News

Note&s

National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration

NASA HISTORY PROGRAM OFFICE

Office of Communications

Volume 30, Number 4 Fourth Quarter 2013

From 

the Chief 

Historian

Welcome to our 

annual thematic issue. 

This year is the 40th 

anniversary of the 

frequently overlooked 

Skylab missions, so we are focusing this issue 

on the topic of space stations in history. I had 

intended to devote this message to space stations as well, but the recent government shutdown prompts me to write on another topic.

As many of you know, while the National 

Aeronautics and Space Administration’s 

(NASA’s) Web sites and social media accounts 

went dark for 16 days, fans unwilling to miss 

own crowd-sourced effort on Twitter using 

the #ThingsNASAMightTweet hashtag. There 

were over 15,000 tweets made using this 

hashtag—an average of nearly 1,000 for each 

day of the shutdown. To me, this was gratifymedia efforts and the History Program’s small 

contribution to that work.

When we returned to the office on 17 

October, we were delighted with the overwhelming positive response to our initial 

posts on Twitter and Facebook. However, 

out of all of the comments, there was one 

(and only one) negative response. It simply 

said: “How much is this Facebook page 

costing me?” It was a reasonable question, 

and I felt compelled to respond with the 

comment that everything NASA does takes 

less than half a penny of your tax dollar. This 

prompted a riposte noting that paying someone to do Facebook takes money away from 

space exploration and that these efforts are 

continued on next page

Special Issue: Space Stations

Glenn Research Center’s 

Space Station Power Systems 

By Bob Arrighi

Having only a minimal role in the development of the Space Shuttle, Glenn 

Research Center (formerly named Lewis Research Center) was hit hard by 

programs were cut, and morale was low. In 1982, new Center Director 

Andy Stofan implemented a new management system and spearheaded 

including the electric power system for what would become known as 

Space Station Freedom (later the International Space Station). Glenn has 

remained active in powering space stations for over 30 years. The Center 

led the development of the power-generation system for Freedom, used 

that technology to lengthen the operation of the Russian space station Mir, 

and is responsible for the testing and operation of the hardware for the 

International Space Station’s power system.

The Center’s experience with space power systems dates to the 1950s, 

when researchers began exploring solar, nuclear, radioisotope, and solar 

dynamic methods for generating power for spacecraft and satellites. In 

the 1960s, Lewis expanded its efforts on the use of photovoltaics for both 

space station and terrestrial applications. This led to the development 

continued on next page

In This Issue:

From the Chief Historian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Special Issue: Space Stations

Glenn Research Center’s Space Station Power Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Langley Research Center’s Space Station Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Dodging Bullets: Skylab and the Langley Miniature Light-Gas Gun . . . . . . . . . . . 13

From Dream to Reality: Marshall Space Flight Center’s Role 

in Developing Space Stations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

News from Headquarters and the Centers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

 33

Perspectives: The AHA-NASA Fellowship in Aerospace History . . 35

Other Aerospace History News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Recent Publications and Online Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Upcoming Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2

NASA HISTORY PROGRAM OFFICE

From the Chief Historian (continued)

nothing less than “marketing�” Leaving aside the fact that almost all of our social 

media work is done by unpaid interns (something one of our other Facebook fans 

helpfully pointed out), the exchange highlights the question of why we expend any 

effort at all on social media�

Are Facebook and other social media just a fad, and is NASA’s use of them a 

money-wasting indulgence of our tech-loving inclinations? While it certainly does 

pander to those inclinations for some of us, the social media response to the shutdown clearly shows the value and impact of this new method of communication� 

The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, NASA’s founding law, charges 

the Agency with providing “for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and the results thereof�” Fifty-four 

years ago, this directive led NASA’s first Administrator, T� Keith Glennan, to hire 

our first Chief Historian and set him the task of producing history publications for 

NASA� About 20 years ago, this same directive prompted then–Chief Historian 

Roger Launius to invest in creating a presence on the Internet for NASA History� 

Now, as then, we need to go where the people are� This is a responsibility we owe 

to American taxpayers and a service we provide (as mandated by law) to all of 

humanity� It is far from a marketing program sucking valuable resources from our 

other priorities� While there is some supervisory overhead cost to our social media 

presence, it is actually an astoundingly cheap and powerful way to “meet” people 

in a very public forum� It is so potent a force that when we turned it off for 16 days, 

people from around the world took the time to research and post the information 

that our interns might otherwise have produced� (A remarkable number of the 

#ThingsNASAMightTweet items were historical�) If you want to see the newest 

way we are providing for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of 

NASA’s historical information, why not join the 130,000-plus folks who follow/like 

us on Twitter/Facebook? I’ll see you there�

Godspeed,

William P� Barry

Chief Historian

Special Issue: Space Stations—Glenn Research Center’s Space Station Power Systems (continued)

of thin-film solar cells and solar dynamic power system technology� The large, 

flexible thin-film cells could be produced in sheets that could be furled, or rolled 

up, during launch� Henry Brandhorst worked with Lewis pilots to develop a unique 

method of calibrating solar cells at varying altitudes using a Martin B-57B aircraft� 

Using a limited set of data points, Brandhorst could determine the estimated 

power for a particular solar cell at any altitude�
3

Volume 30, Number 4 Fourth Quarter 2013

In 1960, Lewis contracted with Thompson Ramo Wooldridge (TRW) to develop 

a solar power conversion system using a mercury Rankine system� The system, 

known as Project Sunflower, produced a relatively small amount of power but 

provided basic knowledge of solar dynamic power systems for spacecraft� The 

solar dynamic system operated more efficiently than the large arrays and reduced 

size and drag� A solar collector mirror receives sunlight and focuses it into a small 

power converter unit� The heat is stored in a molten salt before being transferred 

into a fluid� The engine uses the hot water to drive a turbine and create electricity� 

Lewis improvements to the design of the components and circuits led to the 

development of the high-frequency, two-directional resonant driven converter�

In August 1966, Lewis hosted a conference on Advanced Technology in Space 

Power Systems� The Center’s experts discussed advances with solar mirrors, 

batteries, fuel cells, isotope and thermoelectric generators, and the Systems for 

Nuclear Auxiliary Power (SNAP-8) space power system� In the 1970s, researchers 

used a Solar Simulator Cell to test a number of flat-plate solar collectors and 

high-efficiency single-junction solar cells� In 1978, Lewis successfully created the 

first solar electric village in Schuchuli, Arizona� This was repeated the following 

year in Tangaye, Upper Volta�

After the Space Shuttle Program became operational in 1981, NASA resurrected 

its dormant plans to construct an orbiting space station� The space station would 

require power to operate the electronics, maintain its orbital position, and conduct 

experiments� Lewis began campaigning to manage the power system� During 

this period, there was intense competition among the NASA Centers for a limited 

number of new programs and funding� Other Centers questioned Lewis’s technical ability to contribute to the space station power system, let alone serve as the 

program’s lead Center� NASA had come to view Lewis as an aeronautics-based 

research center, incapable of handling large development programs� Center 

management, on the other hand, felt confident in its past experience managing 

complex space development programs such as the Centaur rocket�

Stofan and members of the Solar and Electrochemistry Division advocated relentlessly for the program throughout 1982� At an Institute of Electrical and Electronics 

Engineers (IEEE) Photovoltaic Specialists Conference in September 1982, Brandhorst 

stated, “We are the Center with the largest gathering of expertise in space power� That 

should give us an important role in the space station effort�” By the end of the year, 

Lewis was selected to lead what was to be called Work Package 4� Lewis considered 

itself the space power center, not only for the new space station, but also for future 

lunar bases, the exploration of Mars, and future space stations�

Work Package 4 included the design, construction, testing, and evaluation of 

the electrical power generation, storage, and distribution systems� Two types of 

power-generating devices would be used—photovoltaic power modules (solar 

arrays) and a solar dynamic power device (solar mirror)� Space Shuttle astronauts 

would assemble and maintain the system in space�
NASA HISTORY PROGRAM OFFICE

4

NASA’s main space station development group was initially based near Houston, 

but the other Centers were heavily involved� From 1984 to 1986, Lewis undertook 

an intensive effort to define the station’s power requirements and develop a system 

to meet those requirements that was within budgetary limitations� Lewis worked 

with Rocketdyne and TRW to analyze six different power system variations� The 

75-kilowatt power requirement was the largest ever undertaken in space� Since 

space stations pass through Earth’s shadow every orbit, rechargeable energy 

storage devices are required� Additional hurdles included the assembly in space, 

the use of power during assembly, and collapsibility for transport�

In 1985, Lewis created a four-division directorate to consolidate all of the Work 

Package 4 efforts� Chief Ron Thomas managed the 250-person staff� Rocketdyne 

was the prime contractor; Lockheed was responsible for the solar array; and Loral 

was responsible for the batteries� Development of the flight hardware began in 

1987� That same year, Lewis began constructing a 26,000-square-foot Power 

Systems Facility (PSF) to develop, test, and monitor the space station electric 

power system� The facility, which included a 100-foot-square, 63-foot-high class 

100,000 clean room, was considered the hub for the entire directorate’s testing 

and a repository for the test data�

The power system consisted of four subsystems for generation, storage, distribution, and control� The photovoltaic power modules consisted of two 39-foot by 108-

foot solar array wings, a radiator, and nickel-hydrogen batteries� The silicon solar 

cells were affixed to deployable blankets that could be folded in an accordion-like 

array for launching� Due to the inherent drag in the arrays, their design and articulation were critical� The design also included a solar dynamic power unit to generate 

additional power�

Three power modules were to supply an average of 56 kilowatts of electric power� 

The lightweight nickel-hydrogen batteries would be charged during sunlight and 

discharged during the eclipse portion of the orbit� There were in-depth studies to 

determine the most efficient frequency and voltage for the power distribution� A 

power management controller was used to coordinate all of the station’s power 

needs, and each module had its own controller that could be operated separately�

The space station design changed dramatically several times in the mid-1980s, 

which resulted in budget overruns and schedule slippage� In 1987, the design 

was scaled back and modified to incorporate post-Challenger safety measures� 

Political arguments over the funding and technical debates regarding the design 

continued throughout the 1980s�

The amount of power the station would require after each of these modifications was a primary concern� The Work Package 4 technical requirements went 

through numerous revisions throughout 1988 and 1989� Originally, the station 

was designed with two 37�5-kilowatt solar arrays� Bowing to pressure from 

the scientific community, Congress insisted on two more arrays� For the initial 
Volume 30, Number 4 Fourth Quarter 2013

5

configuration, photovoltaic arrays would supply 75 kilowatts of power� Phase II 

would include the solar dynamic power system�

By the summer of 1988, the staff at Lewis realized that the 75-kilowatt system 

would be stretched to its limits� In March 1990, Congress ordered NASA to subject 

the station to another major redesign when it was determined that some of its 

components would fail before the entire project was even complete� The redesign, 

officially announced in March 1991, reduced the station’s size by 50 percent� The 

reduction in the number of externally mounted experiments meant that less energy 

would be required� The number of solar arrays was reduced from four to three, and 

the addition of the solar dynamic power system was delayed indefinitely� Lewis’s 

Solar Dynamic Power Module Division was eliminated at this point�

President Bill Clinton ordered a new redesign of the space station in January 

1993, when it was revealed that the cost estimates had escalated once again� 

NASA had not yet completed these new “Alpha” modifications when Congress 

canceled the program that summer� After nearly a decade and $11�2 billion spent, 

very little hardware had even been built, let alone launched into orbit�

The United States and Russia created a joint space initiative following the collapse 

of the Soviet Union in 1992� In September 1993, the White House announced an 

expanded partnership with Russia to develop a new space station� Three-quarters 

of the design was based on the latest Freedom modifications� The partnership 

would ease the budgetary strain and accelerate the development schedule� Thus, 

the International Space Station (ISS) was born� Lewis’s staff continued throughout 

1993 with its preparations for the assembly of the photovoltaic power module in 

the new Power Systems Facility�

That fall, however, Congress also ordered NASA to restructure the space station 

program to reduce the number of personnel involved� All management functions 

were to be performed at the project office at Johnson Space Center� There 

were massive cutbacks at the other Centers� Lewis’s Space Station Freedom 

Directorate was disbanded in January 1994�

Concurrently, Lewis was assigned the management of the Mir Cooperative Solar 

Array program� The United States and Russia partnered in an effort to extend the life 

of Russia’s ailing power system for the Russian Mir space station� Russia designed 

the array’s support structure, and the United States added photovoltaic power modules designed for the canceled Freedom program� Lewis also tested and installed a 

solar collector that had been developed for Freedom� The system was successfully 

launched on Space Shuttle Atlantis in May 1996 and installed on Mir�

The Center was also involved with, but not leading, the development of the photovoltaic power modules and power distribution system for the ISS� The ISS power 

system, which was the largest and most advanced ever created, was very similar 

to the Mir configuration� The initial plan was for the ISS to have two 10,000-watt 
NASA HISTORY PROGRAM OFFICE

6

solar units� The Power Systems Project Office under Sandy Reehorst coordinated 

all 17 of the Center’s ISS activities� In September 1996, approximately 100 personnel were involved in the project� The Center oversaw life-cycle testing of the 

nickel-hydrogen batteries and a 1997 deployment test of the photovoltaic radiator 

in the Space Power Facility at Plum Brook Station, tested the system’s gimbals for 

rotating the solar arrays, and investigated tools used by astronauts to assemble 

the components in space� Glenn continues to be responsible for the testing and 

operations of power system flight hardware and the computer modeling used to 

predict the power system’s performance�

Langley Research Center’s Space Station Research 

By Gail Langevin

Research work for space stations has been a part of Langley’s portfolio from its 

early days as a NASA Center� Since then, Langley has reviewed concepts and 

studied materials, structures, and components to make the goal of living and 

working in space a success�

Langley’s earliest experiences with space stations are documented in Dr� James 

Hansen’s book Spaceflight Revolution� Before the goal to put humans on the 

Moon and before the United States had experience with human spaceflight, 

Langley leadership began thinking about the next step after Project Mercury to 

put an American in space� In the late 1950s and early 1960s, many thought that 

America’s next space project would be the establishment of a crewed space 

station� It was believed at the time that spaceflights to other destinations would 

originate from this station�

In May 1959, Langley’s Laurence K� Loftin, Jr�, the technical assistant to Langley 

Associate Director Floyd Thompson, attended the Agency’s Goett Committee, an 

inter-Center committee that looked at plans for space exploration after Project 

Mercury� Loftin presented an idea named Advanced Man in Space, or Project 

AMIS� The concept called for a permanent space station and a transport spacecraft, perhaps a version of the Department of Defense’s Dyna-Soar then being 

planned, that would be capable of rendezvousing with the space station�

Before the AMIS presentation in the summer of 1959, Loftin helped Floyd 

Thompson form a 15-person group known as the Manned Space Laboratory 

Research Group to tackle the challenge of planning a space station� Dr� John 

Houbolt was assigned to the committee because of his known expertise in the 

as-yet-untried technique of spacecraft rendezvous� In coming years, Houbolt 

would become known as the leading advocate for lunar orbit rendezvous for the 

Apollo program�

As the country’s astronauts had not experienced time in zero gravity, a key element 

in early space station designs was creating artificial gravity by slowly rotating the 
Volume 30, Number 4 Fourth Quarter 2013

7

Full-sized space station version that was displayed for a December 1961 visit by then–NASA 

Administrator James Webb.

Langley engineers inside the 24-foot inflatable torus space station concept.
NASA HISTORY PROGRAM OFFICE

8

Model of hexagonal 

concept, partially unfolded.

Model of a hexagonal 

concept, fully unfolded.

station while it was in orbit� Early Langley concepts for space stations included 

a torus and a hexagonal-shaped inflatable structure, both of which could be 

packaged into a launch container and inflated once orbital altitude was reached�

Langley’s Paul Hill and Emanuel Schnitzer worked with Goodyear Aircraft Corporation 

on a 24-foot-diameter inflatable torus, or ring� The concept was designed to fold into 

a launch container, would have 0 to 1 g of artificial gravity, would have a rendezvous 

and docking capability, would have variable-demand power supply, and would have 

a regenerative life-support system for a six-person crew� Langley built several models 

of this configuration, including a full-sized version that was displayed for a December 

1961 visit by then–NASA Administrator James Webb�

Some concerns with this concept included micrometeorite punctures and “wobble” induced when people or equipment moved within the station or when a 

spacecraft docked with the station� A U�S� patent application was filed for this 

design in April 1961, and Emanuel Schnitzer was granted U�S� patent 3,144,219 

for a piloted space station in August 1964�

During the summer of 1961, Langley engineer Rene Berglund and North American 

Aviation personnel worked on a more rigid but still inflatable hexagon-shaped 

concept� This concept had six modules that were connected by three inflatable 

spokes to a nonrotating hub� Planned to be 75 feet in diameter, it would be 

constructed on Earth, folded into a container, and launched on a Saturn rocket� 

This concept included airlocks to shut off sections that were threatened by micrometeorites� Although the hexagon was designed to rotate to create an artificial 

gravity of 1 g, it would be connected via inflatable spokes to a hub suspended 

by bearings that would rotate in the opposite direction at a rate that canceled the 

effects of the artificial gravity rotation� This configuration allowed for zero-gravity 

research in a laboratory and a rendezvous dock for spacecraft in the hub� A U�S� 

patent was filed for this concept in May 1962, and Rene Berglund was granted 

patent 3,169,725 for an erectable modular space station in February 1965�

Langley researchers in the early Space Age also turned their attention to other 

challenges associated with space stations� They looked at attitude control and 

designed a concept with four small pulse jets mounted at 90-degree intervals on 

the exterior of the space station to solve the challenge� To counteract a possible 

“wobble” when people and equipment moved in an inflatable space station or 

when spacecraft docked, a flywheel that produced countervailing torque was 

designed� In 1964, the Echo 2 balloon satellite was launched to learn more about 

the long-term durability of the unique metallized plastic that made up the balloon 

satellite to evaluate it and similar materials proposed for components of other 

spacecraft, including early versions of a crewed space station�

Providing power for a station proved to be contentious, with one group advocating solar energy and another nuclear energy� Solar cells of the era were not 

advanced enough to provide all the power needed� Nuclear energy came with 
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9

The $2.3 million ILSS arrives at Langley by 

barge from its manufacturer, the Convair 

Division of General Dynamics, in August 

1965. Below is the home of the huge, 

30-ton life-support tank in Building 1250. 

Test subjects occupied this facility for as 

long as 28 days at a time.
NASA HISTORY PROGRAM OFFICE

10

heavy shielding that would not be optimum for low launch weights and had health 

and safety concerns� The Langley Manned Space Laboratory Research Group 

reviewed other power system concepts from NASA, the military, and the Atomic 

Energy Commission, but it was unable to come to a decision� For the inflatable 

hexagonal concept, North American Aviation chose solar energy�

Similar studies were conducted for breathing oxygen and water systems� A viable 

solution for a water system was not found during this design phase�

The challenge of creating a shirtsleeve environment that provided protection from 

micrometeorite impact was considered� North American’s wall designed for the 

hexagonal concept of an outer aluminum wall backed by a plastic filler that overlaid a bonded aluminum honeycomb seemed to be the best design, but no one 

was sure of micrometeorite velocity, so the researchers were unsure how much 

energy the wall would need to withstand�

While some challenges seemed solvable prior to spaceflight, a symposium at 

Langley in July 1962 concluded that for some challenges, more experience in 

spaceflight would be needed�

In 1963, Langley engineers proposed a ground facility where life-support systems 

for a space station could be studied� The proposed facility would be capable of 

testing integrated water, sanitation, oxygen regeneration, and heat exchange systems and would accommodate test subjects� A contract was awarded to General 

Dynamics Corp� for the design and construction of an Integrated Life Support 

System (ILSS)� The 18-foot-tall, 18-foot-diameter chamber was delivered in 1965� 

Research in the ILSS included several crewed and uncrewed tests about topics 

such as human occupancy in a closed system and microbiological research on 

possible toxic contaminants�

Following a 1962 space station symposium, Langley leadership revised the 

Center’s space station research so that concepts would more closely coincide 

with emerging Apollo spacecraft designs� The Langley Manned Space Laboratory 

Research Group developed a new concept known as the Manned Orbiting 

Research Laboratory (MORL), and its goal was to provide a laboratory in space 

for biomedical, scientific, and engineering experiments� The new design gained 

from America’s limited experience in space, such as no longer requiring a space 

station to revolve to provide artificial gravity for the crew�

The MORL had an ambitious schedule� The plans called for a 1965 or 1966 

launch of an uncrewed MORL into an Earth orbit� After a checkout, two astronauts 

would be launched in a Gemini (yet to be designed) spacecraft and rendezvous 

and dock with MORL� Two weeks later, two additional astronauts would launch 

and rendezvous with MORL to bring the complement up to four astronauts� 

Periodically, one astronaut would launch to replace one of the four-person crew 

with a goal of one person serving one continuous year on the space station and 
Volume 30, Number 4 Fourth Quarter 2013

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the remaining crew serving a few months� Every 90 days, an uncrewed spacecraft 

would dock with MORL with fresh supplies�

In 1963, Langley released a request for proposals to industry to provide detailed 

plans for the MORL concept� Early in 1963, NASA Headquarters canceled 

Langley’s space station research efforts� In the spring of 1963, Headquarters 

reinstated the study after Langley Associate Director Charles Donlan traveled 

to Headquarters to present the benefits of a spaceborne laboratory� By June, 

Director Floyd Thompson had chosen 11 proposals for Phase I� Thompson had 

also formed selected Langley employees into three groups to support MORL—

the MORL Technology Steering Committee, a MORL Studies Office, and a new 

Space Station Research Group� For Phase II of the MORL study, a 43-person 

NASA Technical Team, of which 36 came from Langley, was assembled to assess 

the proposals� In September 1963, a concept by Douglas Aircraft Company was 

chosen� In August 1964, Douglas presented its concept, which featured modules 

instead of a prebuilt structure� The modules were part of Douglas’s vision for a 

space laboratory that would encompass many scientific disciplines and enable 

research on interplanetary vehicles� Douglas even proposed a system to orbit the 

Moon to map and photograph it for planned lunar landing missions�

Langley’s MORL was not the only space station concept to be put forward� 

Marshall Space Flight Center, the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston (later 

Johnson Space Center), and the Department of Defense were also working on 

versions of a space station� By the summer of 1967, Langley knew that its space 

station concepts must become even more closely aligned to the Apollo designs 

because of increasing budget pressure� The Apollo Extension System became 

the new Agency concept for a space station, followed by the Apollo Applications 

Program� In 1968, the Langley MORL Studies Office issued the “Intermediate 

Orbital Workshop System Study,” which called for a smaller crewed orbiting 

workshop followed by a larger space station similar to MORL in design� Later 

in the year, congressional budget cuts shortened the Apollo program to seven 

missions to the Moon, with the remaining Apollo hardware converted to use for 

three short-duration space laboratory missions� These missions became known 

as Skylab and began in May 1973�

In the 1980s, as the Agency’s plans for long-duration human spaceflight turned 

toward Space Station Freedom, Langley analyzed potential concepts, systems, 

and structures� Computational modeling concepts were developed to look at 

the dynamic response and possible control forces of Space Station Freedom to 

docking by a Space Shuttle� An integrated environmental control and secondary 

propulsion system was studied as a method to process metabolic waste gases 

and water into oxygen and other gases to provide constant small thrust for the 

station� A systems analysis study was conducted to look at orbital inclination 

implications on in-orbit assembly�
NASA HISTORY PROGRAM OFFICE

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A side view of LDEF attached to the Shuttle arm.

Materials researchers at Langley designed an experimental framework that held 

trays that exposed materials, coatings, thermal systems, photovoltaics, electronics, optics, solid rocket materials, and debris and dust collection materials to 

the space environment to learn more about how candidate materials for space 

use would react to long exposure in the space environment� Known as the Long 

Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF), it was 30 feet long and 14 feet in diameter 

and had 86 exterior experiment trays� It was launched from the cargo bay of 

Space Shuttle Challenger in 1984� It remained in space until it was retrieved by 

Space Shuttle Columbia in 1990� As a result of the stabilized orbit and the large 

exposed surface area, LDEF provided a unique source of information about the 

low-Earth orbit particulate environment�

An alternate mobile transporter (MT) concept and extravehicular activity (EVA) 

assembly procedure were developed at Langley and tested in neutral buoyancy 

by pressure-suited test subjects in the early 1990s� A three-bay orthogonal tetrahedral truss beam of 44 2-inch-diameter struts and 16 nodes was assembled 

repeatedly� The truss bays were 15 feet long� All the truss joint hardware was 

found to be EVA compatible� The average unit assembly time for a single pair of 
Volume 30, Number 4 Fourth Quarter 2013

13

experienced test subjects was 27�6 seconds per strut, which was about half the 

time derived from other truss assembly tests�

As the Agency has transitioned to the International Space Station, Langley has 

continued to research new materials for use in space� Several “suitcase”-type 

experimental frames have been used to expose materials and coatings to 

the space environment� Known as the Materials International Space Station 

Experiment (MISSE), the experiment studies the effects of atomic oxygen, ultraviolet radiation, direct sunlight, radiation, and extreme heat and cold on candidate 

space materials� Thus far, seven MISSE experiments have been conducted�

Dodging Bullets: Skylab and the Langley Miniature 

Light-Gas Gun 

By Robert C� Moyer

During his five months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Expedition 35 

Commander and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Chris Hadfield gained 

nearly one million followers on Twitter and close to 400,000 on Facebook� 

Hadfield’s surge in popularity among social media sites had much to do with 

his talent for bringing daily life aboard the ISS to his followers through a mix of 

breathtaking photographs from orbit and explanations of how mundane day-today tasks are accomplished in microgravity� On 29 April 2013, however, Hadfield 

sent a message to his followers that revealed one of the risks of operations in lowEarth orbit� His tweet that day read, “Bullet hole—a small stone from the universe 

went through our solar array...glad it missed the hull,” and it included a photo that 

showed a hole in a solar panel created by a 1- to 2-millimeter micrometeoroids 

and orbital debris (MMOD) impact�

NASA researchers and engineers realized the hazards that micrometeoroids 

posed to spacecraft from the beginning of the space program� The question of 

how to simulate the effects of micrometeoroid impact on the ground, however, 

was not easy to answer� The kinetic energy (KE) equation that we all learned in 

high school physics (KE = 1⁄2MV2

) reveals that the velocity (V) of a moving object 

has a much greater effect than its mass (M)� The average velocity of orbital debris 

is roughly 10 kilometers per second, and average micrometeoroid velocities are 

even higher, from 20 to 40 kilometers per second� Humans have had the ability 

to launch small projectiles at high velocities since around AD 1000, when the gun 

was invented in China, but the muzzle velocities of the fastest modern rifles are 

only around 1 kilometer per second, far slower than the impact velocities that 

would be encountered by a spacecraft in Earth orbit�

Don Humes, a retired researcher from NASA Langley Research Center, devoted 

most of his 44-year career to this problem� According to Humes, there are several 

ways to increase a rifle’s projectile velocity, such as replacing the rifle bullet with 

a lightweight plastic projectile, replacing the rifle powder with faster-burning 
NASA HISTORY PROGRAM OFFICE

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Don Humes, a retired NASA researcher who spent his 44-year career at NASA’s Langley Research Center, 

points to the diaphragm separating the first and second stages of the Langley Miniature Light-Gas Gun. 

The breech of the 220 Swift rifle that serves as the first stage is clearly visible in the foreground.

In the foreground of this photo of the Langley Miniature Light-Gas Gun, the breech of the first stage, a 

modified 220 Swift rifle, can be seen. In the background is an add-on vacuum chamber that was used for 

larger targets.
Volume 30, Number 4 Fourth Quarter 2013

15

gunpowder for pistols, and changing the rifled barrel to a smoothbore� When 

Langley researchers took these steps, they were able to increase the muzzle 

velocity to 2 kilometers per second� Humes noted, however, that the nitrocellulose 

gases from burning gunpowder that propel a gun projectile “are very heavy, and 

there is a limit to how fast nitrocellulose gas can expand...because of its weight�”

Researchers had developed a solution to this problem even before Humes began 

his career in the early 1960s, in the form of the light-gas gun� As Humes explains, 

“the idea of the light-gas gun is to make a two-stage gun in which you use a 

conventional gun to shoot a projectile” that “acts as a piston and compresses 

hydrogen to very high pressures�”1 The gas is held in check by a diaphragm that 

ruptures once the first-stage projectile has compressed the hydrogen, releasing 

the gas into “a second stage, which is another barrel, and in that gun barrel is 

the projectile that you intend to have hit the target�” Humes stated that hydrogen 

was used because it is “the lightest gas there is, and it can expand at much faster 

speeds than the nitrocellulose gases, so you get much higher velocities out of it�” 

By using light-gas guns to fire lightweight projectiles through a vacuum chamber 

at their targets, Langley researchers could achieve impact velocities around 9 to 

10 kilometers per second, approaching the average velocity of orbital debris�

However, the light-gas guns that were in use when Humes began working at 

Langley had another limitation—cost� According to Humes, “When I came [to 

Langley], the light-gas guns that we had were very large...� The barrels were very 

long, five feet long or so, and very expensive�” This created a catch-22 situation 

for researchers: “In trying to obtain the highest velocities—you always wanted to 

get the highest velocities because we were at the low end of the actual impact 

speeds that meteoroids would produce—you want to push the gun� But when 

you push the gun, you tend to wear it out�” Humes developed a smaller, less 

expensive version using a 220 Swift rifle for the first stage and commercially 

available superpressure tubing for the second stage� Because the second stage 

(which is the section most prone to failure on a light-gas gun) only cost about a 

dollar to replace, researchers could push Humes’s new design to its operational 

limits without worrying about repair costs� Humes’s design would be known as 

the Langley Miniature Light-Gas Gun�

The data collected through hundreds of test shots fired from the Miniature LightGas Gun proved to be quite valuable in May 1973, shortly after the uncrewed 

launch of the Skylab space station� Spacecraft telemetry revealed that at approximately 63 seconds after launch, while Skylab and its Saturn V launch vehicle were 

still in the atmosphere, a portion of the station’s micrometeoroid shield prematurely deployed, causing the shield to be ripped away in the slipstream� The loss 

of the micrometeoroid shield, which also provided passive thermal protection, 

 1� Donald Humes, interview in “Developing the Light Gas Gun,” NASA Langley Cultural Resources 

Geographic Information Systems, November 2012 (published on YouTube 30 January 2013), 

available online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgyG414-bAs�
NASA HISTORY PROGRAM OFFICE

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 The impact craters generated by the Langley Miniature Light-Gas Gun proved to be remarkably similar to 

MMOD impacts in low-Earth orbit. On the right is a copper plate from a Miniature Light-Gas Gun test. On 

the left is an actual MMOD impact crater from the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) satellite that 

was deployed and retrieved via the Space Shuttle.

caused temperatures inside the station to soar to 130°F and left the converted 

Saturn V third stage unprotected from micrometeoroid impact� While engineers 

scrambled to find a solution to the heating issue, Humes was asked to evaluate 

the impact risk to the station� Using Miniature Light-Gas Gun data, Humes determined that the probability that the unprotected portion of the station would not be 

penetrated by a micrometeoroid impact was �987 if the urethane insulation inside 

Skylab’s hull was intact; that probability was reduced to �823 if the insulation had 

deteriorated due to the heat, compared to a probability of at least �999 for any 

sections that might be covered by remnants of the shield� Humes also evaluated 

the effects of deploying a makeshift shield in orbit made of material developed 

for Langley’s Dual Air Density Explorer balloon satellite, determining that this 

solution would raise the probability for unprotected portions of the station’s hull to 

between �979 and �996, depending on the condition of the hull insulation�

After receiving Humes’s evaluation, Skylab program management decided that 

the meteoroid impact risk to the station in its postlaunch condition was acceptable and focused their efforts on the thermal-control issue� On 26 May 1973, 

Pete Conrad’s Skylab 2 crew entered the station and deployed a lightweight 

parasol sunshade through Skylab’s 8-inch by 8-inch scientific airlock, after which 

it expanded to cover an area of the hull that was 23 feet square� Overnight, the 

temperature aboard Skylab cooled to 90°F, and it continued to cool over the 

next three days to a comfortable operating environment� Skylab would serve as 

a home, workspace, and laboratory to three different three-member crews over 
Volume 30, Number 4 Fourth Quarter 2013

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In this Skylab photo, the parasol sunshade that was deployed by the Skylab 2 crew to provide thermal 

protection is clearly visible. The micrometeoroid shield that was lost during the unpiloted launch of the 

station had encircled the hull and covered the area between the two light-colored bands above and 

below the sunshade.

a period of eight months, setting new records for long-duration spaceflight and 

conducting an array of physical science, biomedical science, Earth applications, 

and space applications experiments�

From Dream to Reality: Marshall Space Flight 

Center’s Role in Developing Space Stations 

By Tracy McMahan

As NASA celebrates its 55th anniversary this year, many people at Marshall 

Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, support International Space Station 

(ISS) operations� Although today’s space station is vastly different from the Cold 

War station imagined by early rocket pioneers, in many ways it still fulfills some 

of the main missions that they envisioned, such as helping people learn to live 

in the hostile environment of space and conducting research that can serve as a 

springboard for exploration and benefit people on Earth�

In early 1952, years before NASA was created, Dr� Wernher von Braun, who in 1960 

became Marshall’s first Director, wrote about his dreams in Collier’s magazine: 
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This artist’s depiction by Chesley Bonestell depicted Dr. Wernher 

von Braun’s early space station concept, a 250-foot-wide 

wheel that would rotate to provide artificial gravity.

“Development of the space station is as inevitable as 

the rising of the sun; man has already poked his nose 

into space and he is not likely to pull it back�”1

Von Braun described a majestic, 250-foot-wide wheel 

that would orbit 1,075 miles above Earth and rotate to 

provide artificial gravity� Von Braun’s ideas and an artist’s concept by Chesley Bonestell inspired the station 

in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey�

2

 In von Braun’s 

grand scheme, a station would have been built before 

human voyages to the Moon—a plan he outlined in a 

subsequent Collier’s article� He described the station 

as “the ever-watchful guardian of the peace” and continued on to say, “the station will provide the springboard for one of the greatest scientific advances in 

history: the lunar journey men have dreamed of for 

centuries�” His station of the 1950s resembled a combination fortress and research lab capable of housing 80 crewmembers� He and 

other experts featured in Collier’s predicted that the station could be built by 1967 

for a cost of $4 billion (in 1952 dollars) and called it “the next long step in space,” 

to be followed by lunar missions by 1977�3

Plans changed� The United States wanted to beat the Soviet Union to the Moon, 

and President John F� Kennedy set a goal to get to the Moon before the end 

of the 1960s� Von Braun put his ideas for a space station on hold and focused 

on leading teams at Marshall as they worked with industry to build the Saturn 

rockets that would send humans to the Moon� Even as the United States raced 

to the Moon, Marshall engineers—inspired by von Braun’s ideas and NASA 

Associate Administrator George E� Mueller’s desire to look beyond the Apollo 

Moon missions—continued to study space stations through what became the 

Apollo Applications Program� As early as 1962, Marshall engineers proposed 

concepts to outfit refurbished Saturn rocket stages that were readily available in 

NASA’s inventory� Some concepts involved connecting clusters of spent rocket 

stages to form a large station that could be gradually expanded�4

 This idea led 

to Skylab, a precursor of today’s International Space Station� Skylab was a twolevel workshop made from a converted Saturn V S-IVB stage� Skylab—the first 

American space program wholly dedicated to scientific research—was staffed by 

three crews who performed hundreds of experiments for more than 171 days from 

May 1973 to February 1974�

 1� Wernher von Braun, “Crossing the Last Frontier,” 
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Skylab, still a product of the U�S� Cold War strategy, was an economical way for 

the United States to compete with the Soviet Union, which by the early 1970s had 

abandoned its quest to send humans to the Moon and was already operating a 

space station� Von Braun’s large wheel station would have been constructed by 

hauling prefabricated parts to space and assembling the station in orbit—much 

as the International Space Station was constructed from 1998 to 2011�5 As 

budget pressures mounted in the late 1960s and early 1970s, NASA determined 

that the most affordable way to build Skylab was the “dry workshop” concept, 

which involved assembling Skylab on the ground and outfitting the orbital outpost 

on Earth with everything needed for survival and research in space� The Apollo 

capsule transported limited cargo to Skylab when each crew arrived�6

NASA selected this approach because of dwindling budgets for space exploration� Throughout President Lyndon B� Johnson’s and President Richard M� 

Nixon’s administrations, NASA’s future direction after Apollo, including the plans 

for the Skylab workshop, waxed and waned�7 As early as 1968, the United States 

had already slowed down production of the Saturn vehicle, and NASA leadership 

was examining the next steps for human spaceflight, which were outlined in a 

1969 plan�8 Von Braun presented a roadmap to Nixon’s Space Task Force, chaired 

by Vice President Spiro T� Agnew�9 President Nixon made it clear that he would 

not approve von Braun’s plans that included a large space station; a space shuttle 

for traveling between Earth, the station, and the Moon; more lunar voyages; and 

eventual trips to Mars by no later than the end of the 20th century�10 President 

Nixon and Congress only authorized funding for proceeding with Skylab and for 

the Space Shuttle Program�

NASA changed the name of the Apollo Applications Program to Skylab in February 

1970� Activity ramped up at Marshall as it began working to outfit the orbital outpost and build equipment for experiments�11 The entire lab and all its equipment 

launched into space a little more than 40 years ago, on 14 May 1973, aboard the 

last Saturn V rocket ever to travel in space�

Almost immediately, the team learned a lesson in real-time operations and working outside in the harsh space environment� During the launch, Skylab’s sun and 

micrometeoroid shield was ripped away and one of its solar arrays was damaged� 

 5� Von Braun, “Man on the Moon,” p� 51�
NASA HISTORY PROGRAM OFFICE

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Skylab helped NASA learn about living and working in space for long periods. Here, an astronaut practices an 

emergency repair procedure in Marshall’s Neutral Buoyancy Simulator, a huge water tank that simulated the 

weightless environment of space. Skylab suffered damage to its sunshield during its launch on 14 May 1973, 

and just 10 days after the launch, the first crew had to perform a complex repair during an extravehicular activity.

Without the shield, temperatures inside the lab soared� Teams from Marshall and 

Johnson Space Center in Houston, which was responsible for Skylab operations, 

had to devise plans for the repair of the station before astronauts could be sent 

to the lab� The team developed a temporary repair, and the first Skylab crew used 

Marshall’s underwater Neutral Buoyancy Simulator to practice the repair procedures� Ten days later, the first Skylab crew traveled to the lab and undertook what 

at the time was the most complicated repair ever attempted during an extravehicular activity� They installed a temporary sunshield and removed the damaged 

solar array� Crews on the ground and in space learned about the complications of 

working outside the spacecraft� The successful repair enabled the Skylab science 

missions to get under way�12

Skylab experiments confirmed many of von Braun’s predictions about space 

research by providing the foundations for understanding how humans could 

live in space for extended periods, but they disproved others� Skylab showed 

that humans could survive without artificial gravity as included in von Braun’s 

early space station concept� Skylab experiments revealed that microgravity 

was not only beneficial, but also even necessary for some research� During the 

last 55 years, NASA has learned that humans can live in microgravity and that 

microgravity is itself a key area of scientific activity, with benefits in the form of 

 12�
Volume 30, Number 4 Fourth Quarter 2013

21

This photo shows Spacelab, a laboratory that fit inside the Space Shuttle’s payload bay, during its first 

mission, which launched a little over 30 years ago on 18 November 1983. Spacelab was the European 

Space Agency’s contribution to the Space Shuttle Program. Marshall engineers had originally conceived 

of the idea of a modular laboratory that would fly in the Shuttle bay, and the Center managed many of the 

Spacelab missions. Spacelab laid a foundation for international cooperation in a lab in space and helped 

space and ground crews learn how to conduct science in orbit.

improved products and processes back on Earth and even in uncovering physics 

and physical phenomena that cannot be seen on Earth� In low gravity, fires burn 

differently; cellular processes are transformed; and physical processes, especially 

those involving fluids, operate differently�

Marshall engineers used their experience developing hardware and experiments 

for Skylab on Spacelab—the reusable laboratory flown inside the Space Shuttle 

from 1983 to 1998� Marshall managed the Spacelab Program, which completed 

800 investigations in 36 missions flown both on external pallets and in pressurized 

modules� According to a NASA report, “Spacelab was not only a precursor to 

the International Space Station, but played a role in collaborative research with 

Russia’s space station Mir�”13

Marshall developed a multiple-user rack system, which was tested aboard 

Spacelab and now houses experiments inside the space station� Real-time, 

around-the-clock science operations were pioneered during Spacelab missions 

 13�
NASA HISTORY PROGRAM OFFICE

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from the payload operations center at Marshall. Perhaps most importantly, 

Spacelab established another precedent: it became the first program that 

included broad participation with international partners. In 1973, NASA and 

the European Space Agency (ESA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding 

creating Spacelab and signaling a time of cooperation rather than competitiveness. The ESA built the Spacelab module and other equipment in exchange for 

flying experiments and European astronauts in space. Japanese and German 

space agencies sponsored entire dedicated research missions. This cooperation shifted the paradigm from one of the United States conquering space to 

one in which the United States led an international coalition conducting space 

missions. Along the way, Marshall pioneered managing a program with hardware 

built in multiple places around the globe and with investigations conceived by an 

international community of researchers.

14

As NASA and the world used Spacelab to learn how to conduct science in orbit 

and to identify the most pertinent research questions to be explored on longer 

missions, Marshall engineers continued to contribute to the Agency’s plans for 

a larger station. Fifteen years ago, in November 1998, Roscosmos launched the 

first module of the ISS. One month later, in December 1998, the first U.S.-built 

element—the Unity node—of the International Space Station was placed in orbit, 

and the dream of a large orbiting lab began to take shape. The ISS supports a 

crew of up to seven; has an internal, pressurized living and working space; and 

externally is about the size of a football field. It is not a wheel-shaped space station, nor an all-American space fortress that some in the Cold War era imagined.

Today’s International Space Station was built not by 1 nation, but by 15 nations 

working together on the largest peacetime, multinational program ever attempted.

Unity, along with the U.S. Destiny laboratory, the Quest airlock, and experiment 

racks and facilities, was built by the Boeing Company in the same Marshall facilities where the Saturn V was first manufactured. Another Saturn V–era building 

houses the Marshall team that designed the Station’s environmental control and 

life-support system, which provides clean air and water; others on the team are 

now working on life-support systems that could be used for habitats on Mars or 

other locations. Some parts of the life-support system were used to develop a 

portable system for providing clean water during disasters on Earth.

Marshall’s role in payload operations, which began during Spacelab, continues 

today on the ISS. In 2001, with the delivery of the Destiny laboratory, Marshall began 

staffing the Payload Operations Integration Center, the command post for Space 

Station science, every day of the year. The Marshall team works with the Mission 

Control team at Johnson Space Center to conduct the Station’s science operations.

14. John Schumacher, “Spacelab’s Role in Fostering a Global Community,” in The Spacelab 

Accomplishments Forum, ed. J. Emond (proceedings from a forum held at NASA Headquarters, 

Washington, DC, 10–11 March 1999; NASA-CP-2000-210332, June 2000), pp. 11–16.
Volume 30, Number 4 Fourth Quarter 2013

23

The Boeing Company manufactured the first element to be delivered to the ISS, the Unity node, launched 

on 4 December 1998, as well as the Destiny Laboratory, launched on 7 February 2001. Both were built in 

the same Marshall Space Flight Center building as parts of the Saturn V launch vehicle.

Even while the crew sleeps, the ground team, which works around the clock, 

operates experiments and sends data to investigators� As of this writing, the 

payload operations team has worked with investigators around the world to complete more than 1,600 investigations� The International Space Station Program 

Science Office at Johnson Space Center has documented the beneficial knowledge gained from ISS experiments, such as using technologies employed in 

the Canadian robotic arm to conduct brain surgery, gaining an understanding of 

combustion in space and in rocket engines, developing vaccines, and discovering 

why some cells become cancerous�15

Today, humans can gaze into the night sky and see the International Space 

Station, an unprecedented scientific and technological feat built through the 

cooperation of many countries� As von Braun wrote in Collier’s more than 60 

years ago, “If we do it [build a space station], we can not only preserve the peace 

but we can take a long step toward uniting mankind�”16 Marshall’s first Center 

Director may not have been right about all the technical details, but he was right 

about such a space station’s important role as a peaceful, cooperative endeavor; 

about its ability to serve as a springboard for exploration; and about its place in 

preparing humans to live and work in space�

 15�
NASA HISTORY PROGRAM OFFICE

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Marshall Space Flight Center designed and built the life-support systems that provide the crew of the 

International Space Station with clean air and water and a comfortable, safe work environment. The 

simulators shown here were used to develop the closed-loop system that allows the crew to recycle 

water and air aboard the station.

The Payload Operations Integration Center at Marshall is the command post for science on the 

International Space Station.
Volume 30, Number 4 Fourth Quarter 2013

25

News from Headquarters 

and the Centers

NASA Headquarters 

History Program Office 

By Bill Barry

The year 2013 has been turbulent in lots of ways for the History Program� 

We’ve seen our Division Director (Alan Ladwig) retire in the spring, the acting 

Division Director (Debbie Rivera) retire in the summer, and a new acting Division 

Director (Kris Brown) arrive� As mentioned in the last News and Notes, Associate 

Administrator for Communications David Weaver told us that we would see 

changes to the organizational structure in the Office of Communications later 

in the year� Perhaps the most significant sign of change is that the two existing 

Divisions will (by the time you read this) reside in one location, rather than being 

separated by seven floors in the Headquarters building� Building bridges between 

the News and Multimedia Division (effectively the old Office of Public Affairs, on 

the 9th floor) and the Public Outreach Division (the organizational home of the 

History Program Office, on the 2nd floor) was not made any easier by the old 

building geography� However, almost the entire Office of Communications is 

merging on the 5th floor of Headquarters� (The Historical Reference Collection 

[HRC] will be staying on the concourse [basement] level, as will the NASA TV 

studio�) To my mind, this is a very positive development and one that reflects 

the growing mutual appreciation between the two Divisions; it bodes well for 

more integrated operations� Certainly our News and Multimedia colleagues have 

developed a greater appreciation for what the History Program Office can provide 

in terms of background, perspective, and research assistance� Although this has 

kept us a bit busier, it is very gratifying to see the positive immediate effects of our 

work in addition to the long-term contributions�

Another major aspect of this year’s turbulence has been the impact of the 

Headquarters building renovation on the Historical Reference Collection� You can 

read more details about this in Chief Archivist Jane Odom’s section (immediately 

following this)� I’m incredibly proud of the work done by Jane and her team in 

getting ready for packing up the Reference Collection� The entire history team at 

Headquarters (and a few other folks from the Public Outreach Division) pitched in 

on the work, but the organization and the bulk of the “grunt work” were carried 

out by Jane, Colin, John, and Liz� They’ve done a fabulous job on a huge project, 

and the investment in planning will pay big dividends when we move back into 

the renovated space� Unfortunately, it looks like they won’t let us move back in 

the spring as originally planned� For safety reasons, the building renovation team 

wants us to wait until the entire concourse renovation is complete� This means 

that we won’t start moving the paper collection back into the HRC until summer� 

When we have the collection back in place, we are planning a grand reopening 

event—but that probably won’t be until late summer (or early fall) 2014� As I noted 
NASA HISTORY PROGRAM OFFICE

26

last time, I think the newly renovated space will be well worth the work and the 

wait� We’ll all just need to be patient a bit longer than we’d expected�

Our fall interns were one of the more stabilizing influences of the year� History 

major Joey Vars was with us nearly full time while he did the coursework for his 

junior fall semester virtually at the University of South Florida� Maria Seidel, a 

senior at George Washington University majoring in English with history and 

Spanish double minors, was with us on a more part-time basis (all day Monday, 

plus half days on Wednesdays and Fridays)� They both carried the load for us on 

the social media front while also working on a number of other ad hoc projects� 

You can see some of their work online in the form of articles on http://www�nasa�

gov and http://history�nasa�gov, as well as in our many other products�

After an absence of too many years, the NASA History Program will participate in a 

panel at the American Historical Association (AHA) Annual Meeting in Washington, 

DC, 2–5 January 2014� The Thursday afternoon (2 January) AHA Session 2 will 

be entitled “Aerospace History: Changes in the Field Through the Eyes of AHA 

Aerospace History Fellows�” The panel will focus on changes in the field and 

on the impact of the longstanding NASA-AHA Fellowship in Aerospace History� 

I’ll be chairing the panel, and my predecessor who started the Fellowship, Dr� 

Sylvia Kraemer, will comment� The panel itself will include three former Fellows: 

Margaret Weitekamp (now at the National Air and Space Museum and Fellow 

in 1997), Hugh Slotten (now at the University of Otago and Fellow in 1998), and 

Monique Laney (now at American University and Fellow in 2011)� This should be a 

really interesting event and a chance to reflect on some of the contributions made 

by NASA in the field of aerospace history� If you are attending the AHA Annual 

Meeting, I hope to see you there�

If you will be in the Washington, DC, area in January, you are in for a double 

treat� The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) will be 

holding its 52nd Aerospace Sciences Meeting (SciTech2014) at National Harbor, 

Maryland, 13–17 January 2014� There will be two panels sponsored by the AIAA 

History Technical Committee at the meeting, both on Monday, 13 January� The 

morning panel will be “Aerospace Archives: All Is NOT Lost—Keepers of the 

Right Stuff�” This panel will include our very own Chief Archivist, Jane Odom� 

Later that afternoon, the second history panel will be “Pioneering Contributions 

to Aeronautics�” The History Technical Committee will also be meeting that 

evening� Monday at SciTech2014 looks to be a great day for those of us with an 

interest in history�

The Tuesday (14 January) awards luncheon at SciTech2014 may also be of 

interest to you� A book sponsored by the NASA Science Mission Directorate 

and managed by the History Program Office will be presented with the 2014 

Gardner-Lasser Aerospace History Literature Award� Dr� Bill Clancey’s Working 

on Mars: Voyages of Scientific Discovery with the Mars Exploration Rovers

was chosen as the “best original contribution to the field of aeronautical or 
Volume 30, Number 4 Fourth Quarter 2013

27

astronautical historical non-fiction literature published in the last five years dealing with the science, technology, and/or impact of aeronautics and astronautics 

on society�” Bill’s work is a fascinating and very original work about the team 

exploring Mars with the Spirit and Opportunity rovers� It is very gratifying for us 

to have had a small association with the creation of this award-winning book� 

Congratulations, Dr� Clancey!

Despite all of the other activity, we have also managed to have a pair of great 

Headquarters quarterly lunchtime speakers this fall� On 19 September, Dr� Mike 

Neufeld of the National Air and Space Museum gave a talk on the origins of 

the New Horizons mission (now on its way to Pluto)� We had a full house in the 

room, and quite a few folks joined us by WebEx (including New Horizons Primary 

Investigator Alan Stern)� In early December, our quarterly speaker was Dr� Rob 

Ferguson, who joined us to speak about his (and our) new book, NASA’s First A: 

Aeronautics from 1958 to 2008� Complimentary copies of the book were provided 

to those in attendance�

Historical Reference Collection 

By Jane Odom

The Headquarters History Office renovation will have begun by the time you 

receive this newsletter� The staff packed nearly 2,000 cubic feet of archive materials and books, which were transferred to storage at a NASA warehouse in 

Maryland� The contract archival staff moved to temporary swing space in another 

location in the building in early November� All of this is part of a broader building 

renovation by the property owner�

With the Historical Reference Collection packed up, archival operations will be 

greatly impacted� Nearly everything in the office will be stored off-site for 6 to 8 

months� Reference services will continue, with staff able to conduct searches of 

our digital collections only� Beyond that, we will have to refer those who wish to 

conduct in-depth research to the Center History Offices, the National Archives 

and Records Administration (NARA), the Presidential Libraries, and other repositories, as well as to https://mira�hq�nasa�gov/history/, where thousands of our 

PDFs of archive materials from the HRC have been published externally� Check 

this space and our Web site for periodic updates on renovation progress and the 

subsequent archives restoration�

As expected, it seems that the number of those visiting us in person to conduct 

research has nearly tripled in the last several months� We have hosted researchers from Headquarters; Goddard Space Flight Center; the National Air and Space 

Museum; the National Research Council; George Washington University; Fordham 

University; the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech); the University of 

California at Long Beach; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and the 

University of Southampton, United Kingdom�
NASA HISTORY PROGRAM OFFICE

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Archival processing and digitization projects primarily took a back seat to packing 

and warehousing� They have resumed now that the contract staff has moved to 

its temporary space in early November� Of particular interest to researchers, a 

great deal of scanning (to reduce volume) occurred in the months prior to the 

commencement of packing� Next year, we anticipate that much of this digital 

content will become available for research use� Stay tuned!

Ames Research Center (ARC) 

By Glenn Bugos

There continues to be strong interest in the request for proposals (RFP) to manage 

Moffett Federal Airfield and to reskin Hangar One, and the Web site for that RFP 

continues to grow with details about the historic airfield (http://historicproperties�

arc�nasa�gov/hangar1/)� We have begun a focused effort to find the official records 

of Moffett Field from 1930 through the end of Navy tenure in 1994� They appear 

to have been dispersed, and anyone who happens to know where to find Moffett 

Field records is invited to contact us�

In other history news, Konstantin Kakaes visited Ames on 18 September to talk 

about his new e-book, The Pioneer Detectives, which discusses the careful science behind the investigation of the Pioneer anomaly� Tom Gano of Carmel Valley, 

a town a short drive south of Ames, has been working diligently to get a plaque 

to mark the historic significance of the Jamesburg Earth Station, which relayed 

the first messages from the surface of the Moon to the American people� Donald 

L� Carpenter is bringing to completion a manuscript on very-low-frequency radio 

research at Stanford University, which did important work on the magnetosphere, 

especially at the dawn of the Space Age� A new documentary, Sunnyvale: Then 

and Now, directed by David Manzo in conjunction with the Sunnyvale Historical 

Society, does a superb job of telling the story of how Moffett Field came to 

Sunnyvale, including newly found footage of a film shown by Laura Thane 

Whipple to generate interest in the site�

We bid a happy retirement to Stephanie Langhoff, ARC Chief Scientist for the past 

15 years and a big supporter of Ames history� Stephanie managed the selection 

processes for the Ames Fellows, the Ames Hall of Fame, and the H� Julian Allen 

Award for best scientific paper, as well as many other activities that helped highlight the people and events that defined Ames’s institutional culture�

As our newest archival intern, we welcome Mikael Wester from San Jose State 

University, who will be digitizing and describing photographs from the Galileo 

probe program; they are in high demand by our spacecraft engineers� Archivist 

April Gage has digitized a good portion of our most in-demand audiovisual media, 

including 14,500 feet of 16-millimeter film, 123 videotapes, and 33 audio reels� We 

are hoping to have those available for researchers soon�
Volume 30, Number 4 Fourth Quarter 2013

29

On 20 December 2014, Ames will celebrate its 75th anniversary, and Carolina 

Rudisel and Karen Bradford have already begun planning events that will engage 

the entire Center and our many communities� We will query other Centers about 

how they have celebrated significant anniversaries, and we are especially excited 

about the prospect of a truly open open house�

Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) 

By Christian Gelzer

In August, I participated in a Technical Advisory Panel meeting for planning the 

new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center at the California Science Center� That 

same month, I completed the peer review for The Spoken Word III: Recollections 

of Dryden’s History—the Shuttle Years, which Dryden anticipates will be published before year’s end; an e-book version will follow� In addition to gathering 

material for the two long-term projects on which I am working (PRANDTL-D 

and Towed Glider Concept), I have started research on a short monograph 

about Dryden’s Flight Loads Laboratory (FLL) in anticipation of the lab’s 50th 

anniversary in June 2014�

The lab was originally built to support the X-15� Previously, thermal stress was 

given little attention simply because nothing had flown fast enough or high 

enough to generate sufficient thermal stress for it to become a factor either in an 

aircraft’s structural integrity or in its control� Not long after the program began, 

X-15 engineers realized that thermal stresses in flight were adulterating structural 

loads measurements (portions of the planes were also buckling because of the 

expansion)� The Flight Research Center engineers designed a laboratory in which 

they could apply thermal and dynamic loads simultaneously to replicate those 

experienced on the aircraft in flight� During the 1970s, the FLL performed similar 

tests on the YF-12, work that helped cement the lab’s importance to those inside 

and outside the Center� The lab performs structural research, work that now 

extends to performing nondestructive testing of composite materials� The lab’s 

customers include other NASA Centers, the Air Force Research Lab, other military facilities, universities, and the aerospace industry� Ironically, the lab is better 

known outside Dryden than it is within the Center�

Peter Merlin completed his draft manuscript, Unlimited Horizons: Design and 

Development of the U-2, for the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate’s 

(ARMD’s) Office of Education and Communications� He also finished the final edit 

of A New Twist in Flight Research: The F-18 Active Aeroelastic Wing Project

(NASA SP-2014-606), which is due for publication in January 2014� Both will 

appear in the NASA Aeronautics Book Series� At Edwards Air Force Base, he 

distributed copies of Crash Course (NASA SP-2013-600) to the Global Hawk 

Combined Test Force and to the U�S� Air Force (USAF) Test Pilot School� The 

latter continues to use Breaking the Mishap Chain (NASA SP-2011-594) as a 

textbook for the school’s human factors course� Recently, Peter was interviewed, 
NASA HISTORY PROGRAM OFFICE

30

along with coauthor Gregg Bendrick, by Popular Science magazine for an article 

about human factors in aviation accidents during which he had an opportunity 

to discuss Breaking the Mishap Chain and Crash Course� For Dryden’s recent 

unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) media day, Peter gave a presentation on the 

evolution of remotely piloted research vehicles derived from the chapter he wrote 

for NASA’s Contributions to Aeronautics, vol� 2 (NASA SP-2010-570)� He also 

answered various information requests from internal and external customers and 

supported Public Affairs activities related to Dream Chaser�

On 1 October, Peter transferred from ARMD Education and Communications to 

a permanent position with Dryden Public Affairs� I am very pleased to see him 

move from a year-to-year contract into a permanent position, but there will be a 

void in the history program� Fortunately, we haven’t lost a colleague; he remains a 

resource to the NASA History Program�

And at the end of October, Betty Love was awarded the Milton O� Thompson 

Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her service to NASA as a computer and engineer� Betty began her career in 1952 at the National Advisory 

Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High Speed Flight Research Station working 

as a computer, rendering raw flight data into information engineers could understand� She moved into a formal engineering position, eventually coauthoring 

several papers before she and her husband retired and moved away� Since 

1996 and her return to Antelope Valley, she has been volunteering in Dryden’s 

History Office; she continues to do so today, providing an extraordinary and 

irreplaceable link with the past� Those of us who work with Betty know that this 

recognition is well deserved and overdue�

Glenn Research Center (GRC) 

By Anne Mills

Historian and author Mark Bowles is harnessing the power of social media 

as a tool for humanities education� Bowles has rewritten his book Science in 

Flux, about the Plum Brook Reactor Facility, as a series of 756 tweets� He says, 

“Re-writing the book in tweets is an attempt to compose ‘sound byte’ aphorisms 

that convey the narrative in new ways� It also invites conversation in a way that 

traditional book publication cannot�” @TheHistoryFeed began tweeting the book 

on 1 September and will tweet the book three times a day with the hashtag 

#ScienceInFlux� Bowles is the author of several NASA history books and is a 

professor of history at American Military University�

Planning is under way for several events to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 

first successful Centaur launch� A reception for Centaur program retirees was held 

on 22 November at the Glenn Research Center Visitor Center at the Great Lakes 

Science Center� Retirees had an opportunity to give brief oral histories at the event�
Volume 30, Number 4 Fourth Quarter 2013

31

Many congratulations to Glenn archivist Bob Arrighi (WYLE), who was awarded 

the NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal for his outstanding contributions to 

the documentation and preservation of NASA history� He was also featured in 

the latest issue of the Federalist, the newsletter of the Society for History in the 

Federal Government�

Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) 

Some Published Works Regarding Spacelab 

By Mike Wright

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first Spacelab mission, launched on 

28 November 1983 on board the Space Shuttle� This mission initiated a series 

of successful science missions carried out by international crews� For NASA 

and Marshall Space Flight Center, Spacelab bridged the Apollo era of lunar 

exploration and a new era focused on operations and research in low-Earth orbit� 

Spacelab provided a way to turn the Space Shuttle into an orbital laboratory� Early 

on, Marshall engineers proposed a concept called “sortie lab,” which used a 

modular system to create a laboratory that could be flown in the Shuttle’s payload 

bay� The European Space Agency (ESA) embraced this idea and, in 1973, signed 

an agreement with NASA to build the modular Spacelab components as Europe’s 

contribution to the Space Shuttle Program� In exchange, ESA was able to send 

its own crewmembers and experiments into space aboard the Shuttle, marking a 

new era of international cooperation�

During the 1970s, Marshall provided technical management of Spacelab and 

worked closely with ESA during hardware development, testing, and preparation for flight� During the 1980s and 1990s, Marshall managed the Spacelab 

science missions, including staffing the Payload Operations Center, which was 

the command post of Spacelab science� Investigators from around the world 

came to Marshall during missions� The first Spacelab mission and others that 

followed included on-orbit investigations in life sciences, atmospheric physics, 

Earth observations, astronomy, solar physics, space plasma physics, and 

materials science and technology� The Spacelab missions not only contributed 

to scientific discoveries but also helped prepare NASA and various international 

agencies for the cooperation needed to build and operate the International 

Space Station�

Some of the major historical works related to Spacelab are described below�

In 1983, NASA published Educational Publication EP-165, Spacelab: An 

International Short-Stay Orbiting Laboratory, written by Walter Froehlich� That 

publication sought to define Spacelab and described the effort that NASA devoted 

to Spacelab as well as the contributions of the 10 European nations that jointly 

designed, built, and financed Spacelab through the European Space Agency�
NASA HISTORY PROGRAM OFFICE

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In 1986, Douglas R� Lord, who served as Spacelab manager in Washington, published one of the first extended histories related to Spacelab� His Spacelab: An 

International Success Story, published as NASA SP-487, also featured a heavy 

focus on the development phase of Spacelab and covered operations through 1986�

Stennis Space Center (SSC) 

By Daphne Alford

Besides testing Space Shuttle main engines that carried astronauts and supplies 

to the International Space Station, the John C� Stennis Space Center interacted 

with an ISS component closer to Earth�

An International Space Station Node Structural Test Article (STA) was stationed 

at Stennis for four years� Built in the mid-1990s by Boeing/McDonnell Douglas 

at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, it was used for primary 

structure qualification testing on the Node 1 (Unity) flight hardware for the ISS, 

with the possibility that it would fly as the primary structure for Node 2� Instead, 

Node 2 and Node 3 were built by the Italian Space Agency and successfully 

added to the Space Station�

The node STA was transported from MSFC to Kennedy Space Center’s (KSC’s) 

Operations and Checkout building in Florida, where it stayed until modifications 

to that facility forced it to be moved to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) 

in New Orleans� There, it was instrumental in helping Lockheed Martin personnel 

develop aluminum-lithium welding repair techniques and was the first module 

successfully welded in the ISS Program� When the ISS Program no longer needed 

the module, KSC donated the article to Stennis for eventual display� Shipped from 

MAF to Stennis in December 2006, the ISS node arrived via barge and tugboat 

through Stennis’s canal system� It returned to KSC as part of a general consolidation of Station hardware on an Aero Spacelines Super Guppy Aircraft in 2010�

The ISS node arrives at Stennis in 2006.
Volume 30, Number 4 Fourth Quarter 2013

33

NASA History Program Off﻿ice: 

The Intern Experience

By Cody Knipfer

For most students searching for a workplace experience, the idea of intern work 

elicits thoughts of paper pushing and coffee fetching� This was decidedly not the 

case at the NASA History Program Office� Not knowing what to expect when I first 

showed up, I quickly realized that the work was, for me, rich and rewarding� Along 

with my fellow intern Drew Simpson, I worked on a number of engaging and, at 

times, challenging tasks� This work included maintaining and updating the office’s 

Facebook and Twitter pages, contributing to the editing and production of manuscripts on the history of NASA and spaceflight, helping with a number of NASA 

events, and performing various other duties in and around NASA Headquarters� 

My experience at the NASA History Program Office was the most defining experience of my life� I’ve always had a passion for space and spaceflight, but before 

arriving at NASA, I was not yet sure what I wanted to do with my life or pursue as a 

career� This internship changed that: the exciting work, fantastic atmosphere, and 

wonderful people have convinced me that working for NASA and contributing to 

our country’s future spaceflight endeavors is my niche and my calling�

Perhaps one of my favorite intern duties was helping update the NASA History 

Program Office’s Facebook and Twitter pages� Together, Drew and I researched and 

wrote most of the posts and tweets that went out during our stay� The Facebook 

page’s popularity, if you’ll forgive the play on words, “blasted off,” more than doubling during our tenure� We attribute this success to our diverse interests and to our 

deep passion for finding, learning about, and then sharing exciting and fascinating 

information about NASA� Researching the interesting facts, figures, anniversaries, 

and dates in the history of spaceflight was, for me, an incredible learning experience� Though I thought I knew much about the history of spaceflight going into 

the internship, I realized that the depth and breadth of knowledge and facts to be 

learned about the subject are enormous� With each new discovery, my interest 

in, passion about, and sense of awe over the incredible accomplishments we’ve 

achieved in the last 50 years of spaceflight and last 100 years of aviation increased� 

I still have a long ways to go before I can consider myself learned in these subjects� 

Watching other people share, like, and discuss this information once posted made 

me realize how much I enjoy spreading my passion for space to others�

Another project I worked on during my stay was helping with the office’s transition 

from the GReat Images in NASA (GRIN) Web site to Flickr, another image-hosting site� 

This work mostly involved manipulating images on Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom 

and inputting metadata, information about when and where the picture was taken 

along with other details� Doing this allowed the data that appear on the GRIN Web 

site to appear on Flickr also� I actually enjoyed this project greatly� I literally got to 

look at some of the coolest, most awe-inspiring photos from the history of our space 

program for hours on end, and then got to read all about them as I was putting in 
NASA HISTORY PROGRAM OFFICE

34

the caption data� The amount of knowledge I gained from this task was incredible� 

Ever since my involvement in this project, I can look at most of the iconic images 

from NASA (such as those found on calendars or on posters) and describe what they 

depict, who is in them, and when they were taken without even needing to read the 

caption� I’ve found this to be a very fun way to really impress people�

It’s not every day that something you wrote gets posted on the front page of a 

federal agency’s Web site, but, because of my time here, I found it happening to 

me� I researched and wrote an article on the anniversary of two pioneering events 

in the history of spaceflight: the flights of Valentina Tereshkova and Sally Ride, the 

first women from the Soviet Union and the United States to enter space� As was the 

case with all the other intern duties, the research and writing involved was engaging, 

fascinating, and fun� I learned the process of writing an article and the intensive and 

extensive process of editing an article� In the end, I was enormously pleased with 

the result� Having it published on the NASA Web site was an added bonus—I am 

now a published author� Before this summer, I would never have thought that I’d 

write an article for NASA and have it published� That experience was just one of the 

many incredible things that came out of my time with the History Program Office�

I discovered that working for NASA sometimes feels like working for an exclusive 

club� I found myself involved in a number of functions and events I never would 

have attended otherwise and meeting people whom I never would have dreamed 

of meeting� I was invited to a reception at the Canadian embassy for the returning 

astronauts of ISS Expedition 35, during which time I met and talked to astronauts 

Chris Hadfield and Tom Marshburn� Shaking hands with the astronauts was an 

incredibly cool experience; though they fly into space, they are some of the most 

down-to-Earth people you’ll ever meet� I also participated in the National Air and 

Space Museum’s Suited for Space social event, during which I was given an exclusive tour of a not-yet-opened exhibit showcasing the spacesuits used throughout 

the history of human spaceflight� I was also given a behind-the-scenes tour of the 

NASA TV studio and even helped run the camera for a NASA awards ceremony� Not 

only did I get to experience and learn about NASA and spaceflight, but I also got 

some hands-on experience with TV production� You never know what you might get 

to put on your résumé after an experience with the History Program Office�

While working in the office that studies the history of spaceflight, I found myself 

on a personal voyage of discovery and exploration� I have always been interested 

in NASA, space, and spaceflight� I run my school’s astronomy club; I’ve read tons 

of books on the subject; and I frequent local astronomical societies and events� 

Yet, given my deep passion for these fields, I never knew what, or if, I could do 

anything with them� Like many college students my age, I felt my life lacked 

direction and hoped that I would eventually find something to do with my life� This 

all changed with my experience this summer� I learned how diverse the offices 

and work involved in making spaceflight a reality are and that so many people 

contribute to that goal� I was treated with extreme kindness and exposed to a 

positive, uplifting, and supportive work environment� I was doing work every day 

that not only kept me busy but also kept me interested and reinforced my passion� 
Volume 30, Number 4 Fourth Quarter 2013

35

I have always been told to follow my dreams and my interests� I can now no longer 

imagine myself working happily anywhere other than at NASA� I recognize now 

how I can contribute to the Agency, our space program, and humanity’s future� 

Perhaps the most important experience I took away from my time this summer 

was that I now have direction and a vision for my future� I cannot think of anything 

more important or valuable than these for a college student to possess�

My suggestion for anyone who is interested in spaceflight or the history of NASA, 

or who wants to have a life-changing experience: apply for this internship� It will 

engage you, challenge you, excite you, and help you learn more about both our 

space program and yourself� Humanity’s ventures into outer space are some of the 

coolest, most inspirational, and most exciting things to learn and talk about� The 

amount of knowledge you will gain and number of people to whom you can spread 

that knowledge will amaze you� If given the option to do it again, I would happily take 

this internship in a heartbeat� I’d like to thank my fellow intern, Drew Simpson, for his 

support, his help in the work, and his constant kindness and humor� I’m enormously 

grateful for the continual support and mentorship from the History Program Office’s 

staff; they are some of the most interesting and learned people you will ever meet� I 

would especially like to thank Bill Barry and Yvette Smith for their constant guidance, 

continual support, and deep passion for what they do� Without them, my summer 

experience would not have been nearly as profound and enjoyable as it was�

Perspectives: The AHA-NASA 

Fellowship in Aerospace History

By Andrew T� Simpson

“The AHA-NASA Fellowship totally changed the trajectory of my career,” said 

Margaret Weitekamp, Fellowship recipient for 1997–98� “It introduced me to scholars who are still my colleagues� It immersed me in the field of space history� And it 

put my research project on a different level, allowing it to be recognized by scholars 

nationwide�” Weitekamp’s experience is not unique among past Fellowship recipients, several of whom credit the program with helping them to gain entry into the 

growing field of aerospace history� Since 1986, the American Historical Association 

(AHA)–NASA Fellowship in Aerospace History has helped scholars at all stages of 

their careers by supporting a range of research and writing projects with the goal 

of promoting a better understanding of how public and private aerospace has 

reshaped the world from the beginnings of human flight to the present�

Why Promote Aerospace History?

In the early to mid-1980s, the field of aerospace history was undergoing a period of 

growth and professionalization� Prior to that time, most aerospace histories tended to 
NASA HISTORY PROGRAM OFFICE

36

focus narrowly on technical development and celebrate, rather than critically examine, 

Agency and industry actions�1 The turning point for the field was the emergence of 

the New Social History and an understanding, as former NASA Chief Historian Sylvia 

Fries (Kraemer) has noted, that “the NASA story is about a great deal more than 

airplanes and spacecraft� It is about people, American culture, the research that goes 

on in our universities, and the structure and functioning of our largest organizations�” 

To promote this broader understanding of the contours of the field, Kraemer turned 

to the American Historical Association and the then–executive director, Samuel R� 

Gammon, to create a fellowship funded by NASA, but administered by the AHA, to 

promote the development of a new generation of aerospace historians�

Why Apply for the AHA-NASA Fellowship in 

Aerospace History?

In a survey conducted in the summer of 2013, award winners were asked to 

describe how they felt this Fellowship benefited their careers� One answer cited 

by most respondents was that not only did the Fellowship afford them the ability 

to use the NASA collections at the Agency’s Headquarters and Field Centers, but 

it also provided sufficient funding to support research at other repositories like the 

National Archives and the Library of Congress� Several Fellows, including Marcia 

Holmes, 2013, and Eric Schatzberg, 1988, also noted that the six to nine months 

of support from the Fellowship allowed them to gain experience dealing with 

long-duration archival research early in their careers� Several other respondents 

noted that the Fellowship’s benefits extended beyond research, allowing them to 

complete manuscript chapters or peer-reviewed articles in leading journals�

Proximity to NASA’s History Program Office, the Smithsonian Institution’s National 

Air and Space Museum, and the Department of Defense’s various history programs 

also was cited as important for encouraging interaction between AHA-NASA 

Fellows and like-minded scholars working in the government or private sectors� 

As several Fellows remarked, this personal connection facilitated conference 

 1� Roger D� Launius has called this shift the “New Aerospace History�” See Roger D� Launius, “The 
Volume 30, Number 4 Fourth Quarter 2013

37

presentations and peer reviews for articles and manuscripts� For example, Hugh 

Slotten, 1998, credits the connections he forged as an AHA-NASA Fellow with 

helping to facilitate his later work with the Smithsonian Institution as the Charles 

A� Lindbergh Chair in Aerospace History during 2010–11�

Who Are the AHA-NASA Aerospace History Fellows?

The Fellowship competition is open to applicants with a doctoral degree or 

enrolled students in degree-granting programs in history or closely related fields 

who have completed all the required coursework for a doctorate� The decision to 

include professionals and graduate students from disciplines other than history 

has resulted in a diverse array of interdisciplinary scholarship covering areas 

0	
  

2	
  

4	
  

6	
  

8	
  

10	
  

12	
  

14	
  

Federal	
  Historians	
   Academic	
  Posi8ons*	
  	
   Public	
  Policy/

Independent	
  Scholars	
  

Unknown	
  

* Includes current graduate students and postdoctoral scholars

including aircraft technology and design, the global role of commercial aviation, 

new understandings of engineering and management theory, satellites and commercial broadcasting, the cultural history of airline flight attendants, and the interaction between NASA and universities around issues of science and technology�2

Moreover, nearly all respondents noted that the AHA-NASA Fellowship helped 

to prepare them for a range of different careers (see chart)� While most have 

continued with academic careers, many either have become federal historians 

or have pursued careers as public policy specialists or independent scholars� 

Especially important for this last group has been the experience provided by the 

Fellowship working in diverse and often highly technical collections, as well as 

the professional connections developed during their tenure as Fellows� Several 

Fellows have continued their contribution to NASA’s historical efforts by serving 

as editors or authors for books in the NASA History Series�

 2� See 
NASA HISTORY PROGRAM OFFICE

38

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Where To Learn More

Headed to the 2014 AHA meeting? This 

year’s program will feature a panel about the 

AHA-NASA Fellowship in Aerospace History 

whose members include the following:

Bill Barry, NASA Chief Historian

Sylvia Fries (Kraemer), retired 

NASA Chief Historian

Margaret A. Weitekamp, 1997, 

National Air and Space Museum

Hugh Slotten, 1998, 

University of Otago

Monique Laney, 2011, 

American University

How To Apply

NASA Chief Historian Bill Barry will lead a roundtable at the 2014 AHA Annual 

Meeting in Washington, DC, about the Fellowship� Panelists will take questions 

from the audience and will discuss a range of issues including how the Fellowship 

affects professional development, how the Fellowship can alter scholarship in new 

and dynamic ways, and how the Fellowship can help 

early-career scholars position themselves in a difficult 

job market� Application forms can be found at http://

www�historians�org/prizes/NASA�htm� Key requirements are as follows: applicants must either possess 

a doctoral degree in history or a closely related field 

or be currently enrolled in a degree-granting program 

meeting the same stipulations; the Fellow must be 

willing to forgo any other major research grants or 

other outside employment and devote him- or herself fully to the proposed research project during 

the Fellowship tenure; and the Fellow is required 

to give at least one presentation to NASA historical 

staff� All applications, including up to four letters of 

recommendation, must be mailed to Fellowship in 

Aerospace History, American Historical Association, 

400 A Street SE, Washington, DC 20003, postmarked 

on or before 1 April 2014, or submitted electronically 

to awards@historians�org by 1 April 2014� The application is peer-reviewed by 

representatives from the AHA, the Economic History Association, the History of 

Science Society, the Society for the History of Technology, the Organization of 

American Historians, and the National Council on Public History� Award notifications are typically announced in the summer�

Other Aerospace History News

National Air and Space Museum (NASM) 

By Mike Neufeld

Roger Launius (Associate Director for Collection and Curatorial Affairs and Space 

History Division) coedited, with John Krige and James I� Craig, Space Shuttle 

Legacy: How We Did It and What We Learned (American Institute of Aeronautics 

and Astronautics, 30 September 2013)� Hardcover� ISBN-10: 1624102166� ISBN13: 978-1624102165�

On Thursday, 19 September, Michael Neufeld (Space History) gave the Quarterly 

History Lecture at NASA Headquarters� His theme was “First Mission to 

Pluto: Policy, Politics, Science and Technology in the Origins of New Horizons, 
Volume 30, Number 4 Fourth Quarter 2013

39

1989–2003�” On Tuesday, 24 September, he presented a shorter version of the 

same at the International Astronautical Congress in Beijing, China�

During a two-week speaking tour in Australia as part of National Science Week, 

Valerie Neal (Space History) gave talks on the International Space Station, research 

in microgravity, and developments in commercial spaceflight� Also on the Australia 

tour, senior curator Tom Crouch (Aeronautics Division) gave talks on technical 

revolutions in aeronautics, the NASA art collection, and topics in aviation history�

Jim David (Space History) published “What’s Disrupting Our Satellite Operations? 

NASA, the Intelligence Community, and RF Interference,” Quest: The History of 

Spaceflight Quarterly 20, no� 3 (2013): 42–50�

American Astronautical Society (AAS) History Committee

By Michael Ciancone, Chair

I am pleased to announce the recipient of the 2012 Emme Award for Astronautical 

Literature: Patrick McCray, for Visioneers: How a Group of Elite Scientists Pursued 

Space Colonies, Nanotechnologies, and a Limitless Future (Princeton University 

Press)� The recipient is selected by a panel of AAS History Committee members, 

chaired by Dr� Don Elder�

I am also pleased to report that Dr� Trevor Sorensen is leading a project to prepare 

an English-language translation of Hermann Oberth’s seminal work, Die Rakete 

zu den Plenetenräumen [The Rocket into Planetary Space] (Oldenbourg, 1923)� 

AAS has reached an agreement with Oldenbourg Verlag to publish the translation, 

along with a reissue of the 1925 edition, by the end of the calendar year�

As a result of the persistence and diligence of series editor Dr� Rick Sturdevant, 

Univelt is expected to publish the 2009 and 2010 IAA History Symposium proceedings in its History of Rocketry and Aeronautics series by the end of the calendar year�

Recent Publications and 

Online Resources

NASA Publications

Mark Bowles, professor of history at American Military University, has produced 

the first academic history book written for Twitter. Starting in September 2013, 

he began tweeting a complete rewrite of his award-winning book, Science in 

Flux: NASA’s Nuclear Program at Plum Brook Station, 1955–2005. You can follow 

this ongoing experiment, which ends in May 2014, on Twitter @TheHistoryFeed 
NASA HISTORY PROGRAM OFFICE

40

or see the hashtag #ScienceInFlux on Twitter or Facebook� For more details, 

contact the author at http://about�me/MDB or visit http://thehistoryfeed�blogspot�

com/2013/08/science-in-flux-twitter-experiment�html�

Commercially Published Works 

Compiled by Chris Gamble

Alien Seas: Oceans in Space, edited by Michael Carroll and Rosaly Lopes (Springer, 

July 2013)� In the early days of planetary observation, oceans were thought to 

exist in all corners of the solar system� Carbonated seas percolated beneath the 

clouds of Venus� Features on the Moon’s surface were given names such as the 

Bay of Rainbows and the Ocean of Storms� With the advent of modern telescopes 

and spacecraft exploration, these ancient concepts of planetary seas have been 

replaced by the reality of something even more exotic� The book serves up the 

current research, past beliefs, and new theories to offer a rich array of descriptions of the “seas” on other worlds� It is organized by location and by the material 

composing the oceans under discussion, with expert authors penning chapters 

on their specialties� Each chapter features original art depicting alien seas, as well 

as the latest ground-based and spacecraft images�

China’s Strategy in Space, by Stacey L� Solomone (SpringerBriefs in Space 

Development series, Springer, June 2013)� This book addresses why China 

is going into space and provides up-to-date information on all aspects of the 

Chinese Space Program in terms of launch vehicles, launch sites and infrastructure, crew vehicles for space exploration, satellite applications, and scientific 

exploration capabilities�

Dreams of Other Worlds: The Amazing Story of Unmanned Space Exploration, by 

Chris Impey and Holly Henry (Princeton University Press, September 2013)� The 

book describes the unpiloted space missions that have opened new windows on 

distant worlds� Spanning four decades of dramatic advances in astronomy and 

planetary science, this book tells the story of 11 iconic exploratory missions and 

how they have fundamentally transformed our scientific and cultural perspectives 

on the universe and our place in it�

Mission Mars: India’s Quest for the Red Planet, by Ajey Lele (Springer, July 2013)� 

The objective of the book is to find the rationale behind the human quest to 

explore Mars� As the author undertakes a comprehensive assessment, he considers technological, economic, geopolitical, and strategic perspectives� In addition 

to examining India’s desire to reach Mars, the book looks at other nations’ Mars 

programs for context�

NASA in the World: Fifty Years of International Collaboration in Space, by John 

Krige, Angelina Long Callahan, and Ashok Maharaj (Palgrave Macmillan, August 

2013)� The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is typically thought of 
Volume 30, Number 4 Fourth Quarter 2013

41

in national terms—as an American initiative developed specifically to compete 

with the Soviet Union� Yet, from its inception, NASA was mandated not only to 

sustain U�S� leadership in space, but also to pursue international collaboration� 

Since that time, it has participated in more than four thousand international 

projects� Drawing on unprecedented access to Agency archives and personnel, 

this definitive study explores U�S�-Soviet cooperation during the darkest days of 

the Cold War; relations with Western Europe, India, and Japan; the development 

of the International Space Station; and many other aspects of scientific and 

technological collaboration� The book is a signal contribution to space studies 

and international diplomatic history�

Russia in Space: The Past Explained, the Future Explored, by Anatoly Zak (Apogee 

Prime, July 2013)� This book is a unique attempt to visualize space exploration’s 

future through the eyes of Russian space engineers and to describe that nation’s 

plans in space� It is the first comprehensive illustrated book dedicated to the 

Russian vision for the future of crewed spaceflight from the dawn of human 

spaceflight until today�

The Silence and the Salvage—Losing the Space Shuttle Columbia and Recovering 

Its Pieces, by Lamar Russell (Tate Publishing, August 2013)� This book gives the 

inside story of how NASA reacted to the Space Shuttle Columbia accident� Join 

the author as he describes the formation of a Rapid Response Team to comb 

the forests and grasslands of Texas� This fascinating memoir portrays those who 

traveled to Texas and other states and who picked up the pieces and mourned over 

each one� NASA’s individuals teamed with people from other government agencies, 

enduring stress, cold, and grief while managing the collection and identification of 

Columbia’s parts from a 200-mile-long debris field in Texas, as well as searching 

the ground track from the California coast across the southwestern states� This 

personal account provides a touching view of those who performed the cleanup�

The Space Book: From the Beginning to the End of Time, 250 Milestones in the 

History of Space & Astronomy, by Jim Bell (Sterling Publishing, May 2013)� We 

live in a truly golden age of astronomy and space exploration that may allow us 

to unravel some of the biggest mysteries of all: How did the universe begin? Are 

there other Earth-like planets out there? Are we alone? The Space Book is a gateway into these questions and more for anyone interested in the worlds beyond 

our planet� The author presents 250 of the most groundbreaking astronomical 

events, from the formation of galaxies to the recent discovery of water ice on 

Mars� Beautiful photographs or illustrations accompany each entry�

SpaceX: Making Commercial Spaceflight a Reality, by Erik Seedhouse (SpringerPraxis, June 2013)� The year 2012 was when the first-ever privately developed 

spacecraft, built by SpaceX, visited the International Space Station� This is the 

story of how one company is transforming commercial spaceflight� SpaceX

explores the philosophy behind the success of SpaceX; explains the practical 

management that enables SpaceX to keep its products simple, reliable, and 
NASA HISTORY PROGRAM OFFICE

42

affordable; details the development of the Falcon 1, Falcon 9, and Falcon Heavy 

rockets and the technology of the Merlin engines; describes the collaboration 

with NASA; and, finally, introduces current SpaceX projects�

Stamping Through Astronomy, by Renato Dicati (Springer, July 2013)� Stamps 

and other postal documents are an attractive vehicle for presenting astronomy 

and its development as well as the beauty and mystery of celestial objects� 

Written with expertise and enthusiasm, this unique book offers a historical and 

philatelic survey of astronomy and related topics on space exploration�

TIME New Frontiers of Space, by TIME magazine (TIME, July 2013)� What’s new 

in the universe? Recent advances in technology have helped astronomers put 

to rest centuries-old debates about space and the universe, but they have also 

raised newer, more intriguing questions: What is the nature of dark matter, and 

what does it tell us about the origins of the universe? Do new data strongly suggest that microbial life exists beyond Earth—in our own solar system? How does 

the discovery of far more exoplanets than scientists once estimated impact the 

odds that advanced life may exist elsewhere in the universe? Are space tourism 

and commercial asteroid mining feasible? TIME explores these topics and more 

in a stunning view of the final frontier�

To Orbit and Back Again—How the Space Shuttle Flew in Space, by Davide 

Sivolella (Springer-Praxis, September 2013)� This book describes the structures 

and systems used each time the Shuttle was launched and then follows an imaginary mission, explaining how those structures and systems were used in orbital 

operations and in the return to Earth� Details of how anomalous events were dealt 

with on individual missions are also provided, as are the recollections of those 

who built and flew the Shuttle�

The History Program Office gives sincere thanks to volunteer Chris Gamble, who 

compiles this section for us every quarter� Please note that the descriptions 

have been derived by Chris from promotional material and do not represent an 

endorsement by NASA�

Upcoming Meetings

The annual meeting of the American Historical Association will be held 2–5 

January 2014 in Washington, DC� Visit http://www�historians�org/annual/next�htm

for details�

The 223rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society will be held 5–9 January 

2014 in National Harbor, Maryland� Visit http://aas�org/meetings for details�
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ SciTech2014 will be held 

13–17 January 2014 in National Harbor, Maryland. Visit http://www.aiaa.org/

scitech2014/ for details.

The midwinter meeting of the American Library Association will be held 24–28 

January 2014 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Visit http://alamw14.ala.org for 

more details.

The 20th Annual Space Exploration Educators Conference will take place on 

6–8 February 2014 at the Space Center Houston in Houston, Texas. Visit http://

spacecenter.org/education-programs/teacher-programs/teachers-seec/ for more 

details.

The 45th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference will be held 17–21 March 2014

in Texas. Please see http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2014/ for more details.

The annual meeting for the Organization of American Historians will be held 10–13 

April 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia. Please see http://www.oah.org/meetings-events/

for more details.

The 30th National Space Symposium will be held 19–24 May 2014 in Colorado 

Springs, Colorado. Please see http://www.spacesymposium.org for more details.

NASA Headquarters History Program Office Staff Contact Information:

William Barry bill.barry@nasa.gov

Chief Historian 202-358-0383

Nadine Andreassen nadine.j.andreassen@nasa.gov

Program Support Specialist 202-358-0087

Colin Fries cfries@mail.hq.nasa.gov

Archivist 202-358-0388

Stephen Garber stephen.j.garber@nasa.gov

Historian 202-358-0385

John Hargenrader jhargenr@mail.hq.nasa.gov

Archivist 202-358-0387

Jane Odom jane.h.odom@nasa.gov

Chief Archivist 202-358-0386

Yvette Smith yvette.smith-1@nasa.gov

Editor 202-358-5196

Elizabeth Suckow elizabeth.suckow-1@nasa.gov

Archivist 202-358-0375
Created and produced by the following:

Giny Cheong, Newsletter Editor

Lisa Jirousek, Editor, NASA Headquarters Communications Support Services Center (CSSC)

Chris Yates, Book Manager, NASA Headquarters CSSC 

Tun Hla, Printing Specialist, NASA Headquarters CSSC

Trenita Williams, Mail Coordinator, NASA Headquarters Mail Room

Carl Paul, Distribution, NASA Headquarters CSSC

Join the NASA History Program Office 

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Learn the history of NASA’s exploration of the universe and its many discoveries 

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