Volume 36, Number 1 First Quarter 2019

National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration

OPPORTUNITY

2003–2018

THE SOCIAL MEDIA 

WORLD MEMORIALIZES 

THE ROBOTIC EXPLORER

PAGE 3

2 FROM THE CHIEF

HISTORIAN

10 GLENN’S CONTRIBUTIONS

TO THE APOLLO PROGRAM

14 REMEMBERING 

DR. NANCY GRACE ROMAN

This self-portrait of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover 

Opportunity comes courtesy of the Sun and the rover’s 

front hazard-avoidance camera. The dramatic snapshot of 

Opportunity’s shadow was taken on sol 180 (26 July 2004), 

a date that marked the achievement of fully double the 

rover’s primary 90-sol mission. (Image credit: NASA/JPL)

NASA HISTORY DIVISION

OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS
2

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

IN THIS ISSUE:

2 From the Chief Historian

3 Goodbye, Robot: How the Social Media World

Mourned Oppy

6 News from Headquarters and the Centers

10 Glenn’s Contributions to the Apollo Program

13 Other Aerospace History News

14 Remembering Dr. Nancy Grace Roman

15 Upcoming Meetings

15 Recent Publications

20 Air Force Flight Test Museum Highlights Joint

NASA–U.S. Air Force Legacy at Edwards

23 Moment in NASA History

FROM THE CHIEF

HISTORIAN

Welcome to 2019—the 50th anniversary year 

of the first human landing on 

the Moon! First, my apologies 

for the delay in our spring 

publication of News & Notes. We are still recovering 

from the extended shutdown of the U.S. government 

from late December to the end of January. Everyone 

in the Headquarters History Division was on furlough, 

and there were many time-critical tasks that did not 

get done. Right now, we are in a full-on sprint to get 

ready for the upcoming Apollo 50th anniversaries.

Although our lives are all about Apollo these days, we 

thought that we’d give you a break from that story 

in this issue and mark another important milestone 

with our cover story about the end of the Mars Rover 

Opportunity mission. In a case of real life echoing 

the movies (remember The Martian), a planet-wide 

dust storm brought the Energizer Bunny of planetary rovers to its end. My personal favorite memory 

of the Opportunity mission was the 2006 picture of 

Opportunity parked on the lip of the Victoria crater—an image taken by another of our Mars probes, 

the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. That we can have a 

probe in orbit around another planet taking a picture 

of our rover on the surface speaks volumes about the 

capabilities and depths of our planetary exploration 

programs. You can revel in the amazing statistics about 

Opportunity in our story, but I’ll note here that such 

over-performance is not unusual at NASA. While 

NASA staff have faced their share of early mission 

failures over the years, a mission with success like the 

Mars Exploration Rovers does not seem all that surprising. Is this the result of outstanding engineering 

and excellent equipment? Certainly, at least in part. 

But, as we look at the Apollo program this year and 

consider the sweep of NASA history, I think it is clear 

that these sorts of successes rest on the dedication 

of an amazing workforce. You’ll pardon my pride at 

having the chance to be involved in chronicling the 

history of these amazing people for future generations. 

And that swallowing sound you hear? That’s me choking down some humble pie as I compare our furlough 

problems with the challenges faced, and vanquished, 

by my fellow NASA employees, both past and present.

Godspeed,

William P. Barry

Chief Historian

YOU CAN REVEL IN THE AMAZING 

STATISTICS ABOUT OPPORTUNITY IN 

OUR STORY, BUT I’LL NOTE HERE THAT 

SUCH OVER-PERFORMANCE IS NOT 

UNUSUAL AT NASA.
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Volume 36, Number 1 1st Quarter 2019

FEATURE GOODBYE, ROBOT: 

HOW THE SOCIAL MEDIA 

WORLD MOURNED OPPY

By Andres Almeida, Editor, NASA Headquarters

The world said goodbye to a trailblazing explorer on 13 February 2019 when NASA announced 

that the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity had 

concluded its mission. The rover stopped communicating with Earth on 10 June 2018 after a severe 

Mars-wide dust storm blocked out the Sun and blanketed its location. After sending more than a thousand 

commands to restore contact, engineers in the Space 

Flight Operations Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion 

Laboratory (JPL) made their last attempt to revive 

Opportunity on Tuesday, 12 February, to no avail.

Designed to last just 90 Martian days, or sols, the 

persevering rover (affectionately known as Oppy) 

exceeded its life expectancy 60 times over. Nearly 

15 years of Oppy’s interplanetary exploration helped 

us better understand Mars and laid the groundwork 

for our return to the Red Planet. Although the mission 

concluded quietly, the public response was anything 

but quiet.

Tributes, homages, and anecdotes poured in. 

Webcomics from The Oatmeal, XKCD, and other 

illustrators inundated social media, anthropomorphizing the little rover and, in many instances, assigning it 

a blissfully ignorant Boy Scout–like persona. Anybody 

searching the hashtag #ThanksOppy, initiated by the 

NASA public affairs team, can find tributes galore.

Opportunity guides a tour group visiting its exploration site. Notice the

alt text that reads, “Thanks for bringing us along.” (Image credit: XKCD)

Two Martian aliens stand in front of Opportunity. One wonders whether it is “going home,” and 

the other replies, “She already is home.” (Image credit: Liz Climo)

We saw a similar reaction happen in September 2017 

when the Cassini spacecraft concluded its extraordinary mission. There are some key differences to note 

in the way the public mourned: We knew Cassini was 

going to conclude; it had an end date, and it received 

an appropriately drawn-out farewell, giving us all a 

chance to appreciate the stunning science and spectacular imagery it had given us over the years; and the 

mission’s elegant demise was even given its own title, 

Grand Finale. Nobody wanted the mission to end, but 
4

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

it went out with grace, diving into Saturn’s atmosphere 

to become part of the planet. Even today people are 

designing comics and memes that pay homage to the 

remarkable probe. 

This @MarsRovers end-of-mission post received more than 39,000 

retweets and 106,000 likes, making it one of the Agency’s most popular 

posts. (Image credit: NASA)

This comic was released in 2018 for the first anniversary of Cassini’s final 

dive into Saturn’s atmosphere. (Image credit: Chiara Capuano)

According to Sarah Loff, Digital and Social Media 

Supervisor at NASA Headquarters, Cassini’s 2017 

Grand Finale was a far bigger event by every other 

metric (live audience, reach of NASA’s own social 

posts, and Web traffic). Nonetheless, Opportunity, 

with 548,000 social media mentions, surpassed 

Cassini’s 545,000 mentions. As of 5 March 2019, the 

@MarsRovers end-of-mission post was the number 7 

highest-engagement Facebook or Twitter post by any

NASA account in the previous 365 days. The others are either to or about famous people or from the 

InSight landing.

Some people remember when the Mars Exploration 

Rovers landed. In fact, one of my favorite memories 

of my abuelita involves Opportunity. I remember 

coming home from my high school and greeting her 

at my house. As usual, we talked about our day, and 

she described how she saw on the news that another 

rover had landed on Mars. She must have seen an 

animation of the rover’s deployment because of how 

she used her hands to mimic the opening of the ramp. 

Gesturing with her hands, she said it looked like a 

beautiful flower, letting the word “flower” (flor in 

Spanish) flow slowly. Like many around the world, 

she was enthralled. I was, too.

Prior to Oppy’s final moments, the rover relayed a 

message to engineers that warned of its depleting 

battery supply. In an interview, one of the mission 

engineers loosely translated Oppy’s signal as “My 

battery is low and it’s getting dark.” Some people 

took this literally, thinking that the rover itself had 

beamed back those exact words. Naturally, it spread 

like a social media wildfire, showing how we tend to 

anthropomorphize robots.

This apparent grieving of Oppy resembled that of 

another famous pop-culture robot, WALL·E from 

the Disney/Pixar film of the same name. In the movie, 
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Volume 36, Number 1 1st Quarter 2019

WALL·E goes through the classic emotions: love, joy, 

frustration, anger, etc. Humans tend to ascribe human 

emotions to other creatures and insentient objects. 

Maybe this is how we cope.

Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator for 

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said, “Whatever 

loss we feel now must be tempered with the knowledge that the legacy of Opportunity continues....”

WHATEVER LOSS WE FEEL NOW 

MUST BE TEMPERED WITH THE 

KNOWLEDGE THAT THE LEGACY 

OF OPPORTUNITY CONTINUES....

Of course, another way humans tend to cope with 

loss is with music. The final song engineers played 

for Oppy? “I’ll Be Seeing You,” popularized in 1944 

by Bing Crosby and then Billie Holiday. It ends with 

these lines:

I’ll find you

In the morning Sun,

And when the night is new,

I’ll be looking at the Moon,

But I’ll be seeing you.

On reading about the song played for Oppy, Ella 

Cerón writes:

Reader, I cried. I bawled my eyes out, over a 

robot I have never met. I considered watching The Notebook, a film that also uses “I’ll Be 

Seeing You” to drive home the point that the 

people we love never really leave us, even after 

dementia and/or death. And where do we go 

from here, after knowing that robots can feel, 

and breakup texts reach Mars, and that not 

only could the red planet possibly sustain life, 

but bring on these emotions, too?1

1 Ella Cerón, “This Dead Robot Taught Me How To Feel,” The Cut (15 February 2019), https://www.thecut.com/2019/02/nasa-sendsmars-rover-final-message-with-billie-holiday-song.html (accessed 24 April 2019).

Even though we were forced to say goodbye to Oppy 

and its twin rover Spirit, they are forever part of 

Mars. Perhaps one day humanity will reunite with 

these robotic explorers and say, “Thank you.” As our 

Administrator, Jim Bridenstine, eloquently noted, “It 

is because of trailblazing missions such as Opportunity 

that there will come a day when our brave astronauts 

walk on the surface of Mars. And when that day 

arrives, some portion of that first footprint will be 

owned by the men and women of Opportunity, and a 

little rover that defied the odds and did so much in the 

name of exploration.”

Opportunity landed in the Meridiani Planum region of 

Mars on 24 January 2004, seven months after its launch 

from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Its 

twin rover, Spirit, had landed 20 days earlier in the 

103-mile-wide (166-kilometer-wide) Gusev Crater on 

the other side of Mars. Spirit logged almost 5 miles (8 kilometers) before its mission wrapped up in May 2011.
6

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

NEWS FROM HEADQUARTERS AND THE CENTERS

NASA HEADQUARTERS

Washington, DC

By Bill Barry

Looking back at the December News & Notes, it feels as if that was written in a different timespace continuum. There have been so many things 

happening in the last quarter—but let’s start with 

some good personnel news. Thanks to funding from 

the Science Mission Directorate, we have hired an 

additional new archivist, Craig Haibon. Coming to us 

from the National Archives, Craig is here in a one-year 

position to help the Planetary Sciences Division of the 

Science Mission Directorate deal with some thorny 

archival questions related to the Regional Planetary 

Information Facilities (RPIFs). He has hit the ground 

running and is a most welcome addition to our 

archival team. Another important personnel change 

is that just before the government shutdown began, 

Administrator Bridenstine appointed Bettina Inclán 

as the Associate Administrator for Communications. 

Her enthusiasm for all things NASA (including our 

history) has been a pleasant boost in some challenging 

times early this year. One other significant personnel 

development this spring has been the lack of interns. 

We had a limited number of qualified applicants for 

the spring “semester,” and the person who got the 

internship offer also got a better offer (and wisely took 

that) in early December. While the intern-free spring 

was not planned, it was probably a good thing that we 

didn’t have a college student (or two) joining the rest 

of us on furlough at the start of the year. We had our 

usual stellar crop of applicants for summer 2019 and 

have selected Gwendolyn Rak (a rising sophomore at 

Swarthmore) and Claire Smrt (a rising junior at the 

University of Missouri). They will both be starting 

near the end of May and be with us into August to 

help with the busy Apollo anniversary season.

Some of you may have seen the NASA Inspector 

General’s “Audit of NASA’s Historic Property” (Report 

No. IG-19-002). The audit finds fault with a number 

of issues related to historic buildings and equipment. 

While the History and Archival programs were not 

directly criticized in the audit, the NASA response to 

the audit will involve our programs. One of the commitments made in response to the audit is to fill in the 

process gap in dealing with “heritage assets” that are 

not buildings. (The Historic Preservation Officer in 

the Office of Strategic Infrastructure is charged under 

the National Historic Preservation Act with issues 

related to historic “real property,” i.e., buildings.) The 

history and archival programs are part of the team 

involved in creating (and probably implementing) the 

processes needed to fix the problems identified by the 

Inspector General. This is a work in progress.

Complicating the procedural answer to the Inspector 

General report, and making life more “interesting” 

in a number of ways, is the Mission Support Future 

Architecture Program (strangely acronymed as 

“MAP”). Based on a senior management decision in 

2017, the Agency is doing a phased plan to evaluate 

and realign the NASA mission support bureaucracy 

with an eye to improved efficiency and better mission 

focus. The Office of Communications (the home of the 

Headquarters History Division) was originally scheduled to be “MAPped” at the tail end of the process in 

a couple of years. But this schedule was changed, and 

the Office of Communications (and hence the History 

Program) is scheduled to complete the MAP review 

and planning by the end of this fiscal year. Given 

that history and archival programs across the Agency 

are organized in a variety of bureaucratic stovepipes 

at various Centers, this will make the expected rationalization under MAP a very complicated problem. 

It is unfortunate that this extremely important initiative is coming just as the Apollo 50th anniversary 

season is upon us. Nonetheless, this is an important 

opportunity to tackle some of the challenges facing 

the Agency-wide history and archival efforts.
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Volume 36, Number 1 1st Quarter 2019

Later this spring, historians and archivists from 

across NASA will be meeting for our annual History 

Program Review and Training. This year, we’ll be 

at Armstrong Flight Research Center from 7 May 

through 9 May. We will, of course, be discussing the 

response to that Inspector General audit, the MAP 

efforts, and the Apollo anniversary plans. It will be an 

extremely busy couple of days, but we are also looking 

forward to having our Review in such a historically 

significant location.

While the items above involve major new efforts, we 

continue to push ahead with the usual work of the 

History Division. This includes all of the normal dayto-day archival work, budget drills, inquiries to be 

answered, and our publication efforts. We have a number of exciting projects in the publication pipeline, but 

keep an eye out for Origins of 21st-Century Space Travel

by Glen Asner and Steve Garber. This study of NASA’s 

Decadal Planning Team and the Vision for Space 

Exploration is at the printer as I write this and should 

be available in print and for download very soon.

GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER (GSFC)

Greenbelt, Maryland

By Christine Stevens and Holly McIntyre

Building an archives program from the ground up 

usually means that there is an institutional need to 

preserve and provide access to a collection of significant material. In the case of Goddard Space Flight 

Center, the need had been voiced loud and clear across 

generations of Goddardites over the years. But while 

the need was here on Center, a centralized collection 

of historic material was not! The Goddard Archives 

is working to build that collection by identifying 

historically significant material across six field sites 

and 60 years of history. After we identify materials 

that may be of interest for preservation on Center, we 

employ the archival function of “appraisal” to determine what this material is, why it may or may not be 

significant, and whether it fits into the Archives’ collection policy to be preserved on Center in perpetuity. 

But where do we get these materials? The Goddard 

Archives conducts appraisals on Center in employees’ 

offices, in on- and off-Center treasure troves (storage 

closets), and in retirees’ homes.

A great example of an off-site appraisal visit for a 

retiree was this past spring at the Dr. Paul D. Lowman, 

Jr., estate. In 1959, Paul Lowman was the first geologist hired by NASA, and he worked at Goddard in 

Greenbelt for over 50 years. Dr. Lowman, who resided 

in Bowie, was known for riding his bike to work and 

for his numerous publications and contributions to 

NASA. He passed away in 2011.

A GREAT EXAMPLE OF AN OFFSITE APPRAISAL VISIT FOR 

A RETIREE WAS THIS PAST 

SPRING AT THE DR. PAUL D. 

LOWMAN, JR., ESTATE. IN 1959, 

PAUL LOWMAN WAS THE FIRST 

GEOLOGIST HIRED BY NASA, 

AND HE WORKED AT GODDARD 

IN GREENBELT FOR OVER 

50 YEARS. 

We arrived at the estate on a cold February day and got 

to work. The entire home was full of NASA material, 

so we decided to divide and conquer. Two of us started 

in the office while the other two started in the basement. To help us make order out of chaos, we started 

by making piles of like subjects. Being a geologist, 

Dr. Lowman had a variety of rock samples, maps, photographs, and reports. These records were sorted based 

on what project they were related to. Dr. Lowman 

worked on pre-Apollo lunar geology projects, Apollo, 

Gemini, Spaceborne Imaging Radar (SIR), Landsat, 

and others. In the office, we found almost 100 

small journals from 1959 through 2001 filled with 

meeting minutes, to-do lists, and ideas. We thought 
8

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

that these journals would be a great addition to the 

archives because they show what daily life was like at 

Goddard during those years and provide great insight 

into cultural and organizational shifts over time. The 

home also contained a number of items of personal 

correspondence and ephemera such as Dr. Lowman’s 

high school yearbooks filled with messages from his 

classmates and correspondence with NASA officials 

as he was looking for employment after college. His 

completed federal employment application shows that 

he was eager to join the Agency.

In the basement, there were filing cabinets full of 

working files and correspondence. Dr. Lowman kept 

most of his incoming letters and carbon copies of his 

outgoing letters from 1960 through 1995. Thirty-five 

years of correspondence paints a great picture of his 

life, the work he did, and how Goddard has changed 

over the years. Some of the correspondence folders, 

since they had been sitting in a filing cabinet for so 

long, had dirt and particulates in the folder. Moldy or 

dirty records should not come into contact with clean 

records as there is a risk for contamination. However, 

we did not have a quarantine space available to bring 

these records back to GSFC, so we needed to clean 

them before we brought them into the archives. On 

our last visit to the estate, we set up a plastic tarp in 

the driveway to clean the records with soft brushes. 

Wearing N-95 masks and gloves, we formed an assembly line and cleaned the dirty records before putting 

them into clean Federal Records Center (FRC) boxes.

Six weeks and multiple visits later, we had finally 

brought all of the Lowman records back on Center, 

where they were to be processed and preserved for 

years to come.

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER (JSC)

Houston, Texas

By John Uri

The JSC History Portal was relocated to a new 

Web address: https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/

JSCHistoryPortal/history/. We encourage everyone to 

update their bookmarks and also to help us in any way 

possible to advertise the new address. We are continuing efforts to upgrade the look and feel of the History 

Portal, and the changes will provide the History Office 

with easier control over content updates as well as a 

more modern format.

We continue to expand our extensive oral history 

collection. Jennifer Ross-Nazzal and Sandra Johnson 

completed interview series with several key NASA 

leaders: Lesa Roe, Robert Lightfoot, Mike Hawes, 

and Scott Hubbard. They also interviewed Poppy 

Northcutt, one of the first women to work in Mission 

Control, and former Naval Research Laboratory and 

Goddard engineer Edmund Habib. And while the partial government shutdown caused several interviews to 

be rescheduled, it gave Jennifer and Sandra time to 

process most of the backlogged interview transcripts, 

which will be uploaded to the JSC History Portal once 

the subjects have approved them for release.

Sandra responded to a series of ongoing requests for 

oral history audio and video from filmmakers working 

on projects related to upcoming Apollo anniversaries. 

Of note were the following:

• A request from C-SPAN’s American History TV for

five video interviews conducted between 1997 and

2000 covering the Apollo 7 and 8 missions. The interviews were broadcast on C-SPAN3 in December

and January and are available online. Sandra

worked with the JSC Moving Imagery archive to

digitize and provide the requested interviews.

• A request from BBC Radio for audio from NASA

individuals involved in Apollo 8. Sandra provided

audio clips of the requested oral history interviews.

• A request from the Smithsonian Channel for a sixpart documentary series on Apollo.

• A request from the History Channel for a documentary on the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11.
9

Volume 36, Number 1 1st Quarter 2019

• A request for the British National Space Center 

exhibition about the former Avro project engineers 

who moved to Houston during the early days of 

NASA to work on the first spaceflight programs. 

(We did a series of interviews with those gentlemen 

early on in the project.)

• A request from the Johnsville Centrifuge and 

Science Museum for the video oral history interview with Betty Skelton, an aviatrix and aerobatics 

pilot who set 17 aviation and automobile records; 

helped create opportunities for women in aviation, 

auto racing, astronautics, and advertising; and, in 

1959, was the first woman to undergo physical and 

psychological tests identical to those given to the 

Mercury Seven astronauts.

• A request for a previous oral history interview we 

conducted with Annie Easley, a former National 

Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and 

NASA employee at Glenn Research Center. An 

article in Massive Science, an online science publication, relied heavily on this material. The article 

is available at https://massivesci.com/articles/annieeasley-facts-stem-mathematician-nasa-scientistdiscrimination/.

JSC’s history portal has been relocated to a new URL: https://

historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/.

Along with several other NASA historians and 

archivists, Jennifer completed Records Management 

training provided by the National Archives and 

Records Administration (NARA). The NASA Chief 

Archivist, Robyn Rodgers, arranged the training for 

NASA History with the intent of creating a better 

partnership between history and records management 

programs. Because Jennifer completed all Knowledge 

Areas (Creating and Maintaining Agency Business 

Information, Records Scheduling, Records Schedule 

Implementation, Asset and Risk Management, and 

Records Management Program Development), she 

earned a certificate signed by the Archivist of the 

United States.

As our JSC Historian, Jennifer was featured as a guest 

on JSC’s Houston We Have a Podcast (https://www.

nasa.gov/johnson/HWHAP/apollo-8-part-1), and she 

participated in an interview with a film crew from 

Flair Productions, a French company, about Johnson 

Space Center and its facilities.

At the request of the NASA Chief Historian, Jennifer 

gave a keynote talk at the Apollo Dialogues Workshop 

held at the Smithsonian’s Ripley Center. NASA’s 

History Office and the Smithsonian Air and Space 

Museum sponsored the workshop. About 90 people attended the all-day event on 7 December 2018. 

Jennifer spoke about the importance of capturing and 

documenting women’s contributions to the Apollo 

program. The talk was extremely well received, with 

many positive comments and offers of possible collaborations. At the end of the meeting, First Man

screenwriter Josh Singer reintroduced himself to the 

historian and thanked her for her assistance with 

the film.

Jennifer gave a talk at Space Center Houston on 

4 January 2019 on President Richard M. Nixon’s 

decision to proceed with the Space Shuttle Program. 

On 15 February, she spoke about the decision to 

rename the Manned Spacecraft Center the Lyndon B. 

Johnson Space Center, to honor the late President for 

his contributions to NASA and to human spaceflight 

in particular.
10

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

In recognition of significant space anniversaries leading up to the Moon landing, the JSC History Office 

is working with the JSC External Relations Office on 

a continuing series of articles posted on the https://

www.nasa.gov/topics/history/index.html Web site and 

JSC’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. Abstracts of 

the articles appear online in JSC’s Roundup Today. 

The Web articles were temporarily halted during the 

government shutdown, but they were posted after 

the government reopened. The missed social media 

posts were not recovered. The features often highlight the anniversaries of less-celebrated events and 

people that were nevertheless crucial to achieving the 

Moon landing within President Kennedy’s timetable. 

Selected articles have also appeared as feature articles 

on the JSC Home Page’s Roundup Reads. We would 

like to thank history and archive personnel at other 

NASA Centers for their valued help and contributions 

to many of these products.

The History Office continues its effort to publish 

Jennifer’s book Making Space for Women, in collaboration with the JSC University Research, Collaboration 

and Partnership Office. The manuscript is currently 

undergoing peer review at Texas A&M University Press.

GLENN’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE APOLLO PROGRAM

By Bob Arrighi

The success of the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969 was based, in part, on NASA’s decision in 1959 to 

utilize upper-stage vehicles fueled with liquid hydrogen. This determination stemmed from an effort that 

began a decade earlier at the NACA’s Lewis Flight 

Propulsion Laboratory (today, Glenn Research Center) 

to transform the lightweight, high-energy hydrogen 

into a functional propellant. Lewis employees, both 

renowned and obscure, were among the thousands 

of individuals across the country who contributed to 

the Apollo Program 50 years ago. They transferred 

to Headquarters to help shape the Apollo program, 

resolved many technical issues involving each stage 

of the Saturn V, managed the vehicles that launched 

lunar exploration spacecraft, investigated the Apollo 1 

and 13 accidents, and went on join the Apollo astronaut corps.

In the mid-1940s, a small contingent of Lewis researchers began studying small experimental rocket engines 

and the use of different highly reactive liquids as propellants. They intentionally avoided hydrogen since 

the military was then sponsoring hydrogen research 

at other institutions. In 1949, the Chief of Research, 

Abe Silverstein, expanded the rocket research. The 

group increasingly concentrated on hydrogen—which 

the military had by then forsaken. The effort steadily 

escalated and resulted in the successful flight tests 

of a liquid-hydrogen engine on a B-57 Canberra in 

early 1957. Representatives from Pratt & Whitney, 

which was developing its hydrogen-fueled RL-10 

engine, frequently visited Lewis during this period. 

The RL-10s would power the Centaur rocket and serve 

as a template for Rocketdyne’s J-2 engines, which were 

employed on the Saturn upper stages.

With the NACA’s 1958 incorporation into the new space 

agency, numerous Lewis personnel, including Adelbert 

Tischler, Newell Sanders, Edgar Cortright, John Disher, 

and John Sloop, transferred to Headquarters to plan 

NASA’s initial space missions. The two men with the 

most immediate impact on Apollo, however, were 

Silverstein and George Low. Silverstein was responsible for all of NASA’s space activities during NASA’s 

first three years and oversaw the Space Task Group’s 

(STG’s) human undertakings. Low served as the liaison 

between the STG and Headquarters.

In 1958, Silverstein served on a working group that 

proposed a multidecade spaceflight program that 
11

Volume 36, Number 1 1st Quarter 2019

included an eventual lunar landing. He also arranged 

for the transfer of Rocketdyne’s 1.5-million-poundthrust F-1 engine program from the Air Force to 

NASA. In December 1959, Silverstein chaired the 

Saturn Vehicle Team, referred to as the Silverstein 

Committee, to select vehicles for the Saturn Program, 

which the Army had recently transferred to NASA. 

Silverstein, who was intimately aware of Lewis’s 

hydrogen work, convinced Wernher von Braun 

that Saturn’s upper stages must use the high-energy 

liquid hydrogen.

In July 1960, Silverstein, who had named Project 

Mercury in 1958, designated the Moon mission as 

Apollo to continue the mythological naming precedent. At that point, NASA considered Apollo to be a 

human journey around the Moon that would lay the 

groundwork for future landings. Low, however, argued 

that the lunar landing should take precedence, and in 

October 1960, he obtained Silverstein’s permission to 

establish a team to identify the options and requirements for such a mission. NASA presented their findings to Congress in February 1961. Although there was 

no immediate impact, two months later NASA officials, 

including Silverstein, used the Low committee’s conclusions to respond to President Kennedy’s request for 

a space mission capable of demonstrating the nation’s 

technological superiority over the Soviet Union.

Shortly after the President announced the lunar 

mission on 25 May 1961, Lewis employees William 

Fleming and Bruce Lundin led separate committees that examined different staging and rendezvous 

methods for achieving this goal. The Agency initially 

assigned Lewis responsibility for the hydrogen propulsion system that would power the Lunar Module 

(LM), but the decision to employ a lunar rendezvous 

strategy negated the need for the large engine. In the 

fall of 1961, Silverstein returned to Cleveland to serve 

as Lewis Center Director. Low went on to lead the 

Apollo Spacecraft Program Office.

Meanwhile, researchers at Lewis continued efforts to 

resolve issues impacting hydrogen engines and the 

Saturn vehicle. Saturn’s first stage (S-IC) was powered 

by five massive kerosene-fueled F-1 engines that were 

experiencing combustion instability and turbopump 

pressure fluctuations. In 1962, Rocketdyne’s consultation with Lewis fluids systems experts led to modifications that remedied the pump issue. Later that year, 

Lewis’s Richard Priem tested different injector designs 

in the Rocket Engine Test Facility (RETF) and served 

on a team that troubleshot the instability problem. In 

1964 and 1965, Lewis used a model of the S-IC in its 

two large supersonic wind tunnels to study the recirculation of the F-1 engines’ hot exhaust. The tests provided 

important aerodynamic pressure data and determined 

the size of the actuators used to steer the engines.

Saturn I booster tests take place in the 8- by 6-foot supersonic wind 

tunnel at NASA Lewis Research Center (now Glenn). (Image credit: NASA)

During the early 1960s, Pratt & Whitney and 

Rocketdyne utilized Lewis’s extensive experience with 

liquid hydrogen to guide them as they developed 

the RL-10 and J-2 engines. Lewis worked with the 

companies to resolve technical difficulties, particularly 

combustion instability. Lewis’s testing of the RL-10 in 

the Propulsion Systems Laboratory (PSL) remedied a 

persistent screech problem, and extensive research at 
12

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

the RETF led to the redesign of the concentric-tube 

injector used in both engines. In addition, Lewis 

researchers serving on a committee to review the J-2’s 

turbopump issue were able to cite findings from their 

previous research that verified that the pump’s inducer 

design would produce the desired pressure levels.

In the early 1960s, Lewis researchers used a drop tower, 

research aircraft, and sounding missiles to determine 

how fluids would behave in tanks operating in the low 

gravity of space. They found that the use of baffles 

within a tank kept the liquid in place and prevented 

sloshing when engines were cut off. In the mid-1960s, 

Lewis used its drop towers to calibrate and test the 

fluid management systems employed in Saturn’s S-IVB 

stage and the Command and Service Module (CSM).

In 1964, Lewis tested a model of the CSM and its 

escape tower in the 8- by 6-Foot Supersonic Wind 

Tunnel. By testing the vehicle in simulated flight conditions at various angles, the researchers were able to 

predict the vehicle’s aerodynamic stability with and 

without its control flaps deployed. There was also 

concern that the three large fuel cells that supplied 

the CSM with electric power would not operate properly in a microgravity environment. In 1965, Lewis’s 

Michael Weinstein created a test loop that verified the 

performance of the system’s condenser in low gravity 

and forecast the fuel cell’s performance in a variety 

of conditions.

Lewis also contributed to the LM Ascent Engine, 

which used storable hypergolic propellants to launch 

the LM to rendezvous with the CSM. In 1967, Robert 

Dorsch and Leon Wentzel ran computer analyses of 

the engine’s combustion instability and accurately predicted the vaporization rates of the bipropellants. Carl 

Aukerman and Arthur Trout tested the high-area-ratio 

nozzles used for the module’s Ascent and Descent 

engines in the PSL. The program demonstrated that 

combustion instability in the hypergolics did not 

affect the nozzle performance and successfully forecast 

the engine performance during the Apollo landings. In 

addition, John Wanhainen served on a task group that 

resolved the Ascent Engine’s combustion instability.

Scientists needed to study the surface of the Moon 

to identify optimal landing sites for Apollo. NASA 

employed a series of Lunar Orbiters to photograph 

the Moon from a distance, Rangers to send back data 

as they crashed into the surface, and Surveyors to 

land and analyze the soil. In 1962, Lewis was assigned 

responsibility for the Agena and Centaur upper stages 

used to transport these spacecraft. Between 1964 and 

1967, Atlas-Agenas successfully sent four Rangers and 

five Lunar Orbiters to the Moon. However, Centaur, 

the first liquid-hydrogen-powered stage, required 

additional work. Lewis conducted an extensive fouryear effort, which included seven developmental 

launches, to resolve Centaur’s issues. Between 1966 

and 1968, Atlas-Centaur vehicles successfully sent 

seven Surveyors to the lunar surface.

In 1967, Lewis’s crash fire expert, Irving Pinkel, played 

a key role in establishing a timeline of events and 

determining the cause and behavior of the Apollo 1 

fire. Pinkel and his co-investigators spent over a year 

afterward helping redesign the Apollo capsule and 

spacesuits. Four years later, Pinkel served as an official 

observer for the Apollo 13 investigation. The investigation was aided by tests in Lewis’s Zero Gravity 

Facility that demonstrated that, contrary to previous 

belief, the capsule’s Teflon-coated wires could burn in 

the low gravity of space.

Apollo astronauts Neil Armstrong and Fred Haise 

began their NASA careers as research pilots at Lewis 

before transferring to what was then the NASA Flight 

Research Center (later Dryden Flight Research Center 

and currently Armstrong Flight Research Center). In 

addition, Lewis pilots Joseph Algranti and Harold 

Ream became the instructor pilots for the Lunar 

Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV), and Warren North 

helped select several classes of Apollo astronauts and 

develop training programs for them.

Additional information on Glenn’s contributions to 

the Apollo program can be found here: https://www.

nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/history/apollew.html.
13

Volume 36, Number 1 1st Quarter 2019

OTHER AEROSPACE HISTORY NEWS

AMERICAN ASTRONAUTICAL SOCIETY 

(AAS) HISTORY COMMITTEE

By Michael Ciancone, Chair

Apollo 1 National Memorial

The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) has requested support from the AAS History 

Committee in national efforts to create an Apollo 1 

memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, as noted 

in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act 

(NDAA). Dr. Don Elder is leading a special panel of 

the AAS History Committee to prepare a study on 

the “availability and suitability on alternative locations 

outside of Arlington National Cemetery.” Panel members include Robert Pearlman and Michael Ciancone. 

A national memorial to the Apollo 1 crew will serve as 

a fitting tribute, some 50 years after their tragic deaths, 

from our nation to the three Apollo 1 crewmembers, 

who served their country in military uniform and at 

NASA. It will also recognize the importance of their 

sacrifice to the millions of Americans, including servicemen and -women, who supported NASA to make 

the triumph of the Apollo space program possible.

2019 Ordway Award for Sustained 

Excellence in Spaceflight History

The Ordway Selection Panel welcomes the addition 

of two of the 2018 recipients for the current award 

cycle: Dennis Jenkins and Miles O’Brien. Dennis and 

Miles join Valerie Neal, Rob Godwin, Ron Miller, and 

Michael Ciancone on the panel. This is a “rolling” award, 

so nominations are accepted at any time. Readers will 

find a link to the nomination form at the following 

Web site: http://astronautical.org/awards/ordway/

2018 Emme Award for Astronautical Literature

The Emme Award committee will begin contacting 

publishers of titles under consideration in April. 

The panel members anticipate a summer devoted to 

reading entries submitted for consideration. Dr. Don 

Elder chairs the Emme Selection Panel; other members are Dr. Rick Sturdevant, Dr. Asif Siddiqi, and 

Dr. De Witt Kilgore.

RICK MOORE HONORED BY OKLAHOMA 

HISTORICAL SOCIETY

By Bill Barry, Chief Historian, NASA History Division

Congratulations to Rick Moore on winning 

Outstanding Dissertation in Oklahoma History by 

the Oklahoma Historical Society. The annual awards 

luncheon was held in Chickasha at the University of 

Science and Arts of Oklahoma on 26 April 2019.

His dissertation “The Frontiers of Science Foundation: 

Transforming Math and Science Curricula in 

Oklahoma Secondary Schools, 1957–1964” deals 

with the work of a private group that pushed what we 

would now call STEM initiatives in Oklahoma after 

Sputnik. Our second Administrator, Jim Webb, came 

to NASA from work in Oklahoma, and he was deeply 

involved in the initiative that Rick was studying. So 

Rick spent quite a bit of time working with our NASA 

Headquarters archival team and doing research in our 

Historical Reference Collection. Rick very generously 

had a copy of his dissertation printed and bound, and 

he presented it to us for our Reference Collection.

Rick is not your typical grad student—he is the 

Executive Director of the Oklahoma Municipal 

Contractors Association and took up Ph.D. research 

in history at Oklahoma State University when most 

people would be thinking of retirement. (Also of note, 

his brother Bill is a space historian and video producer who has done a lot of work on the impact of 

Oklahomans who have been involved in the space 

program. Spoiler alert: there are lots of them.)

Did you witness history on 20 July 1969? Do 

you have memories of the Apollo era? Send in 

your memories of Apollo, and we’ll select a few 

to highlight in our second-quarter newsletter 

in honor of the 50th anniversary of humanity’s 

first footsteps on another world. E-mail andres.

almeida@nasa.gov or tweet @NASAHistory 

with the hashtag #MemoriesOfApollo. 
14

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

REMEMBERING DR. NANCY GRACE ROMAN

By Andres Almeida

Nancy Grace Roman displays a model of Orbiting Solar Observatory–1 in 

1962. (Image credit: NASA)

As a child, Nancy Grace Roman loved looking at the stars. It was this love of stargazing that led her 

to a remarkable NASA career that spanned 20 years. 

Remembered by many as the “Mother of Hubble,” 

Roman died on 25 December 2018 at the age of 93.

Growing up under the clear skies of Reno, Nevada, 

Roman enjoyed many nights of gazing at the constellations. In interviews, she has credited her mother 

with instilling a curiosity about the cosmos, especially 

when they would go on walks together and her mother 

would teach her about the constellations and the aurora 

borealis (when they lived in northern Michigan).

Despite little support from guidance counselors 

and teachers, Roman graduated from high school 

and earned her bachelor’s degree in astronomy from 

Swarthmore College in 1946 and her Ph.D. in the 

same field from the University of Chicago in 1949. 

She did research at Yerkes Observatory and McDonald 

Observatory in Texas.

After a brief stint working as a radio astronomer at 

the United States Naval Observatory, Roman joined 

NASA in April 1959. The Agency was just six months 

old, but her expertise led her to become the first Chief 

of Astronomy in the Office of Space Science. There, 

she advocated for a large space-based observatory that 

ultimately brought forth the Hubble Space Telescope, 

the most significant advancement in astronomy since 

Galileo first used his own telescope 400 years earlier. 

The concept of an orbiting observatory was originally 

proposed by astronomer Lyman Spitzer in 1946, but 

it was Roman who propelled the idea to orbit. Her 

rounding up of scientists and program managers was 

instrumental in convincing Congress to fund such a 

large-scale project.

She was also involved in launching three orbiting solar 

observatories (you can find a scale model of one in our 

NASA Headquarters reference library) and three small 

satellites that used ultraviolet and x-ray technology.

REMEMBERED BY MANY AS THE 

“MOTHER OF HUBBLE,” ROMAN 

DIED ON 25 DECEMBER 2018 AT 

THE AGE OF 93. 

Long after she retired from NASA, Roman continued 

passing on her love of science and discovery to young 

people, particularly encouraging young girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and 

mathematics. Roman’s likeness was used in a Women 

of NASA LEGO set alongside those of Margaret 

Hamilton, Sally Ride, and Mae Jemison.

For more on Dr. Roman’s life and career, read her 

oral history conducted by Johnson Space Center 

historians at https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/

JSCHistoryPortal/history/oral_histories/NASA_HQ/

Herstory/RomanNG/romanng.htm.
15

Volume 36, Number 1 1st Quarter 2019

UPCOMING MEETINGS

National History Day 2019 will be held 9–13 June 

2019 in College Park, Maryland. Visit https://www.

nhd.org/national-contest for details.

The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) 

AirVenture will be held 22–28 July 2019 in Oshkosh, 

Wisconsin. Visit https://www.eaa.org/en/airventure

for details.

The 2019 Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of 

State Archivists and the Society of American Archivists 

will be held 31 July–6 August 2019 in Austin, Texas. 

Visit https://www2.archivists.org/conference for details.

The annual meeting of the Society for Social Studies 

of Science (4S) will be held 4–7 September 2019 in 

New Orleans, Louisiana. Visit http://www.4sonline.

org/meeting for details.

The 70th International Astronautical Congress will be 

held 21–25 October 2019 in Washington, DC. Visit 

https://www.iac2019.org for details.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Compiled by Chris Gamble

Dynamic Mars: Recent and Current Landscape 

Evolution of the Red Planet, edited by Richard J. 

Soare, Susan J. Conway, and Stephen M. Clifford 

(Elsevier, August 2018). This book presents observations, interpretations, and explanations of geological 

change at the surface or near-surface of Mars.

Mysteries of Mars, by Fabio Vittorio De Blasio 

(Springer-Praxis, August 2018). This book introduces 

the reader to the wonders of Mars, covering aspects of 

Mars ranging from our past perceptions of the planet 

through the latest knowledge on its history; its surface 

processes, such as impact cratering, volcano formation, 

and glaciation; and its atmosphere and climate.

The Strategic Defense Initiative: Ronald Reagan, 

NATO Europe, and the Nuclear and Space Talks, 

1981–1988, by Ralph L. Dietl (Lexington Books, 

August 2018). This is a book about President Ronald 

Reagan’s administration’s strategy to end the Cold War.

Dust in the Atmosphere of Mars and Its Impact on 

Human Exploration, edited by Joel S. Levine, Daniel 

Winterhalter, and Russell L. Kerschmann (Cambridge 

Scholars Publishing, September 2018). In this book, 

16 Mars scientists, mission engineers, planners, and 

medical researchers have reviewed our current understanding and identified the knowledge gaps in Mars’s 

atmospheric dust.

Pioneers of Spaceflight, by Michael A. O’Neill 

(Danann Publishing, September 2018). Full of 

insights and accounts of the long journey to getting 

a human on the Moon, this book includes dozens of 

photographs and images relating to the space race and 

the Apollo 11 Moon landing.

Space Stations: The Art, Science, and Reality of 

Working in Space, by Gary Kitmacher, Ron Miller, 

and Robert Pearlman (Smithsonian Books, October 

2018). Space stations represent both the summit of 

space technology and, possibly, the future of humanity beyond Earth. This book discusses past, present, 

and future space stations, both real ones and those 

dreamed up in popular culture.

The Smithsonian History of Space Exploration: From 

the Ancient World to the Extraterrestrial Future, 

by Roger D. Launius (Smithsonian Books, October 

2018). This book is a history of international space 
16

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

exploration paired with photographs, illustrations, 

graphics, and sidebars on key scientific and technological developments, influential figures, and pioneering 

spacecraft. The book examines space exploration’s 

origins in the pioneering work undertaken by the 

ancients of Greece, Rome, and China, and it moves 

through the great discoveries of Renaissance thinkers 

including Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler.

Space Atlas, 2nd Edition: Mapping the Universe 

and Beyond, by James Trefil (National Geographic 

(October 2018). Starting with the Sun and moving 

outward into space, science writer and physicist James 

Trefil describes each planet, some important moons, 

significant asteroids, and other objects in our solar 

system. Looking beyond, he explains what we know 

about the Milky Way and other galaxies and how we 

know it, with explanations of the basics of astrophysics, including dark matter and gravitational waves.

Infinite Wonder: An Astronaut’s Photographs from a 

Year in Space, by Scott Kelly (Knopf, October 2018). 

Scott Kelly presents snapshots of life and work on 

the International Space Station, from spacewalks to 

selfies. Through his photographs he presents an argument for the preservation of our planet in the face of 

climate change.

Defying Limits: Lessons About Life from the Edge of the 

Universe, by Dr. Dave Williams (Simon & Schuster; 

Canadian Origin edition, October 2018). This is a 

memoir by Dr. Dave Williams, one of Canada’s most 

accomplished astronauts.

The Race to the Moon Chronicled in Stamps, Postcards, 

and Postmarks, by Umberto Cavallaro (SpringerPraxis, October 2018). Through images of postage 

stamps, postcards, and letters in circulation during the 

Space Race, this book shows how the United States 

and the USSR employed different core tactics in the 

race to the Moon.

The Bomb and America’s Missile Age, by Christopher 

Gainor (Johns Hopkins University Press, October 

2018). In this book, the author explores the U.S. 

Air Force’s March 1954 decision to build the Atlas, 

America’s first intercontinental ballistic missile. 

Beginning with the story of the guided missiles that 

were created before and during World War II, the 

author describes how the early Soviet and American 

rocket programs evolved over the course of the following decade.

Disasters in Space: Stories from the US–Soviet Space 

Race and Beyond, by Hermann Woydt (Schiffer, 

October 2018). This book records more than a dozen 

American and Soviet space disasters from 1967 to 

the present day. Presented are tragic and near-tragic 

missions such as NASA’s Gemini 6A and 8, Apollo 1 

and 13, and Challenger and Columbia Space Shuttle 

disasters, as well as the Soviets’ Soyuz 1, 11, and 18-1, 

along with others.

The Space Book Revised and Updated: From the 

Beginning to the End of Time, 250 Milestones in the 

History of Space & Astronomy, by Jim Bell (Sterling, 

revised edition, October 2018). Since the original 

edition of 2013, much has happened in the world of 

space exploration. This revised and updated edition 

includes the most exciting and newsworthy breakthroughs, from the groundbreaking discovery of the 

Trappist-1 system to the technologies of the future.

The Astronaut Selection Test Book: Do You Have What 

It Takes? by Tim Peake and the European Space Agency 

(ESA) (Century, October 2018). Part puzzle book, part 

guide, this book invites readers of all ages to learn about 

the European Space Agency’s rigorous astronaut selection and training program. The book includes 100 real 

astronaut tests and training exercises for readers to try at 

home, outlining the full ESA selection process.

The Moon: From Inner Worlds to Outer Space, by 

Marie Laurberg, Anja C. Andersen, Stephen Petersen, 

and Ed C. Krupp (Louisiana Museum of Modern Art 

[Denmark], October 2018). The Moon has long furnished humankind with an artistic icon, an image of 

longing and object of scientific inquiry. Encompassing 

art, film, literature, architecture, design, natural history, and historical objects, and published on the 50th 
17

Volume 36, Number 1 1st Quarter 2019

anniversary of the first human landing (20 July 1969), 

the book surveys the iconography of the Moon, from 

Romantic landscape paintings to Space Age art.

Should We Colonize Other Planets?, by Adam Morton 

(Polity, October 2018). The author examines extraterrestrial colonization plans with a critical eye. He makes 

a case for colonization—just not by human beings.

Planetary Echoes: Exploring the Implications of 

Human Settlement in Outer Space, by Lukas Feireiss, 

Michael Najjar, et al. (Spector Books, October 2018). 

In this book, a broad, interdisciplinary list of contributors (scientists, astronauts, designers, philanthropists, 

inventors, artists, and curators) weighs in on the imaginable possibilities of space settlement. 

Moon: The Art, Science and Culture of the Moon, 

by Alexandra Loske and Robert Massey (Ilex Press, 

October 2018). This visual history of the Moon 

explores humanity’s endless fascination with its closest 

cosmic neighbor. 

Outpost in Orbit: A Pictorial & Verbal History of the 

International Space Station, by David J. Shayler and 

Robert Godwin and edited by Dr. Gary Kitmacher 

(Apogee Books, October 2018). In 2018, we celebrated 

the 20th anniversary of the extraordinary orbiting laboratory, the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS 

represents what can happen when people from different 

backgrounds and different cultures come together with 

parallel dreams and aspirations. This truly astonishing 

feat of human ingenuity would not exist without the 

contributions and insights of people from almost every 

walk of life going all the way back to Isaac Newton. In 

this anniversary tribute, the reader is taken through a 

pictorial history of the Space Station.

Apollo to the Moon: A History in 50 Objects, by 

Teasel E. Muir-Harmony (National Geographic, 

October 2018). A celebration of the 50th anniversary of NASA’s Apollo missions to the Moon, this 

narrative uses 50 key artifacts from the Smithsonian 

archives to tell the story of the groundbreaking space 

exploration program.

Mission Moon 3-D: A New Perspective on the Space 

Race, by David Eicher (Massachusetts Institute of 

Technology (MIT) Press, October 2018). July 2019 

marks the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s epochal 

lunar landing, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin 

walked on the surface of the Moon. This book tells the 

story of the lunar landing and the events that led up to 

it with text and 3D images. A 3D viewer designed by 

astrophysicist (and lead guitarist with the rock group 

Queen) Brian May is included with the book.

Mercury: The View After MESSENGER, edited 

by Sean C. Solomon, Larry R. Nittler, and Brian J. 

Anderson (Cambridge University Press, November 

2018). Observations from the first spacecraft to orbit 

the planet Mercury have transformed our understanding of the origin and evolution of rocky planets. 

This volume lays out the formation and large-scale 

evolution of the planet and the current plans and 

capabilities needed to explore Mercury further in 

the future.

NASA Langley Research Center: The First Century, 

by Amy Waters Yarsinske (America Through Time, 

November 2018). Langley research established many 

of the basic building blocks of aeronautics, changed 

the shape of aircraft, and paved the way for jet aircraft 

that could fly at supersonic speed. Whether it is testing 

airbags for space capsule landings, developing technologies to allow aircraft to fly at supersonic and hypersonic speeds, or studying Earth’s atmosphere, Langley 

remains on the leading edge as it has since 1917.

The NASA Archives: 60 Years in Space, by Piers 

Bizony (Taschen, November 2018). Researched with 

the collaboration of NASA, this collection gathers 

more than 400 historic photographs and rare concept 

renderings, scanned and remastered using the latest 

technology and reproduced in extra-large size.

Ronald Reagan and the Space Frontier, by John M. 

Logsdon (Palgrave Macmillan, November 2018). 

Drawing from a trove of declassified primary source 

materials and oral history interviews, the author provides an account of President Ronald Reagan’s civilian 
18

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

and commercial space policies during his eight years 

in the White House.

The Cradle of American Space Exploration, by Kenny 

Mitchell (CGP Publishing, December 2018). The 

author, a retired NASA engineer and consultant, began 

his career in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1959 as a co-op 

student at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency located 

at Redstone Arsenal. He later managed many NASA 

projects, including the first NASA office in Moscow, 

Russia. Mitchell documented his life during the Apollo 

era and researched the many contributions of the men 

and women of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

Mercury (Kosmos), by William Sheehan (Reaktion 

Books, December 2018). In this illustrated account, 

the author describes the growth of our knowledge of 

planet Mercury.

Planetary Defense: Global Collaboration for Saving 

Earth from Asteroids and Comets, edited by Nikola 

Schmidt (Springer, December 2018). Planetary 

defense cannot be achieved with technology alone; 

the chapters in this volume highlight the issues that 

arise when space science and technology intersect with 

political science. This complex interdisciplinary project not only demands global participation and collaboration, but also proposes the way we can achieve it.

Gemini 4: An Astronaut Steps into the Void, by David 

J. Shayler (Springer-Praxis, January 2019). The flight 

of Gemini IV in June 1965 was conducted barely four 

years after the first Americans flew in space. It was a 

bold step by NASA to accomplish the first American 

spacewalk and to extend the U.S. flight-duration 

record to four days. Despite the risks, the gamble 

that astronauts Jim McDivitt and Ed White undertook paid off. Gemini 4 gave NASA the confidence 

to attempt an even longer flight the next time. That 

next mission would simulate the planned eight-day 

duration of an Apollo lunar voyage.

Saturn in the 21st Century, edited by Kevin H. Baines, 

F. Michael Flasar, Norbert Krupp, and Tom Stallard 

(Cambridge University Press, January 2019). The 

Cassini Orbiter mission, launched in 1997, has provided state-of-the-art information into the origins and 

workings of Saturn. Drawing from new discoveries 

and scientific insight from the mission, this book 

provides a detailed overview of the planet as revealed 

by Cassini. Chapters by eminent planetary scientists 

and researchers from across the world comprehensively review the current state of knowledge regarding 

Saturn’s formation, interior, atmosphere, ionosphere, 

thermosphere, and magnetosphere.

Apollo on the Moon in Perspective, by Dr. Ronald 

A. Wells (CG Publishing, January 2019). The Apollo 

lunar surface photos are a national treasure—scenes 

that should be seen by everyone through the eyes of 

the photographers. Fortunately, with the aid of modern computer software, many of the photos can be 

so viewed in 3D. This book includes over 150 pages 

of 3D anaglyphs created painstakingly by the author. 

Included is a DVD-ROM that contains more than 

950 3D images from the Apollo lunar photography 

and a pair of anaglyphic cyan/red viewing glasses.

Robots in Space: A NASA Insider Chronicles 

Unmanned Missions to the Planets, by Rod Pyle 

(Prometheus Books, January 2019). This perspective 

examines incredible missions of robotic spacecraft to 

every corner of our solar system and beyond. Some 

were flown into glory, while others were planned and 

relegated to dusty filing cabinets. The author profiles 

both the remarkable spacecraft and the amazing scientists and engineers who made them possible.

Spacewear: Weightlessness and the Final Frontier of 

Fashion, by Barbara Brownie (Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 

January 2019). This book explores how space travel 

has stylistically and technologically framed fashion 

and textile design on Earth and argues that technical garments for outer space appear to be becoming 

increasingly fashion-focused.

Early Exploration of the Moon: From Ranger to 

Apollo and Luna to Lunniy Korabl, by Thomas Lund 

(Springer-Praxis, January 2019). A total of 36 successful lunar exploration missions were conducted 
19

Volume 36, Number 1 1st Quarter 2019

from 1959 to the last Apollo mission in 1972 and 

the final travels of the Lunokhod lunar rover in 1973. 

The spacecraft that enabled lunar exploration were 

ingenious and reflected the best efforts of talented 

people working with the technology of the day. This 

book showcases the engineering involved in those 

incredible machines.

This artist’s concept shows the Opportunity rover on the surface of Mars. (Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell University, Maas Digital, LLC)

War in Space—The Science and Technology Behind 

Our Next Theater of Conflict, by Linda Dawson 

(Springer-Praxis, February 2019). This book takes a 

look at how countries around the world might respond 

to full-scale satellite communications blackout.

Come Fly with Us: NASA’s Payload Specialist Program, 

by Melvin Croft and John Youskauskas (University of 

Nebraska Press, February 2019). The book is the story 

of an elite group of space travelers who flew as members of many Space Shuttle crews but were not part of 

the regular NASA astronaut corps. These professionals, known as “payload specialists,” came from a wide 

variety of backgrounds and were chosen for an equally 

wide variety of scientific, political, and national security reasons. The authors focus on this special fraternity 

of spacefarers and their individual reflections on living 

and working in space. Relatively unknown to the public and often flying only single missions, these payload 

specialists give the reader an unusual perspective on the 

experience of human spaceflight.

Houston, Space City USA, by Ray Viator (Texas A&M 

University Press, February 2019). Houston, Space City 

USA is a visual representation of Houston’s historic 

ties to the U.S. human spaceflight program.

Honeysuckle Creek: The Story of Tom Reid, a Little 

Dish and Neil Armstrong’s First Step, by Andrew 

Tink (University of New South Wales Press [Australia], 

February 2019). This book discusses the pivotal role 

that the tracking station at Honeysuckle Creek, near 

Canberra, Australia, played in the first Moon landing. 
20

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

AIR FORCE FLIGHT TEST MUSEUM HIGHLIGHTS JOINT 

NASA–U.S. AIR FORCE LEGACY AT EDWARDS

By Peter W. Merlin, Air Force Flight Test Museum Volunteer

The X-4 Bantam (seen on the right) is part of the indoor collection of aircraft at the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum. (Image credit: USAF/Rebecca 

Amber)

The mission of the Air Force Flight Test Museum is to preserve the history and legacy of all flight 

research and testing conducted at Edwards Air Force 

Base (AFB) in California. That work includes programs undertaken by NASA, a major tenant on 

base since the 1940s, according to museum director 

George Welsh.

Through a long-standing alliance, the U.S. Air Force 

and NASA share the airfield at Edwards along with 

nearby restricted-use airspace, tracking facilities, and 

special range instrumentation. Many research projects 

have been joint efforts between the service and the 

civilian agency, beginning in the late 1940s with the 

Bell X-1, the first supersonic research airplane. Since 

then, the Air Force has provided test pilots, chase 

aircraft, and mission support for numerous revolutionary programs, including high-speed flight research 

with the XB-70 and YF-12, approach and landing 

tests of the wingless lifting bodies, advanced fighter 

technology integration (AFTI) using the F-16 and 

F-111, and the development of winglets and digital 

fly-by-wire controls. Similarly, NASA has often provided support for major Air Force Test Center projects 

and for smaller ones undertaken by Air Force Test 

Pilot School classes at Edwards.

“We are telling that story,” said Welsh, “through artifacts that NASA is loaning to us for display.”

Since its inception, the museum has striven to acquire 

a variety of NASA aircraft that were flown at Edwards, 

as well as other significant artifacts. Some notable 

examples include the highly modified NF-111A used 

for the AFTI and Mission Adaptive Wing projects, 

a B-57B that measured high-altitude turbulence, a 

preproduction F-15A used for propulsion and controls 

research, an F-104G chase plane, and the unpiloted 

X-36 and X-48 subscale research aircraft. Several recent 

additions to the museum collection represent various 

aspects of the Space Shuttle Program, which concluded 

in 2011 following three decades of orbital missions. 

These include a modified Gulfstream G-II/III Shuttle 

Training Aircraft used by astronauts to practice 
21

Volume 36, Number 1 1st Quarter 2019

low-lift-to-drag landing and 

a Crew Transport Vehicle for 

transferring astronauts from 

Shuttle orbiters to NASA 

medical facilities after space 

missions. A modified bomber 

known as the NB-52B, 

used as a launch platform 

for numerous piloted and 

unpiloted research craft from 

the X-15 in 1959 to the X-43 

in 2004, is currently displayed next to the Edwards 

AFB North Gate.

Welsh and his staff were 

particularly pleased with the 

addition of two unique vehicles to the museum’s exhibit 

hall, the M2-F1 lifting body 

and the sole surviving Lunar 

Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV). Both vehicles have 

colorful nicknames and histories.

Nicknamed the “flying bathtub,” the M2-F1 was the 

first full-scale, piloted lifting body. NASA research 

pilots and Air Force test pilots used it to demonstrate 

the low-speed handling qualities of a wingless reentry vehicle. The lightweight craft was unpowered but 

made hundreds of glide flights that began and ended 

on Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards. Early tests employed 

a Pontiac convertible to tow the vehicle aloft; later, a 

DC-3 was used for higher-altitude flights. These tests 

paved the way for a series of rocket-powered heavyweight lifting bodies that were launched from NASA’s 

Boeing NB-52B Stratofortress mother ship during the 

1960s and 1970s.

“The M2-F1 had a handmade wood and fabric shell 

wrapped around a tubular steel frame,” said museum 

curator Tony Moore. “You can see the craftsmanship 

when you look inside the cockpit,” he added. “It’s truly 

a work of art.”

To complement the M2-F1 

following its arrival in 

January 2015, museum staff 

and volunteers dedicated a 

section of the exhibit area 

to highlight NASA’s accomplishments at Edwards. “We 

hope to build on NASA’s 

story in the museum and 

acquire more artifacts on 

loan,” said Moore.

TO COMPLEMENT THE 

M2-F1 FOLLOWING ITS 

ARRIVAL IN JANUARY 

2015, MUSEUM STAFF AND 

VOLUNTEERS DEDICATED 

A SECTION OF THE EXHIBIT 

AREA TO HIGHLIGHT NASA’S 

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AT 

EDWARDS. ‘WE HOPE TO 

BUILD ON NASA’S STORY IN 

THE MUSEUM AND ACQUIRE 

MORE ARTIFACTS ON LOAN,’ 

SAID MOORE.

NASA’s Armstrong Flight 

Research Center loaned LLRV 

number 2 to the museum in 

2016. It was the second of 

two such vehicles tested at 

Edwards AFB in the early 

1960s before being sent to 

NASA’s Manned Spacecraft 

Center (now Johnson Space 

Center) in Houston, Texas. Constructed in the 

form of a square framework of tubes and machinery 

wrapped around a vertically oriented turbojet engine, 

with four legs terminating in caster-mounted wheels, 

it was quickly dubbed the “flying bedstead.”

The two LLRV craft mimicked the flight characteristics of a vehicle operating in the airless, low-gravity 

lunar environment and served as prototypes for three 

additional and slightly larger Lunar Landing Training 

Vehicles (LLTVs). Astronauts flew both types to hone 

their piloting techniques in preparation for landing 

on the Moon during the Apollo lunar exploration 

program. It was hazardous work—LLRV-1 and two 

LLTVs were lost in nonfatal mishaps—but absolutely 

vital. Neil Armstrong, the first human to step onto the 

Moon’s surface, said the Apollo missions would not 

have succeeded without the high-fidelity simulation 

provided by the LLRV and LLTV.

Welsh said that his ultimate goal is to display NASA 

items along with all the other historic Edwards aircraft and artifacts at the future Flight Test Museum 

(and Education Center) that is currently under 
22

NASA HISTORY DIVISION — News & Notes

construction just outside the Edwards West Gate so 

that they will be accessible to the public. Currently, 

only those persons with access to the base, or part of 

escorted tour groups, may visit the existing location. 

“We want to make the museum more accessible to 

everyone,” he said.

Welsh added, “Our unique collection of artifacts 

allows us the opportunity to educate the public on 

the long history of cooperation between NASA and 

the Air Force on some of the many joint research programs that have taken place at Edwards.”

For more on the Air Force Flight Test Museum and 

how to schedule a tour through Edwards AFB, visit 

http://www.afftcmuseum.org/.

OUR UNIQUE COLLECTION OF 

ARTIFACTS ALLOWS US THE 

OPPORTUNITY TO EDUCATE 

THE PUBLIC ON THE LONG 

HISTORY OF COOPERATION 

BETWEEN NASA AND THE AIR 

FORCE ON SOME OF THE MANY 

JOINT RESEARCH PROGRAMS 

THAT HAVE TAKEN PLACE 

AT EDWARDS.

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

Craig Haibon craig.p.haibon@nasa.gov

Archivist 202-358-1033

Robyn Rodgers robyn.k.rodgers@nasa.gov

Chief Archivist 202-358-2798

Elizabeth Suckow elizabeth.suckow-1@nasa.gov

Archivist 202-358-0375
23

Volume 36, Number 1 1st Quarter 2019

MOMENT IN NASA HISTORY

During a nighttime training session, a multiple exposure captures the movement of the Lunar 

Excursion Module Simulator (LEMS) at the Lunar 

Landing Research Facility at NASA’s Langley Research 

Center. The LEMS was a piloted vehicle used to familiarize the Apollo astronauts with the handling characteristics of lunar-landing-type spacecraft. (Image 

credit: NASA)
CREATED AND PRODUCED BY:

Andres Almeida, Newsletter Editor

Lisa Jirousek, Editor

Michele Ostovar, Graphic Designer

Trenita Williams, Mail Coordinator

Carl Paul, Distribution

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