and live up to the standard set by Andres Almeida before him, I’m 

happy to let you know that the answer is...

Andres Almeida. After some time away energizing the Smithsonian Transcription Center, 

Andres has returned home to NASA, and we 

are thrilled to have him back. Also, early in 

the year, due to college schedules, we were 

operating with just one intern. We now (as of 

the start of April) are up to a full complement 

of two interns. (You can read more about our 

interns in the “News from Headquarters and 

the Centers” section inside.)

continued on next page

WELCOME, ROBYN RODGERS—

NASA’S NEW CHIEF ARCHIVIST

By Bill Barry

Robyn Rodgers comes to the NASA History Division after seven years at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in a variety of 

posts. Most recently, she has been working at NARA College Park, Maryland, 

as a supervisory archivist in the processing unit and in records management, 

focusing on Army and Department of Defense records. She began as an archivist 

at the U.S. Army Women’s Museum in 2007. There, she worked collaboratively 

with collections and educational staff, 

providing primary sources for static and 

changing exhibits and public programming, as well as working with a variety 

of researchers. She left the museum for 

the NARA Anchorage office in 2011, 

where her favorite records came from 

Record Group 75, U.S. Reindeer Service, 

and Record Group 200, Sir Henry S. 

Wellcome Collection. Shortly after Robyn 

arrived there, the director of the office 

retired and Robyn took up responsibility 

for program operations as well as archival duties. In 2013, she was drafted by 

the head of the National Archives at San 

Bruno, California, to help in the response 

to a problematic Inspector General 

report. As a senior archivist at San Bruno, 

she planned and oversaw the box-level 

inventory of more than 85,000 cubic feet 

of records.

continued on page 3
2

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

From the Chief Historian (continued)

The other great news is that we had a stunning group 

of applicants for the position of Chief Archivist. We’ve 

made a selection. Our feature article in this issue introduces our new Chief Archivist. Our archival program 

is the foundation of our history efforts, and we have 

gone far too long without a Chief Archivist—almost 

two years since the retirement of Jane Odom in 2016.

Great things are happening at our Center history programs as well. Jet Propulsion Laboratory historian Erik 

Conway (you may remember his article on Explorer 1 

from the last edition of News & Notes) was named a 

Guggenheim Fellow in April. The Guggenheim is an 

extremely prestigious fellowship awarded each spring 

by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation 

to recognize individuals who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. Of 3,000 candidates, 

173 people were named fellows in several categories on 

4 April. Erik was recognized in the humanities category 

for his work on the history of science, technology, and 

economics. Congratulations, Erik!

It may not be as prestigious, but each spring, the NASA 

History Program recognizes the person involved in 

NASA history or archival work who has made the 

most significant contributions in the previous calendar 

year. Nominations can come from any source (except 

for self-nomination), and most of them come from 

those of us involved in the program. The History team 

at Headquarters makes the selection (we are not eligible to win, by the way), so this is really a peer recognition award, and the selection is never easy. This year, 

Brian Odom, the historian at Marshall Space Flight 

Center, was the honoree. Brian’s nomination noted 

his outstanding work in 2017 in a number of spheres. 

Foremost among these were his outstanding efforts 

in organizing the “NASA in the ‘Long’ Civil Rights 

Movement Symposium” in Huntsville, 16–17 March 

2017. This was a well-organized event on a subject of 

great public interest and relevance. In addition to the 

symposium itself, Brian has led efforts to publish a 

collection of papers from the event. Brian immediately followed up on this initiative by commencing 

work on a followup symposium (scheduled for 2019) 

titled “NASA in the South.” For most people, doing 

their regular work while taking on the organization 

of a symposium and a book based on it would fill an 

incredibly busy and productive year. But Brian was 

also finishing work on his doctoral degree at the same 

time. Congratulations, Dr. Brian!

Another item to chalk up in the good news category 

this spring was the conference “To Boldly Preserve: 

Archiving for the Next Half-Century of Spaceflight.” 

This event, hosted at the American Institute of Physics 

in College Park, Maryland, on 1–2 March, was 

a phenomenal gathering of a wide array of scholars, 

practitioners, journalists, and others interested in 

the challenges of collecting the historical evidence of 

spaceflight, now and in the future. My deepest thanks 

to Jonathan Coopersmith, Angel Callahan, and Greg 

Good for their outstanding organization of the conference (and their steady nerve in the face of weather that 

closed the rest of the government). I’d also like to note 

the support for the conference provided by the National 

Science Foundation, as well as the sponsorship for the 

event by Explore Mars. As noted at the conference, the 

gathering was just the first step in what will be a long 

and continuing process, but what an important and 

well-executed step it was. I urge you to take a look at 

the conference Web site (http://toboldlypreserve.space/

public/index.php) and engage in the followup activities. 

We’ll be sure to keep you up to date on opportunities in 

future editions of News & Notes.

Finally, I’ll note that we are deep in preparation for 

the NASA 60th anniversary (1 October 2018) and 

the Apollo mission 50th anniversaries (starting this 

October and running through December 2022). 

There are a lot of great creative ideas already in the 

works. Do you have a great idea for these anniversaries? It is never too late to drop us a note or give us a 

call. We’d love to hear from you.

In the meantime, Godspeed,

William P. Barry

Chief Historian
3

Volume 35, Numbers 1 & 2 1st & 2nd Quarter 2018

Welcome, Robyn Rodgers—NASA’s New Chief Archivist (continued)

Pictured is Robyn Rodgers, 

NASA’s new Chief Archivist.

Robyn has a bachelor’s 

degree in American history from Virginia State 

University and holds 

a master’s degree in 

library and information 

sciences from San Jose 

State University. Recent 

professional publications include contributions to the e-book 100 

Years of Fort George G. 

Meade (available at http://www.ftmeade.army.mil/

staff/pao/100Years.html), as well as storyboarding 

and editing an article on the Office of Scientific 

Research and Development entitled “Secret Weapons, 

Forgotten Sacrifices: Scientific R&D in World War II.” 

She is currently working on a piece documenting the 

leadership challenges of World War I–era Australian 

Army Nursing Service matrons. Her personal interests 

range from quilting and canning to biking and yoga, 

and she has a self-professed “embarrassing” affection 

for “terrible historical dramas.” She has two grown 

daughters and a blended herd of pets.

HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY, NASA

By Bill Barry and Beth Dickey

I

n 2018, NASA will mark the 60th anniversary of 

its establishment as a U.S. Government agency. 

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed NASA’s 

founding legislation, the National Aeronautics and 

Space Act, on 29 July 1958. NASA considers its birthday to be 1 October, the day the Agency opened for 

business. We will be marking this milestone throughout the first 10 months of 2018 with a number of 

events, online features, and social media outreach. 

Those in the Washington, DC, area may have visited 

the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts 

from late May through early June. In conjunction 

with a pair of National Symphony Orchestra Pops 

concerts held on 1 and 2 June, NASA supported a 

60th anniversary exhibit in the Hall of Nations at the 

Kennedy Center. Across the country, NASA Centers 

will also be featuring the anniversary in a variety of 

activities over the summer and through the actual 

anniversary date at the start of October. Immediately 

after the NASA 60th anniversary celebrations, we 

will turn our attention to the 50th anniversary of the 

Apollo missions to the Moon. (Expect more information on this in future issues of News & Notes.)

NASA has released an official logo for use in observing 

the 60th anniversary. Created by NASA graphic artist 

Matthew Skeins, the logo depicts how NASA is building on its historic past to soar toward a challenging and 

inspiring future. Take a look on the following page:

CREATED BY NASA GRAPHIC 

ARTIST MATTHEW SKEINS, 

THE LOGO DEPICTS HOW 

NASA IS BUILDING ON ITS 

HISTORIC PAST TO SOAR 

TOWARD A CHALLENGING AND 

INSPIRING FUTURE.
4

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

Shown above is NASA’s 60th anniversary logo.

“NASA” and “60” are stacked, bold and tall, atop the 

continental United States, the curvature of Earth, and 

the light of an approaching dawn. This placement captures the spirit of a metaphor about knowledge and 

discovery, often attributed to 17th-century physicist 

Isaac Newton: “If I have seen further than others, it 

is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Similarly, 

NASA was built from the legacy and expertise of 

giants in government-sponsored research and development, including the National Advisory Committee for 

Aeronautics (NACA), the Naval Research Laboratory, 

the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, and the Jet 

Propulsion Laboratory.

The United States is shown at night beneath a 

sparkling web of yellow lights. This imagery 

symbolizes NASA’s vibrancy and relevance, 

the inspiration derived from NASA’s work, 

and the solid foundation of the “best and 

brightest” among industry and academia upon 

which the Agency’s leadership in space is built. 

The light-blue–and–white arc just below the 

alphanumeric elements recalls the sunrise, seen 

16 times each day aboard an Earth-orbiting 

spacecraft, and symbolizes opportunity yet to 

come through exploration of the Moon, Mars, 

and destinations far beyond.

Two vectors, one blue and one red, circle the 

alphanumeric elements and point toward the 

dark outer edges of the logo as if zooming 

into the unknown. In doing so, they form a 

“6,” which is emblematic of the number of 

decades since NASA was established. The blue 

vector represents NASA’s roots in aeronautics 

research and the societal impact of our first 

views of Earth as a solitary “blue marble” in 

the vast blackness of space. The red vector 

represents NASA’s leadership of an innovative and sustainable exploration program that 

engages commercial and international partners; enables the expansion of human presence 

to the Moon, Mars, and throughout the solar 

system; and brings new knowledge and opportunities back to Earth. Depicted at the tip of 

this vector are the key elements of NASA’s new 

deep space transportation system, the Space Launch 

System rocket and Orion crew vehicle.

A crescent moon, a ringed planet, and a field of stars 

amid a nebula of light blue represent NASA’s scientific underpinnings, particularly the enduring quest 

for answers to age-old questions about the workings 

and evolution of our planet, our solar system, and 

the universe.

For more information about NASA’s 60th anniversary, 

visit http://www.nasa.gov/60.
5

Volume 35, Numbers 1 & 2 1st & 2nd Quarter 2018

NEWS FROM HEADQUARTERS AND THE CENTERS

NASA HEADQUARTERS

Washington, DC

History Division

By Bill Barry

Early 2018 has been a wild ride at the NASA Headquarters History Division. For a short while 

there in January, we were running with about half of 

the staff we should have on hand. Things improved 

quickly, as noted in the “From the Chief Historian” 

article on the front page of this issue of News & 

Notes. With the added load of planning for the major 

upcoming anniversaries, we are just now starting to 

get caught up with things that slipped through the 

cracks. The key to getting caught up (especially on this 

newsletter) was the return of Andres Almeida in late 

February as our special project coordinator. He is once 

again shepherding the newsletter, managing our effort 

on the annual Aeronautics and 

Space Report of the President, and 

wrangling our interns. We are 

thrilled to have him (and even 

his bad puns) back home here in 

the NASA History Division.

Speaking of interns, Allison 

Gasparini, a senior physics 

major at Syracuse University, 

really saved us by starting her 

spring internship with us on 

16 January. Despite having to 

put up with me as her immediate supervisor, Allison quickly 

figured out what needed to be 

done and got on with the task 

at hand. I greatly appreciate her 

initiative and ability to run with 

the ball on her own. Sadly for 

us, her last day with us was on 

4 May. But the good news for Allison is that she’ll be 

heading directly back to New York to graduate a few 

days later. Due to the academic calendar at Dartmouth 

(they are on a quarter system), our other spring intern, 

Maeve McBride, arrived here on 2 April. The day 

before she had flown home from a family spring break 

trip to Europe, so she earned extra points for dealing 

with the “new-to-NASA” firehose while jet-lagged. 

Maeve, a sophomore majoring in anthropology, was 

with us until Friday, 8 June. This provided us with 

intern coverage through the typically lean month of 

May. In fact, the first of our summer interns overlapped with Maeve. Kate Wall, currently a sophomore 

at Saint John’s College in Annapolis, started with us in 

mid-May. Kate is majoring in liberal arts (basically a 

“great books” program, which is the only major offered 

at St. John’s) and will be interning with us until the 

first week of August. Savannah Jelks, currently a rising junior majoring in history at Union College in 

Poughkeepsie, New York, started her internship here 

on 18 June. We expect her to be with us until the 

third week of August. As usual, 

we had a big and outstanding 

group of applicants for the 

summer internship. I wish we 

could take more of them.

I have similar feelings about 

our search for our new Chief 

Archivist. We also had a large 

and very impressive group of 

applicants to fill that position. 

The choice was extremely difficult, but after a long application and evaluation process, 

we are glad to welcome Robyn 

Rodgers as our new Chief 

Archivist. You can learn about 

her in our feature article.

STEVE GARBER AND 

I, ALONG WITH BRIAN 

ODOM OF MARSHALL 

SPACE FLIGHT CENTER, 

ARE IN DISCUSSIONS 

WITH OUR COLLEAGUES 

AT THE NATIONAL AIR 

AND SPACE MUSEUM 

ABOUT ORGANIZING 

A HISTORICAL 

WORKSHOP ON THE 

APOLLO PROGRAM.

In addition to the Agency-level 

work on the various upcoming anniversaries, Steve Garber and I, along with 

Brian Odom of Marshall Space Flight Center, are 
6

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

in discussions with our colleagues at the National 

Air and Space Museum about organizing a historical workshop on the Apollo program. Our current 

thinking is to pull together a one-day (or one-anda-half-day) workshop for dialogue about the Apollo 

era across time, generations, disciplines, and interests. 

The goal of this is to kickstart further work on the 

Apollo program by bringing to bear new approaches 

and ideas from the perspective of 50 years. We hope 

to inspire young scholars, and those in fields that haven’t typically studied the space program, to seek new 

meaning and understanding. Assuming that we can 

pull together the funding, the current proposal is to 

hold this event in the Washington, DC, area early 

in December this year. We’ll be sure to let you know 

more as plans develop.

AMES RESEARCH CENTER (ARC)

Moffett Field, California

First Quarter

By Layne Karafantis and April Gage

To celebrate the 78th anniversary of Ames Research 

Center, on 20 December 2017 Jack Boyd and Center 

Director Eugene Tu served a cake featuring a photo 

of the 1939 groundbreaking of Ames Aeronautical 

Laboratory. The sign outside the Center’s front gate 

invited employees to attend festivities for this event in 

the Mega Bytes cafeteria. After the holidays, in early 

January, a planning committee convened for a kickoff 

meeting to prepare for the 80th anniversary of Ames 

in 2019. The committee hopes to integrate its efforts 

and events with those that will celebrate the 50th 

anniversary of the Apollo program.

New Center historian Layne Karafantis has been busy 

familiarizing herself with the many exciting areas of 

research being conducted at Ames. In addition to serving on the 80th anniversary committee, she is also part 

of a committee planning an event for summer 2018 

that will highlight the Center’s contributions to air 

traffic management.

Sixty years ago, 1958 inaugurated not only the Space 

Age, but the Jet Age. That year, the first U.S. passenger jet—the Boeing 707—went into service, and 

also during that year, more passengers crossed the 

Atlantic by air than by sea. Since that time, the skies 

have become increasingly congested, necessitating 

modernization efforts in air traffic management 

(ATM). In 1972, Heinz Erzberger at Ames wrote 

foundational papers regarding the development of 

a four-dimensional guidance and navigation system. 

Erzberger created a set of algorithms that pioneered 

a breakthrough in the field and whose byproducts 

are used by the Federal Aviation Administration to 

control air traffic. Current developments in air traffic management at Ames are directly drawn from 

the contributions of Erzberger. His work provided 

the foundation for a suite of decision-support tools, 

known as the Center-TRACON (Terminal Radar 

Approach Control Facilities) Automation System 

(CTAS), which revolutionized air traffic management. 

Layne is currently preparing a timeline and booklet 

that recognize ARC’s contributions to ATM, which 

will be distributed at an event held at the Center in 

August 2018.

Since his hiring by Ames in 1965, and even after his 

retirement in 2006, Erzberger has contributed to 

research and development in air traffic management 

as an Ames associate and senior advisor. He played 

a significant role in the development of NextGen 

software that detects and resolves aircraft conflicts. 

Many of the automation tools developed at ARC are 

in use at major American airports, and their implementation has resulted in more efficient operations 

that have significantly reduced travel delays and have 

produced savings of hundreds of millions of dollars. 

Erzberger has received numerous awards, including 

the 2005 Distinguished Presidential Rank Award, and 

the Center looks forward to hosting a public event 

that will honor his legacy and draw attention to the 

cutting-edge research currently being conducted in 

the Aviation Systems Division.
7

Volume 35, Numbers 1 & 2 1st & 2nd Quarter 2018

In other news, holdings from Ames and Langley 

Research Centers’ History Office archives are on display at the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine 

museum in Paris. Ames loaned three paintings depicting Bernal sphere space settlement concepts by artist 

and architect Rick Guidice, while Langley Research 

Center provided imagery of the NASA Lunar Orbit 

and Landing Approach (LOLA) simulator, which 

was designed during the Apollo program to prepare 

pilots for landing on the Moon. The exhibit, Globes: 

Architecture and Science Map the World, explores the 

many ways that architects have worked alongside 

geographers, astronomers, mathematicians, and artists 

in depictions of the terrestrial globe and conceptions 

of the cosmos. On personal travel, senior archivist 

April Gage attended this exhibition with Rick Guidice 

and NASA Paris Bureau Chief Tim Tawney, with the 

museum’s lead curator Yann Rocher providing an 

in-depth guided tour. The exhibit runs through March 

2018, after which it may be modified to become a 

traveling exhibition.

The Center’s History Office recently moved into the 

Ames Public Affairs Office and is now under the direction of Matthew Buffington, while Jack Boyd remains 

senior advisor. 

From left to right: Shown are Tim Tawney, Rick 

Guidice, and April Gage at Cité de l’Architecture 

et du Patrimoine Museum in Paris. (Photo credit: 

Susan Jaekel)

Rick Guidice visits the exhibit with the Bernal sphere concept paintings he created in the 1970s. 

(Photo credit: April Gage)

Second Quarter

Historian Update 

by Layne Karafantis

Jack Boyd and the History Office have continued to 

serve a committee, headed by Deputy Director for 

Center Operations Michael Tubbs, responsible for 

planning the celebration of the 80th anniversary of 

Ames in 2019. Layne Karafantis has progressed in 

familiarizing herself with Ames and its subject matter 

experts. She was warmly greeted at a luncheon of the 

Owl Feather Society, a group of Ames retirees who regularly meet and host presentations. Layne has offered 

to provide feedback on Ames-related book projects 

written by its members, such as Ken Mort’s promising work on the history of the National Full-Scale 

Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC). She has reached out 

to other Bay Area institutions to discuss shared interests, meeting curators from the USS Hornet Museum 

and the Computer History Museum, as well as faculty 

at San Jose State University.

At Ames, Layne recently gave a presentation to the 

Public Affairs Office on the ways that the historian 

can serve as a resource. She expects to provide a similar 

talk to Women’s Influence Network members at their 
8

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

next meeting and hopes to assist the organization with 

its ambitions for a publication on the contributions of 

women at Ames.

Layne presented at the Historical Society of Southern 

California annual meeting in Pomona on the topic 

of conducting aerospace history while in government 

service. While she was in Southern California, she 

also was interviewed for the upcoming KCET television series Blue Sky Metropolis. This interview was 

requested partly due to a recent publication that she 

coauthored with Bill Leslie, “Suburban Warriors: The 

Blue-Collar and Blue-Sky Communities of Southern 

California,” for the Journal of Urban Planning (2018). 

She attended the Organization of American Historians 

meeting in Sacramento, and later this year, 

she has been asked to present, serve on panels, 

and chair sessions at the annual meetings of 

the International Committee for the History 

of Technology, the Society for the History of 

Technology, and the History of Science Society. 

Archives Update 

by April Gage

April and Danielle K. Lopez remain busy 

supporting both the Ames History Office and 

Life Sciences Data archives. In the History 

Office archives, end-of-year metrics showed 

a 46 percent increase in acquisitions of new 

material and a 10 percent rise in demand 

for reference information services from the 

previous year.

A NEW ACQUISITION OF NOTE THIS 

QUARTER IS A RICH COLLECTION OF 

PERSONAL PAPERS OF THE LATE DR. DAVID 

KOCH, DOCUMENTING HIS SIGNIFICANT 

CONTRIBUTIONS TO GAMMA-RAY, X-RAY, 

AND INFRARED ASTRONOMY.

Former Kepler Mission deputy principal investigator Dr. David Koch (center, in the lightblue shirt) is interviewed by news media in 2006. (Photo credit: NASA)

A new acquisition of note this quarter is a rich collection 

of personal papers of the late Dr. David Koch, documenting his significant contributions to gamma-ray, 

x-ray, and infrared astronomy. As a student at the 

University of Wisconsin–Madison in the 1960s, Koch 

(whose name rhymes with “lock”) worked on scientific 

instruments in x-ray and gamma-ray astronomy as 

applied to balloons, sounding rockets, and Saturn 

boosters. While earning master’s and doctoral degrees 

in physics at Cornell University, he designed a balloon-borne gamma-ray telescope that detected the first 

pulsed high-energy gamma rays from the Crab pulsar. 

Later, with American Science and Engineering in the 

1970s, Koch was project scientist for NASA’s Uhuru 

x-ray satellite, which produced the first all-sky survey, 

and for the Einstein Observatory (HEAO-B, formerly 

the High-Energy Astronomy Observatory), which was 

the precursor to the Chandra X-ray Observatory. At 

the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 

he was project scientist for the SpaceLab 2 infrared 

telescope. After joining Ames Research Center in 

1988, Koch served as project scientist for the Kuiper 

Airborne Observatory (KAO) and co-investigator for 

the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF, now 

known as the Spitzer Space Telescope). He also led 

mission operations for SIRTF and the Stratospheric 

Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). In 
9

Volume 35, Numbers 1 & 2 1st & 2nd Quarter 2018

connection with his work with KAO and SOFIA, he 

launched and led the Flight Opportunities for Science 

Teacher EnRichment (FOSTER) project to support 

science, technology, engineering, and mathematics 

(STEM) education. Koch’s career culminated in his 

becoming the deputy principal investigator for the 

Kepler Mission, following his collaboration with Bill 

Borucki in a decades-long effort to form the Kepler 

space observatory.

In March, NASA supported a conference entitled “To 

Boldly Preserve: Archiving for the Next Half-Century 

of Space Flight” at the American Institute of Physics 

in College Park, Maryland, where April joined colleagues from Headquarters, Goddard Space Flight 

Center, and Johnson Space Center to present a paper 

about digital archiving.

ARC’s history staff would like to bid a fond farewell 

to the Center’s longtime historic preservation officer and chief architect, Keith Venter, who retired at 

the turn of the year. He was a wonderful manager 

and mentor for over a decade, and he will be greatly 

missed. In his 32 years of service to NASA, Keith’s 

many contributions to the Center included running 

an exemplary historic preservation program. During 

his tenure, responsibility for Moffett Federal Airfield 

was transferred to NASA and portions added to the 

National Register of Historic Places as the Shenandoah 

National Historic District. Historic buildings within 

this district were adapted for reuse to form the heart 

of the NASA Research Park now occupied by a thriving community of federal, academic, and commercial partners. In addition, the NASA Ames Research 

Center Wind Tunnel District, Arc Jet Complex, 

Flight and Guidance Simulation Laboratory, and 

Ames Administration Building were all listed in the 

National Register of Historic Places during his watch. 

Jonathan Ikan has stepped in to fill Keith’s shoes as the 

Center’s new architect and cultural resources manager. 

Welcome to Jonathan and best wishes to Keith for a 

happy retirement.

Former chief architect and historic preservation officer Keith Venter receives 

an exceptional achievement award in 2015 “for outstanding, innovative 

approaches in operations management supporting NASA’s commitment to 

preserving our Nation’s historic treasures.” (Photo credit: NASA)

GLENN RESEARCH CENTER (GRC)

Cleveland, Ohio

By Anne Mills

Glenn Research Center marked the 77th anniversary 

of our groundbreaking on 23 January 2018. This year 

also marks 75 years since the culmination of construction of the lab and the beginning of significant 

research and notable activities. Throughout 2018, we 

will be working with our Center social media team to 

increase historical content on those channels—so be 

sure to follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.

com/nasaglenn/), Twitter (https://twitter.com/

NASAglenn), and Facebook (https://www.facebook.

com/NASAGlenn). We’ll be sharing materials from 

our archives and marking significant anniversaries.
10

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

This year, 20 May 2018 

marks the 75th anniversary of the official 

dedication of the lab. 

The ceremony marked 

the completion of construction of the original 

planned structures. A 

modest and patriotic 

observance marked the 

occasion, as the country 

had become fully involved 

in the war since the time of 

the Center’s groundbreaking in January 1941. On 

20 May 1943, National 

Advisory Committee 

for Aeronautics (NACA) 

dignitaries and Cleveland 

civic dignitaries gathered 

on a grandstand in front 

of the Administration 

building to address the Aircraft Engine Research 

Laboratory’s (AERL’s) 1,200 employees and the press. 

Of particular note was the attendance of NACA 

committee member Dr. Orville Wright. Dr. Jerome 

Hunsaker, Chairman of the NACA, presided over the 

ceremony, and speeches were presented by NACA 

members Major General Oliver Echols, Rear Admiral 

Ernest Pace, and Dr. George Lewis. Cleveland Mayor 

Frank Lausche gave a keynote address. The theme of 

the day was the importance of the laboratory’s support 

of the war effort and the resolution that the work done 

within its facilities would ensure the nation’s success. 

However, the take-away message was that once the war 

was won, AERL would still have a sustained mission 

to continue advancing aircraft engine technology. The 

ceremony concluded with the official presentation and 

raising of the flag over the laboratory. W. T. Holliday 

of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce presented the 

flag to NACA Secretary John Victory with these words: 

“In your hands I place this flag, emblem of all we hold 

dear, emblem of all we are fighting for. I bid you cherish it, fly it high, and keep it flying.” John Victory then 

presented the accepted flag to lab manager Edward 

Sharp, who handed it over to the guards for raising.

Following the ceremony, the NACA inspected the newly 

completed facilities, including the Engine Research 

Building, Fuels and Lubrication Lab, Propeller Test 

House, Technical Services Building, Altitude Wind 

Tunnel, and Hangar. The tour culminated with the first 

NACA meeting to be held at the Center.

As we acknowledge the 75th anniversary of our dedication, and soon the 60th anniversary of the establishment of NASA, it’s important to stop and ask, 

“Why?” Anniversaries are a great source of pride and 

inspiration—and, even better, a chance to learn about 

the story behind decisions, the times that shaped the 

event, and the impact of our choices. Learning more 

about the context of historical events gives us a better 

understanding and awareness of why things are the 

way they are today and are a great exercise in critical 

thinking—as beneficial to the scientist and researcher 

as it is to the historian. NASA loves its anniversaries, 

and I’m so glad it does!

This photo was taken during the visit of the Memphis Belle bomber to the AERL (now Glenn Research Center).
11

Volume 35, Numbers 1 & 2 1st & 2nd Quarter 2018

Stuka, the crew’s mascot, sits on the tarmac under the Memphis Belle bomber.

Remembering the Visit of the Memphis Belle

Photos from the 1943 visit of the Memphis Belle to 

GRC (then known as the NACA AERL) were recently 

featured on the military history site http://www.

warbirdsnews.com. The aircraft was parked at the 

lab as part of a three-day visit to Cleveland during a 

nationwide war bond drive. The crew of the Memphis 

Belle were among a number of celebrated military 

luminaries to tour the lab and express appreciation to 

the staff for their support of the war effort.

The plane and crew arrived on 7 July 1943. Below is a 

photo of the crew, along with lab manager Raymond 

Sharp and several local dignitaries. Also on board was 

the crew’s mascot, a Scottish terrier named Stuka.

If your travels will take you near southwest Ohio in 

the near future, the Memphis Belle will go on permanent display at the National Museum of the United 

States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. The exhibit opened 

on 17 May.

JOHNSON SPACE 

CENTER (JSC)

Houston, Texas

By John Uri

First Quarter

In the third quarter of 

2017, we had a hurricane. This time, a deep 

freeze, including three 

snowfalls this winter—a 

highly unusual event for 

Houston. The Center 

closed for two days, but 

unlike after Hurricane 

Harvey, there was no lasting impact, and within 

days temperatures were 

seasonal again.

Then, in the first quarter 

of 2018, planning was well under way for the 2018 

NASA History Program Annual Review, but it has 

now been canceled. The JSC History Office had 

scheduled the meeting for 24–26 April at the White 

Sands Test Facility near Las Cruces, New Mexico.

We continue to expand our extensive oral history collection by completing the transcription process for 

the 45 interviews undertaken on behalf of the NASA 

Headquarters History Office, the JSC Knowledge 

Management Office, and the NASA Science Mission 

Directorate in fiscal year 2017. We have also begun 

our planned fiscal year 2018 interviews. The transcripts will be uploaded to the JSC History Portal 

once the subjects have approved them for release.

In anticipation of upcoming major anniversaries of 

significant space events, the JSC History Office has 

been included in working groups led by the JSC 

External Relations Office (ERO) to commemorate 

those events. One group planned a commemorative 

event for the 15th anniversary of the Columbia accident. The event, held on 31 January, included a panel 
12

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

discussion with former Kennedy Space Center Shuttle 

Launch Director Mike Leinbach, former Shuttle 

Program Manager Wayne Hale, Orion Program 

Manager Mark Kirasich, Commercial Crew Program 

Manager Kathy Lueders, and Chief of the Astronaut 

Office Pat Forrester. Another group is planning events 

leading up to the 50th anniversary of the first Moon 

landing in July 2019, with a special focus on the 

Apollo 7, 8, and 11 missions. A commemoration of 

the Apollo 13 flight also will occur in April 2020. A 

major contribution from the History Office is a series 

of short articles in JSC Today that highlight the anniversaries of less celebrated events and people that were 

nevertheless crucial to achieving the Moon landing 

within President Kennedy’s timetable. These articles 

also appear on the JSC home page as well as on JSC’s 

Facebook and Twitter accounts. We have received 

excellent support from other Center History Offices 

in the production of these. A third group will soon 

be established to plan for events surrounding NASA’s 

60th anniversary.

In January and February, JSC Historian Jennifer RossNazzal gave three talks at Space Center Houston, our 

visitor’s center, about America’s presidents and key 

NASA anniversaries: President Richard M. Nixon’s 

approval of the Space Shuttle on 5 January 1972; 

President Ronald Reagan’s directive to NASA to build 

a space station in his State of the Union address on 

25 January 1984; and, finally, the renaming of the 

Manned Spacecraft Center after former President 

Lyndon B. Johnson on 17 February 1973. The 

response from Space Center Houston visitors, including a few NASA retirees, has been positive.

NASA historian Jennifer Ross-Nazzal gave three talks at Space Center 

Houston in January and February.

We welcomed our spring intern, Jonathan Norori, 

who will continue to make significant progress on 

upgrading the JSC History Portal. While Jonathan 

will have other commitments in the JSC Knowledge 

Management Office, we hope to complete the revamp 

of the portal.

Second Quarter

We are grateful that we endured the past quarter 

without any significant weather event worthy of note. 

Houston’s winter was reluctant to make way for spring, 

but come August, we’ll remember fondly the crisp 

April mornings.

We continue to expand our extensive oral history 

collection. Recently, we completed interviews with 

former astronauts William McArthur and Robert 

“Hoot” Gibson. Two days before her retirement in 

May, our team interviewed Center Director Ellen 

Ochoa. Sandra Johnson and Jennifer Ross-Nazzal also 

traveled to Philadelphia to interview Allan Klumpp, 

principal designer of the Lunar Module on-board 

descent software. The transcripts of the interviews 

will be uploaded to the JSC History Portal once the 

subjects have approved them for release.

In February, the JSC History Office received word 

of the death of Michael O’Brien, who was instrumental in securing the agreements establishing the 

International Space Station. The oral history team 

interviewed him for the NASA at 50 oral history project and book and recently interviewed him again as 

part of the ongoing NASA Headquarters Oral History 

Project. The Washington Post quoted from his NASA 

at 50 oral history and provided a direct link to his 

oral history transcript: https://www.washingtonpost.

com/local/obituaries/michael-obrien-nasa-diplomatwho-oversaw-agreements-for-the-international-spacestation-dies-at-72/2018/02/28/891a5966-1b47-

11e8-b2d9-08e748f892c0_story.html?utm_term=.

c2a34a971d1e.
13

Volume 35, Numbers 1 & 2 1st & 2nd Quarter 2018

As part of observing upcoming anniversaries of significant space events, the JSC History Office is working 

with the JSC External Relations Office on a continuing series of articles posted on the www.nasa.gov site 

and JSC’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. Abstracts of 

the articles appear online in JSC’s Roundup Today. The 

articles highlight the anniversaries of less-celebrated 

events, as well as people who were less well known 

but were nevertheless crucial to achieving the Moon 

landing within President Kennedy’s timetable. We 

want to thank our colleagues at Ames, Armstrong, the 

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Kennedy, Marshall, 

and Stennis, who have all contributed in some way to 

these articles.

Over the past few months, our historian has been 

on the road—twice in one week. Starting at the end 

of February, Ross-Nazzal spoke at the Neill-Cochran 

House in Austin on the impact of NASA on the Lone 

Star State. Just a few days later, she boarded a plane to 

Maryland, where she presented at “To Boldly Archive: 

Archiving for the Next Half Century of Space Flight” 

conference in College Park. In April, she flew to the 

West Coast to attend the Organization of American 

Historians (OAH) in Sacramento, California, where 

she and Layne Karafantis, Ames historian, met.

The JSC History Office has been working in collaboration with Kam Lulla of the JSC University Research, 

Collaboration and Partnership Office to find a university press to publish Jennifer Ross-Nazzal’s book 

Making Space for Women. John Uri and Ross-Nazzal 

traveled to Texas A&M University Press with Dr. Lulla 

and met with the editor-in-chief to discuss the book’s 

possible publication. The initial meeting was very positive, and we will take the next steps to submit the 

manuscript to Texas A&M Press.

Our spring intern, Jonathan Norori, continues 

to make significant progress on upgrading the JSC 

History Portal. Although Jonathan had other commitments in the JSC Knowledge Management Office, we 

hope to complete the revamp of the portal and release 

a new look soon.

LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER (LARC)

Hampton, Virginia

By Rob Wyman

On 10 April 2018, we returned a 1930s-era photographic scrapbook to the United States Air Force 

(USAF) Air Combat Command (ACC) next door at 

Joint Base Langley-Eustis.

Our intern, Melissa Jones, found it in the archive and 

I asked her to research its disposition.

After interviews with a NASA photo archivist, as well 

as now-retired NASA cultural resource officers and 

historical liaisons, she determined that the scrapbook 

had been left here at NASA by a member of the public and that it wasn’t associated with NASA Langley 

or its predecessor organization, the NACA Langley 

Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory.

Intern Melissa Jones (right) looks over the 1930s-era photographic 

scrapbook.
14

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

Here is a letter with the Center Director’s signature to the ACC’s deputy commander, Major 

General John McMullen.

She then turned to our neighbors at the Air Force and 

connected with their deputy command historian, Bill 

Butler. He reviewed the artifact and determined that 

the photos of all the aircraft, buildings, people, and 

objects appeared to be USAF-related and were more 

than likely taken either by an Air Force employee or 

by a family member there at Langley Field during the 

early 1900s.

Melissa did a great job, and because we had someone 

who could invest the time and effort into working on this, 

we were able to return the artifact to its “rightful” owner, 

who can more thoroughly research and better preserve it.

STENNIS SPACE CENTER (SSC)

Stennis Space Center, Mississippi

By Jessica Herr

First Quarter: 40th Anniversary of the 

Groundbreaking for the MSAAP

One thing Jackson Balch tried to do as Director of the 

Mississippi Test Facility (MTF) was to bring agencies 

and organizations together so that their work and 

research would benefit one another. In 1971, the U.S. 

Army was looking for a place to build a plant for their 

ammunition modernization program. This was a classified program named “Steel City.” At first, it was 

suggested that the Army survey Camp Shelby, just 

south of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, for their ammunition plant, but the Army had its sights on the MTF 

to the south. The Army estimated that the plant was 

going to cost $500 million with a workforce of about 

1,200 people—overwhelming numbers to the smaller 

installations on-site at the MTF. Balch also worried 

that the ammunition plant would overshadow the 

space and environmental work that was being done 

there. However, the Army did suggest some changes 

at MTF, such as engine testing possibly moving to 

another site in Florida—but NASA and Senator John 

C. Stennis kept to their word and said the decision 

had already been made that engine testing would stay 

at MTF.

The Army, MTF, and Senator Stennis all wanted to 

work together to make “Steel City” work. The Senate 

Armed Services Committee, which Senator Stennis 

chaired, gave the Army funding to begin construction 
15

Volume 35, Numbers 1 & 2 1st & 2nd Quarter 2018

of the Mississippi Army Ammunition Plant (MSAAP). 

A lot was happening at MTF at that time: Jackson 

Balch was focusing on building up the agencies that 

would call MTF home, so he convinced Dr. George 

Constan, who was a former manager of Michoud 

Assembly Facility, to serve as the liaison between 

NASA and the Army. The building of “Steel City” 

began with the groundbreaking ceremonies 40 years 

ago on 10 January 1978. Senator Stennis joined 

Jerry Hlass, along with U.S. Representatives Trent 

Lott and Sonny Montgomery; Deputy Secretary of 

Defense Charles Duncan, Jr.; Secretary of the Navy 

W. Graham Clator, Jr.; Rear Admiral J. Edward 

Snyder, Jr.; and NASA Deputy Administrator Alan 

Lovelace. In his address at the groundbreaking ceremony, Senator Stennis congratulated the arrangement 

of agencies at the site, saying, “Today this Facility 

exists as a national model of federal agency coordination and cooperation.” More than 1,500 people from 

the surrounding area joined in on the celebration of 

this monumental facility.

Second Quarter: A Look Back at the MPTA

In the 1970s, the Apollo era was coming to a close. 

Saturn rocket testing had ended at the Mississippi Test 

Facility, but a new engine roar was soon to be heard: 

the Space Shuttle main engine.

In 1971, the testing of the Space Shuttle main 

engines was assigned to the Mississippi Test Facility, 

and work began on modifying the test stands for this 

new endeavor.

The Space Shuttle main engine test project at Stennis 

officially began on 19 May 1975. The so-called “burp” 

test did not include full ignition of the engine. The first 

full-ignition Space Shuttle main engine test occurred 

on 12 June 1975. Twelve days later, on 24 June 1975, 

Stennis conducted the first full-duration Space Shuttle 

main engine test.

With single-engine testing under way, attention at 

the newly renamed National Space Technologies 

Laboratory squarely turned to testing the Shuttle’s 

main propulsion test article (MPTA). For that project, the site brought in the best test conductors in 

the country.

A trio of Space Shuttle main engines fire simultaneously during a test of 

the vehicle main propulsion test article on the B-2 Test Stand at Stennis. 

The series of tests to certify the design and operation of the Shuttle propulsion system was a critical milestone leading up to the maiden launch of 

the vehicle and is considered by many to represent one of Stennis’s finest 

hours. (Photo credit: Russ Underwood, Lockheed Martin Corporation)

The Shuttle MPTA consisted of three main engines, 

an external propellant tank, associated systems, and a 

simulated orbiter aft section. All of the components 

were installed on the B-2 Test Stand and the engines 

were test-fired simultaneously, just as during an actual 

launch, to prove that the propulsion system would 

operate as needed to power Shuttle flights.

The MPTA testing was critical due to the unique 

nature of the Shuttle design. Every previous rocket 

system was tested with uncrewed flights prior to 

launching human missions. That was not the case with 

the Space Shuttle. The first time it launched, it carried 

two astronauts, who were relying on the work that had 

been done at Stennis to carry them safely to space.

Harry Johnstone first led the program, and through 

the years, the MPTA test team members included 

Tom Baggette, John Plowden, Tom Lyddon, Marv 

Carpenter, Lou Nelson, Boyce Mix, Doug Howard, 

and Bill Lindsey, just to name a few.
16

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

In March 1978, the MPTA test team went through 

a Firing Readiness Review that was done by NASA’s 

Review Board. Each element and part of the operation 

was reviewed, and at the end of the extensive twoday session, the operation received the thumbs-up for 

test firing.

So, on 21 April 1978, 40 years ago, the first Shuttle 

MPTA test was conducted on the B-2 stand at 

11:34 a.m. The hot fire was only 1.90 seconds and 

signaled by just a small puff of smoke, but it was an 

important chapter in testing history at what is now 

Stennis Space Center.

OTHER AEROSPACE HISTORY NEWS

BRIAN ODOM OF MARSHALL SPACE 

FLIGHT CENTER RECEIVES NASA 

HISTORY AWARD

By Bill Barry

The Headquarters History Division presents the annual NASA History Program Award each spring 

to recognize a NASA employee who has excelled in 

the promotion of NASA history inside and outside 

the Agency. Nominations come from fellow NASA 

archivists and historians.

Dr. Brian Odom receives the annual NASA History Program Award for 2017 in recognition of his outstanding dedication and leadership in serving Marshall 

Space Flight Center history. (Photo credit: NASA/MSFC/Jonathan Deal)

Dr. Brian Odom received the annual NASA History 

Program Award in recognition of his outstanding 

dedication and leadership in serving both Marshall 

Space Flight Center (MSFC) history and aerospace 

history. His nomination noted his outstanding work 
17

Volume 35, Numbers 1 & 2 1st & 2nd Quarter 2018

in 2017 in a number of spheres. Foremost among 

these were his outstanding efforts in organizing 

the “NASA in the ‘Long’ Civil Rights Movement 

Symposium” in Huntsville, 16–17 March 2017. This 

was a well-organized event on a subject of great public 

interest and relevance. In addition to the symposium 

itself, Brian has led efforts to publish a collection of 

papers from the event for the record. He immediately 

followed up on this initiative by commencing work 

on a followup event (scheduled for 2019) entitled 

“NASA in the South.” For most people, just doing 

their regular work while taking on the organization 

of a symposium and a book based on it would be an 

incredibly busy and productive year. But Brian was 

also finishing work on his doctoral degree at the same 

time. In recognition of his outstanding dedication 

and leadership in serving both Marshall Space Flight 

Center history and aerospace history more generally, 

Brian was presented with the annual NASA History 

Program Award for 2017. Congratulations, Brian!

NASA IN THE SOUTH SYMPOSIUM

28–29 March 2019, University of Alabama in Huntsville

By Brian Odom

Federal spending for the space program during the 

Cold War had a transformative effect on the southern 

United States. NASA funding for the Apollo program 

alone constituted an investment of $25 billion (in 

1960s dollars), or nearly 4 percent of the federal budget 

at its peak in 1965. NASA’s decision to construct most 

of its major new facilities in the South—including 

those in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Texas—

also represented a major investment worth more than 

$2.5 billion in the fiscal years 1962 and 1963 alone. 

Beyond the initial investment, the presence of those 

vast, federally funded technology development centers continues to exert a major influence on Southern 

society and politics. With so many of NASA’s development, manufacturing, and management centers 

situated in the South, southern politics and society 

1 Loyd S. Swenson, Jr., “The Fertile Crescent: The South’s Role in the National Space Program,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 71, no. 3 

(January 1968): 377–392.

have also profoundly impacted NASA’s organizational 

culture, causing it to “speak with a Southern accent.” 

As Loyd S. Swenson, Jr., argued in his 1968 essay on 

the topic, the South deserved much of the credit for 

developing the technology for the Apollo program. 

However, there was also a hope that the “reaction 

engines for space” might compel the region to “leave 

behind reactionary thought.”1

IN RECOGNITION OF THE 

APOLLO 50TH ANNIVERSARY 

AND ALABAMA BICENTENNIAL, 

NASA’S MARSHALL SPACE 

FLIGHT CENTER AND THE 

UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA IN 

HUNTSVILLE (UAH) WILL HOLD 

A SYMPOSIUM ON THE UAH 

CAMPUS ON 28–29 MARCH 

2019 TO EXAMINE THE 

ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND 

POLITICAL IMPACT NASA HAS 

HAD ON THE SOUTH OVER THE 

PAST 60 YEARS....

In recognition of the Apollo 50th anniversary and 

Alabama bicentennial, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight 

Center and the University of Alabama in Huntsville 

(UAH) will hold a symposium on the UAH campus on 

28–29 March 2019 to examine the economic, social, 

and political impact NASA has had on the South over 

the past 60 years and to explore how that “Southern 

accent” has affected the development of NASA’s organizational culture, technological development, and 
18

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

programmatic goals. The intention is to publish a 

selection of the papers as an anthology.

Alabama Governor George Wallace (left), NASA Administrator James Webb, and Marshall Space Flight Center Director Dr. Wernher von Braun tour MSFC 

on 8 June 1965. Wallace and Webb were at MSFC to witness the first test-firing of a Saturn V booster, along with members of the Alabama legislature and 

press reporters. (Photo credit: NASA/MSFC)

Topics for consideration include, but are not limited 

to, the following:

• Gender/labor/race/environmental studies

• Aerospace tourism and museums

• Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter as Southern 

Presidents and their influence on NASA policy

• Impact on science, technology, engineering, and 

mathematics (STEM) education at regional academic institutions

• Impact of NASA on Southern politics and vice versa

• “Southernness” of NASA organizations

• Immigration/migration to the South

• Impact of the Cold War and international 

cooperation

• Development of the new Sunbelt middle class

• Infrastructure for technology development

• Development of aerospace industry across the South

• Impact of work on various programs—Apollo, 

Shuttle, International Space Station (ISS), 

Hubble, etc.

• Impact of congressional seniority system on 

funding/development

• Oral histories and archival collections
19

Volume 35, Numbers 1 & 2 1st & 2nd Quarter 2018

Submission Procedures

If you wish to present a paper, please send an abstract 

of no more than 400 words and a short biography 

or curriculum vitae, including current affiliation, by 

1 January 2019 to Brian C. Odom at brian.c.odom@

nasa.gov or Stephen P. Waring at warings@uah.edu.

Individual presentations or roundtable proposals are 

due on 1 January 2019.

To see the call for papers, visit https://www.nasa.

gov/centers/marshall/history/nasa-in-the-southsymposium.html.

AMERICAN ASTRONAUTICAL SOCIETY 

HISTORY COMMITTEE

By Michael Ciancone, Chair

American Astronautical Society History Series

Univelt has published two more volumes in the 

American Astronautical Society (AAS) History Series 

of proceedings from International Astronautical 

Congress (IAC) History sessions:

• Tal Inbar, ed., History of Rocketry and Astronautics: 

Proceedings of the Forty-Ninth History Symposium 

of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), 

vol. 47, AAS History Series (Jerusalem, Israel: 

Univelt, 2015).

• Pablo De Léon, ed., History of Rocketry and 

Astronautics: Proceedings of the Fiftieth History 

Symposium of the International Academy of 

Astronautics (IAA), vol. 48, AAS History Series 

(Guadalajara, Mexico: Univelt, 2016).

2017 Emme Award for Astronautical Literature

The Emme Award Selection Panel, chaired by Don 

Elder, is in the process of considering titles for this 

annual award. The recipient of the 2017 award will be 

announced in September.

2018 Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence

The Ordway Award Selection Panel is accepting nominations for the 2018 award. Nomination forms are 

located on the AAS Web site at http://astronautical.

org/awards/ordway/

NASA HISTORY PROGRAM DIGITAL ARCHIVES WORKING GROUP

The NASA History Program recently formed a Digital Archives Working Group (DAWG) to 

collectively address challenges associated with digital 

archiving, from establishing guidelines for submissions 

from historical content creators to exploring tools and 

methodologies, with an eye toward knowledge sharing, 

problem solving, and identifying opportunities for 

collaboration. The group’s membership comprises representatives of NASA history program archives from 

Ames Research Center, Goddard Space Flight Center, 

the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Johnson Space Center, 

Langley Research Center, NASA Headquarters, Stennis 

Space Center, and the University of Houston–Clear 

Lake. Holly McIntyre-DeWitt from Goddard and 

April Gage from Ames cochair the group with input 

from NASA’s acting Chief Archivist, Steve Garber. 

DAWG has two primary aims. The first is to formulate 

guidelines and good practices for capturing historical 

research data and products commissioned by NASA, 

with a focus on digital forms. The second is to formulate recommendations for toolkits, standards, policies, 

and practices for building digital repositories, and for 

processing, preserving, and providing access to holdings. Preparations for launching the working group 

began in November 2017, and the first biweekly meeting was held in February 2018. 
20

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

COMMERCIALLY PUBLISHED WORKS

Compiled by Chris Gamble

Foreword to Spaceflight, by Michael L. Ciancone 

(Apogee Books, April 2018). This book provides an 

update to Michael L. Ciancone’s The Literary Legacy 

of the Space Age. This update offers a unique resource 

for book collectors and historians alike through hundreds of annotated entries that identify books published before Sputnik on what the author refers to as 

“speculative non-fiction” related to the use of rockets 

for spaceflight. It contains entries for titles published 

in Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, 

Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish, and Russian. Notable 

in this edition is the inclusion of colorful images of 

the covers of many of the entries. In addition, the 

author (along with Professor Asif Siddiqi, the world’s 

foremost authority on Soviet spaceflight history) has 

provided a unique appendix of Russian titles published in the former USSR.

First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong (Revised 

Anniversary Edition), by James R. Hansen (Simon & 

Schuster, 2018). On 20 July 1969, the world stood 

still to watch 38-year-old American astronaut Neil 

Armstrong become the first person to step on the 

surface of another celestial body. This biography, now 

updated with a new chapter written after Armstrong’s 

death, addresses the complex legacy of the “first man” 

as both an astronaut and an individual.

The Design and Engineering of Curiosity—How the 

Mars Rover Performs Its Job, by Emily Lakdawalla 

(Springer-Praxis, March 2018). This book describes 

the most complex machine ever sent to another 

planet: Curiosity. It is a 1-ton robot with 2 brains, 17 

cameras, 6 wheels, nuclear power, and a laser beam 

on its head. This essential reference to the Curiosity 

mission explains the engineering behind every system 

on the rover—from its rocket-powered jetpack, to its 

radioisotope thermoelectric generator, to its fiendishly 

complex sample-handling system. The book explains 

how all the instruments work, and it explains the grueling mission operations schedule that keeps the rover 

working day in and day out.

The Grand Designers: The Evolution of the Airplane 

in the 20th Century, by John D. Anderson, Jr. 

(Cambridge University Press, March 2018). In this 

groundbreaking work based on new research, the 

author, a curator at the Smithsonian National Air and 

Space Museum, analyzes the historical development of 

the conceptual design process of the airplane. He aims 

to answer the question of whether airplane advancement has been driven by a parallel advancement in 

the intellectual methodology of conceptual airplane 

design. In doing so, Anderson identifies and examines 

six case histories of “grand designers” in this field, 

and he challenges some of the preconceived notions 

of how the intellectual methodology of conceptual 

airplane design advanced.

Building Habitats on the Moon: Engineering 

Approaches to Lunar Settlements, by Haym Benaroya 

(Springer-Praxis, January 2018). This book provides 

an overview of various concepts for lunar habitats and 

structural designs and characterizes the lunar environment—the technical and the nontechnical. The 

designs take into consideration psychological comfort, 

structural strength against seismic and thermal activity, 

and internal pressurization and 1⁄6 g. 

Space Resource Utilization: A View from an Emerging 

Space Faring Nation, edited by Annette Froehlich 

(Springer, January 2018). The book speaks to the 

need for a regulatory framework with regard to space 

resource utilization. In doing so, Froehlich explores 

significant elements of the subject matter, taking into 

account the different phases of a space mission and 

the perspectives of the various actors and participants 

in the space arena. Froehlich performs an analysis of 

the current national and international governance 

frameworks with regard to resource extraction and utilization in space. She analyzes the views of established 
21

Volume 35, Numbers 1 & 2 1st & 2nd Quarter 2018

and emerging space nations next, specifically with 

extraction and utilization in mind, and in light of 

the new United States Commercial Space Launch 

Competitiveness Act (CSLCA) of 2015.

India in Space: Between Utility and Geopolitics, by 

Marco Aliberti (Springer, January 2018). This book 

presents the renewing strategic vision and progressive diversification of the Indian space program at 

the nexus of socioeconomic development, commerce, 

and geopolitics. 

The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, 

Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny 

Beyond Earth, by Michio Kaku (Doubleday, February 

2018). Physicist and futurist Michio Kaku explores 

the process by which humanity may gradually move 

away from the planet and develop a sustainable civilization in outer space.

The Earth Gazers: On Seeing Ourselves, by Christopher 

Potter (Pegasus Books, February 2018). Some of the 

most beautiful and influential photographs of Earth 

ever made were taken by the astronauts of the Apollo 

space program from the Moon. They inspired a generation of scientists and environmentalists to think 

more seriously about our responsibility for this “blue 

marble.” The Earth Gazers is a book about the long 

road to the capture of those unforgettable images.

Verner Suomi: The Life and Work of the Founder of 

Satellite Meteorology, by John Lewis, Jean M. Phillips, 

W. Paul Menzel, Thomas H. Vonder Haar, Hans 

Moosmüller, Frederick B. House, and Matthew G. 

Fearon (American Meteorological Society, February 

2018). This book tells the story of Finnish-American 

educator, inventor, and scientist Verner Suomi, whose 

early work in a Depression-era Civilian Conservation 

Corps camp led to an opportunity to attend teaching college; then, during World War II (WWII), he 

became a meteorological trainee in the University of 

Chicago’s Cadet program. He steadily advanced in 

academia and went on to found the Space Science and 

Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin–

Madison, where many of today’s major observing 

systems for spacecraft, aircraft, and ground-based platforms are developed. In 1959, Suomi’s work resulted 

in the launching of Explorer VII, a satellite that measured Earth’s radiation budget, a major step in our 

ability to understand and forecast weather. Drawing 

on personal letters and oral histories, this biography 

presents a picture of the successful person who helped 

launch the field of satellite meteorology.

Discovering Pluto: Exploration at the Edge of the Solar 

System, by Dale P. Cruikshank and William Sheehan 

(University of Arizona Press, February 2018). Telling 

the tale of Pluto’s discovery, the authors recount the 

grand story of our unfolding knowledge of the outer 

solar system, from William Herschel’s serendipitous 

discovery of Uranus in 1781, to the mathematical 

prediction of Neptune’s existence, to Percival Lowell’s 

studies of the wayward motions of those giant planets 

leading to his prediction of another world farther out. 

Lowell’s efforts led to Clyde Tombaugh’s heroic search 

and discovery of Pluto—then a mere speck in the 

telescope—at Lowell Observatory in 1930.

Yearbook on Space Policy 2016: Space for Sustainable 

Development, edited by Cenan Al-Ekabi and Stefano 

Ferretti (Springer, February 2018). The Yearbook on 

Space Policy, produced by the European Space Policy 

Institute (ESPI), is a reference publication that analyzes space policy developments. Each year’s volume 

presents issues and trends in space policy and the 

space sector as a whole. Its scope is global, and its 

perspective is European. The Yearbook also links space 

policy with other policy areas. It highlights specific 

events and issues and provides useful insights, data, 

and information on space activities.

National Space Legislation: A Comparative and 

Evaluative Analysis, edited by Annette Froehlich 

(Springer, February 2018). The purpose of this report 

is to provide a comparative analysis that will detail 

the similarities and differences between the national 

space laws of selected states with a focus on European 

comprehensive national space legislation. The states 

discussed are Sweden, the United Kingdom, Australia, 

China, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Austria, 
22

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

Indonesia, Denmark, New Zealand, and Luxembourg. 

This report is intended to assist the efforts of states that 

are seeking to enact or revise national space legislation, 

not only by presenting the approaches taken by other 

states, but also by presenting, as far as possible, the 

rationale behind their approaches.

Sunburst and Luminary: An Apollo Memoir, by Don 

Eyles (Fort Point Press, March 2018). This book is the 

memoir of Don Eyles, who worked on Project Apollo 

from 1966 through 1972 and on the NASA space 

program in general until 1998, as a computer scientist 

at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 

Instrumentation Laboratory and the Charles Stark 

Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He 

created flight software for the lunar landing phase of 

the Moon missions and invented a sequencing system 

that is in use on the International Space Station.

The Rise of Private Actors in the Space Sector, by 

Alessandra Vernile (Springer, March 2018). This book 

provides a broad set of information on the rise of private actors in the space sector, organized into different 

topics covering the various trends that have shaped the 

space sector during the last decade. The book, written 

in a descriptive fashion, concludes with recommendations for future analytical research on the topic.

The Proton Launcher: History and Developments, by 

Christian Lardier and Stefan Barensky (Wiley-ISTE, 

March 2018). This book is divided into two parts: 

“The Proton in the East,” which relates the history of 

the launcher in the USSR/Russia, and “The Proton 

in the West,” which tells the history of the commercialization of the launcher in the West thanks to the 

American-Russian joint venture International Launch 

Services (ILS), founded in 1995. 

The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and the 

Quest to Colonize the Cosmos, by Christian Davenport 

(PublicAffairs, March 2018). This book is the story of 

a group of billionaire entrepreneurs who are pouring 

their fortunes into establishing a new era of American 

space exploration. Nearly a half century after Neil 

Armstrong walked on the Moon, these “space 

barons”—most notably Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, 

along with Richard Branson and Paul Allen—are 

using Silicon Valley–style innovation to try to dramatically lower the cost of space travel and send humans 

into deep space.

A Telephone for the World: Iridium, Motorola, and 

the Making of a Global Age, by Martin Collins (Johns 

Hopkins University Press, March 2018). Focusing on 

Motorola’s Iridium venture, this book explores the 

story of globalization at a crucial period in U.S. and 

international history. As a planetary-scale technological system, the project became emblematic of this shift 

and of the role of the United States as geopolitical 

superpower. In its ambition, scope, challenges, and 

organizing ideas, the rise of Iridium provides telling 

insight into how this new global condition stimulated 

a re-thinking of corporate practices—on the factory 

floor, in culture and knowledge, and in international 

relations. Combining oral history interviews with 

research in corporate records, Collins discusses what 

“global” meant in the years just before and after the 

end of the Cold War.

NASA Skylab Owners’ Workshop Manual, by David 

Baker, Haynes Manuals series (Haynes Publishing 

U.K., March 2018). This book describes the technical, 

design, and engineering details of how Skylab was 

built and operated.

Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and 

the New Space Race, by Tim Fernholz (Houghton 

Mifflin Harcourt, March 2018). This business narrative describes the new “race for space,” focusing on 

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the other major players 

and corporations.

Space Science and the Arab World: Astronauts, 

Observatories and Nationalism in the Middle East, 

by Jörg Matthias Determann (I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 

April 2018). This book identifies the individuals, 

institutions, and national ideologies that enabled 

Arab astronomers and researchers to gain support for 

space exploration when Middle East governments 

lacked interest.
23

Volume 35, Numbers 1 & 2 1st & 2nd Quarter 2018

These three astronauts are the prime crew of the Apollo 8 lunar orbital 

mission. From left to right are James A. Lovell, Jr., Command Module pilot; 

William A. Anders, Lunar Module pilot; and Frank Borman, commander. 

They are standing beside the Apollo Mission Simulator at Kennedy Space 

Center (KSC) on 13 November 1968. (Photo credit: NASA)

Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and 

the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to 

the Moon, by Robert Kurson (Random House, April 

2018). This book tells the inside, lesser-known story 

of NASA’s boldest and riskiest mission: Apollo 8, 

humankind’s first journey to the Moon, on Christmas 

in 1968. Rocket Men is a riveting account of three 

heroic astronauts who took one of the most challenging spaceflights ever.

Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, 

and the Making of a Masterpiece, by Michael Benson 

(Simon & Schuster, April 2018). Celebrating the 

50th anniversary of the film’s release, author Michael 

Benson explains how 2001: A Space Odyssey was made, 

telling the story primarily through the two people 

most responsible for the film, Kubrick and science 

fiction legend Arthur C. Clarke. Benson interviewed 

Clarke many times and has also spoken at length with 

Kubrick’s widow, Christiane; visual effects supervisor Doug Trumbull; Dan Richter, who played 2001’s 

leading man-ape; and many others.

Saturn V: America’s Rocket to the Moon, by Eugen 

Reichl, America in Space Series (Schiffer, April 2018). 

This book, part of the America in Space series, tells the 

gripping story of the development and creation of the 

Saturn V in concise, detailed text and features numerous high-quality color images, technical drawings, and 

specification/dimension charts. As well as a detailed 

look at the Saturn V’s design and construction, all 

32 Apollo missions are discussed, including the later 

Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

Space Exploration: Past, Present and Future, by 

Carolyn Petersen (Amberley Publishing, April 2018). 

The author takes the reader on a journey from the first 

space pioneers and their work, through World War I–

led technological advances in rocketry that formed the 

basis for the Space Age, to the increasing corporate 

interest in space.

Jupiter, by William Sheehan and Thomas Hockey, 

Kosmos series (Reaktion Books, April 2018). Jupiter 

was the “beloved star” of the ancient Sumerians and 

Babylonians, the first serious observers of the planets, 

and the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft visited it in 

the 1970s. Now it is being scrutinized as never before 

by NASA’s Juno spacecraft, as experts begin to have a 

comprehensive view of the origin, composition, and 

structure of this gas giant world. This volume ranges 

across the entire history of Jupiter studies, from the 

naked-eye observations of the Babylonians and the 

Greeks, through the telescopic discoveries of Galileo 

and T. E. R. Phillips, to the explosion of information 

received from space probes. It brings our understanding of Jupiter right up to date and includes preliminary findings from the Juno space probe.

Disclaimer: The History Division wishes to thank volunteers Mike Ciancone and Chris Gamble, who compiled 

this section for us. Please note that the descriptions have 

been derived by Chris and Mike from promotional material and do not represent an endorsement by NASA.
24

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

UNFOLDING HISTORY

By Allison Gasparini, Spring 2018 NASA History Intern

Working in conjunction with a space-based telescope, Starshade is able 

to position itself precisely between the telescope and the star that is 

being observed, and it can block the starlight before it even reaches the 

telescope’s mirrors. (Photo credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech)

At the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a team of engineers is hard at work on a project 

known as Starshade. Starshade is a giant flower-shaped 

screen that would be positioned exactly between a 

space telescope and the star being observed, working 

by blocking out starlight so that exoplanets, specifically those that are Earth-like, can be directly imaged. 

To many, it is an essential piece of the puzzle to our 

future of discovery. However, at 30 meters in diameter, 

or about 100 feet, Starshade is roughly the size of a 

baseball diamond. This raises the question, how is 

something so large efficiently packaged for its route 

to space and then unpackaged for use? At JPL, the 

solution they found lies in the paper-folding art form 

of origami.

The problem of how to transport bulky gear into space 

is hardly a new one. With the dawn of the Apollo program, scientists began looking at how they could make 

their longtime dreams of a Moon buggy a reality, and 

they arrived at the conclusion that the answer would 

need to involve one thing: folding. This buggy, which 

was roughly the size of a small car, would need to fit 

into the Lunar Module, which also needed to carry 

two astronauts, along with various other instruments 

and supplies. There was no way such a large and bulky 

vehicle would be making the trip unless they could 

find an effective way to store it. This problem came as 

a blow to the early assumptions of what the lunar rover 

would look like. Originally, it had been believed that 

the vehicle would be much larger, with a pressurized 

cabin, and that it would travel by a separate rocket 

from the astronauts; however, budgetary restrictions 

squashed these plans.

NASA began its search for collaborators who could 

design and build a four-wheeled buggy that would 

be compact enough to fit on the Lunar Module and 

lightweight enough that the astronauts could feasibly 

deploy it and use it once on the Moon. Not all were 

winners—John Jellinek of Bellcom submitted a concept for a “Crawler-Type Lunar Motor Transportation 

Vehicle” that then–NASA Director of Lunar Mission 

Studies Philip Culbertson responded to in 1966, saying, “It appears that a vehicle of this configuration 

could not be easily packaged”; he insisted that folding 

was necessary. Boeing ultimately won out with their 

462-pound (77 pounds on the Moon) Lunar Roving 

Vehicle. The fender had to be made in several pieces 

so that it could fold and fit into the small storage 

quadrant on its flight to the Moon.

This diagram shows the lunar rover as seen in the Lunar Rover Operations 

Handbook published by NASA on 19 April 1971. It is available online 

at https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/43944200-Lunar-Rover-OperationsHandbook-07071971.pdf.
25

Volume 35, Numbers 1 & 2 1st & 2nd Quarter 2018

Starshade cannot have any holes, gaps, rips, or tears, 

so breaking it down into several pieces like the Lunar 

Rover is not an option. The question of transporting 

bulky spacecraft has become more complex than it was 

in the early 1960s. In 1992, engineers Simon Guest 

and Sergio Pellegrino became the first to describe 

origami as a technique applied to the design of spacecraft with their paper “Inextensional Wrapping of Flat 

Membranes.” Their research was born from the need 

to package solar sails, which use sunlight propulsion 

to fly spacecraft. The sails needed to go from being 

4 meters (13 feet) in diameter while wrapped to a 

276-meter (900-foot)-diameter disk when deployed.

Through the research, Pellegrino and Guest realized

that in order to correctly mathematically describe

a folding pattern, they would need to account for

material thickness; this realization would become one

of the most important factors in developing future

folding designs.

As a thesis advisor at the California Institute of 

Technology, Pellegrino introduced origami as an engineering technique to one of his advisees, then–Ph.D. 

candidate Manan Arya. “I wasn’t into origami until 

[I worked] on folding spacecraft,” says Dr. Arya, who 

received his Ph.D. in space engineering in 2016 and 

currently works as a technician on Starshade. Now? 

“I’m constantly folding,” he says with a laugh.

It is no coincidence that origami has been picked up 

by engineers as a serious point of inspiration. “There 

is a deep relationship between origami and mathematics,” Arya explains. He likens it to high school 

trigonometry and points to one particular pattern 

currently in use by Starshade engineers known as the 

“flasher pattern.” Arya describes it as a wrapping pattern, one in which the material wraps around a central 

hub. It is a pattern with a long history, according to 

Arya. “It was in the early ’90s that engineers used 

algorithms and mathematics to figure out how to fold 

the pattern into a compact configuration.” It is clear 

why the pattern is a popular choice among engineers: 

it has the ability to compress large spacecraft down to 

fractions of their original size.

The approach to folding large spacecraft has come a 

long way since the days of the Apollo Lunar Roving 

Vehicle. What is in store for the future? Arya wraps it 

up best: “There will always be a need for larger structures. Origami will continue to be very useful.”

UPCOMING MEETINGS

The 45th Symposium of the International Committee 

for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC) will be 

held 17–21 July 2018 in Saint-Étienne, France. Visit 

http://www.icohtec.org/annual-meeting-2018.html

for details.

EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) AirVenture 

will be held 23–29 July 2018 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. 

Visit https://www.eaa.org/en/airventure for details.

The annual meeting of the Society of American 

Archivists (SAA) will be held 12–18 August 2018 in 

Washington, DC. Visit https://www2.archivists.org/

conference for details.

The annual meeting of the Society for Social Studies 

of Science (4S) will be held 29 August–1 September 

2018 in Sydney, Australia. Visit http://www.4sonline.

org/meeting for details.

The annual meeting for the Society for the History 

of Technology (SHOT) will be held 11–14 October 

2018 in St. Louis, Missouri. Visit https://www.

historyoftechnology.org/ for details.

The biennial Mutual Concerns of Aviation and Space 

Museums Conference will be held 2–6 November 

2018 in Tucson, Arizona. Visit https://airandspace.

si.edu/events/mutual-concerns for details.
26

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

A BRIEF LOOK AT THE NASA MEATBALL

By Maeve McBride, Spring 2018 NASA History Intern

The NASA insignia is one of the most recognizable symbols that NASA uses. Fondly (and at times 

not-so-fondly) called the meatball by employees, the 

insignia was created in 1959 by James Modarelli. It is 

printed on everything from internal correspondence 

to spacesuits and apparel sold to the public.

The 1958 Space Act 

officially established 

NASA to unify the 

nation’s organizations that 

were working on aeronautics and astronautics. The 

Agency held a contest to 

design a seal to be used for official purposes. James Modarelli, head 

of Research Reports at NASA Lewis Research Center 

(now NASA Glenn Research Center), won this contest 

by combining imagery representing aeronautics and 

astronautics. He was then asked to simplify the design 

to make a logo that could be used informally.

Modarelli decided to combine aeronautics and astronautics in the logo as a way to embody the dual mission 

of NASA. In the design, the blue circle background, 

representing the planets; the stars, representing space; 

and the orbiting spacecraft all signify astronautics. The 

red supersonic wing, often called a swoosh or a vector, 

represents aeronautics. They are all tied together by 

the word “NASA” in white.

So what exactly is the red supersonic wing on both 

the insignia and the seal? The wing is a stylized version of a supersonic wing created by the National 

Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which 

was folded into NASA. Modarelli viewed a model of 

the wing, created by researchers at Langley and Ames, 

during a visit to Ames in 1958. He decided that this 

cutting-edge technology would be the perfect way 

to embody aeronautics on the seal he was designing. 

When he designed the insignia, he once again incorporated the wing.

The NASA insignia was not always the meatball we 

know today. In 1975, the NASA insignia was replaced 

with the logotype insignia, affectionately nicknamed 

“the worm.” This logotype promised a modern look 

by stylizing the letters “N A S A”: the crossbars of 

the A’s were removed, and some letters were linked. 

Frank “Red” Rowsome, head of technical publications at NASA Headquarters, called Modarelli’s insignia “the meatball” to differentiate it from the new 

logotype insignia.

Administrator Dan Goldin brought the meatball 

back in 1992. The change was an effort to remind 

employees and the world about the glory days of fastpaced innovation and the Moon landings in the 1960s 

and ’70s. The change was not without controversy. 

Individual employees campaigned for 

the logotype or Modarelli’s insignia. Mockups of “wormballs” 

that combined the two logos 

were proposed, but clarity of 

messaging is important with 

logos, and the insignia (meatball) 

has been the officially approved 

logo since 1992.

The meatball is perhaps the most 

visible symbol of NASA and has been seen in the 

Agency’s most publicized moments. It flew on the 

spacesuits of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronauts. 

It launched on the wings of Space Shuttles. It decorates NASA buildings and airplanes. But perhaps most 

importantly, the NASA insignia artfully combines 

aeronautics and astronautics and reminds us all to 

keep innovating.

“Wormballs,” as in 

this example, are not 

approved for official use.
27

Volume 35, Numbers 1 & 2 1st & 2nd Quarter 2018

IMAGE IN NASA HISTORY 

Astronaut Jim Lovell, Apollo 13 mission commander, reads a newspaper account of the safe 

recovery of the crew of the problem-plagued mission. 

Lovell is shown on board the USS Iwo Jima, prime 

recovery ship for Apollo 13.

NASA HEADQUARTERS HISTORY DIVISION 

STAFF CONTACT INFORMATION

William Barry bill.barry@nasa.gov

Chief Historian 202-358-0383

Andres Almeida andres.almeida@nasa.gov

Editor 202-358-1319

Nadine Andreassen nadine.j.andreassen@nasa.gov

Program Support Specialist 202-358-0087

Colin Fries colin.a.fries@nasa.gov

Archivist 202-358-0388

Stephen Garber stephen.j.garber@nasa.gov

Historian 202-358-0385

Robyn Rodgers robyn.k.rodgers@nasa.gov

Chief Archivist 202-358-2798

Elizabeth Suckow elizabeth.suckow-1@nasa.gov

Archivist 202-358-0375

Allison Gasparini allison.j.gasparini@nasa.gov

Spring Intern 202-358-0680

Maeve McBride maeve.mcbride@nasa.gov

Spring Intern 202-358-2577

Savannah Jelks savannah.n.jelks@nasa.gov

Summer Intern 202-358-2577

Kate Wall katharine.l.wall@nasa.gov

Summer Intern 202-358-0680
CREATED AND PRODUCED BY:

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Lisa Jirousek, Editor

Michele Ostovar, Graphic Designer

Trenita Williams, Mail Coordinator

Carl Paul, Distribution

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