Aeronautics and Space Report

of the President

Fiscal Year

2016 Activities
Aeronautics and Space Report

of the President

Fiscal Year 2016

Activities
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 directed 

the annual Aeronautics and Space Report to include a 

“comprehensive description of the programmed activities and 

the accomplishments of all agencies of the United States in the 

field of aeronautics and space activities during the preceding 

calendar year.” In recent years, the reports have been prepared 

on a fiscal-year basis, consistent with the budgetary period now 

used in programs of the Federal Government. This year’s report 

covers activities that took place from October 1, 2015, through 

September 30, 2016. Please note that these activities reflect 

the Federal policies of that time and do not include subsequent 

events or changes in policy.

On the title page, clockwise from the top left: 1. Composite image of the diffuse nebula NGC 6357 

containing x-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the ROentgen SATellite 

(ROSAT) telescope (purple), infrared data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope (orange), and optical data from the SuperCosmos Sky Survey (blue) made by the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope 

(UKIRT). Credit: X-ray—NASA/CXC/PSU/L. Townsley et al.; optical—UKIRT; infrared—NASA/

Jet Propulsion Laboratory–Caltech. 2. Artist’s concept of one of the eight Cyclone Global Navigation 

Satellite System satellites deployed in space above a hurricane. Credit: NASA. 3. The Bigelow 

Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), installed on the International Space Station on April 16, 

2016, at 5:36 a.m. EDT. Credit: NASA. 4. Composite image, made from ten frames, showing the 

International Space Station in silhouette as it transits the sun at roughly five miles per second on 

December 17, 2016, from Newbury Park, California. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky. 5. Artist’s concept 

of NASA’s Future X-57 Maxwell All-Electric Aircraft. Credit: NASA. 6. Completion of James Webb 

Space Telescope center of curvature pre-test. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn.
Table of Contents

Table of Conten

National Aeronautics and Space Administration 1

Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate 1

Science Mission Directorate  .

Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate 38

Space Technology Mission Directorate 46

Department of Defense 57

Federal Aviation Administration 85

Department of Commerce . 

Department of the Interior . 

Federal Communications Commission 139

U.S. Department of Agricultur  1

National Science Foundation 155

Department of State 167

Department of Energy 173

Smithsonian Institution . 

Appendices

A-1 U.S. Government Spacecraft Recor  1

A-2 World Record of Space Launches Successful in

Attaining Earth Orbit or Beyond . 

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

C Human Spaceflights . 

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

Authority in Millions of Real-Year Dollars . 

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

Authority in Millions of Inflation-Adjusted FY 2016 Dollars . 

D-2 Federal Space Activities Budget . 

D-3 Federal Aeronautics Activities Budget . 

Acronyms 199

1National Aeronautics and Space Administration

National Aeronautic

Space Administr

NASA

Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate

Exploration Systems Development

The Exploration Systems Development (ESD) programs—Space Launch System 

(SLS), Orion, and Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO)—represent an integrated effort to enable a deep space exploration capability for the Nation. 

SLS is a large launch vehicle for a new era of exploration beyond Earth’s orbit; it will 

be capable of launching substantial cargo and, in the Orion spacecraft, astronauts 

on missions to deep space. These exploration systems also open new possibilities for 

other payloads that might be able to take advantage of these unique capabilities.

Orion and GSDO completed their Critical Design Review (CDR) in the first 

quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2016—commencing the programs’ final design and fabrication phases. Also, SLS successfully completed the first hot-fire testing of an 

SLS RS-25 flight engine. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s 

(NASA) strategic international partner, the European Space Agency (ESA), also 

reached important milestones, including the delivery of the European Service 

Module primary structure to ESA’s primary assembly facility in Bremen, Germany.

Orion Program

The Orion Program successfully completed its CDR in the first quarter of 

FY 2016, demonstrating the level of program maturity needed to continue with 
2Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

the final design and fabrication phase. Following Orion’s successful CDR, primary 

pressure vessel welding was completed during the second quarter of FY 2016 for the 

Orion Crew Module at the Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana.

The Crew Module was delivered to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida for 

assembly, test, launch, and operations (ATLO). While at KSC, the Crew Module 

passed an important pressure proof test, ensuring the primary vessel’s structural 

integrity in order to protect the crew’s atmosphere against the vacuum of space. 

Orion’s Crew Module assembly subsequently proceeded to secondary structures, 

brackets, and the first components. Harness integration and propulsion piping 

assembly commenced in the fourth quarter. Also in the fourth quarter, the Crew 

Module was moved into KSC’s clean room at the Neil Armstrong Operations and 

Checkout Building, where welding has commenced on environmental and propulsion tubing. In addition, the first solar array wing deployment test was completed 

at Glenn Research Center’s (GRC) Plum Brook Station (PBS) in Sandusky, Ohio. 

Development and qualification landing testing was concluded at Langley Research 

Center (LaRC) in Virginia with a total of ten tests.

NASA’s strategic international Orion partner, ESA, delivered the European 

Service Module primary structure to Bremen, Germany, for assembly in the third 

quarter of FY 2016. In addition, the European Service Module Structural Test 

Article (E-STA) was delivered to PBS in the first quarter of FY 2016. At PBS, 

E-STA was mated with United States–based components of the Service Module, 

including the Crew Module Adapter (CMA) and Service Module Adapter (SMA) 

for acoustic, vibration, and shock testing. Orion technicians have started the 

installation process of the aft composite structure walls for the CMA. The E-STA 

test team completed the final set of vertical, partially filled tank configuration 

vibration tests in PBS’s Mechanical Vibration Facility. Final preparations for acoustic testing in the third quarter of FY 2016 were under way at the time of preparing 

this report.

Space Launch System Program

The SLS Program made substantial progress in FY 2016 by successfully completing the first hot-fire testing of an SLS RS-25 flight engine. The test ran its full 

duration of 500 seconds and met all test objectives, including flight acceptance for 

a high-pressure fuel turbopump. The SLS Program also completed the second of 
3National Aeronautics and Space Administration

two full-duration hot-fire tests of the full-scale SLS five-segment booster qualification motor in the third quarter of FY 2016. During the test, 82 qualification test 

objectives were measured through more than 530 instrumentation channels on 

the booster at a cold motor conditioning temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit, 

which is the colder end of its accepted propellant temperature range. Preliminary 

analysis indicates that the instrumentation performance exceeded the test objective criteria.

The SLS Program also successfully completed manufacturing the Interim 

Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) structural test article (STA). The ICPS STA 

will be tested in an integrated assembly, which will be subjected to structural loads 

and stresses to validate the analytical models of the flight hardware. In addition, the 

SLS Program finalized major structural modifications to retrofit the legacy Pegasus 

transportation barge for the Space Shuttle’s external tanks in order to accommodate the SLS’s larger core stage. Pegasus will transport the SLS core stage from its 

fabrication at the Michoud Assembly Facility to Stennis Space Center for green-run 

hot-fire testing and subsequently to KSC for flight integration and launch.

Ground Systems Development and Operations Program

Modernization and compatibility efforts for the Ground Systems Development 

and Operations Program continued in FY 2016. GSDO successfully completed its 

CDR during the first quarter of FY 2016, demonstrating the level of program maturity needed to continue with the final design and fabrication phase.

GSDO remains on track to receive the Mobile Launcher on Pad 39B in the 

fourth quarter of FY 2017. GSDO has initiated complex preparations at KSC for 

the SLS. These included the installation and testing of two J-level work platforms 

on the north and south sides of Vehicle Assembly Building High Bay 3, where the 

SLS will be prepared for launch. Upgrades to the Launch Pad 39B flame trench 

were also attained in FY 2016, including the installation of a new flame detector.

International Space Station

The International Space Station (ISS) continued its focus on research and 

technology development in such disciplines as biology, human research, biotechnology, Earth science, physical science, astrophysics, and satellite servicing during 
4Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

FY  2016. Orbital ATK and SpaceX each completed two Commercial Resupply 

Services (CRS) flights. NASA installed the International Docking Adapter (IDA), 

which will allow the ISS to accommodate docking ports for visiting vehicles, 

enabling traffic flexibility and port redundancy for U.S.-operating-segment crew 

and cargo vehicle missions. NASA also installed the first commercially provided 

expandable module, called Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), as a 

technology demonstration.

Three complete Soyuz crew rotations were accomplished in FY 2016. Soyuz 45S 

successfully launched to the ISS on December 15, 2015. Rendezvous and docking 

were completed successfully in manual mode after a failure message was received 

for a Soyuz thruster during final automated approach. Post-docking analysis showed 

that there was no thruster failure. Instead, pressure sensors inside the combustion 

chamber caused a false alarm. A change in this system with the new Soyuz MS 

vehicle design eliminates this failure mode, and both Soyuz 46S (March 18, 2016) 

and 47S (July 7, 2016) docked to the ISS without incident.

Four U.S. extravehicular activities (EVAs) were conducted during FY 2016. An 

EVA on December 21, 2015, was successfully completed to prepare for the arrival of 

the IDA. On January 15, 2016, an EVA to replace a failed voltage regulator ended 

early after a small water bubble was discovered in one of the helmets. Following 

extensive analysis of the issue, EVAs successfully resumed in August 2016, with two 

EVAs conducted that successfully completed the installation of the IDA, among 

other maintenance and science objectives.

On May 16, 2016, several CubeSats were deployed from the ISS, including St. 

Thomas More School Cathedral Satellite–1 (STMSat-1), the first CubeSat built 

by elementary school students to be deployed in space. The students involved 

were from St. Thomas More Cathedral School in Arlington, Virginia, and their 

proposal was selected under NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative. STMSat-1 was 

launched to the ISS on December 6, 2015, aboard an Orbital ATK (OA) Cygnus 

cargo resupply spacecraft as part of NASA’s Educational Launch of Nanosatellites 

(ELaNa) IX mission.

OA’s fourth contracted cargo mission, OA-4, arrived at the ISS on December 

9, 2015, following a December 6, 2015, launch on an Atlas V rocket from Cape 

Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, and it departed from the ISS on February 
5National Aeronautics and Space Administration

19, 2016. Experiments delivered on Cygnus supported NASA and other research 

investigations during Expeditions 45 and 46 in areas such as biology, biotechnology, and physical and Earth science.

OA launched its fifth contracted cargo mission, OA-6, to the ISS on March 22, 

2016. The Cygnus spacecraft was berthed at the ISS on March 26, 2016, delivering more than 7,700 pounds of science and research, crew supplies, and vehicle 

hardware. The spacecraft came equipped with the NanoRacks External Cygnus 

Deployer for CubeSats, which enabled the deployment of the satellites after the 

spacecraft had completed its cargo mission and left the ISS. Cygnus departed 

the ISS on June 14, 2016. After Cygnus was a safe distance away, ground controllers conducted the Spacecraft Fire Experiment–1 (Saffire-1), which provided an 

opportunity to study a large fire aboard a spacecraft for the first time. Data from 

the experiment will help NASA ensure the effectiveness of spacecraft fire safety 

systems on future missions.

SpaceX launched its eighth contracted cargo mission, SpX-8, to the ISS on April 

8, 2016. The Dragon spacecraft was berthed to the ISS on April 10, 2016. The 

spacecraft delivered almost 7,000 pounds of cargo, including BEAM. Dragon’s scientific cargo will support research in muscle atrophy, fluid dynamics at the atomic 

level, and protein crystal growth. Dragon departed the ISS and splashed down 

on May 11, 2016, returning more than 3,700 pounds of NASA cargo and science 

samples from a variety of technological and biological studies.

BEAM is designed to test expandable habitat modules in space. The module was 

installed on the ISS on April 16, 2016, and, after only partially expanding on May 

26, 2016, BEAM was fully expanded on May 28, 2016. The module, roughly 10 feet 

in diameter and 13 feet long, will be attached to the ISS for about two years, during 

which time astronauts will enter the module for a few hours several times a year 

to retrieve sensor data and assess conditions. Expandable habitats are designed to 

take up less room on a launch vehicle but provide greater volume for living and 

working in space once expanded. This first in situ test of the module will allow 

investigators to gauge how well the habitat protects against solar radiation, space 

debris, and contamination.

SpaceX-9 launched on July 18, 2016, carrying the International Docking 

Adapter, as well as nearly 5,000 pounds of supplies and payload, including critical 
6Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

materials to directly support dozens of science and research investigations. After a 

fully successful mission, the Dragon capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, 

returning more than 3,000 pounds of NASA cargo and science samples, including 

materials from the Heart Cells study, which investigated how heart muscle tissue 

contracts, grows, and changes in microgravity. Knowledge gained from the experiment may help advance the study of heart disease on Earth.

Space Life and Physical Sciences Research and Applications

Human Research Program

In 2016, NASA completed the flight phase of the ISS One-Year Mission and ISS 

Twins Study. Astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko completed 

the ISS One-Year Mission: the longest space mission ever undertaken by a U.S. 

astronaut. As part of this major international effort, the Human Research Program 

(HRP) developed the U.S.–Russian joint biomedical research plan that included 

ISS studies on ocular health and body fluid shifts, immune and cardiovascular systems, cognitive performance testing, and effectiveness of countermeasures against 

bone and muscle loss. During the One-Year Mission, NASA also conducted the 

ISS Twins Study. This study of identical twin astronauts Scott Kelly and retired 

astronaut Mark Kelly is the first human genomics study associated with astronauts 

and provided an unprecedented opportunity to study the effects of spaceflight on 

the human body at the genetic level. To undertake this research, NASA formed 

an innovative team of leading genetics and genome experts to explore the effects 

and changes that may occur in spaceflight (compared to on Earth). This pioneering study will provide new genetics data on the effects of spaceflight on the entire 

complement of biomolecules, such as proteins (proteomics) and genes (genomics), 

opening possibilities for the development of new precision-medicine approaches 

to countermeasures and the next-generation genomics solutions to mitigate crew 

health and performance risks.

NASA launched a Translational Research Institute charged with researching 

and developing innovative approaches to reducing risks to humans during longduration exploration missions, including NASA’s Journey to Mars. The Center for 

Space Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine was awarded a grant to develop and 
7National Aeronautics and Space Administration

implement this institute, which includes the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

(MIT) and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as partners. 

Translational research is an interdisciplinary model of research that focuses on 

rapidly translating fundamental research concepts into practice, thereby generating tangible health outcomes—in this case, for astronauts. This new institute will 

expand research leadership in translational human performance, biomedical, environmental, cognitive, and behavioral science. It will also catalyze greater involvement of the broader science community in accomplishing the Agency’s human 

exploration goals. Results or methods derived from laboratory experiments or 

clinical trials will be translated to point-of-care astronaut health and performance 

applications, using a bench-to-spaceflight model. In this way, the institute will rapidly produce promising new approaches, treatments, countermeasures, or technologies that have practical applications for spaceflight. The Translational Research 

Institute is a key component of NASA’s strategy for reducing human exploration 

health and performance risks for the next generation of space exploration.

ISS Research—Biological and Physical Sciences

The Space Biology Program (SBP) made significant progress in its aim to 

increase the relevance of spaceflight research by making a large body of data 

accessible and relevant to the global science community through the continuation of the GeneLab Project. The GeneLab Data System, which can be accessed 

at http://genelab.nasa.gov, now houses 80 datasets, which are meticulously curated 

and fully accessible to the public: 47 of these studies are from spaceflight experiments, and 33 are from relevant ground experiments. All contain novel genomic, 

proteomic, or metabolomics data for download and immediate use by the scientific 

community. GeneLab is currently averaging more than 1,000 file downloads per 

month, with a data volume of roughly three terabytes per month, served up to 35 

different countries.

GeneLab released an Innovation Awards Research Announcement (NRA 

NNH16ZTT001N-GL) in March 2016, which garnered 34 responses. Final programmatic review is complete.

The Space Biology Program continues to make significant progress in implementing key recommendations of the National Research Council (NRC) Decadal Survey, 
8Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

particularly in plant biology and microbiology. Seventy-two SBP research tasks are 

in various stages of completion. Important new studies are being developed for flight 

on the ISS, in ground-based simulations, and on other spaceflight platforms. Among 

these are multi-investigator science teams that have designed experiments to measure important physiological and multi-omic biological responses to spaceflight that 

will contribute baseline data to the GeneLab Project database to honor SBP’s commitment to providing complete, open access to science data.

In partnership with the Human Research Program, SBP projects are building 

knowledge that is key to the future production of nutritious fresh food in space 

through the continuation of the Vegetable Production System (Veggie) hardware 

system on orbit. In 2016, the Veggie hardware demonstrated the ability to cultivate 

nutrient-dense and environment-enriching lettuces and flowers on board the ISS. 

SBP and HRP jointly sponsored biological studies in the area of artificial gravity 

research. This research is being initiated to answer important questions about how 

biological systems respond to changes in the gravitational field and to simulated 

Mars and moon gravitational loading.

SBP established a Space Act Agreement with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to 

enable research in the Microbiology of the Built Environment (MoBE) area from 

potential postdoctoral students who will study ISS microbial isolates from the Life 

Sciences Data Archive. Each partner will fund two postdoctoral fellows.

SBP continued the Microbial Tracking project in 2016 to respond to a highpriority recommendation, made by the National Research Council’s 2011 Decadal 

Survey for space life and physical sciences, to conduct an integrated “microbial 

observatory” investigation of the evolving microbiome of the ISS. The three-flight 

series of Microbial Tracking–1, which investigated airborne and surface populations of microorganisms aboard the ISS, was fully executed in 2016. In this study, 

investigators found a unique fungal isolate of Aspergillus fumigatus. Virulence 

assessment revealed that the ISS isolates were significantly more lethal than clinical strains. These studies included complete genetic/genomic characterization that 

is being deposited in the GeneLab Database as the studies are completed. Studies 

such as these are important because understanding the microbiome of a spacecraft and how microbes adapt to spaceflight is critical to enabling future human 

exploration missions. New research projects jointly supported by SBP and Physical 
9National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Sciences will also examine the effects of microbial biofilms occurring in spaceflight 

on materials used to build exploration vehicles.

The Physical Sciences Program continues to make significant progress in implementing key recommendations of the NRC Decadal Survey. The Cold Atom 

Laboratory (CAL), a project that aims to create the lowest measurable temperature in the universe aboard the ISS in a facility intended to support a range of 

world-class investigations in atomic physics, is completing its final integration and 

testing on its way to a planned 2017 launch. In a paper published in the journal 

Science in August 2015, CAL science team member Holger Mueller (a physicist at 

the University of California, Berkeley) and colleagues highlighted the possibility 

of using observations of atomic physics in ultra-cold facilities like CAL to directly 

observe dark energy, which accelerates the expansion of the universe. The nature 

of dark energy is one of the greatest mysteries in physics and cosmology. In 2016, 

Mueller and coworkers continued to advance relevant theories and conduct experiments to search for a broad class of dark-energy particles.

The vision of MaterialsLab is to fully utilize the ISS as a national laboratory to 

conduct microgravity materials science and disseminate data into open science 

informatics in order to accelerate the revelation of materials science mysteries; 

develop engineering-need-driven higher-performing materials for NASA and the 

United States; and enhance education in science, technology, engineering, and 

mathematics (STEM). In support of this goal, NASA selected 16 proposals to help 

define seven high-content reference experiments covering the following disciplines: 

thermophysical properties; materials processes that affect microstructure, composition, and other characteristics; biophysics, specifically biomaterials and biofilms; 

and liquid crystals.

NASA Physical Sciences populated the Physical Sciences Informatics database, 

which can be accessed at http://psi.nasa.gov, with the raw data from more than 

three dozen flight experiments. In an effort to stimulate broader use of flight results 

by the research community, NASA released two NASA Research Announcements 

(NRAs) specifically inviting research projects based on the analysis of this archived 

flight experiment data. In 2016, NASA selected ten proposals from these first two 

NRAs, and a third NRA was released in September 2016.
10Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Commercial Crew Program

During the fiscal year, the Commercial Crew Program (CCP) partners Boeing 

and SpaceX continued making technical and programmatic progress in maturing 

their respective commercial crew transportation systems.

• Boeing completed its Critical Design Reviews (CDRs), a major Commercial 

Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract milestone.

• Throughout the year, both partners continued identifying and submitting 

variances, alternate standards, and hazard reports necessary for NASA’s 

crew transportation system certification efforts.

• Boeing conducted modifications to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s 

Launch Pad 41 and performed several wind tunnel and landing tests.

• SpaceX completed its delta CDR, a key milestone in integrated crew 

transportation design process.

• Both partners have begun manufacturing qualification hardware as well 

as the flight systems they will use for their ISS demonstration missions.

Through the CCP, NASA is ensuring that the Agency’s commercial partners’ 

crew transportation systems are safe, reliable, and cost-effective. The certification 

process assesses progress throughout the production and testing of the partners’ 

systems, which include the launch vehicle, the spacecraft, and ground operations.

Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities

The objective of the Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities (CCSC) 

is to advance private-sector entrepreneurial space activities. All CCSC partners 

continue making technical and programmatic progress in maturing their respective 

commercial space capabilities.

Advanced Exploration Systems

The Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Division is pioneering new ways to 

rapidly develop prototype systems, demonstrate key capabilities, and validate operational concepts to reduce the risk and cost of future human exploration missions. 
11National Aeronautics and Space Administration

In FY 2016, the AES Division continued the successful execution of 28 research 

and technology development activities employing 451 civil servants spread across 

all NASA Centers. In FY 2016, AES had a goal to complete at least 80 percent of 

the 66 annual milestones. The team accomplished 47 milestones (71 percent) on 

schedule and with the available resources. The remaining milestones either were 

delayed or could not be accomplished due to budget reductions, dependencies on 

other programs, or technical issues.

In May 2016, the BEAM was deployed on the ISS. BEAM was developed in 

partnership with Bigelow Aerospace, and it is demonstrating inflatable structures 

technology that could be used for future habitats in cislunar space or in low-Earth 

orbit. During its two-year mission, sensors inside BEAM will characterize structural 

dynamics, orbital debris impacts, temperature, and radiation levels.

AES completed Phase 1 Next Space Technology for Exploration Partnerships 

(NextSTEP) studies with Bigelow Aerospace, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and 

Orbital ATK to define system requirements and design concepts for deep space 

habitats. The Phase 1 partnerships required at least 50 percent cost sharing from 

industry. These initial studies helped the companies formulate their proposals for 

Phase 2.

In April 2016, NASA issued a second NextSTEP Broad Agency Announcement 

to provide an opportunity for additional partners to develop full-scale prototype 

habitats by 2018 for integrated ground testing. In August 2016, Phase 2 habitat 

development partnerships were awarded to the original four Phase 1 companies 

plus Sierra Nevada Corporation and NanoRacks. The Phase 2 partnerships require 

at least 30 percent cost sharing from industry. In Phase 2, NASA, its international partners, and the industry will work together to develop system interface 

and design standards to ensure that habitation elements from different providers 

can be assembled together.

Supporting the NextSTEP commercial partnerships are internal AES activities that are developing technologies for life-support systems, radiation protection, 

logistics reduction, avionics and software, autonomous mission operations, and 

spacecraft fire safety.

The AES Life Support Systems activity completed the Systems Design Review 

for the Spacecraft Atmosphere Monitor that will detect contaminants in the air 
12Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

inside the ISS. The project also delivered an Aerosol Sampler for launch to the ISS 

to detect small particles in the air.

Under the NextSTEP Life Support Systems activity, Orbitec built a prototype 

plant growth unit for augmenting conventional life-support systems in a habitat, 

and United Technology Aerospace Systems developed a modular life-support systems architecture.

In June 2016, AES conducted the Saffire-I spacecraft fire safety experiment on 

board the Cygnus vehicle to investigate the spread of large fires in microgravity. 

The experiment ignited a representative material sample and recorded the spread 

of the flame on video. It was found that the flame spread slower than predicted. 

The Saffire-II experiment that will investigate the flammability of different materials launched in October 2016.

The AES Radiation Sensors activity delivered a Fast Neutron Spectrometer for 

launch to the ISS. This instrument will measure the secondary neutrons that are 

generated when charged particles collide with the spacecraft structure. In addition, 

the CDR for the radiation detectors that will be flown on EM-1 was completed.

AES’s Autonomous Systems and Operations activity demonstrated software to 

automate the powering up of an EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments for Space 

Station (EXPRESS) rack on the ISS, which will reduce the crew time needed for 

routine operations.

The AES Avionics and Software activity conducted a mission simulation of 

Orion docking with a deep space habitat using an integrated avionics, power, and 

communications architecture.

AES installed Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) software on the ISS to 

improve the efficiency of space-to-ground communications and began interoperability testing between the Korea Aerospace Research Institute and the DTN 

Engineering Network.

The AES Logistics Reduction activity installed a repurposed Multi-Purpose 

Cargo Transfer Bag around the treadmill on the ISS to provide acoustic insulation. 

AES also delivered radio-frequency identification tag readers to track and autonomously manage inventory on the ISS.
13National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The AES In-Space Manufacturing activity completed the fabrication of an inspace recycler that will produce feedstock for a 3D printer from discarded plastic 

parts and trash.

The AES Synthetic Biology Applications activity demonstrated that yeast cells 

can be genetically engineered to produce the bionutrients that astronauts will need 

on long-duration missions.

AES is pursuing robotic precursor missions to characterize the environments, 

the hazards, and the availability of resources on the moon, near-Earth asteroids, 

and Mars in preparation for future human exploration.

Working with NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and Space 

Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), AES developed preliminary designs 

for three payloads on the Mars 2020 rover to address strategic knowledge gaps for 

human exploration. The Mars Oxygen In Situ Resource Utilization Experiment 

(MOXIE) will demonstrate the production of oxygen from the Martian atmosphere 

to enable in situ propellant production for future human missions. The Mars 

Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) is a surface weather station that will 

measure temperature, pressure, winds, and dust to characterize the environmental conditions that may be encountered by human explorers. Both MOXIE and 

MEDA completed their Preliminary Design Reviews. In addition, AES is re-flying 

the Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation (MEDLI) experiment to 

further characterize the entry environment for future landings on Mars by robotic 

and human missions. The MEDLI-2 project completed arcjet testing of the thermal 

protection system with embedded temperature and pressure sensors.

AES continued the development of three CubeSats that will be launched as secondary payloads on EM-1. The payloads include BioSentinel, which will investigate 

the effects of deep space radiation on yeast DNA; the Lunar Flashlight, which will 

search for volatiles in shadowed craters on the moon; and the Near-Earth Asteroid 

(NEA) Scout, which will use a solar sail to fly by an asteroid. BioSentinel completed its CDR, and the Lunar Flashlight and NEA Scout completed their initial 

safety reviews and design reviews.

AES’s Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown (Lunar 

CATALYST) activity continued to work with three commercial partners to 

develop lunar landers for delivering small payloads. NASA is providing engineering 
14Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

expertise, test facilities, software, and loaned hardware to the partners. In 2016, 

Moon Express completed its Preliminary Design Review and received a favorable 

payload determination from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The AES Resource Prospector continued mission-formulation activities this 

year. AES completed a six-month study with Taiwan to develop design concepts for the Resource Prospector lander and conducted environmental tests of 

major subsystems.

In September 2016, AES issued an Announcement of Opportunity for an 

instrument to be hosted on the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter to measure 

lunar volatiles.

Under the NextSTEP Advanced Propulsion activity, Ad Astra Rocket Company 

assembled subsystems and upgraded test facilities to prepare for the testing of a 

Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR). MSNW demonstrated pulsed operation of a plasma thruster.

AES matured the Evolvable Mars Campaign (EMC) series of human exploration 

architecture studies beyond encompassing the capabilities of the ISS, Orion, SLS, 

cislunar habitation, and Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) to include a broader 

scope with Agency-wide participation and cooperative Mars mission planning with 

the SMD. The campaign included the analysis of capabilities realized through the 

NextSTEP habitation and life-support systems studies, along with emerging cislunar habitation plans of our international partners. The EMC cislunar habitation 

concepts focused on future architectures reflecting ongoing technology investments and commercial capabilities at minimum cost and risk for human spaceflight 

missions with maximum benefits for human exploration.

Launch Services

During FY 2016, the Launch Services Program (LSP) successfully launched two 

major science missions: Jason-3 and the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource 

Identification, Security–Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx). Jason-3 successfully 

launched on January 17, 2016, aboard a Falcon 9 version 1.1 rocket from Vandenberg 

Air Force Base in California. Prior to conducting the Jason-3 launch, SpaceX had 

experienced a launch failure on the 14th flight of the Falcon 9 version 1.1 launch 
15National Aeronautics and Space Administration

vehicle during a cargo resupply mission to the ISS on June 28, 2015. In addition 

to participating as part of the SpaceX Accident Investigation Team (AIT), LSP 

conducted its own independent review of the launch failure and was designated 

the Agency’s lead to perform this function. The investigation ran from July 2015 to 

November 2015 and resulted in the successful return to flight of the Falcon 9 version 1.1 launch vehicle for Jason-3. OSIRIS-REx launched on September 8, 2016, 

aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in 

Florida. The LSP also continued to provide launch-related systems engineering, 

launch integration, and mission design and analysis support to over 40 NASAsponsored missions in various phases of development. To learn more about these 

and other NASA science missions, see the Science Mission Directorate section in 

this report.

The LSP continued its efforts to expand the selection of launch vehicles, working across the launch-vehicle industry to support the continued growth of the U.S. 

commercial space sector by offering competitive opportunities to U.S. commercial 

launch providers. In FY 2016, the program acquired launch services for one communications satellite and one future science mission: the Tracking and Data Relay 

Satellite (TDRS) M and Mars 2020. TDRS-M and Mars 2020 will both launch on 

United Launch Services’ Atlas V rockets from CCAFS in Florida.

NASA and LSP also partnered with several universities to launch small 

research satellites through the Educational Launch of Nanosatellites project and 

the CubeSat Launch Initiative, which provides rideshare opportunities for smallsatellite payloads to fly on upcoming launches when space is available. These 

partnerships provide educational opportunities for students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines, thereby strengthening the Nation’s 

future workforce. In addition, as CubeSats continue to play an increasingly larger 

role at NASA, LSP also awarded multiple Venture Class Launch Service (VCLS) 

contracts designed to create an alternative to the current rideshare approach and 

to foster a commercial launch market dedicated solely to flying small-satellite payloads. In FY 2016, VCLS contracts were awarded to Firefly Space Systems, Inc.; 

Rocket Lab USA; and Virgin Galactic, LLC, with the first demonstration launch 

scheduled for summer 2017. To date, CubeSats have been selected from 32 states 

across the United States, with 46 missions launched and 56 manifested on NASA, 
16Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

National Reconnaissance Office, U.S. Air Force, and commercial missions. LSP is 

also conducting certification efforts for United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy 

and SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Full Thrust launch vehicles.

Lastly, LSP participated in SpaceX’s investigation of the on-pad explosion that 

occurred on September 1, 2016, at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at CCAFS 

in Florida during propellant loading of the Falcon 9 Full Thrust launch vehicle 

variant. The vehicle was being prepared for an on-pad engine test when the vehicle 

explosion occurred. While this accident did not occur in preparation for a NASA 

launch, the Agency wants to understand the incident and any design or procedure 

changes SpaceX elects to make before committing NASA payloads to fly on future 

Falcon 9 vehicles. LSP was a member of the SpaceX AIT and is also conducting its 

own independent review of the accident.

Human Spaceflight Capabilities

By the end of FY 2016, the Rocket Propulsion Test (RPT) Program had safely 

performed 540 tests. Test time totaled over 152,388 seconds, with more than 15,538 

seconds of hot fire testing at various levels of thrust. This represents a 20 percent increase in testing and a 30 percent increase in test duration from FY 2015. 

During this period, the test facilities had three facility-caused test delays resulting in a 99.4 percent facility readiness, far exceeding the 90 percent RPT Annual 

Performance Indicator.

In FY 2016, Stennis Space Center (SSC) had several test programs under way, 

including RS-25 in support of the SLS Program, as well as flight certification testing for the Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-68 engine in support of the United States Air 

Force (USAF) and United Launch Alliance (ULA). Development testing continued for NASA’s Morpheus lander, as well as subscale testing of the SpaceX Raptor 

engine. Refurbishment and repair activities continued on the restoration of the 

B-2 test stand for SLS core-stage testing; and other critical enabling infrastructure, 

such as replacing both the B leg and the A leg of the high-pressure industrial water 

system, were completed.

In 2016, there were several facility preparation activities under way to support multiple Aerojet Rocketdyne development activities, to include facility 
17National Aeronautics and Space Administration

modifications and structural test equipment (STE) development in E-1 Cell 1 supporting AR-1 Full-scale liquid oxygen (LOX)/refined propellant (Rp) Battleship 

Pre-burner testing. Additionally, there were preliminary engineering and design 

activities under way on A-2 in support of the AR-1 Engine System testing.

Other activities at SSC included the buildup of systems in the E-Complex 

required to support the joint Department of Defense (DOD)–NASA hydrocarbon 

boost program and the Aerojet Rocketdyne Liquid Oxygen (LOX) and Refined 

Petroleum (Rp) development program. USAF and NASA Advanced Booster 

Engineering Demonstration and/or Risk Reduction (ABEDRR)/Hydrocarbon 

Boost development activities, facility modifications, and STE development are 

under way on E-1 Cell 1 supporting the joint Hydrocarbon Boost testing. The 

facility’s ready date and test article delivery are scheduled for October 2017; the 

testing schedule was still to be determined at the time of preparing this report. 

Additionally, facility preparations are under way at E-1 Cell 3 for the SpaceX Full 

Scale Raptor component.

Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) continued testing engine components 

manufactured using advanced technologies, including components built using 

select laser melting. In addition to testing the components manufactured using 

advanced technologies, MSFC tested articles using LOX, liquid methane (LCH4), 

and new LOX Rp combustion techniques.

White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) continued the buildup and preparation of 

Test Stand 301 to support testing of the Orion ESA Service Module (SM) and 

began construction activities on Test Stand 301A to support the Boeing Company’s 

CST-100 crew abort system and SM testing. In addition to the two SM programs, 

WSTF also provided test support for Boeing, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), 

the USAF Minuteman, and the USAF Peacekeeper demilitarization.

Additionally in 2016, preparations were under way at WSTF to support the 

Commercial Crew Program for acceptance-testing the Launch Abort Engines (LAEs), 

Orbital Maneuvering Attitude Control (OMAC), and Reaction Control System 

(RCS) thrusters. TS-406 is being reactivated to support the RCS thrusters. TS-401 

will be utilized for the OMAC thrusters. TS 301-A will be used for LAE testing.

At Glenn Research Center in 2016, the activation of the Altitude Combustion 

Stand (ACS) to perform small in-space chemical propulsion development testing 
18Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

was completed. In July 2016, oxygen/methane igniter tests for Lander Technologies 

were successfully conducted.

At Plum Brook Station, preparations were under way for a B-2 characterization 

test using auxiliary injectors to pull the test-and-spray chamber to altitude and fire 

a small thruster (Morpheus Engine) for a limited time. The characterization test 

will include engine firings at ambient and simulated space environments.

The Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) was aimed at progressing certain technologies and capabilities needed for deep space exploration. ARM is led by the 

Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) in partnership 

with the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) and the Science Mission 

Directorate, leveraging the cross–Mission Directorate strengths of the Agency.

The plan for the robotic spacecraft was to use advanced solar electric propulsion 

(SEP). An electric propulsion team for STMD, led by GRC, continues certain technology development efforts. Specific work included solar-array systems technology 

development and testing, as well as wear and environmental testing of technology 

demonstration units of Hall effect thrusters with magnetic shielding. A contract for 

a commercial provider of the flight electric propulsion system to be demonstrated 

by NASA on the Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM) was awarded to 

Aerojet Rocketdyne in April 2016.

• A Standing Review Board was chartered to provide an independent 

review of the ARRM, including a cost and schedule assessment, to support an approval gate for the second phase of project formulation, Phase 

B. After successfully passing Key Decision Point (KDP)-B on July 15, 2016, 

the ARRM project received authorization to transition from Phase A to 

Phase B activities.

• Competitively selected spacecraft design studies were awarded to four 

commercial spacecraft bus subcontractors. The selected contractors, 

Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK, and Space Systems Loral, completed their studies in June 2016. These results were used to inform KDP-B 

and subsequent spacecraft procurement. The Request for Proposal for 

Phase 2 procurement of the ARRM spacecraft bus was then released by 

the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to the four Phase 1 spacecraft bus 

study subcontractors in September. Spacecraft bus vendor selection is 

presently on hold depending on the future plans for ARRM technology.
19National Aeronautics and Space Administration

ARM had also been engaged with potential strategic international partners. 

ARM entered into a study agreement with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) in 

FY 2016 to identify the feasibility of potential collaboration on ARRM. Discussions 

on potential collaboration were also held with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) 

and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The work from these partnerships will be redirected to other areas. As part of the NASA FY 2018 budget, 

ARM activities will no longer be continued. The work from ARM will be redirected to a power and propulsion bus as part of NASA’s deep space infrastructure.

Space Communications and Navigation

The Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program manages and 

operates NASA’s space communications and tracking capabilities, which are 

required for successful crewed and robotic spaceflight launches and missions, both 

for NASA and for other Government agencies. SCaN provides a critical lifeline 

to astronauts and spacecraft; it uploads commands and essential crew instructions, 

retrieves health and safety and science data from spacecraft, and sends the data to 

individual mission control centers.

In FY 2016, SCaN remained focused on the critical sustainability and development of the ground and space components of the networks that provide space communications for NASA’s missions. The three networks—the Near Earth Network 

(NEN), the Space Network (SN) Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System 

(TDRSS), and the Deep Space Network (DSN)—continued to meet the space 

communications needs, such as Earth monitoring and support of deep space science missions, of a wide range of customers, both internal and external to NASA. 

SCaN continued to surpass its requirement of 95 percent proficiency with at least 

99 percent proficiency in all of its networks, providing communication and navigation services to all science and human missions.

During FY 2016, SCaN networks provided over 178,000 hours of tracking and 

more than 160,000 passes, as well as launch and early-orbit telemetry, tracking, and 

communication (TT&C) services to 26 Expendable Launch Vehicle (ELV), human 

spaceflight, and robotic missions.

As part of sustainment activity, SCaN initiated the preparation of the TDRS-M 

spacecraft for launch and coordinated with the Launch Services Program for an 
20Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

August 2017 launch. Significant progress was made in the SN Ground Sustainment 

System project in the areas of coding, hardware integration, and testing. SCaN is 

continuing to address the cost and schedule challenges encountered in this major 

ground system upgrade activity.

SCaN continued to replenish networks to resolve ongoing obsolescence and to 

modernize the operational equipment. The program installed new antennas and 

radomes for the Launch Communications Stations (LCS) at Ponce de Leon (PDL) 

and Kennedy Uplink Station (KUS) in Florida in preparation for the Explorationclass missions and SN enhancements for EM-1 in advance of end-to-end testing 

with the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV). SCaN completed one 34-meter 

antenna (DSS-36) at the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex in 

Australia. Also, contracts were awarded and excavation has begun for two new 

34-meter antennas at the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex in Spain.

The SCaN Program has been developing and demonstrating optical communication technology through space with a long-term vision to operationalize such 

technology. This technology can increase data rates by an order of magnitude 

with lower spacecraft burden (mass, power, and volume) than the current radiofrequency-based systems. Due to its lower burden, it can also be applied in smallsat 

and nanosat applications. SCaN successfully completed CDRs for two Optical 

Ground Stations (OGSes)—OGS-1 at JPL and OGS-2 in Hawaii—and started 

implementation at both sites. SCaN secured an agreement with JAXA, France’s 

Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), and Japan’s National Institute of 

Information and Communications Technology (NICT) to cooperate in developing 

a high-data-rate optical communications recommendation by spring 2017.

SCaN Spectrum Management continued to work with the White House, 

Congress, national regulators, and interagency partners in implementing the 

President’s Broadband Initiative. As part of the State Department–led U.S. delegation to the World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 in Geneva, Switzerland, 

NASA successfully negotiated U.S. proposals on spectrum issues of interest and 

concern to NASA.

The development of space communication standards is critical for effective 

space communication. The SCaN Data Standard Project engages in an international organization known as the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems 
21National Aeronautics and Space Administration

(CCSDS) to create space communication data standards. CCSDS was formed in 

1982 by the major space agencies of the world to provide a forum for the discussion of common problems in the development and operation of space data systems. 

Space communications data standards enable the world’s space agencies to provide 

cross support to each other and hence eliminate the need for each to build and 

deploy its own space and ground assets. Eliminating the need for additional space 

relay satellites or ground stations translates into hundreds of millions of dollars 

in savings for NASA without reducing services and coverage to space missions. 

In 2016, SCaN engineers led CCSDS working groups in completing many new 

standards and made substantial progress through leading the new working group 

chartered to develop standards for optical communications.

SCaN continued in its role as the Executive Director of the National SpaceBased Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board, an august body 

of PNT experts from within industry and the international community. On behalf 

of the Agency, SCaN is leading the national effort to develop a Space Service 

Volume capacity for the Global Positioning System (GPS), which will enable the 

use of the side lobes of the GPS signal for beyond-low-Earth-orbit PNT services.

Science Mission Directorate

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) is driven by scientific questions 

about Earth, the sun, the solar system, and the universe. SMD manages an interconnected program, where discoveries in one scientific area can be directly related 

to other areas of study. Together with the Joint Agency Satellite Division (JASD) 

and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) program office, the four SMD 

research divisions provide the Nation with groundbreaking discoveries, innovative 

methods, and positive impacts across Earth and space science.

In FY 2016, NASA maintained a fleet of Earth-observing satellites and airborne 

assets that provided critical information to improve our understanding of severe 

weather events, natural disasters, and Earth’s changing climate. The Agency 

launched the Jason-3 satellite on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration (NOAA), the French Space Agency (Centre National d’Études 

Spatiales, or CNES), and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of 
22Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) to monitor global sea level and provide 

new data on cloud cover and aerosols. NASA’s Heliophysics Division provided daily 

imagery of the sun and collected new data to improve our understanding of solar 

phenomena in deep space and on Earth. It was an exciting year for the Planetary 

Science Division (PSD), with the arrival of the Juno mission at Jupiter, as well as 

new discoveries announced based on missions to Pluto, Saturn, and elsewhere. 

NASA continued to make exciting new discoveries with its three great astrophysics 

observatories: the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and 

the Spitzer Space Telescope. The JWST, the next great observatory in this illustrious line, continues integration and testing in preparation for a 2018 launch.

Earth Science Division

Earth is a complex, interconnected system changing on a variety of spatial and 

temporal scales in ways that impact everyday life, yet it is a system that we do not 

fully understand. NASA seeks to understand the following key science questions: 

How is the global Earth system changing? What causes these changes in the Earth 

system? How will the Earth system change in the future? How can Earth system 

science provide societal benefits? NASA’s Earth Science Division (ESD) conducts 

a wide range of satellite and suborbital missions to observe Earth’s land surface 

and interior, biosphere, atmosphere, cryosphere, and oceans as part of a program 

to improve understanding of Earth as an integrated system. Environmental data 

products derived from these observations are used in resource management as well 

as for a range of societal applications, including weather forecasts, climate projections, sea-level change, water management, disease early warning, agricultural 

production, and the response to natural disasters.

Several operational missions continue to collect data to better understand 

changes in the environment. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) 

measures carbon dioxide from the top of Earth’s atmosphere to its surface, and 

scientists have been able to use data from the spacecraft to study both carbon 

emissions and carbon absorption worldwide. Scientists use measurements from 

the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua 

satellite to better understand trends in water and ice, showing, for example, that 
23National Aeronautics and Space Administration

blooms of phytoplankton are becoming common around Greenland’s coast as glacial meltwater delivers nutrients to coastal waters. NASA’s Terra satellite revealed 

a growing rift along the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica, an event similar to that 

seen before the collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf in 2002. The Global Precipitation 

Measurement (GPM) mission, a joint mission between NASA and JAXA, monitors 

rainfall and severe storms across the globe.

Airborne campaigns have also made important contributions in the past year. 

The Atmospheric Carbon and Transport–America (ACT-America) campaign 

focused on the movement of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere. The 

Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) airborne mission made detailed measurements of 

atmospheric chemistry that are difficult or impossible to make from space. NASA’s 

ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS (ORACLES) mission flew along the coast of Namibia to observe how tiny aerosol particles interact 

with clouds. The COral Reef Airborne Laboratory (CORAL) examined the condition of coral reefs, creating a database of uniform scale and quality.

In July 2016, NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development 

(USAID) opened a new environmental monitoring program in West Africa to 

enhance the role of space-based observations in the management of environmental 

issues facing the world today. SERVIR1–West Africa, based in Niamey, Niger, is one 

of four NASA-USAID–sponsored centers operating in developing regions of the 

world. The SERVIR centers, which together serve more than 40 countries, allow 

scientists and decision makers to use publicly available data from space to manage a 

variety of critical regional issues, including food security, water resources, land-use 

change, and natural disasters. SERVIR was developed in coordination with the 

Group on Earth Observations, an alliance of more than 100 nations and organizations collaborating to build a global Earth-observing system.

ESD is also making steady progress in the development of new systems that will 

provide further insight into key scientific questions. The formulation phase for 

Landsat 9 was initiated with the goal of extending to half a century the Landsat 

program’s record of continuous land-image collection. IceSat-2 and the Gravity 

Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Follow On missions—the latter a 

1 See https://www.servirglobal.net/#aboutservir for a description.
24Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

partnership with Germany—are both planned to launch in FY 2018. Both met 

important milestones in the assembly and testing of flight hardware, in preparation 

for missions contributing to our understanding of changes in Earth’s cryosphere 

and hydrosphere. The Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS), 

which launched on December 16, 2016, consists of eight small satellites that will 

make frequent and accurate measurements of ocean surface winds throughout 

the life cycle of tropical storms and hurricanes. Through this mission, NASA is 

demonstrating the potential of small satellites to contribute to important science 

goals. In addition to supporting small-satellite missions, NASA has made strategic 

investments in three Venture Class Launch Services companies, contracting for 

launch services designed to provide small satellites with access to low-Earth orbit.

Technology developments funded by ESD are enabling new capabilities to 

help scientists understand our home planet. For example, the ozone Differential 

Absorption Lidar (DIAL) instrument—a compact airborne lidar (light detection 

and ranging) that measures high-accuracy profiles of ozone while also providing 

aerosol and cloud data—was deployed in August 2016 to support a five-year investigation to study the impacts of African biomass burning. ESD is also making strides 

in developing new instruments for potential use on upcoming space missions. A 

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Sounder Lidar instrument employs a new type of laser system that will enable the collection of global carbon dioxide measurements around 

the clock—a capability that is not possible with existing space instruments.

NASA uses the vantage point of space to increase our understanding of our 

home planet, improve lives, and safeguard our future. The scientific discoveries 

enabled by NASA’s Earth Science missions in FY 2016 have improved our understanding of our home planet.

NASA Researchers Improve Hazardous Weather Forecasts

Forecasters have known for years that anvil clouds indicate thunderstorms, but 

anvil tops can be miles wide, and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish where 

within those clouds hazardous weather may be occurring. NASA scientists and 

engineers are combining satellite images with novel algorithms to identify the most 

intense areas of these storms—areas where clouds extend above the flat top of the 

anvil. With this method, they can identify where severe winds, hail, or tornadoes 
25National Aeronautics and Space Administration

are most likely to occur within storm clouds. This information could help save 

lives in areas of the world, including the Plains and Midwest regions of the United 

States, where thunderstorms and tornados kill dozens of people every year. It can 

also be used by aircraft pilots wishing to avoid hazardous zones and insurance companies interested in identifying high-risk areas.

NASA Monitors Rainfall in U.S. Storms and Floods

When Tropical Depression Bonnie swept through the southern United States 

over Memorial Day weekend in 2016, it caused major flooding in Texas and 

Oklahoma, as well as soaking rains in South Carolina. Total rainfall estimates 

were made by NASA’s Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG), 

which relies on NASA and JAXA’s Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) 

satellite and other U.S. and international satellites. Estimates provided by IMERG 

help forecasters to better understand the extent of storms and can aid in recovery efforts and future predictions. IMERG estimates have been used to analyze 

storms throughout the United States, including most recently in Florida, Georgia, 

Louisiana, North Carolina, and New York.

NASA Observations Used to Track Groundwater in Pakistan

Farmers all over the world rely on irrigation systems to maintain their crops, 

but population booms and urbanization in recent decades have begun to deplete 

critical underground reservoirs in places like Pakistan. After receiving training, the 

Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources began using data from NASA’s 

Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission in January 2016 to 

create monthly updates on groundwater storage changes in the Indus River basin. 

GRACE maps tiny variations in Earth’s gravity, and since water has mass, it affects 

these measurements. This allows scientists in the United States and other countries to use GRACE data to monitor where water is and how it changes over time, 

providing estimates of the total amount of available water. Using satellites to gather 

these data can provide significant benefits in terms of cost and efficiency compared 

to ground-based monitoring.
26Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

New Seafloor Map Helps Scientists Find New Features

An international scientific team developed a new satellite-based map of the 

global ocean floor with unprecedented spatial detail and coverage. The map was 

constructed using data from the Jason-1 satellite, which was jointly developed by 

NASA and CNES, and ESA’s CryoSat-2 satellite, as well as satellite missions flown 

in the 1980s and 1990s. These satellites provided data on Earth’s gravity field as 

well as measurements of the height of the sea surface. Seafloor maps such as these 

are helpful to prospectors scouting for oil, gas, and mineral resources. They also 

help submariners and ship captains to navigate more safely, particularly in previously uncharted areas.

NASA Satellite Data Help Reduce Flights Sidelined by Volcanic Eruptions

Airborne ash particles from erupting volcanoes pose a significant danger to airline traffic. Suspected ash plumes often lead to flight cancellations and lengthy 

diversions. NASA researchers have improved the accuracy of volcanic ash forecasts by using satellite measurements of sulfur dioxide, a main component of 

volcanic emissions, coupled with satellite measurements of volcanic aerosols. The 

ash and sulfur dioxide observations are acquired by the Ozone Mapping Profiler 

Suite (OMPS) instrument flying on the joint NASA/NOAA/Department of 

Defense (DOD) Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite. 

Researchers are helping the worldwide network of Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers 

to routinely incorporate the satellite-based plume data into operational ash estimates and forecast products for commercial aviation.

Joint Agency Satellite Division

In addition to its own Earth observation satellites, NASA also develops and 

launches satellites on behalf of NOAA on a reimbursable basis through the Joint 

Agency Satellite Division (JASD). Descriptions of these satellite programs can be 

found in the Department of Commerce chapter of this report.
27National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Heliophysics Division

We live in the extended atmosphere of a dynamic, active star. Our sun helps 

drive a continually changing magnetic and radiation system that surrounds it, 

Earth, and the planets—and also can affect astronauts and technology in space. It 

is the job of NASA’s Heliophysics Division to study the nature of this star and its 

effects on the space environment, including the effects of space weather near Earth, 

which can impact radio communications systems, GPS accuracy, and power grids.

Heliophysics supports NASA’s drive to explore: studying this complex system 

that connects the sun and the space environment helps us improve our ability to 

protect missions and astronauts from the hazards of space radiation. Additionally, 

heliophysics research provides insight into fundamental science throughout the 

universe. It can, for example, teach us more about the forces that forged the planets 

in our solar system and therefore help us better understand planetary evolution 

throughout the galaxy as we search for habitable planets.

Mapping out this interconnected system of sun and space requires a holistic 

study of the sun’s connection to Earth and other planets at both small and large 

scales. To support this work, NASA’s heliophysics missions seek to answer three 

key questions: What causes the sun to vary? How do Earth, the planets, and the 

heliosphere respond? What are the impacts on humanity?

An array of heliophysics missions provide key information to help solve these 

mysteries. NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), with more than 

20 years in space, and Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which launched in 

2010, continue to provide real-time images of the sun in multiple wavelengths, 

allowing scientists to examine trends in solar dynamics. Hinode, another sunwatching mission that provides nearly nonstop images of the sun, was developed 

in collaboration with JAXA and recently celebrated 10 years in orbit. Together 

with another NASA mission, the Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory 

(STEREO), these spacecraft allowed NASA to detect a solar flare from three different observatories simultaneously, providing the most comprehensive observations ever collected of a phenomenon called a current sheet: a very fast, very flat 

flow of electrically charged material that plays a crucial role in scientists’ models 

of solar flares. NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, which consists 
28Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

of four identical spacecraft that orbit Earth, has been in space since 2014 and has 

provided important information on a phenomenon called magnetic reconnection, 

a fundamental process that initiates eruptions on the sun and produces auroras in 

the night sky. MMS studies magnetic reconnection in near-Earth space—the only 

place where we can study it up close—but what we learn from MMS in near-Earth 

space helps us understand the process throughout the universe, such as at other 

stars or the boundaries of black holes. It even plays a role in fusion energy research, 

as magnetic reconnection sometimes occurs in nuclear fusion chambers.

Findings based on observations from NASA’s Van Allen Probes have revealed 

that the ring current—an electrical current carried by energetic ions that encircles 

our planet—behaves in a much different way than previously understood. The 

Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission provided new information about 

how our heliosphere, the magnetic bubble in which our sun and planets reside, 

interacts with interstellar space. Heliophysics uses high-altitude balloons for its 

research as well. Its Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses 

(BARREL) campaign, consisting of numerous research balloons, mapped for the 

first time how a solar storm caused Earth’s magnetic field to shift and move.

A fleet of 17 solar, heliospheric, geospace, and planetary spacecraft operate 

simultaneously to help us understand the solar dynamics of the solar system. This 

fleet can be thought of as a single Heliophysics System Observatory. Experience 

has demonstrated that combinations of these missions enable larger-scale investigations that would not have been possible with one mission on its own. This 

distributed observatory has flexibility and capabilities that evolve with each new 

mission launched. Knowledge, data, and new interpretive models facilitate the path 

toward new scientific understanding.

New heliophysics missions currently being developed promise to further improve 

our understanding of the sun and its effects. Solar Probe Plus (SPP), scheduled for 

launch in 2018, is currently undergoing integration and testing. The spacecraft will 

get closer to the sun than any spacecraft has before, flying through the sun’s outer 

atmosphere, or corona. The NASA and ESA Solar Orbiter collaboration mission 

will launch in 2018 and will provide better images of the regions around the sun’s 

poles than have ever been captured before. Heliophysics is also embracing medium 

and small space missions that can provide important contributions to science. Both 

the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) and the Global-scale Observations 
29National Aeronautics and Space Administration

of Limb and Disk (GOLD) are scheduled to launch in 2017 to study Earth’s thermosphere and ionosphere. GOLD will do so from geostationary orbit and as the 

first NASA science payload hosted on a commercial satellite. Another mission, the 

CubeSat to study Solar Particles (CuSP), will launch on NASA’s Space Launch 

System (SLS) and be one of the first CubeSats to travel in interplanetary space.

The Heliophysics Division is sponsoring several technology projects that will 

lead to greater understanding of the sun and its interaction with Earth. For example, a new carbon composite heat shield has been developed to protect the SPP 

mission, which will need to withstand temperatures that reach nearly 2,500 degrees 

Fahrenheit—but keep the spacecraft’s payload operating at room temperature. In 

addition, the CuSP mission will test the possibility of creating a cost-effective network of space science stations out of a number of similar small satellites.

The sun is most often thought of as a source of light and energy, but it affects 

Earth and space in so many more ways. Throughout our solar system, the space 

environment is dominated by activity on the sun. By providing insight into the 

fundamental dynamics and nature of the sun and its effects on our solar system, 

NASA’s Heliophysics program improves our understanding of our star while providing important information for people as well as for systems on Earth and in space.

NASA Directly Observes Fundamental Process of Nature for First Time

NASA’s MMS mission directly observed magnetic reconnection for the first 

time, providing a better understanding of a phenomenon that is one of the prime 

drivers of space radiation. The phenomenon can vary significantly, from an explosive reconnection that sends particles hurtling off at nearly the speed of light to 

a more slow and steady reconnection. New measurements made possible by MMS 

showed that magnetic reconnection is dominated by the physics of electrons. This 

new information can help to better protect spacecraft and astronauts as they travel 

farther from Earth.

Irregularities in Earth’s Ionosphere Cause GPS Signals to “Twinkle” Like Stars

Scientists found that instabilities in the ionosphere peak twice—once at sunset 

and again in the middle of the night—rather than once, as previously believed. 

Further, they found that the second peak varies by season and is most pronounced 

from June through August. These irregularities cause radio signals, including those 
30Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

used by the GPS system, to brighten and fade, reaching Earth at unpredictable 

times, degrading accuracy. Researchers still have many questions about the ionosphere and how it can affect GPS and other satellite systems, some of which they 

hope to answer with the upcoming ICON mission, scheduled to launch in 2017.

Images from Sun’s Edge Reveal Origins of Solar Wind

NASA scientists used the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory to gather the 

first image of the edge of the sun to describe how the solar wind starts. Scientists 

found that the solar plasma shoots out from the sun as water does from a squirt gun, 

where water begins as a smoother and unified stream, but eventually breaks up into 

droplets, then smaller drops, and eventually into a fine, misty spray. In the case 

of solar plasma, scientists found that as one moves out from the center of the sun, 

the magnetic field strength drops faster than the pressure of the material, so the 

material begins to act more like a gas than like a magnetically structured plasma. 

The unique STEREO images captured the plasma in this early stage—equivalent 

to the disintegration of a steady stream of water into droplets.

NASA’s THEMIS Sees Auroras Move to the Rhythm of Earth’s Magnetic Field

Using data from NASA’s Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions 

during Substorms (THEMIS), a five-spacecraft mission dedicated to understanding the process behind auroras, scientists now have a better understanding of why 

auroras move the way they do. Scientists observed Earth’s vibrating magnetic 

field in relation to the northern lights dancing in the night sky over Canada with 

both THEMIS and ground-based magnetic sensors and cameras, allowing them 

to directly link specific disturbances in Earth’s magnetosphere with a magnetic 

response on the ground. They found that the aurora moved in harmony with the 

vibrating field line.

Solar Storms May Have Been Key to Life on Earth

A group of NASA researchers found that powerful solar explosions may have 

provided the crucial energy needed to warm Earth and turn simple molecules into 

the complex molecules, such as RNA and DNA, that are necessary for life. About 

four billion years ago, our sun shone with only about three-quarters the brightness 
31National Aeronautics and Space Administration

we see today and Earth received only about 70 percent of the energy from the 

sun that it does today, an amount that would have left the planet covered in ice. 

Using data from NASA’s Kepler mission, scientists found that stars that resemble 

our sun the way it was a few million years after its birth have up to 10 daily “superflares”—enormous explosions so rare today that we experience them only once 

every 100 years or so. Particles from these solar events, together with Earth’s weaker 

magnetic field at the time, provided the warmth needed to allow a liquid ocean and 

changed the atmosphere’s chemistry in a way that made all the difference for life 

on Earth.

Planetary Science Division

NASA’s Planetary Science Division (PSD) continues one of humanity’s oldest 

scientific pursuits: the observation and discovery of our solar system’s planetary 

objects. Planetary science uses flyby and orbiting spacecraft, landers, and rovers, 

and in some cases sample return. NASA advances understanding of our solar system from the innermost planet to the system’s outer edges, providing insight into 

the makeup of planets, moons, comets, and asteroids. Planetary scientists seek to 

understand not only the characteristics of the solar system, but also how this system originated and evolved, whether life ever evolved elsewhere in our solar system, 

and what that knowledge can tell us about the origin of life on Earth.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft entered orbit around Jupiter on July 4, 2016, after an 

almost five-year journey to the solar system’s largest planet. Data collected by the 

spacecraft will provide insight into how Jupiter was born and how the entire solar 

system evolved. NASA’s New Horizons mission, which flew by Pluto in 2015, continued to provide a wealth of discoveries in 2016. For example, scientists have found 

that Pluto may be home to ice volcanoes that were active in the recent geological 

past. After providing surprising evidence of a subsurface ocean on Saturn’s moon 

Enceladus, the Cassini spacecraft made a series of close flybys of the moon in the 

beginning of FY 2016, sampling dust that evidence suggests originated from hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. In October 2016, NASA’s Mars Atmosphere 

and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission completed one Mars year of science 

observations, providing new information about Mars’s atmosphere and climate. In 
32Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

September 2016, NASA launched the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource 

Identification, Security–Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft, which will 

travel two years to reach the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, collect a sample, and 

return it to Earth. The sample will be the largest returned from space since the 

Apollo era and will provide important insights into our understanding of the early 

solar system.

As these spacecraft continue their missions in space, others are being prepared 

for launch. NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and 

Heat Transport (InSight) mission to study the deep interior of Mars is progressing 

toward a 2018 launch. It will be followed two years later by Mars 2020, a rover that 

will investigate a region of Mars where the ancient environment may have been 

favorable for microbial life and probe the Martian rocks for evidence of past life. 

Mars 2020 will also collect samples of soil and rock and store them on the surface 

for potential return to Earth by a future mission. NASA is formulating its flyby 

mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa, which, with its ice-covered ocean containing 

more water than Earth, is widely considered one of the most promising places in 

the solar system for signs of present-day life.

Several technology developments funded by PSD achieved milestones this year 

that will enable future planetary and deep space missions. PSD-sponsored thermoelectric research resulted in the demonstration of advanced thermocouples for 

use in future Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators that are twice as efficient 

as heritage devices. An innovative three-dimensional weaving technique is being 

used to develop a lightweight, yet robust, heat shield to protect future spacecraft 

against the extreme heat encountered upon entry into planetary atmospheres. Two 

newly designed neutron spectrometers will fly on board the CubeSat LunaH-Map 

to help map ice deposits near the Lunar South Pole, which may enable future missions to the moon.

NASA’s Hubble Spots Possible Water Plumes Erupting on Europa

Astronomers used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to capture images of what 

may be water vapor plumes erupting off the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa, bolstering previous Hubble observations that suggested the existence of such plumes. The 

plumes are estimated to rise about 125 miles (200 kilometers) before raining material 
33National Aeronautics and Space Administration

back down onto Europa’s surface. If the plumes exist, it may be possible to sample 

Europa’s ocean by flying through them, rather than drilling through miles of ice.

NASA Mission Reveals Speed of Solar Wind Stripping Martian Atmosphere

Mars once had a thick atmosphere warm enough to support liquid water, but 

this atmosphere has been gradually lost to space via stripping by the solar wind. 

Measurements from NASA’s MAVEN mission showed that this loss increases significantly during solar storms. This suggests that the rate of atmospheric erosion 

may have been much higher billions of years ago, when the sun was younger and 

more active. Understanding how the planet transitioned from one that supports 

liquid water to one that does not is a key question for future deep space missions.

Curiosity Finds Evidence of Mars Crust Contributing to Atmosphere

NASA’s Curiosity rover has found evidence that the surface material on Mars 

has contributed to the chemical makeup of its atmosphere over time, showing that 

processes of atmosphere loss are not the only dynamics at work in Mars’s atmosphere. Scientists used Curiosity’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument to 

carry out mass spectrometry on the surface of another planet for the first time. 

The measurements suggest that interaction with the surface changed the isotopic 

makeup of elements in the atmosphere, particularly xenon and krypton. Better 

understanding the interactions between the Martian atmosphere and crust provides scientists with greater understanding of planetary evolution.

NASA’s Cassini Finds Monstrous Ice Cloud in Titan’s South Polar Region

Scientists using data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft detected a large cloud of 

frozen compounds near the South Pole of Saturn’s moon Titan. The ice cloud was 

detected as Titan transitioned from fall to winter, a season that will last about 

seven and a half years by Earth’s calendar. By studying the size, altitude, and composition of the polar ice clouds, scientists can better understand the nature and 

severity of Titan’s winter. The findings suggest that the onset of southern winter on 

Titan is much more severe than the late stages of winter in Titan’s northern region, 

with temperatures in the South Pole reaching below –238 degrees Fahrenheit (–150 

degrees Celsius).
34Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Pluto’s Widespread Water Ice

One of the surprising results of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto was the 

prevalence of water ice, which was considerably more widespread across Pluto’s surface than expected. Water ice is Pluto’s crustal “bedrock,” with more volatile ices 

creating seasonally changing patterns on top of it. For example, in the informally 

named places called Sputnik Planum (the western region of Pluto’s “heart”) and 

Lowell Regio (far north on the encounter hemisphere), little or no water ice has 

been detected, suggesting it is well hidden beneath a thick blanket of other ices 

such as methane, nitrogen, and carbon monoxide.

Astrophysics Division

NASA’s Astrophysics Division studies the universe—how the universe works, 

how it began, how it evolved, and whether there is life elsewhere in it. To understand these issues, astrophysics missions study the fundamental physics of our 

universe, including the nature of black holes, dark energy, dark matter, and gravity. The Astrophysics Division uses space observatories to examine the origin and 

evolution of galaxies, stars, and planets throughout the universe. Astrophysics also 

undertakes the search for life on planets around other stars, detecting exoplanets 

and determining whether they could harbor life. Astrophysics’ driving questions 

are, how does the universe work; how did we get here; and are we alone?

NASA continues to operate three Great Observatories launched over the past 

25 years: the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the 

Spitzer Space Telescope. Other spacecraft, including the Fermi Gamma-ray Space 

Telescope, the Swift mission, and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array 

(NuSTAR) mission, complement these large programs with more focused objectives. During its primary mission, the Kepler spacecraft detected thousands of 

exoplanet candidates, including ten Earth-like planets orbiting in the habitable 

zones of their host stars. Now in an extended phase of operations, Kepler is taking observations that will complement those to be made by future missions. The 

Astrophysics Division also operates the world’s largest airborne observatory. The 

Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a modified Boeing 

747SP aircraft carrying a large reflecting telescope, can make observations that are 

impossible for even the largest and highest ground-based telescopes.
35National Aeronautics and Space Administration

JWST, which is operated as its own program office within NASA’s Science 

Mission Directorate, is undergoing integration and testing as it nears its 2018 

launch date. Sometimes referred to as the follow-on to the Hubble Space Telescope, 

JWST will include a mirror that is more than double the diameter of the mirror 

on the Hubble Space Telescope, and it will collect data in infrared, rather than 

optical and ultraviolet, wavelengths. These characteristics will allow JWST to see 

more distant objects, gaze further back in time, and peer into dust clouds in which 

stars and planets are forming. JWST will use its infrared capabilities to study every 

phase in the history of our universe, from the creation of the first stars and galaxies, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like 

Earth, and even to the evolution of objects in our own solar system.

In 2016, NASA formally began work on the Wide Field Infrared Survey 

Telescope (WFIRST), which focuses on the nature of dark energy and dark matter 

and explores the evolution of the cosmos. WFIRST could also advance the search 

for worlds outside our solar system that could be suitable for life. WFIRST is scheduled to launch in the mid-2020s. In the meantime, NASA is developing smaller 

astrophysics missions: the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the 

Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), both expected to launch in 

2017. TESS will provide an all-sky survey to identify planets of all sizes orbiting the 

nearest and brightest stars. NICER will study the gravitational, electromagnetic, 

and nuclear-physics structure of neutron stars.

Several technologies developed by the Astrophysics Division made important 

contributions to advance scientific capabilities. A new type of thruster system 

designed to control a spacecraft’s position to within a millionth of a millimeter 

was successfully deployed on board the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) 

Pathfinder mission. NASA’s Balloon Program Office completed the second test 

flight of its Super Pressure Balloon (SPB) in July, setting a new duration record 

for a mid-latitude flight of a large scientific research balloon. An instrument that 

employs newly developed absorber technology—the High-Resolution Airborne 

Wideband Camera-plus (HAWC+)—was installed on SOFIA. In conjunction with 

STMD, SMD is developing the WFIRST Coronagraph, the first high-contrast stellar coronagraph to be used in space. The WFIRST Coronagraph development effort 

progressed significantly in FY 2016, passing a key review and decision milestone.
36Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

NASA’s Hubble Finds Universe Is Expanding Faster Than Expected

A team of scientists used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to monitor the universe’s current expansion rate with unprecedented accuracy. They discovered that 

the universe is expanding five to nine percent faster than expected based on the 

expansion rate predicted for the universe from its trajectory seen shortly after the 

Big Bang and on measurements made by NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy 

Probe (WMAP) and the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite missions. The 

finding may have important implications for improving our understanding of dark 

energy, dark matter, and dark radiation.

Hubble Makes First Atmospheric Study of Earth-Sized Exoplanets

Scientists used the Hubble Space Telescope to reveal clues about the chemical makeup of exoplanet atmospheres. They found that the two exoplanets they 

studied are unlikely to have the hydrogen-dominated atmospheres usually found on 

gaseous worlds, increasing the chances that these planets are habitable. Scientists 

hope to use Hubble to conduct follow-up observations to search for thinner atmospheres, composed of elements heavier than hydrogen, like those of Earth and 

Venus. Observations from future telescopes, including JWST, will help determine 

the full composition of these atmospheres. JWST also will analyze a planet’s temperature and surface pressure—key factors in assessing its habitability.

NASA Telescopes Find Clues for How Giant Black Holes Formed So Quickly

Observations show that the supermassive black holes believed to be at the center 

of many galaxies formed very early—taking shape less than a billion years after 

the start of the universe in the Big Bang. Scientists used data from NASA’s Great 

Observatories—the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, and 

the Spitzer Space Telescope—to develop a theory to explain how young, supermassive black holes may have been formed. The new theory suggests that rather than 

forming from the creation and subsequent destruction of a massive star, which 

would take a longer period of time, these black holes formed directly when a cloud 

of gas collapsed, bypassing these intermediate phases. Scientists plan to use additional observations from future NASA observatories to further test this theory.
37National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA’s Spitzer Maps Climate Patterns on a Super-Earth

Using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists were able to develop a temperature map of a super-Earth planet—a rocky planet nearly two times as big as 

ours—for the first time. The planet observed, 55 Cancri e, is tidally locked to its 

star, with one side of the planet always in daylight and the other always in the dark. 

Heat transport around the planet is inefficient, so the day side remains much hotter than the night side of the planet. Scientists have suggested that this means the 

planet does not have a thick atmosphere and winds. Instead, they have suggested 

that it may be home to lava flows that have become hardened on the night side 

and unable to transport heat. Additional observations, including those from the 

upcoming JWST, will help to confirm the findings.

Missing Water Mystery Solved in Comprehensive Survey of Exoplanets

Scientists combined data from NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes to 

study a series of hot, Jupiter-sized exoplanets that have been a challenge to observe 

due to their proximity to their stars. The combined observations allowed the scientists to work with a wider range of wavelengths and better understand why some of 

these planets seemed to have less water than expected—a long-standing mystery. 

Based on the data, they found that the clouds on the planets were likely masking 

detection of the water, ruling out the existence of dry, hot Jupiters.

Cross-Theme Activities

Answering the Nation’s key science questions often requires significant technological innovation to develop instruments or platforms with capabilities beyond 

the current state of the art. SMD’s targeted technology investments fill critical 

technology gaps, enabling NASA to build challenging and complex missions at 

an affordable cost such that groundbreaking science may be accomplished. The 

directorate works to ensure that NASA actively identifies and invests in the right 

technologies at the right time to address the Agency’s science investigation needs. 

SMD technology development is part of a comprehensive Agency-wide strategy 

that involves extensive coordination with other Mission Directorates. This coordination helps ensure that crosscutting technology development needs are identified 
38Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

across the Agency and that there is optimal return on investments to fulfill those 

needs. SMD accomplishes technology development through more than a dozen 

specialized technology programs that have been established in each of the four 

science research divisions.

During FY 2016, SMD also awarded 27 new cooperative agreements to enable 

SMD scientists and engineers to engage with learners of all ages. This restructured program allows for more streamlined and effective implementation of SMD 

content, leveraging past investments and partners across the United States. The 

program aims to effectively and efficiently link NASA science exploration of our 

home planet, the solar system, and the universe with learning environments. Each 

of the 27 awardees has an individual evaluation plan with independent evaluators 

to validate evidence-based performance against the needs identified at the outset of 

each effort. Additionally, SMD supported two significant White House events: the 

2015 White House Astronomy Night and the White House Frontiers Conference.

Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

In FY 2016, the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) announced 

a ten-year plan for research that enables breakthroughs in the speed and efficiency of transport aircraft that are the backbone of the U.S. aviation system, 

as well as in realizing new markets for smaller aircraft—from unmanned aircraft 

systems (UASes) to the potential for new modes of personal transport—and in 

automation tools that improve efficiency while maintaining safety in our Nation’s 

airspace system.

The centerpiece of the plan is New Aviation Horizons—an initiative to design, 

build, and fly a series of flight demonstration vehicles, or “X-planes.” If fully successful, the X-planes will test advanced technologies that can, in the same aircraft, 

reduce fuel use by 50 percent, emissions by 75 percent, and noise to nearly oneeighth of today’s levels without compromising payload capacity, speed, or range. 

If such technologies find their way into a U.S. airline’s fleet, ARMD computer 

models show that the economic impact could be $255 billion in operational savings 

over 25 years.
39National Aeronautics and Space Administration

More information about the full 10-year plan, including New Aviation Horizons, 

is available online at http://www.aeronautics.nasa.gov/pdf/NASA-Aero-10-YrPlan-508.pdf.

During FY 2016, NASA also completed a series of long-term research roadmaps 

to enable major outcomes in six strategic thrust areas identified in its strategic 

vision for aeronautics research. The roadmaps were developed in partnership with 

the aviation community and reflect visionary solutions to aviation system needs 

that will ensure major benefits in mobility, environmental sustainability, and safety 

while ensuring continued long-term aviation technology leadership in this rapidly 

expanding global industry. More information is available online at http://www.nasa.

gov/aeroresearch/strategy.

Advanced Air Vehicles Program

NASA achieved a major milestone in enabling the development of low-noise 

commercial supersonic aircraft when the Advanced Air Vehicles Program (AAVP) 

completed the Low Noise Propulsion for Low-Boom Aircraft technical challenge. 

This technical challenge addressed the development of computer-based design tools 

and innovative concepts for integrated low-noise supersonic propulsion systems and 

demonstrated these concepts through ground testing. The research recognized that 

future commercial supersonic aircraft would have to be as quiet as possible to meet 

the same stringent airport noise regulations that govern the subsonic fleet.

NASA announced the selection of a team led by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics 

Company of Palmdale, California, to complete a preliminary design for a low-boom 

supersonic flight demonstration aircraft by June 2017. The selection advanced 

NASA’s work to enable the aviation industry’s decision to open supersonic travel, 

especially over land, to the flying public. The Lockheed Martin team includes subcontractors GE Aviation of Cincinnati and Tri Models, Inc., of Huntington Beach, 

California. The design and supporting documentation will be used by NASA to 

prepare for the detailed design, building, and testing of a low-boom supersonic 

X-plane. More information is available online at http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/

nasa-begins-work-to-build-a-quieter-supersonic-passenger-jet.
40Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

A unique technique for capturing images of shock waves created by supersonic 

aircraft was used in the air and from the ground. The schlieren technique yielded 

striking images of shock waves from a T-38 that provide data to further validate 

advanced solutions for reducing the levels of sonic booms. More information is 

available online at http://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/features/bosco.html.

NASA advanced the technical readiness of the most promising advanced configurations for future subsonic transports. The performance and design of a Truss Braced 

Wing (TBW) aircraft conceptual design, which is a viable technology to reduce 

transport aircraft fuel use, was tested using a high-fidelity aerodynamic wind tunnel model in the 11- by 11-Foot Transonic Wind Tunnel at NASA’s Ames Research 

Center. More information is available online at http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/

ames/slimmed-down-aircraft-wing-expected-to-reduce-fuel-and-emissions-by-50.

In FY 2016, NASA also awarded six-month contracts to four companies to 

define the technical approach, schedule, and cost for one or more large-scale, ultraefficient subsonic X-plane concepts. The companies were Aurora Flight Sciences 

Corporation, a small business located in Manassas, Virginia; Dzyne Technologies, 

a small business located in Fairfax, Virginia; Lockheed Martin Aeronautics 

Company of Fort Worth, Texas; and the Boeing Company of Hazelwood, Missouri. 

More information is online at http://www.nasa.gov/aero/nasa-green-aviation-x-planes.

NASA selected progressive damage analysis (PDA) technologies for further 

development in the second phase of the Advanced Composites Project. By comparing blind predictions with experimental results, NASA completed the characterization of PDA methods, nondestructive inspection technology, and manufacturing 

process models for composites (current capability and technology gaps). When 

complete, these PDA models will provide damage-progression methods that more 

accurately represent the failure mechanics for the composite structural component 

and applied loading.

In partnership with other Government agencies and industry, NASA demonstrated a new type of engine power turbine that will advance the efficiency of propulsion systems for future vertical lift vehicles. The Variable-Speed Power Turbine 

(VSPT) component tests will demonstrate the ability to operate the power turbine 

efficiently over a wide operating-speed range of the engine. The VSPT concept will 

result in engines and vehicles with higher performance and greater fuel efficiency.
41National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA performed disciplined technical exploration of new, revolutionary hybridelectric propulsion concepts. Design and fabrication were completed and relevant 

testing was initiated on a 750-kilowatt fully superconducting electrical machine 

with a new power-efficient stator design. Concurrently, engineers completed a 

conceptual design for a hybrid gas-electric propulsion system concept for a Boeing 

737–class aircraft that could achieve all of the intended vehicle-level benefits in 

reduced energy consumption, noise, and emissions. A new electric motor test stand 

began operations at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center. More information 

is available online at http://www.nasa.gov/feature/it-s-electric-nasa-glenn-engineerstest-next-revolution-aircraft and http://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/features/

electric_motor_test_stand.html.

Airspace Operations and Safety Program

NASA continued to make significant progress in developing automation that 

enables the success of the Nation’s Next Generation Air Transportation System 

(NextGen) initiative in partnership with the FAA and industry.

Development of an integrated set of NextGen tools and technologies, known 

as Interval Management—Terminal Area Precision Scheduling and Spacing 

Technologies or Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration–1 (ATD-1), 

continued as preparation for an FY 2017 flight demonstration. The ATD-1 tools 

will provide an efficient arrival solution for managing aircraft beginning from just 

prior to top-of-descent and continuing down to the runway, which can improve 

airport throughput and reduce delays, fuel use, noise, and emissions at busy airports. FY 2016 preparations included the development of simulation tools for pilot 

preparation. More information is available online at http://www.nasa.gov/aero/

nasa-aircraft-arrival-technology-gets-big-test-in-2017.

In FY 2016, progress also was made with ATD-2, an initiative that provides 

coordinated aircraft surface movement schedules to air traffic managers working 

the airport ramp, control tower, terminal area, and air route centers. NASA is 

working with the FAA, airlines, aircraft and avionics manufacturers, groundbased automation system integrators, and airports to prepare to test this integrated 

set of technologies at a dense terminal of a busy commercial airport by 2017. To 
42Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

that end, an aeronautical research laboratory was opened in June 2016 at the 

Charlotte Douglas International Airport (North Carolina). An initial engineering shadow evaluation of ATD-2 surface management tools was conducted, and 

two Phase 1 Engineering Shadow Evaluations were completed at the lab late in 

FY 2016. More information is available online at http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/

transportation-department-nasa-partners-visit-charlotte-to-open-test-lab-to-streamline.

In FY 2016, NASA also helped deliver and train personnel on an air traffic management tool at American Airlines’ Integrated Operations Center in Fort Worth, 

Texas. The National Airspace System Constraint Evaluation and Notification 

Tool (NASCENT) enables airline flight coordinators to call out adjustments in a 

flight’s trajectory in real time, particularly to avoid bad weather. At the heart of the 

technology is NASA-developed software called Dynamic Weather Routes. More 

information is available online at https://www.aviationsystems.arc.nasa.gov/research/

strategic/dwr.shtml.

A demonstration of technologies that could be part of a system to safely manage the operations of small unmanned aircraft systems (UASes), or “drones,” was 

completed in FY 2016. The Technology Capability Level (TCL) 1 demonstration 

took place first at a single site and, then, later in a national campaign involving six 

geographically diverse FAA UAS test sites. NASA, the FAA, and industry partners 

participating in eight different states simultaneously flew 22 drones to assess rural 

operations of the NASA UAS Traffic Management (UTM) research platform. 

More information is available online at http://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/nasamarks-success-for-most-complex-drone-traffic-management-test-yet-at-faa-test-sites.

Another goal realized for FY 2016 was delivery of NASA’s contribution to a set of 

UAS Minimum Operating Performance Standards (MOPS) data, analysis, and recommendations to the RTCA Special Committee-228 on MOPS for UASes. Based 

on a series of flight test and other activities, this first series of MOPS addresses 

standards for detect-and-avoid as well as command and control solutions for UASes 

operating in a specific segment of airspace.

With regard to aviation safety, two studies were completed that identified safety 

metrics to be used in developing a roadmap for achieving safety assurance in real 

time throughout the National Airspace System. Completing the studies is the next 

step in developing technologies that can monitor aircraft and system health in real 
43National Aeronautics and Space Administration

time, assess any risks, alert the crew to risks, and then mitigate those risks. This 

type of work represents a “next generation” approach to keeping aviation safe by 

introducing more predictive tools.

NASA’s pioneering Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) marked its 40th 

anniversary during FY 2016. Established under a Memorandum of Understanding 

between NASA and the FAA, the system collects, analyzes, and responds to voluntarily submitted aviation safety incident reports to reduce aviation accidents and 

improve safety. The confidential reports are also used to identify deficiencies and 

discrepancies in the National Airspace System that need to be remedied. More 

information is available online at http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/nov/

HQ_06345_ASRS_turns_30.html.

In FY 2016, an important tool for air traffic researchers called the Sherlock Air 

Traffic Management Data Warehouse came online at NASA’s Ames Research 

Center. For the first time, air traffic researchers were now able to view and analyze 

archived flight data collected and merged from all air traffic facilities across the 

United States, with fast update rates ranging from one second to 12 seconds for every 

flight’s position. Sherlock merges all of the air traffic facility data to produce analysis-ready, end-to-end flight information at these improved resolutions for the entire 

U.S. airspace. More information is available online at http://www.nasa.gov/feature/

ames/nasa-pulls-together-national-data-to-sleuth-out-air-traffic-improvement-mysteries.

Integrated Airspace Systems Program

FY 2016 brought the official end to this program’s Environmentally Responsible 

Aviation (ERA) project. Created in 2009 and completed in 2015, ERA’s mission was to explore and document the feasibility, benefits, and technical risk 

of inventive vehicle concepts and enabling technologies that would reduce 

aviation’s impact on the environment. Project researchers focused on eight 

major integrated technology demonstrations falling into three categories: airframe technology, propulsion technology, and vehicle systems integration. 

Results from ERA’s demonstrations led directly to NASA’s ability to formulate 

and propose the New Aviation Horizons X-planes initiative. The purpose of the 

X-planes is to take the ERA advanced technologies to flight, where they can best 
44Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

prove their potential to dramatically reduce aircraft noise, fuel use, and emissions. More information is available online at http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/

nasa-research-could-save-commercial-airlines-billions-in-new-era-of-aviation.

Technologies that could be part of a system for allowing larger UAS to routinely fly in the National Airspace System were tested during FY 2016. Flight 

Test Series 4 (FT4) took place at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in 

California and consisted of 19 flights over a nine-week period. The flights tested 

detect-and-avoid algorithms developed by NASA; General Atomics Aeronautical 

Systems, Inc.; Honeywell; and other industry partners that, for the first time, 

could validate MOPS, established by RTCA Special Committee 228. To test these 

algorithms, over 260 scripted encounters were performed between the Ikhana and 

piloted “intruder” aircraft. The algorithms successfully generated precise alerts 

necessary for the pilot controlling the Ikhana from the ground to remain well clear 

and avoid collisions. More information is available online at http://www.nasa.gov/

feature/two-month-uas-flight-test-series-concludes.

Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program

In FY 2016, a general aviation–sized aircraft destined to be a build-and-learn 

test bed for all-electric propulsion received the first X-plane designation from the 

U.S. Air Force to NASA in a decade. The X-57 experimental airplane was named 

“Maxwell” in honor of James Clerk Maxwell, the 19th-century Scottish physicist 

who did groundbreaking work in electromagnetism. During the next few years, 

the X-57’s original wing and two gas-fueled piston engines will be replaced with 

a long, skinny wing embedded with 14 electric motors: 12 on the leading edge for 

takeoffs and landings, and one larger motor on each wingtip for use while at cruise 

altitude. More information is available online at http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/

nasa-electric-research-plane-gets-x-number-new-name.

The fuselage of the X-57 aircraft, a Tecnam P2006T, arrived in California later 

in FY 2016, where work began to convert all of the vehicle’s systems to electric 

power, including the two engines, and to ready it for the later installation of a highlift experimental wing. More information is available online at http://www.nasa.gov/

centers/armstrong/features/X-57_fuselage_arrives.html.
45National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The state of the art in aeronautics modeling and simulation capability was 

advanced in FY 2016 with the development of improved physics-based tools 

and methods. These types of tools are vital to the ability to realize the non-

traditional aircraft and propulsion systems of the future. One example is a 

first-of-its-kind simulation of sound produced by air through the blades of an 

open-rotor propulsion system. NASA verified the simulation accuracy and com-

pared sound pressure level ranges with extensive wind tunnel test data.  More 

information is available online at http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/ames/

nasa-supercomputer-simulations-help-improve-aircraft-propulsion-design.

To achieve the goal of better engines on future aircraft, materials engineers 

at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in FY 2016 investigated promising advances 

in high-temperature materials that can be used to make turbine engine compo-

nents. These materials, called ceramic-matrix composites (CMCs), are lighter 

and stronger than conventional materials and can withstand the demand-

ing forces of the extremely high temperatures generated in the core of jet 

engines. More information is available online at http://www.nasa.gov/feature/

ceramic-composites-revolutionize-engine-efficiency.

In FY 2016, NASA began the second year for a number of cross-Center, multidisciplinary research activities that identify whether certain transformative ideas 

are feasible; i.e., can a high-voltage, lightweight, efficient power-distribution system 

enable hybrid electric aircraft propulsion systems? A new set of five activities was 

announced, including alternative fuel cells and new mechanisms for changing the 

shape of an aircraft wing in flight. More information is available online at http://

www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-charges-toward-greener-aviation-with-novel-concepts.

NASA also debuted the University Leadership Initiative (ULI), which uses the 

NASA Research Announcement process to competitively award university-led 

teams that develop solutions for technical challenges associated with NASA’s six 

aeronautics research areas. More information is available online at http://www.nasa.

gov/aero/nasa-debuts-universities-initiative.
46Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Space Technology Mission Directorate

In FY 2016, the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) made significant 

progress toward advancing space technology for NASA, other Government agencies, and the commercial space industry. Investments focused primarily on seven 

key thrust areas: 1) in-space propulsion; 2) high-bandwidth space communications; 

3) advanced life support and resource utilization; 4) entry, descent, and landing 

(EDL) systems; 5) space robotic systems; and 6) lightweight space structures.

STMD manages nine major technology development programs performed 

at each of NASA’s ten Centers, as well as activities such as technology transfer, 

regional economic development, and NASA Solve—the Agency’s initiative for 

public engagement in crowdsourced challenges and prize competitions. STMD 

plays a key role in NASA’s contribution to the Nation’s innovation economy 

through involvement in several national initiatives, including the Advanced 

Manufacturing Partnership and the National Robotics Initiative.

In FY 2016, STMD evaluated over 2,400 proposals and funded over 700 new 

selections for awards, investing over $225 million. Below are a few of the notable 

achievements in FY 2016.

Technology Demonstration Missions

Solar Electric Propulsion

NASA’s Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) project is developing critical technologies to enable cost-effective access to inner solar system destinations such as Mars. 

SEP technology can also support more affordable missions for commercial and 

Government operations in Earth orbit and cislunar space. Work has continued 

at NASA’s Glenn Research Center on a 12.5-kilowatt Hall Effect thruster and 

power-processing units. A test unit operated in a vacuum chamber across its whole 

performance range and successfully ran for over 1,700 hours. This electric thruster 

employs magnetic shielding that enables it to operate continuously for years, a 

capability needed for deep space exploration missions. In FY 2016, a commercial 

vendor, Aerojet Rocketdyne, was selected for a three-year contract to develop a 

propulsion system engineering unit and to deliver four flight units to be employed 
47National Aeronautics and Space Administration

in an upcoming flight demonstration mission. Also, large, high-power solar array 

concepts previously developed by ATK and Deployable Space Systems through 

STMD solicitations have been incorporated into commercial spacecraft designs.

Green Propellant Infusion Mission

NASA’s Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM) made significant progress 

toward launching a spacecraft designed to test the unique attributes of a highperformance, nontoxic, “green” fuel on orbit next year. The propellant, a hydroxyl 

ammonium nitrate–based fuel/oxidizer mix also known as AF-M315E, may replace 

the highly toxic hydrazine and complex bipropellant systems in use today, providing enhanced performance and volumetric efficiency. GPIM prime contractor 

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. successfully integrated the propulsion subsystem—built by Aerojet Rocketdyne in Redmond, Washington—into the Ball 

Configurable Platform 100 small-satellite spacecraft as the primary payload. System 

performance and environmental testing of the GPIM integrated space vehicle successfully concluded in January. As of the end of FY 2016, the GPIM spacecraft 

had completed all required testing and was currently in storage, awaiting mission 

call-up. Launch to low-Earth orbit in late 2017 was planned in partnership with the 

U.S. Air Force’s Space Test Program (STP)-2 mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 

Heavy booster.

Deep Space Atomic Clock

The Deep Space Atomic Clock (DSAC) project is designed to fly and validate 

a miniaturized, ultra-precise, mercury-ion atomic clock that is orders of magnitude 

more stable than today’s best navigation clocks, forever changing the way we conduct deep space navigation. The clock should provide enhanced navigation accuracy, increased science data bandwidth, and improved gravitational measurements 

necessary for future planetary science and exploration missions. In late 2017, following testing aboard the host spacecraft provided by Surrey Satellite Technology 

U.S. of Englewood, Colorado, the plan is for the DSAC payload to be lofted to 

orbit as part of the U.S. Air Force’s Space Test Program (STP)-2 mission aboard a 

SpaceX Falcon 9 Heavy booster.
48Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Laser Communication Relay Demonstration

The Laser Communication Relay Demonstration (LCRD) mission proposes to 

revolutionize the way we send and receive data, video, and other information, using 

lasers to encode and transmit data at rates 10 to 100 times faster than today’s fastest 

radio-frequency systems and using significantly less mass and power. The LCRD 

project continued to meet developmental milestones on its way to a flight test in 

2019 to demonstrate bidirectional optical communications from geosynchronous 

orbit, providing significantly higher data rates using comparable mass and power. 

In FY 2016, the project completed a replan to baseline the payload to fly on the 

U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center’s Space Test Program–3.

Restore-L

The Restore-L mission seeks to demonstrate satellite-servicing technologies. The 

Restore-L project began in STMD in mid–FY 2016. The project will be restructured 

to reduce its cost and better position it to support a nascent commercial satellite 

servicing industry.

In-Space Robotic Manufacturing and Assembly

NASA selected three companies for Technology Demonstration Mission Phase 1 

ground-based projects:

• Orbital ATK (Dulles, Virginia), for the project entitled Public-Private 

Partnership for Robotic In-Space Manufacturing and Assembly of 

Spacecraft and Space Structures,” which will perform an integrated 

ground demonstration including a robotically deployed rigid backbone 

and an upgraded Tendon-Actuated Lightweight In-Space MANipulator 

(TALISMAN) system.

• Space Systems Loral (Palo Alto, California), for the project entitled 

“Dragonfly: On-Orbit Robotic Installation and Reconfiguration of Large 

Solid RF Reflectors,” which will modify existing robotic antenna equipment to perform a high-fidelity antenna assembly ground demonstration 

to provide next-generation performance advancements in geostationary 

communications satellites (comsats).
49National Aeronautics and Space Administration

• Made in Space, Inc. (Moffett Field, California), for the project entitled 

“Versatile In-Space Robotic Precision Manufacturing and Assembly 

System,” which will utilize the company’s Archinaut technology platform for in-space additive manufacturing and assembly in a space 

environment test.

Evolvable Cryogenics

In FY 2016, the eCryo team held an industry workshop to disseminate recent 

data and analysis results. The Integrated Vehicle Fluids (IVF) system, developed by 

United Launch Alliance, which will be used to capture vented gaseous propellant 

as a secondary power source, completed two phases of testing, and advanced from 

Phase B to Phase C. The Structural Heat Intercept Insulation Vibration Evaluation 

Rig (SHIIVER) test system design continues. Engineers and technicians continued 

work on the Radio Frequency Mass Gauge (RFMG) in preparation for a planned 

flight demonstration in the first quarter of FY 2017.

Game Changing Development

Phase Change Material Heat Exchanger

In FY 2016, the Game Changing Development (GCD) Program successfully developed and launched a self-contained, wax-based heat exchanger to the 

International Space Station (ISS). Typically, crewed spacecraft use radiators to 

reject heat, but traditional radiators are not sized to handle the maximum amount 

of heat rejection, such as during launch, reentry, and planetary orbits. During these 

times, a supplemental heat rejection device—such as an evaporator—is used to 

maintain the spacecraft’s full heat rejection requirement. This new, wax-based heat 

exchanger is self-contained and could help offset heat and better regulate temperatures experienced by spacecraft like Orion. The Phase Change Material Heat 

Exchanger (PCM HX) launched on the SpaceX CRS-9 flight on July 18, 2016, and 

on-orbit testing began. The goal is to provide a report on this flight-proven PCM 

HX to stakeholders, like the Orion spacecraft team, in order for it to be considered 

for use on Exploration Mission–2, slated to be the NASA Space Launch System’s 

first crewed mission.
50Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Extreme Environment for Solar Power

In FY 2016, GCD selected proposals from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

in Pasadena, California; the Boeing Company of Huntington Beach, California; 

the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory of Laurel, Maryland; and ATK 

Space Systems of Goleta, California, which were submitted in response to the 

Extreme Environment for Solar Power solicitation. The Extreme Environment for 

Solar Power project aims to develop a new generation of solar-power technologies 

that operate in high-radiation and low-temperature environments to improve mission performance, increase solar array life, and enable solar-powered vehicles to 

explore deeper into space than ever before. Initial contract awards are for as much 

as $400,000, providing awardees with funding for nine months of system design, 

component testing, and analysis. This effort has been conducted in collaboration 

with the Planetary Science Division within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate 

(SMD)—our primary end users. Enhanced low-intensity, low-temperature (LILT) 

solar power will allow NASA to go deeper into the solar system without the complexity and costs associated with nuclear-based solutions.

High-Performance Spaceflight Computing

In FY 2016, GCD released a Request for Proposal (RFP) entitled “High 

Performance Spaceflight Computing (HPSC) Processor Chiplet.” The HPSC project is a joint STMD, SMD, and U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory activity. Its 

goal is to develop a next-generation, radiation-hardened, general-purpose, multicore processor to meet on-board computing needs of future crewed spacecraft and 

robotic technologies. The Development Phase of the HPSC project should consist 

of a preliminary design phase culminating in a Preliminary Design Review (PDR), 

a detailed design phase culminating in a Critical Design Review (CDR), a fabrication phase, and a test and characterization phase, all over a total of four years.

NICER/SEXTANT

In the summer of 2016, GCD successfully delivered the Station Explorer for 

X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology (SEXTANT) to NASA’s Kennedy 

Space Center in preparation for its demonstration with the Neutron star 

Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) hardware aboard the ISS in FY 2017. In 
51National Aeronautics and Space Administration

collaboration with SMD, GCD selected the project in 2013 as an Explorer Mission 

of Opportunity. The goal of the NICER/SEXTANT mission will be to investigate 

pulsars and demonstrate real-time, autonomous spacecraft navigation using pulsars 

as beacons.

Small Business Innovative Research and Small Business Technology Transfer

NASA awarded 561 proposals for a total of $172.5 million in FY 2016. 

Specifically, NASA selected 341 Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) and 

58 Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I proposals for award to 

257 U.S. small businesses to establish the scientific, technical, and commercial 

feasibility of each proposed innovation. In addition, NASA made 138 SBIR, three 

SBIR Select, and 21 STTR Phase II awards to further expand upon their Phase I 

work. Furthermore, the Commercialization Readiness Program (CRP) provided 

FY  2016 funds in the amount of $5.5 million to 14 CRP contracts awarded in 

FY 2014 and FY 2015. Additionally, 24 Phase II Extended/Expanded options were 

exercised for $5.5 million, and 30 Phase III awards were made leveraging $10.6 million in non-SBIR/STTR funding. In FY 2016, the program published an economic 

impact report on the NASA SBIR/STTR program, which indicated a $2.69 return 

for every dollar spent on awards. A few highlights from FY 2016 awardees include 

the following:

• Tethers Unlimited received a Phase II award for its Positrusion Filament 

Recycling System for the ISS (a system for recycling additive manufacturing [3D printing] filament). Tethers will show the flexibility of producing 

replacement parts, thus reducing mass and increasing the probability of 

mission success. This technology is scheduled to be demonstrated aboard 

the ISS in early 2018.

• Intelligent Automation, Inc., of Rockville, Maryland, won awards for 

Phases I through III for the MetroSim technology, which allows airport planners, traffic flow management experts, airline dispatchers, 

air traffic controllers, and pilots to increase efficiency and certainty 

in operations planning and recover quickly from disruptive events and 

weather conditions.
52Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

For additional SBIR/STTR success stories, visit the SBIR/STTR Web site at 

http://sbir.nasa.gov/success-stories.

Small Spacecraft Technology Program

The program accomplished several flight demonstration missions and completed 

final preparations for several others in FY 2016. The Optical Communications and 

Sensor Demonstration (OCSD) project launched its engineering development unit 

on October 8, 2015, as a precursor mission and successfully operated several new 

systems, including a miniature star tracker and radio. Operations of the satellite 

have continued throughout the year as the team prepares for the primary mission 

to demonstrate laser communications with two identical satellites to be launched 

in early 2017. The Nodes satellites, another Small Spacecraft Technology Program 

(SSTP) project, were launched to the ISS in December 2015 and deployed into 

orbit in May 2016. Nodes accomplished all of its mission objectives to demonstrate 

the operation of a swarm of low-cost science satellites during the first few weeks 

of flight. The satellites were then turned over to Santa Clara University, which 

will operate them for the remainder of their orbital life. In November 2015, the 

Maraia Earth Return Capsule launched on a suborbital rocket for a supersonic 

reentry test flight, using a new deployment device for small spacecraft research 

missions. Initially lost after a reentry anomaly, the capsule was recently found 

largely intact, and any recoverable flight test data will inform future small reentry 

vehicle experiments.

Three important technology demonstration missions completed Flight Readiness 

Reviews in 2016 and are now awaiting launch in 2017. The three missions are the 

Integrated Solar Array and Reflectarray Antenna (ISARA) for advanced communications, the CubeSat Proximity Operations Demonstrator that will attempt 

autonomous rendezvous and docking, and the OCSD mission described above.

The program issued an RFP for a small satellite bus for the Pathfinder Technology 

Demonstrator series. The Pathfinder vendor (Tyvak) was announced in January 

2017. Four “tipping point” projects are now under way for the development and 

demonstration of new propulsion and control systems, as well as several advanced 

propulsion projects funded in partnership with the SBIR program. STMD defines a 

technology as being at a “tipping point” if an investment in a demonstration of its 
53National Aeronautics and Space Administration

capabilities will result in a significant advancement of the technology’s maturation, 

a higher likelihood of infusion into a commercial space application, and a significant improvement in the partner’s ability to successfully bring the technology to 

market. Eight university-NASA collaboration projects for small spacecraft technology were initiated in 2016 and will continue into a second year, while eight new 

projects were selected for 2017–18. These projects involve 16 universities working 

with researchers from almost all of the NASA Centers.

Flight Opportunities

The Flight Opportunities program flew 36 payload flights in FY 2016 for 32 

different space technologies. The program supported Entry, Descent, and Landing 

technology demonstrations from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Carnegie 

Mellon University, as well as Mars landing technologies such as Terrain Relative 

Navigation and Guidance for Fuel Optimal Large Diverts (G-FOLD) on Masten 

Space Systems vehicles.

Space Technology Research Grants

The Space Technology Research Grants program has funded research at 98 universities across 42 states, with a total of 438 grants since its inception. In FY 2016, 

the program made 15 Early Stage Innovations awards, 58 NASA Space Technology 

Research Fellowship awards, and eight Early Career Faculty awards. Some highlights from FY 2016 include the following:

• Researcher Heather Hava from the University of Colorado Boulder 

received the prestigious “Eat it!” Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for inventing a smart chamber to autonomously grow plants in a space habitat.

• Researcher Scott Zavada from the University of Michigan demonstrated 

the use of in situ polymerizable liquid as an autonomic healing layer for 

rigid structures such as lunar and Martian habitats.

• Researcher Manijeh Razeghi has developed a mid-infrared electrically 

tunable quantum-cascade laser (QCL) that can be used in spectroscopy 

for atmospheric chemistry.
54Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

• Lucas Hartsough, a researcher from Rice University, quantitatively 

described gene expression output as a function of time-varying inputs 

of light, thereby advancing both synthetic biology and optogenetics; his 

research was the basis of a Center Innovation Fund award.

NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts

NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) made 13 Phase I and eight 

Phase II awards across industry, academia, and NASA Centers, while completing 

15 2015 Phase I studies and five 2014 Phase II studies. One example of a NIAC 

success story in FY 2016 was the Directed Energy Propulsion for Interstellar 

Exploration study, which inspired an external foundation to devote $100 million 

toward its proposed method of sending probes to another star system.

Centennial Challenges

The Centennial Challenges program conducted four competition events in 

FY 2016 and awarded prize money in each of the competitions for a total prize 

purse of $980,000. The program also opened two new challenges for a total of six 

active challenges in FY 2016. For the fifth and final year of the Sample Return 

Robot (SRR) Challenge, 18 teams competed in Level 1 (L1); five qualified for 

Level 2 (L2), and each of those five won $5,000. Seven teams competed in L2, 

and West Virginia University won the $750,000 award. Eighteen teams competed 

in the second year of the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) Challenge, wherein teams 

were challenged to develop a robotic system that could load a sample into a rocket, 

launch to a predetermined altitude, and safely return the sample container to Earth. 

Cornell University won first place, Madison West High School in Wisconsin won 

second, and Tarleton State University in Texas won third. The second Ground 

Tournament of the Cube Quest Challenge was conducted in March 2016; of the 

10 participating teams, five teams won $30,000 each. The purpose of the challenge 

is to design, build, and launch flight-qualified, small satellites capable of advanced 

operations near and beyond the moon. Three CubeSats from this challenge will 

be launched on NASA’s Exploration Mission–1 as secondary payloads. The Space 
55National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Robotics Challenge and Vascular Tissue Challenge were also initiated in FY 2016. 

Space Robotics seeks to advance autonomous perception and manipulation software for the Robonaut-5 humanoid robot. The Vascular Tissue Challenge goal is to 

advance the field of tissue engineering by successfully growing thick, vascularized 

human tissue from a major organ.

Technology Transfer

NASA’s Technology Transfer program continued to share the Agency’s technology with industry, academia, and other Government agencies at an unprecedented 

rate, making it simpler and faster for end users to access the benefits of NASA’s 

investments in aerospace research. NASA’s patent licensing increased nearly 400 

percent over its FY 2011 level, and its software release has more than doubled. 

In FY 2016, the program completed 94 patent licenses and 12 copyright licenses. 

New initiatives included “Startup NASA,” which provides favorable terms and 

assistance to new enterprises forming to commercialize NASA technology, and 

the “Gift to the Public Domain,” which dedicated several dozen patents for unencumbered public use.

Regional Economic Development

NASA’s Regional Economic Development (RED) program brings NASA technology and expertise to targeted regions across the country to drive technology 

commercialization and to develop capabilities for stronger regional economies. 

To support these goals, RED held six major commercial partnership events 

in FY  2016, with a focus on small and mid-sized businesses: TechConnect in 

Dayton, Ohio; Technology Docking on the Space Coast in Florida; the IDEAHub 

Regional Innovation Symposium in southern California; the Industry Technology 

Capabilities Summit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Technology Days and 

Hampton Roads Unmanned Systems Opportunity Exchange in Hampton Roads, 

Virginia; and Adopt-A-City III as part of the White House Strong Cities, Strong 

Communities Program in Cleveland, Ohio.
56Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

NASA Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving 

Institutions Technology Infusion Road Tour

With the assistance of Large Prime Contractors and small businesses, NASA 

continues to enhance its industrial base with Historically Black Colleges and 

Universities (HBCUs) and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) through various 

outreach events tailored to university faculty members and students. In FY 2016, 

STMD, in a collaborative effort with the Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP) 

and the Office of Education, developed a new initiative to engage more HBCUs 

and MSIs in the Agency’s industrial base: the NASA HBCU/MSI Technology 

Infusion Road Tour. These institutions are given a platform to learn about upcoming technology topics and how to respond to SBIR/STTR solicitations. Past and 

present SBIR/STTR awardees highlight their success stories and the opportunities 

participating in the program has afforded them.

As the only Federal agency with a one percent goal for supporting HBCUs/MSIs, 

NASA seeks new initiatives to engage interested universities/institutions in supporting our mission. The NASA HBCU/MSI Technology Infusion Road Tour was 

also designed to assist NASA and Large Prime Contractors in meeting or exceeding the mandated HBCU/MSI goal.
57Department of Defense

Department of Def

DOD

Aeronautics Activities

Fixed-Wing Aircraft

Over the course of FY 2016, the KC-46A Pegasus program completed the first 

flights of the final three test aircraft. These flights opened the door to complete 

(in July 2016) the required flight testing for the August 2016 Milestone C production decision. The program received Milestone C approval on August 12, 2016, 

from the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics 

and awarded the contract option for the production of Lots 1 and 2, totaling 19 

KC-46A aircraft, to Boeing. Flight testing continues as the team works toward 

supplying the aircraft to the warfighter.

In January 2016, the Air Force awarded the first contract for the Presidential 

Aircraft Recapitalization (PAR) program. The initial award was for program riskreduction activities as the first step in a deliberate process to control program risks 

and reduce life-cycle costs. Additionally, a contract modification for continued riskreduction activities was awarded in July 2016. Both risk-reduction activity efforts 

aid in further defining detailed requirements and design trade-offs required to 

support an informed decision that will lead to a lower-risk engineering and manufacturing development program. The Air Force obtained Milestone B approval in 

August 2016, which formally initiated the PAR program, authorized the purchase 

of two commercial aircraft, and approved the release of a Request for Proposal 

to cover efforts in the Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase 

that will result in the modification and testing of two Boeing commercial 747-8 
58Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

aircraft. These aircraft are to be fielded in the 2024 timeframe to meet Presidential 

airlift requirements.

The Air Force inducted the second C-5C to undergo the Reliability 

Enhancement and Re-engining Program (RERP) modification; the C-5C aircraft 

are used to transport outsized NASA cargo. Upon completion of RERP, the Air 

Force plans to redesignate 49 C-5Bs, one C-5A, and two C-5Cs as C-5Ms, indicating increased range, payload, takeoff thrust, climb performance, and fuel efficiency, 

as well as an extended service life until at least 2040.

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Adaptive Engine Technology 

Development (AETD) program successfully completed core detailed design reviews 

and numerous risk-reduction efforts. Key deliverables include an acquisition-quality 

engine preliminary design and critical risk-reduction testing of adaptive fans and 

core components by 2017.

The Supersonic Turbine Engine for Long Range (STELR) program will complete 

its testing in FY 2017. This program is a research test bed for future high-speed 

technology with a goal of achieving Mach 3 or higher in an engine test. Various 

risk-reduction efforts were completed at AFRL in FY 2016, and the program is 

scheduled to end with engine tests in FY 2017.

A successful and low-cost demonstration of engine technologies has been performed in the Small-Component and Engine Structural Assessment Research 

(S-CAESAR) program using recycled small engines. The program tested advanced 

instrumentation, damping coatings, and seeded faults, successfully increasing technology maturation levels in an affordable test bed.

The U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) transitioned a third squadron to F-35Bs on 

June 30, 2016. The USMC also completed the first overseas deployment of the 

F-35B, marking the first trans-pacific F-35 crossing and permanent deployment of 

USMC F-35Bs in Japan. USMC AV-8B Harriers and F/A-18 Hornets conducted 

forward-deployed combat sorties for named operations from both fixed-based 

airfields and sea-based platforms. Harriers employed the Advanced Precision Kill 

Weapon System (APKWS) in combat operations for the first time. AV-8Bs have 

started the Link-16 modification to be completed over the next two years. EA-6B 

Prowlers continue to support joint combat missions in support of combat operations while forward-deployed.
59Department of Defense

Marine KC-130s deployed to support operations in both United States Africa 

Command (AFRICOM) and United States Central Command (CENTCOM) 

Areas of Operation. The KC-130J models are continuing Harvest Hawk upgrades 

to increase fuel and cargo capacity while supporting sensor, weapon, and digital 

interoperability on the battlefield. The Marine Corps has accepted 62 percent of 

the KC-130Js ordered (49 of 79 aircraft). The KC-130J is a workhorse aircraft that 

has been continuously deployed since 2005.

The transition from legacy P-3s to the highly capable P-8A is now approximately 

50 percent complete. Over 40 aircraft have been delivered.

The Department of Defense (DOD) continued progress toward the completion of the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase of the F-35 

Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). Flight testing for mission systems, flight science, and 

weapons integration continued for all three variants: the F-35A Conventional 

Take-Off and Landing (CTOL), the F-35B Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing 

(STOVL), and the F-35C aircraft Carrier Variant (CV). The U.S. Navy hosted its 

first live-fire demonstration to successfully test the integration of the F-35 with 

existing Naval Integrated Fire Control–Counter Air (NIFC-CA) architecture. 

Air Force F-35A and Marine Corps and United Kingdom F-35B aircraft completed 

transatlantic flights to participate in air shows in England. F-35C aircraft completed Developmental Test 2 (DT-2) aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in 

October 2015, completing 66 catapults and arrestments. The F-35C also completed 

sea trials aboard the USS George Washington, which included the first operational fleet pilots completing carrier qualifications. The Air Force declared Initial 

Operational Capability (IOC) for the F-35A on August 2, 2016. A rollout ceremony 

for the first Israeli F-35 aircraft was held in September 2016. Naval pilots tested the 

Maritime Augmented Guidance with Integrated Controls for Carrier Approach 

and Recovery Precision Enabling Technologies (MAGIC CARPET) new precision 

aircraft-recovery system by safely landing on board the USS George W. Bush at 

sea. This system will reduce pilot workload, reduce landing variability, and improve 

carrier touchdown performance and safety even in adverse conditions.
60Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Rotorcraft

The Marine Corps conducted its first flight of the CH-53K (Heavy Lift) King 

Stallion in FY 2016. The CH-53K entered its flight test phase after successfully 

completing hover tests at the Sikorsky Flight Center, setting the stage for expanding the fleet’s ability to move Marines and materiel rapidly throughout an expanded 

mission area by 2019. The CH-53K successfully completed an external lift of a 

27,000-pound payload at Sikorsky’s Development Flight Test Center in West Palm 

Beach, Florida, on June 16, 2016. The aircraft executed an “out-of-ground effect” 

(OGE) external load test at 100 feet above the ground while performing hover 

maneuvers to demonstrate its excellent control-authority in this flight regime.

After conducting the Super Stallion Independent Readiness Review, the CH-53E 

community launched its readiness recovery effort, of which the main deliverable is 

the reset of all 146 of its aircraft. The CH-53E community has supported multiple 

Marine Expeditionary Units (MEU), the Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task 

Force–Southern Command (SPMAGTF-SC), and the Unit Deployment Program 

(UDP) in Japan.

The VH-92 Presidential Helicopter Program completed its System-Level Critical 

Design Review in July 2016. Work continues on the two Engineering Development 

Models and the Mission Communications System.

The Marine Corps continues to transition its Medium Lift platform to the 

MV-22B. The transition is 75 percent complete, with all previous CH-46E squadrons in some form of transition. MV-22Bs are still being delivered from the factory, 

with 284 delivered out of a Program of Record of 360. The community conducted 

its Independent Readiness Review in order to better the institutional readiness of 

the fleet. The MV-22B is the Marine Corps’s highest-in-demand platform and is 

supporting three MEUs and two SPMAGTFs; furthermore, it is preparing to support the Marine Rotational Force–Darwin this spring with the VMM-268, which 

moved to Hawaii in 2016.

The Army made significant improvements in joint interoperability and lethality 

capabilities for its AH-64E v4 attack reconnaissance aircraft. Fielding Link-16 and 

Air-to-Air-to-Ground (AAG) video relay allows the AH-64E to interoperate in 

joint environments with enhanced situational awareness. Further advancements 
61Department of Defense

in precision weapons increased lethality with small guided munitions (SGMs) and 

Longbow L7A radar missiles. SGMs increased the stored number of precision hits 

by over 400 percent while abating collateral damage. L7A missiles incorporate new 

software and hardware to better acquire littoral and unmanned aircraft system 

(UAS) targets and defeat them with proximity fuse and fragmentation capability.

The Army began the process of developing and acquiring an updated version of 

the CH-47 that will improve the ground commander’s ability to move soldiers and 

equipment across the battlefield. The CH-47 Block II will restore payload capability previously lost to additional armor and critical systems while also providing a 

feasible and affordable path for future upgrades. Finally, the convergence of Special 

Operations Command (SOCOM) and conventional H-47 designs will provide the 

Army with a helicopter capable of meeting the cargo lift needs of the warfighter 

well into the future.

The Army continues to complete fielding of the UH-60M to the Active Duty 

force and to selected Army National Guard and Army Reserve units. The UH-60M 

aircraft provides increased lift, digital avionics, and flight control coupling, reducing workload for the aviators while also providing more lift for the supported unit. 

The Army is considering upgrading remaining legacy Blackhawks (UH-60A/

Ls) with the UH-60V, providing our aviators with a digital cockpit similar to the 

UH-60M’s and therefore divesting all remaining analog cockpits from the Army 

Aviation inventory.

The Army continues to work with the Marine Corps and Special Operations 

furthering the development of the Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator 

(JMR TD). JMR TD allows industry to demonstrate emerging technologies, reduce 

risk, and ultimately inform acquisition decisions regarding the future of vertical 

lift. The JMR TD is composed of two parts: Air Vehicle Demonstrator (AVD) and 

Mission Systems Architecture Demonstrator (MSAD).

The JMR AVD is developing two different aircraft, a tiltrotor and a lift-offset 

compound helicopter. In 2016, the Army’s industry partners started the fabrication 

of components and assembly of major subsystems. Other rotary wing technologies 

include a compound rotorcraft concept with twin-ducted fans and an optimalspeed tiltrotor design. Flight demonstrations are scheduled to begin in 2017. The 

JMR AVD aircraft are designed to carry 12 troops, hover OGE at an ambient 
62Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

condition of 6,000 feet and 95 degrees Fahrenheit, self-deploy to a range of 2,100 

nautical miles, and fly at speeds of up to 230 knots. The joint service and DOD 

JMR MSAD are developing DOD standards, processes, and tools necessary to 

design and implement a mission systems open architecture to enable future modernization from competing industrial partners.

The Army’s Advanced Affordable Turbine Engine (AATE) Science and 

Technology program transitioned to the Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP) 

in 2016. Results from the AATE program included demonstrated improved engine 

critical component technologies, advanced internal aerodynamics, hybrid ceramic 

bearings, and improved inlet particle separation. ITEP will develop a 3,000-shafthorsepower-class engine that will fit within the current Black Hawk UH-60 and 

Apache AH-64 helicopter engine bay at similar weight. ITEP enables improved 

performance capability at 6,000 feet and 95 degrees Fahrenheit, more engine power 

with greater fuel efficiency, and equal or better engine sustainability and reliability. 

The Army is developing two preliminary engine designs to be completed in 2018.

Other Army Aviation Activities

In FY 2016, the Army Science and Technology community continued to work 

with the Air Force and industry partners to advance the development of flight 

controls, sensors, and cueing required to allow vertical-lift systems to operate safely 

and effectively in degraded visual environments (DVE). The Army completed 

ground-based testing of eight industry-provided systems at Yuma Proving Ground 

in Arizona. The tests assessed imaging systems’ ability to collect, fuse, and present 

a discernable image of a populated obstacle field, obscured by blowing dust. The 

Army plans to further refine and integrate the systems for flight testing in 2016. 

The Army also demonstrated a new version of Modernized Control Laws for the 

Black Hawk that further improves flight performance and reduces pilot workload 

in DVE as part of testing at Moffett Field, California. Finally, the Army completed 

the first of a series of cueing experiments to investigate the contributions of visual, 

aural, and haptic cueing elements to optimize human performance in DVE.

In FY 2016, the Army continued executing the Aviation Restructure Initiative 

(ARI). The ARI is the Secretary of Defense–approved plan to provide a modernized 
63Department of Defense

and ready aviation force while also reducing force structure in response to the 

Budget Control Act of 2011. It began in 2013 and is scheduled for completion 

in 2019. The restructured aviation force is smaller; however, it remains modernized, ready, and tailored to meet mission demands across the Active, Reserve, and 

National Guard components. The most significant changes included the divestiture of all Bell OH-58 variant aircraft from the Army, the transfer of select AH-64 

aircraft from the Army National Guard to the Active Duty, and adoption of the 

Light Utility Helicopter (LUH-72) Lakota aircraft at the United States Army’s 

Flight School. With the divestiture of legacy aircraft and reduction in force structure, the Army was able to modernize their remaining fleet with the improved 

UH-60M, the CH-47F Block II, the AH-64E, and the integration of the MQ-1C 

Gray Eagle and RQ-7 Shadow UAS.

The Army leads the DOD Policy Board on Federal Aviation’s UAS Subgroup 

and continues to advance technological and policy solutions that further DOD 

unpiloted aircraft integration into the National Airspace (NAS). These solutions 

ultimately increase airspace access to DOD uncrewed aircraft for operational 

and training purposes. Recent accomplishments include collaborating with the 

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to codify a Memorandum of Agreement 

that expands DOD UAS airspace access and establishes interagency coordination 

procedures. Additionally, this working body oversaw the testing and operational 

integration of a Ground Based Sense and Avoid (GBSAA) capability that serves as 

an alternative compliance method to meeting the FAA’s see-and-avoid regulatory 

requirement. The Army’s first GBSAA system was certified for operational use at 

Fort Hood, Texas, on September 26, 2016. The Army plans to install four more 

GBSAA systems to support Gray Eagle operations by the end of FY 2017.

The Army’s Aerial Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (A-ISR) 

strategy provides a roadmap for modernizing its platforms while incorporating the 

most valued quick-reaction-capability platforms utilized from years of conflict. In 

2016, the Army began fielding and deploying the Enhanced Medium Altitude 

Reconnaissance Surveillance System (EMARSS) as well as its first Intelligence 

and Security Command (INSCOM) Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance 

(ISR)–configured MQ-1C Gray Eagle UAS. The Army also began modernizing 

the Airborne Reconnaissance Low (ARL) fleet with the more sustainable DHC-8 
64Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

aircraft. The Army will continue to modernize the A-ISR fleet in the coming years 

to provide increased capabilities while reducing the overall number of ISR aircraft 

in the inventory.

Modeling and Simulation

In FY 2016, the Army released its Helios v6 modeling and simulation software 

for rotorcraft aeromechanics. In addition to its existing capabilities for high-fidelity 

simulations of full-vehicle rotor and fuselage combinations, Helios v6 added a 

new option to include NASA’s Fully Unstructured Navier-Stokes 3-Dimensional 

(FUN3D) code (a suite of computational fluid dynamics simulation and design 

tools) as a Helios near-body unstructured-grid flow solver. This FUN3D flow-solver 

option in Helios v6 builds on the earlier coupling of NASA’s OVERset grid FLOW

solver (OVERFLOW) structured-grid code as a near-body flow-solver option in 

Helios v5. The inclusion of NASA’s OVERFLOW and FUN3D in Helios allows for 

faster, more accurate, and more robust simulations of the aerodynamics of rotors, 

fuselages, and rotor wake systems.

The Army has developed and validated a novel simulation architecture, which 

allows piloted (or autonomous), real-time, full flight-envelope simulation of aircraft 

and rotorcraft based on a collection of individual point models and trim data. The 

data needed to configure this model can be readily extracted from flight test results 

or high-fidelity non-real-time models. This novel simulation concept, referred to as 

a “model stitching simulation architecture,” is applicable to virtually any aircraft 

configuration and has recently been applied to simulate the dynamics of a business 

jet and a utility helicopter. While the stitched model is developed for a nominal 

configuration, extrapolation methods within the simulation architecture permit 

accurate simulation without additional test data of off-nominal loading configurations, including variations in weight and center of gravity, as well as variations in 

altitude. This capability greatly minimizes the required number of flight test point 

models for full-envelope simulation.

Strike Weapons

In June 2016, the Joint Standoff Weapon C-1 (JSOW C-1) achieved Initial 

Operational Capability. The C1 variant adds network enabled weapon capabilities; 
65Department of Defense

a two-way data link allows a controlling platform to update targeting information, 

among other new features. These features, along with the infrared (IR) seeker, give 

this variant enhanced maritime target capabilities. The initial hosting platform 

is the F/A-18E/F (Super Hornets); the weapon is currently being qualified on the 

F-35A/C to become operational in a future software block.

Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment

The Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment (CODE) program 

focuses on developing an uncrewed air system modular software architecture that 

will enable collaborative autonomous behaviors in multiple existing and legacy 

platforms that, by design, do not have collaborative autonomous capabilities. In 

November 2015, CODE successfully demonstrated formation flight behaviors with 

four small UAVs. Leveraging CODE, unpiloted vehicles are able to continuously 

evaluate their own states and gauge environmental changes. CODE-equipped 

uncrewed systems operate with minimal supervision and adapt to dynamic situations such as attrition of friendly forces or the emergence of unanticipated threats. 

The software for CODE is being developed in an open architecture adhering to 

emerging DOD standards and is designed to be platform-agnostic. Other key design 

features are resilience to bandwidth limitations and communications disruptions 

while being compatible with existing standards.

Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System

The Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) program is 

developing a tailorable, drop-in kit that would add high levels of automation into 

existing aircraft, enabling operations with reduced on-board crew. The program 

seeks to reduce operator workload, reduce the training burden, augment mission 

performance, and improve aircraft safety. In December 2015, the ALIAS program 

successfully executed a fully integrated demonstration highlighting the ability to 

rapidly codify flight procedures; leverage perception systems to build a complete 

model of both cockpit and aircraft state; and use of add-on, in-cockpit actuation 

to drive both primary and secondary flight controls. The successful testing also 

validated the in-flight user interface. As an automation system, ALIAS supports 

the execution of the entire flight mission from takeoff to landing, even in the face 
66Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

of contingency events such as aircraft system failures. ALIAS attributes, such as 

persistent-state monitoring and rapid recall of flight procedures, further enhance 

flight safety. Further testing in February 2016 showed the ability to operate an 

aircraft from takeoff to landing with all control being passed through a simple 

in-cockpit tablet interface.

Vertical Take-Off and Landing Technology Demonstrator

The Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) technology demonstrator program 

will develop technologies to enable revolutionary improvements in (heavier-thanair) VTOL air vehicle capabilities through the development of subsystems, aircraft 

configurations, and design integration. The program’s target goal is to build and 

flight test an unpiloted aircraft weighing approximately 12,000 pounds, capable 

of sustained speeds in excess of 300 knots while enhancing hover and cruise efficiencies. In March and June 2016, the program successfully completed subscale 

first flight and subscale demonstrator development activities. This was a critical 

milestone in validating the flight control systems in flight. Other key highlights 

include a first-ever all-electric tilt-wing distributed ducted-fan propulsion system 

with the incorporation of flight-worthy 3D printed parts.

Automatic Collision Avoidance Technologies

The Automatic Integrated Collision Avoidance System (Auto ICAS) algorithms 

were tested by the AFTC at Edwards Air Force Base from May through September 

2016, during which 11 single-ship and 16 two-ship flights were flown. Auto ICAS 

incorporates the legacy Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto 

GCAS), which has been fielded on the Block 40/50 USAF F-16s and the recently 

developed Automatic Air Collision Avoidance System (Auto ACAS). The team is 

currently analyzing the data from the first phase of testing and plans to update the 

algorithms based on any issues found.
67Department of Defense

Hybrid Technology Program

Pre-Block 40 versions of the F-16s have analog flight control systems that are 

unable to host the Auto GCAS/Auto ACAS software. An AFRL, Lockheed 

Martin, and BAE Systems team has developed a hybrid technology that inserts 

digital processor modules into the analog flight control computer and makes the 

upgrade feasible and affordable. The Auto GCAS capabilities of the hybrid system 

have been tested on Norway’s pre-Block 40 F-16 at Edwards AFB by the AFTC. 

Two phases of flight testing were completed between April 2015 and March 2016. 

There were 29 total flights of the system that proved that the updated Hybrid 

Flight Control System did not change the flying qualities of the aircraft, and it 

was determined that Auto GCAS on the Hybrid Flight Control System performed 

very similarly to Auto GCAS on the Digital Flight Control System. Based on the 

results of this effort and support from Air Force leadership, a Hybrid Technology 

Follow-on Effort has been started to 1) modify the Handling Qualities Simulation 

to F-16 Block 30 avionics configuration; 2) build, test, and qualify Hybrid Flight 

Control Systems that are specific to Air National Guard/Air Force Reserve 

Command aircraft; and 3) flight test the USAF F-16 Block 30 configuration in 

order to mature the technology to TRL 7 for transition to the F-16 program office. 

This Hybrid Technology Follow-on Effort started in August 2016 and is scheduled 

to run through June 2018. Once this effort is complete, the F-16 program office will 

integrate this technology on more than 300 USAF pre-Block 40 F-16s at the end of 

2020. In addition to facilitating the fielding of Auto GCAS in these older USAF 

F-16s, the hybrid flight control computer enables the installation of other advanced 

functions as well as the fielding of Auto GCAS on F-16s flown by foreign partners.

Aerospace Vehicles

Sensitivity Analysis for Multidisciplinary Systems (SAMS) is a three-year 

joint Air Force-NASA project initiated in November 2015 to develop a highfidelity capability to compute aeroelastic sensitivities for aerospace vehicle 

design. Computation of sensitivity analysis is critical to accounting for realistic 

physical constraints earlier in the design process. This way, problematic aircraft 
68Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

configurations can be weeded out early in system development, before large investments are made, and new technologies can be assessed in terms of their systemlevel impact. SAMS has broad applicability, including to aero-structural efficiency 

concepts, controllability assessments for tailless supersonic configurations, and 

condition-based maintenance scheduling based on usage variations.

The product of the collaborative effort is to modularize and add analytical capability to the existing NASA LaRC Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) production code FUN3D. The FUN3D code is a national analysis standard developed over 

25 years that possesses unique capabilities and has a very broad user base.

The objective of the Higher Bypass Ratio Inlet Development (HIBRID) Inlet 

Integration Demonstration (HIID) advanced inlet/commercial fan low-speed test 

at NASA Glenn Research Center’s 9- by 15-foot wind tunnel was to determine 

the capabilities of an advanced commercial fan to handle spatially complex distortion patterns with combinations of distortion (swirl, steady state, and dynamic 

total pressure). The HIID test completed eight test phases in November 2015. The 

phases included fundamental distortion screens, fundamental bulk swirl vanes, 

paired swirl vanes, advanced inlet, advanced inlet with alternate geometry, severe 

fundamental and combined distortion screens, fundamental distortion screens 

combined with fundamental swirl patterns, and severe fundamental bulk swirl. 

The test program achieved 14 instances of fan-rotating stall with the other speedlines ending in stress limits or upon reaching the previously determined stability 

limit line. Thirty-one physical configurations were tested, including 13 advanced 

inlet configurations. This test program was a first-ever in terms of the thoroughness 

of the investigation of inlet distortion and the impact on a commercial fan. The 

levels of fundamental total pressure distortion and fundamental swirl distortion, 

along with the fundamental and complex combinations of these distortions, are 

not known to have previously occurred.

A small scale Hybrid Wing Body (HWB) model was tested in January 2016 in 

the Lockheed Martin Low Speed Wind Tunnel in Marietta, Georgia. The four 

percent–scale future strategic transport model had a 9-foot, 4-inch span. The 

objective was to develop the low-speed stability and control performance databases 

for a potential larger-scale HWB flight demonstrator. This testing complemented 

the 2015 subsonic-speed wind tunnel test at the NASA National Transonic Facility 
69Department of Defense

(NTF), which used the same four percent–size model. The test was an evolution 

of the HWB transport design developed under Air Force and NASA aircraft efficiency design programs.

Hypersonics

The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Conventional Prompt Strike 

(CPS) effort executed technology development during FY 2016 for risk reduction 

in several key areas, including hypersonic aerodynamics, thermo-structural physics, 

and test and evaluation. Risk-reduction and technology-maturation efforts continued through ground tests to improve state-of-the-art modeling and simulation capabilities and technology readiness. Trade studies were conducted to evaluate system 

alternatives, affordability, and end-to-end system concepts. A CDR was completed 

for a future hypersonic flight experiment that will serve as a demonstration and 

evaluation of the latest technologies. These activities and data will be used to 

inform a potential acquisition program.

The AFRL partnered with NASA Langley Research Center and NASA Glenn 

Research Center on hypersonic research in 2016. AFRL in-house resources, 

combined with funding provided to NASA, enabled near-term expendable weapons and far-term reusable vehicles for atmospheric flight and access to space. 

Accomplishments from this arrangement include CFD analysis of the X-51A internal and external flow fields, hardware development for the Medium Scale Critical 

Components program, and testing and analysis to characterize the mode transition 

from turbine to ramjet operation.

Unmanned Aircraft Systems

The United States Air Force is executing the RQ-4 Global Hawk Program to 

provide continuous, high-altitude, long-endurance, all-weather, day/night widearea surveillance and reconnaissance capability. The Global Hawk core program 

is in the final portion of the aircraft production and deployment phase, with an 

expected completion in FY 2018. In 2016, the program exceeded 200,000 flight 

hours and shifted focus to planning and executing a series of modernization efforts, 
70Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

including new sensor integration, ground segment modification, operational flight 

program updates, and ice protection.

The United States Navy continued development of the MQ-4C Triton 

Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) in FY 2016. In September 2016, the program received approval from the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, 

Technology, and Logistics to initiate Low Rate Initial Production of MQ-4C aircraft and development of aircraft and ground segment modifications to add more 

sensor capabilities.

The U.S. Marine Corps began fielding the RQ-21 Blackjack to the first operational squadron in FY 2015. In addition to the Marine Corps’s currently fielded 

RQ-7Bs, the Marine Corps began fielding the RQ-21 Blackjack to squadrons to 

support MEUs afloat, Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC) units, 

and other Marine Corps regimental-sized units. The RQ-21 Blackjack supported its 

first MEU deployment in 2016.

The Army continues to modernize the MQ-1C Gray Eagle and RQ-7B Shadow 

UASes in stride with combat operations. The Army fielded its 11th Gray Eagle 

Company in August and enhanced the system with the introduction of a serverbased Universal Ground Control Station (UGCS). In addition, production of the 

new Improved Gray Eagle began, which will extend the endurance of the aircraft 

by more than 50 percent. The RQ-7 Shadow is undergoing modernization with the 

fielding of the UGCS and the upgrading of existing data links to modern Ku-band 

Type 1 National Security Agency (NSA) encryption. The Shadow, which is primarily assigned to the Brigade Combat Teams and Special Forces Groups, is being 

integrated into the Combat Aviation Brigades as part of the Apache Helicopter 

Heavy Attack Reconnaissance Squadrons and the Army Aviation Restructure 

Initiative (ARI).

The MQ-8C Fire Scout UAV completed a three-week operational assessment 

(OA) at Naval Base Ventura County in Point Mugu, California. The OA included 

11 flights totaling 83.4 flight hours, during which where Fire Scout was tested 

against maritime and surveyed land targets to assess the system performance, 

endurance, and reliability of the unmanned helicopter. The MQ-8C is intended 

to provide up to twice the endurance and three times the payload of the MQ-8B.
71Department of Defense

AFRL has continued the development and flight demonstration of a Sense and 

Avoid (SAA) airborne system for the safe integration of piloted and uncrewed air 

systems. The capability includes automatic detection and avoidance of air traffic 

with the ability to comply with emerging MOPS for the National Airspace System 

(NAS). Furthermore, AFRL is supporting NASA and the FAA in the development 

of MOPS for Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) integration into the NAS for groups 

4 and 5. AFRL continues the development of a comprehensive SAA capability for 

automated surface, terminal area, and “up and away” flight. Additional research is 

focused on SAA for future operations in military airspace.

AFRL Power and Thermal Management

An AFRL/Aerospace Systems Directorate (AFRL/RQ) in-house team completed 

dynamic thermal models to provide end-to-end assessment of the F-22 life-support 

and thermal management system (TMS) that provides the capability to assess the 

performance of the F-22 Environmental Control System (ECS) and On-Board 

Oxygen Generation System (OBOGS) during flight. This was funded by the F-22 

System Program Office (SPO) in response to an AF Scientific Advisory Board 

(SAB) recommendation. AFRL/RQ led this model development effort as part 

of the F22 Life Support System Task Force chartered to identify root causes for 

physiological unknowns and implement corrective actions. The model includes 

the OBOGS and the ECS and provides the capability to predict their performance 

during varying flight conditions. Ultimately, the model predicts the quantity and 

quality of breathing gas available to the pilot during mission maneuvers.

AFRL/RQ has developed a Vehicle Systems Model Integration (VSMI) architecture for the F-35, which has been established at AFRL/RQ, the Lockheed Martin 

Aeronautics Company, and Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Patuxent 

River. VSMI extends the dynamic analysis capabilities of the F-35 program to 

address adaptive, on-demand systems and evaluate technology insertion options. 

Specifically, the VSMI architecture for the TMS enables the direct integration of 

the engine, engine fuel TMS (EFTMS), airframe TMS (AFTMS), and power and 

TMS (PTMS) models simultaneously with dynamic boundary interactions, allowing for a quick turnaround for architecture trade studies.
72Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

AFRL/RQ has successfully developed both a hardware laboratory capability and 

software models for an integrated power and thermal management system with 

an emulated directed energy (DE) load. The demonstration investigates blending 

power from a generator coupled to an emulated turbine engine and a battery system 

through a 270-volt direct current (DC) power bus into a 430-kilowatt dynamic load 

emulator that represents the DE load. Integrated modeling of the system was utilized to predict transient performance, to investigate and correct stability problems, 

and to develop a power-sharing control scheme to enable power blending between 

an emulated turbine engine and a battery system.

The AFRL INtegrated Vehicle Energy Technology (INVENT) Program has 

completed all unit testing and three out of five planned subsystem tests in preparation for two integrated ground demonstrations (IGDs). The testing evaluates 

the power and thermal architecture concepts, unit technologies, and modeling 

and simulation development to ultimately enable high-power mission systems on 

next-generation tactical aircraft through AFRL/RQ’s Megawatt Tactical Aircraft 

(MWTA) Program. Results thus far indicate that the core architectures are sound, 

applicable unit hardware components can be made available for the integrated 

designs, and the modeling and simulation tools are suitable for further development 

required under the MWTA Program.

AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate

AFRL used NASA Van Allen Probes space science mission data to improve the 

standard radiation belt specification used to design commercial, Government, and 

DOD spacecraft. The specification is used to establish system survivability in the 

natural space radiation environment, and the improvements allow for more precise 

shielding and better risk assessment.

AFRL completed a prototype sensor to enable future satellites to include energetic particle sensing. The small, affordable sensor will allow rapid and accurate 

attribution of environmental impacts to DOD spacecraft to support the Space 

Mission Force in countering threats to U.S. space assets.
73Department of Defense

Airborne Weapons Systems and Missiles

The Air Force Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) team’s accomplishments included working with the Navy to understand the level of common work 

between Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) and submarine-launched ballistic missiles; recently, the team received the Air Force Requirements Oversight 

Committee’s approval of the GBSD program’s draft Capabilities Development 

Document (CDD). All these activities supported a decision to enter the Technology 

Maturation and Risk Reduction (TMRR) phase of the project in FY 2016. The 

CDD provides a requirement threshold and objective values to take forward into 

the post-Milestone-A TMRR acquisition phase as the program evaluates and 

matures technologies that will be utilized in this future ICBM system that will 

replace Minuteman-III in the late 2020s.

In 2016, an array of improved weapon systems and munitions were considered 

within Army Aviation. Technologies include smaller, lighter, and more lethal 

munitions with improved accuracy, allowing aviation platforms to carry more kills 

per platform Two particular munitions the Army is employing and/or furthering 

technology for include the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) and the Advanced 

Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS).

JAGM is a multi-mode guidance munition capable of Precision Point (PP) and 

Fire and Forget (F&F) targeting. The combination of Fire and Forget and Precision 

Point targeting capabilities enables improvements in the use of single-mode laser or 

radar air-to-ground missiles in adverse weather and against countermeasures while 

also affording simultaneous engagements on both moving and stationary targets 

with increased lethality.

APKWS II is a Semi-Active Laser (SAL) precision point guidance system that 

provides precision engagements affording low collateral damage against lightly 

armored and soft-point targets. The APKWS II guidance system is mated to the 

legacy unguided aerial rocket to provide air-to-ground suppression, smoke screening, illumination, and direct and indirect fires to defeat area materiel and personnel targets at close and extended ranges.
74Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Space Activities

Launch and Range Operations and Spacelift Developments

The Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program continued to successfully place satellites into orbit during FY 2016. United Launch Alliance 

(ULA) continued its record of success, with seven National Security Space (NSS) 

launches as of August 15, 2016. These launches included two Global Positioning 

System (GPS) IIF launches and the final Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) 

launch for the U.S. Navy. 

Summary of Eight EELV NSS Launches During FY 2016

Date Launch Vehicle Configuration Payload

October 8, 2015 Atlas V (401) National Reconnaissance Office Launch 

(NROL)-55

October 31, 2015 Atlas V (401) GPSII-F 11

February 5, 2015 Atlas V (401) GPS IIF-12

February 10, 2016 Delta IV (5,2) NROL-45

June 11, 2016 Delta IV Heavy Lift Vehicle (HLV) NROL-37

June 24, 2016 Atlas V (551) MUOS-5

July 28, 2016 Atlas V (421) NROL-61

August 19, 2016 Delta IV (4,2) AFSPC-6 (Air Force Space Command 

Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness 

Program [GSSAP] vehicles 3 and 4)

On October 9, 2015, the Air Force updated the Falcon 9 Launch System baseline configuration from the Falcon 9 v1.1 to the Falcon 9 Upgrade. The Space 

Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) Falcon 9 Launch System remains 

certified and eligible for award of NSS missions. On April 27, 2016, the Air Force 

awarded the first competitively sourced NSS launch services contract in more than 

a decade. SpaceX was awarded a contract for GPS III Launch Services.

In January and February 2016, as part of the development of a next-generation 

rocket propulsion system that will transition the Department of Defense away from 

the use of the Russian-supplied RD-180 engine to a domestic alternative for NSS 

launches, the Air Force entered into four other transaction authority (OTA) agreements with industry for the development of rocket propulsion system prototypes 
75Department of Defense

for the EELV program. OTA agreements were used in lieu of standard procurement contracts in order to leverage ongoing investment by industry in rocket 

propulsion systems.

Range modernization efforts continued in FY 2016 with the following 

accomplishments:

(1) The Western Range Modernization of Network (WMN) contract was 

awarded as a small business set-aside to upgrade the Western Range mission communications core, addressing obsolescence issues and improving 

cyber protection. As part of WMN, the contract upgrades the Western 

Range’s communications network from Asynchronous Transfer Mode 

to IPv6.

(2) Construction began on a new Range Communication Facility (RCF) at 

the Eastern Range. The purpose of the new building is to relocate communications capabilities from the XY building to a new RCF, resolving 

building degradation, code noncompliance, and a high risk of flooding. 

The Air Force will either move existing equipment or procure new commercial equipment as necessary to meet system requirements and minimize impacts to scheduled launches.

(3) The Oak Mountain telemetry antennas at the Western Range completed 

acceptance testing on July 21, 2016, and were turned over to operations.

Position, Navigation, and Timing

The GPS program celebrated its 21st anniversary this year and continues to provide the gold standard of satellite-based, uninterrupted PNT data, free of charge, to 

users worldwide since July 1995. The success of the GPS program can be reflected 

in the total number of GPS receivers produced to date, estimated at four billion 

worldwide. Aboard Atlas V rockets, the Air Force orbited the final two IIF satellites in October 2015 and February 2016. All 12 IIF satellites are operating normally 

now, providing an increase in accuracy while having a longer design life than their 

predecessors. Besides the legacy signals, these Block IIF satellites will also provide 

the newest L2C and L5 civil signals. With eight launches over a 24-month period, 

this completed the most aggressive launch schedule since 1993. The arrival on 
76Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

orbit of the IIF vehicles allowed the Air Force to remove from operations the final 

GPS IIA vehicle after 25 years of service to the world—well over three times the 

engineering design life. The IIF launches also helped us achieve 45 centimeters 

of user range error in April 2016, the best weekly performance of the navigation 

signal ever recorded.

The Air Force is currently completing development of the next generation of 

satellite vehicles (GPS III) and expects to have the first vehicle of that class available for launch in 2017. The first GPS III satellite completed final thermal vacuum 

testing in December 2015. Satellite vehicles 9 and 10 were placed on contract this 

year as technical equivalents of GPS III satellite vehicles 1 thru 8, ensuring continued and uninterrupted sustainment of the GPS constellation.

GPS satellite vehicle 23, launched in November 1990 and the oldest satellite in 

the GPS constellation, was finally retired in August 2016 after 25 years of on-orbit 

operations, more than tripling the design life of 7.5 years.

The existence of GPS and moving the GPS system to a dual military-civil 

system have created countless new industries for the United States and boosted 

its economy.

Satellite Communications

Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) is a joint-service satellite communications system that provides global, survivable, secure, protected, and jamresistant communications for high-priority military ground, sea, and air assets. 

Three on-orbit AEHF satellites augment the existing Milstar constellation, 

providing protected satellite communications for strategic users. Production of 

AEHF satellite 4 is nearly complete, and launch is currently estimated to occur by 

November 2017.

The Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals (FAB-T) program will 

field nuclear-event-survivable terminals capable of communicating with the Milstar 

and AEHF satellite constellations using jam-resistant, low-probability-of-intercept 

and low-probability-of-detection waveforms. The Command Post Terminal (CPT) 

variant was placed on contract for initial production runs in October 2015 and July 
77Department of Defense

2016. The CPT will provide command and control of the AEHF constellation and 

provide command and control of nuclear forces to the President.

The second Enhanced Polar System (EPS) payload (on a hosted space vehicle) is 

being integrated onto its host spacecraft with an expected launch date in FY 2017. 

Operational testing is slated for FY 2018, along with initial operational capability 

shortly thereafter. The EPS will replace the Interim Polar System to ensure that 

critical protected communications requirements above 65 degrees north latitude 

are satisfied for joint forces.

The Wideband Global Satellite Communications (SATCOM) (WGS) satellite 

program consists of ten satellites with seven on orbit, WGS-8 planned for launch 

in December 2016, and WGS-9 and -10 in production. The first three satellites 

were part of the block 1 production; satellites 4 through 6 are part of block 2; 

and satellites 7 through 10 are termed block 2 follow-on. Each successive block 

provides greater capacity. WGS-7 launched on July 23, 2015, and became operational January 5, 2016. WGS is the DOD SATCOM constellation with the highest 

capacity and was declared Full Operational Capability (FOC) with five satellites 

on May 12, 2014. The WGS system provides up to 3.6 gigabits per second (Gbps) 

per satellite (13.7 Gbps worldwide as of April 2016) to support various missions 

of the Unified Combatant Commanders, military Services, other DOD agencies, 

and international partners (Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, New 

Zealand, and Luxembourg). The WGS system is composed of space, control, and 

terminal segments. The space segment operates in DOD X-band and Ka-band with 

flexible connectivity between bands and coverages to support and connect users 

operating worldwide.

The Mobile User Objective System provides narrowband communications using 

two separate payloads: a legacy Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) capability and the 

new Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) payload that provides 

greater than ten times the system capacity of the current UHF Follow-On constellation. MUOS is designed to improve ground communications for U.S. forces on 

the move, and it will provide voice, as well as new video, data, and chat capabilities. The U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) activated the MUOS-3 

legacy UHF payload for operations on April 5, 2016. DOD launched MUOS-5, 

the on- orbit spare, on June 24, 2016. MUOS-5 had an anomaly with its Liquid 
78Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Apogee Engine that would have precluded reaching geosynchronous orbit. A corrective action plan for MUOS-5 was implemented to move MUOS-5 to a usable 

orbital position at 105 degrees west. The AN/PRC-117G radio terminal completed 

initial MUOS WCDMA Waveform Military Standard (MIL-STD) 188-187 

Do-No-Harm (DNH) testing on July 12, 2016. USSTRATCOM approved MUOS 

WCDMA operations for Early Combatant Command Use (ECU) on July 15, 2016. 

USSTRATCOM activated the MUOS-4 legacy UHF payload for operations on 

August 14, 2016.

Indications and Warning

The Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) provides missile warning and supports missile defense, technical intelligence, and battlespace awareness mission 

areas. The nominal constellation consists of four Geosynchronous Earth Orbit 

(GEO) satellites, two hosted sensors in Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO), and associated ground elements. Operational acceptance of the Block 10 ground system 

will consolidate legacy Defense Support Program (DSP), SBIRS HEO, and SBIRS 

GEO satellite ground systems from three locations into one primary location and a 

backup. The primary operations location is the Mission Control System–2 (MCS2) at Buckley AFB, Colorado, and the secondary operations location is the Mission 

Control System Backup–2 (MCSB-2) at Schriever AFB, Colorado. The consolidation provides a significant reduction in manpower requirements and allows for 

improvements in mission-processing capabilities. Operational acceptance of the 

Block 10 ground system occurred in December 2016.

Satellite Control and Space Situational Awareness

In August 2016, the Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) Mission System 

(JMS) completed its fourth of four developmental tests for Service Pack–9 (SP-9). 

Upon completion of operational testing and capability acceptance review, SP-9 

will be delivered as an update to the operational system on the JSpOC floor in the 

spring of 2017 and will transition the authoritative catalog of space objects from 

the legacy database to JMS. SP-9 also enables significant new capabilities, including 
79Department of Defense

the following: catalog growth to 1 million objects with future scalability, “all vs. all” 

conjunction assessment, automated and continuously updated high-accuracy orbit 

determination, and maneuver detection. JMS is an agile information technology 

development program, delivering capabilities in a series of increments. Increment 1 

went operational in 2012 and has supported multiple high-profile events since 

inception. Increment 2, SP-7, has been in operation since November 2014.

Site construction for Space Fence Increment 1 continued as planned during 

FY 2016 on Kwajalein Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands, with more construction needed to reach testing milestones in FY 2017 and IOC in FY 2019. The Space 

Fence radar system will improve Space Situational Awareness (SSA) capabilities by 

providing un-cued surveillance of small objects and satellites in low- and mediumEarth orbit to provide spaceflight safety, early detection and custody of threats, and 

awareness to satellite operators in the crewed spaceflight regime.

The United States and Australia continue to work together in the SSA mission 

area. The C-Band Radar that was relocated from Antigua Island to Australia completed operational testing in September 2016. After IOC declaration in FY 2017, the 

radar will become the only U.S. near-Earth dedicated SSA sensor in the Southern 

Hemisphere. C-band radar provides excellent satellite detection tracking and identification capability, along with extremely accurate space object positional data 

and the ability to increase maneuver detection and conjunction assessment capabilities. Efforts also continue to operationalize the Space Surveillance Telescope 

(SST) located at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, prior to its relocation 

to Harold E. Holt Naval Communication Station in Exmouth, Western Australia. 

SST technology enables faster discovery and tracking of previously unseen, hardto-find small objects in geosynchronous orbits. SST is another step forward with 

Australia and is a cornerstone to fulfilling SSA requirements to find, fix, track, 

and characterize deep space small objects. Australia will operate both the C-Band 

Radar and SST systems in partnership with the United States.

Nanosats and SmallSats

The Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC)/Army Forces 

Strategic Command (ARSTRAT) Technical Center developed and is testing two 
80Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

technology-demonstration programs designed to provide imagery and over-thehorizon communications directly to military units on the ground.

The first program is the SMDC Nanosatellite Program (SNaP). It is being developed as a cost-effective, responsive capability that will mitigate the impact of the 

loss or disruption of national space-based capabilities. SNaP is designed to deliver 

a more resilient space capability and is part of an initiative to explore technologies 

deployed on nanosatellites in low-Earth orbit with the goal of ensuring warfighter 

freedom of maneuvering, communication, and immediate access to actionable 

situational awareness information. SNaP has a propulsion system for stationkeeping and can be used for voice communication, data transfer (including short message service texting), and data exfiltration from unattended ground sensors. It is 

compatible with PRC 117 and PRC 152 radios, along with certain partner nation 

radios with Type 1 encryption (e.g., Harris 5800M). In October 2015, three SNaP 

nanosatellites were launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. After 

launch and release from the main rocket body, the three SNaP satellites were diagnosed for status and functionality and subsequently tracked by SMDC/ARSTRAT 

ground stations.

The second program SMDC/ARSTRAT is developing is the Kestrel Eye spacecraft. Kestrel Eye is an electro-optical microsatellite-class imagery satellite for 

tasking by the tactical ground component warfighter. It is capable of producing 

tactically useful imagery. Kestrel Eye’s data can be downlinked directly to the same 

warfighter via a data relay network that is also accessible by other warfighters in 

the theater without any continental United States relay. The Kestrel Eye program 

will extend the Army’s Unmanned Aerial System paradigm into space, proliferating numbers of satellites and enabling the system to be dedicated to and operated 

by warfighters. Kestrel Eye is scheduled to be launched to the International Space 

Station as a part of a cargo resupply mission in fiscal year 2017.

Rocket and Missiles Propulsion

The AFRL Rocket Lab at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB), California, performed 

load operations of AF-M315E for the NASA Green Propellant Infusion Mission 

(GPIM). AF-M315E was developed by the AFRL Rocket Lab to be less toxic than 
81Department of Defense

traditional chemical fuels like hydrazine, thus requiring fewer handling restrictions and less special equipment. The reduction in handling restrictions and special equipment could shorten launch processing times, resulting in lowered costs. 

On track for a 2017 launch, GPIM will demonstrate the practical capabilities of 

AF-M315E. The new propellant is 45 percent denser than hydrazine, meaning 

more of it can be stored in containers of the same volume. Coupled with a greater 

specific impulse (Isp) than hydrazine, this means there is approximately a 50 percent increase in spacecraft maneuvering capability for a given volume. AF-M315E 

also has a lower freezing point than hydrazine, requiring less spacecraft power to 

maintain its temperature.

Ground testing of the Hydrocarbon Boost Demonstrator subscale pre-burner was 

completed. Results were utilized to complete the final design of the full-scale preburner, a major component of the advanced liquid-oxygen/liquid-kerosene rocket 

engine. The subscale ground testing also demonstrated, for the first time, the survivability of the Mondaloy 200 superalloy in a high-pressure oxygen environment. 

The Hydrocarbon Boost Demonstrator pre-burner is being utilized in a Space and 

Missile Systems Center (SMC) and NASA thrust chamber combustion stability 

demonstration project, supporting SMC risk-reduction efforts for a new engine to 

be used in a future launch vehicle. The Hydrocarbon Boost Demonstrator full-scale 

kick pump began ground performance testing and reached full power. This is the 

first full-scale Hydrocarbon Boost Demonstrator component test, which also validated the use of design tools developed under the Upper Stage Engine Technology 

effort, for the first time, in a liquid-kerosene environment. The resulting technologies will enable and support future domestic space launches.

Other Space Developments

The Counter Communications System (CCS) provides expeditionary, deployable, reversible counter-space effects applicable across the full spectrum of conflict. 

CCS denies adversary satellite communications in an area of conflict in ways 

that include command and control, early warning, and propaganda dissemination. Program procurement funding was increased in FY 2015 to allow purchase 

of five new CCS systems for the Air National Guard. The preplanned product 
82Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

improvements, which transition the system to Increment 10.2, are on track and 

progressing well. The first two deliveries are scheduled for mid-FY 2017.

In 2016, the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office continued to support the on-orbit operations of the ORS-1 satellite, launched in June 2011 from 

NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia. Although designed with a life of two 

years, ORS-1 continued to support U.S. Central Command throughout FY 2016. 

Additionally, ORS continued to directly support Joint Force Commander needs 

with the development of ORS-5 to satisfy a U.S. Strategic Command need. The 

ORS-5 satellite will demonstrate SSA (wide-area search capability) of the GEO 

belt with a small satellite in low-Earth orbit. The ORS-5 satellite, scheduled to 

launch in 2017, will provide risk reduction to the Space Based Space Surveillance 

Follow-On (SBSS FO) program and will develop and demonstrate ORS enablers 

and principles. In November 2015, ORS launched ORS-4, the small, responsive, 

low-cost Super-Strypi launch vehicle. While the launch failed to achieve orbit, it 

demonstrated several of its mission objectives, including installing a rail launcher 

and launch pad, using a rail for an orbital launch, and launching from a reduced 

infrastructure range with a minimal crew. To support the long-term plan for 

meeting Weather Satellite Follow-on (WSF) requirements, the Air Force is pursuing a multi-phase effort. One of the first phases is the ORS-6 mission, a flight 

technology demonstration with potential residual operational capability of the 

Compact Ocean Wind Vector Radiometer (COWVR) payload mounted on the 

ORS Modular Space Vehicle (MSV) bus, leveraging the Modular Open System 

Approach (MOSA) and the Rapid Response Space Works (RRSW). The ORS-6 

mission will measure ocean surface vector winds and tropical cyclone intensity and 

launch in November 2017.

The DOD Space Test Program provides spaceflight opportunities for militarily 

relevant DOD space research and development payloads. The program delivers 

innovative space system solutions for Air Force and DOD customers to enable 

flexible, resilient, and affordable capabilities. The Space Test Program is preparing for five different launch missions in 2017. These include nine payloads to 

enhance space situational awareness in the GEO belt; Kestrel Eye II to evaluate a 

low-cost electro-optical microsatellite; STP-2 to launch multiple experiments on a 

Falcon 9 Heavy; and STPSat-5 to develop, build, and fly a small, inexpensive space 
83Department of Defense

vehicle to support the maximum feasible number of Space Experiment Review 

Board Experiments.

The Space Security and Defense Program (SSDP) is a joint DOD and Office of 

the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) organization established to function 

as the center of excellence for options and strategies (materiel and non-materiel), 

leading to a more resilient and enduring National Security Space Enterprise. In 

the past year, SSDP executed four experiments supporting stand-up of the Joint 

Interagency Combined Space Operations Center (JICSpOC) at Schriever AFB 

and conducted analysis on Space Situational Awareness and operational-level command and control of space assets in support of DOD Space Strategic Portfolio 

Review and Air Force Space Command’s Space Enterprise Vision. SSDP continued work with the Combatant Commands (CCMD) on both developing validated 

response options and integrating cyber defenses into their operations and plans 

to protect and defend our space assets. Finally, SSDP conducted a number of 

analytic efforts focused on identifying characteristics of a resilient architecture in 

a contested environment. As a result of SSDP efforts, JICSpOC baseline operational interfaces and processes were established, space command and control and 

SSA requirements were documented, CCMD plans were revised, and key system 

resiliency trades for next-generation satellite communication and missile warning 

constellations were defined.

85Federal Aviation Administration

Federal Aviat

Administrat

FAA

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) achieved landmark milestones in 

its ongoing Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) effort that is 

transitioning the National Airspace System (NAS) from analog and ground-based 

systems to cutting-edge digital and satellite-enabled technologies. The NextGen 

transformation is fundamentally changing the way we see, navigate, and communicate in the Nation’s skies. NextGen seeks to move away from the current system 

of air traffic control—based on knowing where an aircraft is—to a time-based 

management system that operates on shared knowledge of where an aircraft will be 

at any given point in time along its projected trajectory. Time-based management 

will significantly increase efficiency and flexibility in the NAS and help achieve 

the NextGen goals of reduced delays, enhanced safety, decreased fuel burn, and 

fewer aircraft exhaust emissions. To enable these changes, the existing infrastructure must be either replaced or modified, and interfaces must be designed and put 

in place between different systems to ensure that they seamlessly communicate 

with each other.

NextGen is critical to protecting aviation’s contributions to U.S. economic 

strength. A vibrant aviation industry is vital to the Nation’s fiscal health, as civil 

aviation contributes 10.6 million jobs and $1.6 trillion a year to the U.S. economy. 

To date, the NextGen capabilities already deployed have delivered $1.6 billion in 

benefits to airlines and the traveling public. The FAA expects NextGen to deliver 

$160.6 billion in shared benefits through 2030.
86Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Automation

Some of the FAA’s biggest modernization gains in 2016 were in automation—the 

computer systems that controllers use to manage our Nation’s air traffic. These 

systems are platforms upon which NextGen programs and capabilities are built.

Under the Terminal Automation Modernization and Replacement (TAMR) 

program, the FAA is replacing the Automated Radar Terminal System (ARTS) in 

Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facilities with the state-of-the-art 

Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS). TRACONs guide 

aircraft transitioning to and from high-altitude airspace. Four ARTS model IEs and 

55 ARTS model IIEs remain in the NAS, with the numbers continuing to decline.

STARS also is replacing the automation in the FAA’s largest TRACONs and 

is now operational at the 11 of them that control 80 percent of all U.S. traffic. 

Nine of those TRACONs are among the ten busiest air traffic facilities in the 

world. The TAMR program expects to fully deploy STARS to all TRACONs 

by 2020, enabling many NextGen technologies in terminal airspace, including 

Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B), a satellite-enabled technology that will serve as the FAA’s primary means of aircraft surveillance, and 

the advanced Terminal Sequencing and Spacing (TSAS) function for Time Based 

Flow Management (TBFM).

The TAMR program’s success mirrors the FAA’s achievement in deploying the 

En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) system to all 20 air route traffic 

control centers in the contiguous United States—a process that was completed 

in 2015. Like STARS, ERAM enables key NextGen capabilities in the facilities 

that control traffic at cruising altitude, including ADS-B—which is fully integrated—and Data Communications (Data Comm), which is supplementing voice 

communications with digital text-based messages exchanged between controllers 

and pilots.

Data Comm

In 2016, the FAA completed the deployment of Data Comm departure clearance services to towers at 56 airports. As a priority area identified by the Radio 
87Federal Aviation Administration

Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA) NextGen Advisory Committee, a 

Federal advisory committee composed of executives from across the aviation community, this deployment was completed more than two years ahead of schedule.

Using Data Comm, controllers select and send departure clearance instructions electronically to the cockpits of equipped aircraft instead of speaking them 

to pilots over the radio. Air carrier flight dispatchers simultaneously receive the 

same information. Flight crews signal concurrence with the press of a button; 

instructions can then be automatically loaded into the aircraft’s flight management system. This process can be repeated as often as necessary from the gate 

until the aircraft is ready for takeoff. By providing an air-to-ground data link, this 

transformational program is a critical component of the FAA’s NextGen vision of 

time-based traffic management.

With tower service in place, the FAA is preparing for the next step of adding 

en route services. The agency made its final investment decision and reached its 

cost, schedule, and technical requirements milestone for this phase in August 2016.

In economic benefits, Data Comm is expected to save operators more than 

$10 billion over the 30-year life cycle of the program and the FAA about $1 billion 

in future operating costs.

ADS-B

Aircraft flying in most controlled airspace must be equipped to broadcast their 

position using ADS-B Out by January 1, 2020. ADS-B Out—a basic level of aircraft 

equipage—relies on aircraft avionics, a constellation of GPS satellites, and a network of ground stations across the country to transmit an aircraft’s position, ground 

speed, and other data to air traffic controllers. The Equip 2020 Governmentindustry working group is working to eliminate equipage impediments for commercial and general aviation operators. As of the end of 2016, nearly 25,000 aircraft 

have been equipped with ADS-B avionics.

While equipping with ADS-B In is not mandatory, operators who chose to 

install the necessary transceiver and cockpit display will benefit from seeing 

the same traffic picture as controllers, which significantly increases situational 

awareness. General aviation operators who equip with ADS-B In have the added 
88Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

benefit of graphical weather and flight information delivered to the cockpit at no 

further cost.

In September 2016, to make the equipage decision easier, the FAA initiated a 

$500 rebate program to help general aviation operators defray ADS-B equipment 

and installation costs. U.S.-registered fixed-wing, single-engine piston aircraft that 

are not equipped with Version 2 of ADS-B Out are eligible. The rebates are being 

issued on a first-come, first-served basis for about one year from the launch or until 

20,000 have been claimed, whichever comes first.

Performance Based Navigation

Performance Based Navigation (PBN) uses GPS/GNSS satellites and onboard 

equipment for improved navigation that allows more precise and accurate flight 

than that limited to standard avionics and ground-based navigation aids. PBN’s 

name reflects that the types of routes and procedures an aircraft can fly depend on 

equipment performance level and pilot training.

The FAA already has published more than 15,000 PBN arrival, departure, and 

approach procedures as well as high- and low-altitude PBN routes. These procedures 

provide precise flight paths across the United States that are much more direct 

than the legacy flight paths they replace, which zigzag point-to-point over groundbased navigation aids. In 2016, the FAA published the PBN NAS Navigation 

Strategy 2016 (available at http://www.faa.gov/nextgen/media/PBN_NAS_NAV.pdf), 

which outlines the agency’s plans for moving to a PBN-centric NAS.

PBN’s benefits include the following:

• Increased safety through repeatable and predictable flight paths.

• Improved airport and airspace access in all weather conditions.

• Reduced delays at airports and in certain congested airspace by using new 

parallel routes, newly enabled ingress/egress points around busy terminal 

areas, and improved flight rerouting capabilities that make better use of 

airspace and closely spaced parallel operations procedures.

• Increased efficiency through more direct routes, especially at lower 

flight altitudes.

• Curved approaches.
89Federal Aviation Administration

PBN’s Area Navigation and Required Navigation Performance (RNP) provide 

environmental benefits through reduced emissions and fuel consumption. In 

Denver alone, RNP approaches save Southwest, United, and Frontier airlines more 

than 100 gallons of fuel per flight.

Enhanced Low Visibility Operations

NextGen funded Phase II of Enhanced Low Visibility Operations (ELVO), which 

is actively allowing increased access to airports for air carriers in low-visibility conditions, such as those induced by fog. By assessing and providing a greater and more 

appropriate level of credit to the advanced avionics, ELVO allows a greater number 

of airports throughout the United States to have equivalent Category II capability with no or little investment. This helps the air carriers recoup the return on 

investment for these advanced avionics. Lower-than-standard departures are also 

allowed, helping reduce flight delays by allowing aircraft to depart in conditions 

that earlier would have caused delays and ground stops. ELVO has increased the 

number of on-time arrivals and departures in the NAS.

System Wide Information Management

To function smoothly, the NAS relies on users sharing an increasing amount of 

air traffic management data. System Wide Information Management (SWIM), an 

advanced technology program, turns NAS data into useful information for aviation 

stakeholders. The digital data delivery platform provides the foundation for fully 

implementing many NextGen operational improvements.

Replacing multiple stand-alone computer interfaces that connect point-to-point, 

SWIM provides a modern, universally recognized data-exchange format interface 

through a single connection. The new format supports collaboration within the 

domestic and international aviation communities, and users gain unprecedented 

access to data products with improved bandwidth and security. SWIM also contributes to the FAA’s goal of time-based traffic management.

SWIM operates through an enterprise service-oriented architecture (SOA) composed of producers, subscribers, and a registry. Producers—in this case, FAA NAS 
90Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

programs—publish data exchanged through the NAS Enterprise Messaging System 

for registered subscribers. Subscribers can access more than 100 SWIM products, 

which are categorized as aeronautical, flight and traffic flow, or weather. The FAA 

and SWIM subscribers—inside and outside the FAA—interact through a registry, 

where subscribers can search specific criteria to find services.

SWIM Segment II—aimed at establishing an enterprise SOA—was completed 

in 2016, one year after the first segment to establish a common infrastructure and 

connection points at all 20 air route traffic control centers was completed to transform point-to-point interfaces. SWIM Segment II also connected NAS programs 

to provide large data sources for subscribers, such as the Traffic Flow Management 

System (TFMS) and Integrated Terminal Weather System (ITWS). TFMS is a suite 

of automation tools used to help balance NAS traffic demand and capacity, while 

ITWS improves integration of weather data into timely, accurate aviation weather 

information. Both help reduce delays and improve NAS capacity.

It also attracts more subscribers interested in accessing the data.

Decision Support Systems

Air traffic controllers and traffic managers use decision support systems to help 

solve traffic flow constraints and optimize traffic flow across the NAS. In 2016, 

Integrated Departure/Arrival Capability (IDAC), a component of TBFM, was 

deployed to many busy control towers. IDAC automates departure demand monitoring and departure slot identification. It coordinates the departure times between 

airports and provides situational awareness to controllers so they can select from 

available departure times and plan their operations to meet those times.

The FAA received NASA’s latest tool to help make NextGen a reality on July 

14, 2016. Terminal Sequencing and Spacing, another element of TBFM, is designed 

to aid TRACON controllers in determining the optimal aircraft speed and position to stay on a fuel-efficient descent provided by PBN procedures. The goal is to 

enable all descending aircraft to safely merge into a point where they can transition 

to an airport tower controller for their final approach.

Another system significantly progressing this year is Terminal Flight Data 

Manager (TFDM). The FAA is completing early implementation of portions of 
91Federal Aviation Administration

TFDM before full initial operating capability, which is scheduled for 2020. Advanced 

Electronic Flight Strips (AEFS) hardware was installed in September at Charlotte 

Douglas International Airport, North Carolina, to support Airspace Technology 

Demonstration 2 (ATD-2), a NASA-led project to integrate arrival, departure, and 

surface activities. AEFS replaces manual tracking with an electronic flight data display, which allows controllers to stay engaged with traffic at all times.

In TFDM, AEFS and the ATD-2 prototype tools integrate with other new technologies, such as the IDAC, a function in TBFM to coordinate schedules between 

the ramp and tower, terminal, and center control facilities, giving air traffic 

managers the tools to make better decisions about how to reduce congestion and 

increase efficiency.

Interagency Collaboration and UAS

Just as NextGen is transforming the NAS, unmanned aircraft systems (UASes) 

are bringing unprecedented new opportunities for business and recreation. Enabled 

by new technology platforms, the number of UAS pilots in the NAS has grown 

dramatically. The challenge is to ensure that these new aircraft are integrated with 

piloted aircraft without compromising safety to people and property on the ground 

or in the air.

The FAA is working with NASA and other Federal and industry partners to 

safely integrate UAS in the NAS. The FAA implemented new rulemaking to 

permit small UAS-limited operations in U.S. airspace. Additionally, the FAA 

announced a streamlined and user-friendly Web-based aircraft registration process 

for owners of UAS that weigh between 0.55 and 55 pounds, including payloads 

such as cameras.

The introduction of UAS affects existing and future aviation requirements from 

aircraft certification to air traffic management. NASA and the FAA have established a UAS Traffic Management Research Transition Team to define and develop 

requirements and standards that will be necessary for safe and efficient integration 

of UAS.

Additional information about the FAA unmanned aircraft systems can be found 

at http://www.faa.gov/uas/.
92Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Commercial Space Transportation

As the FAA achieved tremendous success in its NextGen effort, its Office of 

Commercial Space Transportation (AST) continued moving forward in promoting 

U.S. commercial space transportation.

In 2016, AST licensed 11 orbital commercial space launches: three United 

Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station 

(CCAFS) in Florida and eight SpaceX Falcon 9 launches from CCAFS. Under 

an experimental permit, Blue Origin conducted four suborbital commercial space 

launches of the Blue Origin New Shepard system from the company’s test site in 

western Texas.

One AST licensed orbital operation ended in failure. In September 2016, the 

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and its associated payload, the AMOS-6 commercial communications satellite, exploded on the launch pad during preparations for a static 

test fire of the vehicle. This incident did not result in any third-party property 

damage. Additionally, there were no fatalities or injuries.

In FY 2016, AST issued a new Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) mission operator 

license to Virgin Galactic for conducting WhiteKnightTwo/SpaceShipTwo missions from Mojave Air and Space Port, California. Furthermore, AST granted several modifications to existing launch licenses in FY 2016. AST modified Orbital’s 

launch operator license to reflect its reconfigured Antares rocket, SpaceX’s launch 

license to reflect a new Falcon 9 launch vehicle version and allow first-stage fly-back 

that included the first return-to-launch-site landing, and SpaceX’s reentry license 

to reflect changes to the Dragon reentry vehicle and the reuse of previously flown 

components. AST granted launch site operator license renewals to the Oklahoma 

Space Industry Development Authority in Tulsa and to the Harris Corporation for 

launches at the California Spaceport at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

AST renewed an experimental permit for SpaceX for flights of its Dragonfly 

Reusable Launch Vehicle at the company’s McGregor Test Site in Texas. AST 

also renewed Blue Origin’s experimental permit authorizing it to continue tests of 

the New Shepard vehicle at the company’s western Texas site. AST did not issue 

any new safety approvals during the fiscal year but did renew the safety approval 

for SpaceTEC Partners, Incorporated, for its Aerospace Core certification and 
93Federal Aviation Administration

advanced concentration certifications in aerospace vehicle process, aerospace 

manufacturing, and aerospace composites, as well as the safety approval for the 

Zero Gravity Corporation for its ability to provide a flight environment capable of 

replicating various reduced gravity levels.

AST conducted inspections at various locations, including Vandenberg Air 

Force Base, California; Burns Flat, Oklahoma; CCAFS, Florida; Decatur, Alabama; 

Pacific Spaceport Complex, Kodiak, Alaska; New Mexico Spaceport Authority, Las 

Cruces, New Mexico; McGregor Test Site, Texas; Orbital-ATK facilities, Dulles, 

Virginia; SpaceX facilities, Hawthorne, California; Ellington Field, Houston, 

Texas; Midland, Texas; National Aerospace Training and Research (NASTAR) 

facilities, Southampton, Pennsylvania; Jacksonville, Florida; Virgin Galactic, 

Mojave, California; and MARS, Wallops Island, Virginia.

In FY 2016, AST issued three environment-related documents. In December 

2015, AST issued a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) to adopt the 

United States Air Force October 2014 “Environmental Assessment for the Space 

Exploration Technologies Vertical Landing of the Falcon Vehicle and Construction 

at Launch Complex 13” at CCAFS in Florida; in March 2016, AST issued a FONSI 

to adopt NASA’s September 2015 “Final Supplemental Environmental Assessment 

for the Antares 200 Configuration Expendable Launch Vehicle” at Wallops Flight 

Facility in Virginia; and, in April 2016, AST issued an Environmental Assessment 

and FONSI/Record of Decision (FONSI/ROD) for the Kodiak Launch Complex 

Launch Pad 3 in Alaska.

Also in 2016, the FAA continued support of its Center of Excellence for 

Commercial Space Transportation (COE CST), which enables the FAA to work 

with universities and their industry partners to conduct research in environmental 

and aviation safety, as well as other activities, to ensure a safe and efficient air 

transportation system. The COE CST, working with nine member universities, 

provides grants with a one-to-one matching requirement (one non-Federal dollar for every Federal dollar granted) in four distinct research areas: space traffic 

management and operations; space transportation operations, technologies, and 

payloads; human spaceflight; and space transportation industry viability.

In 2016, AST conducted a payload review of the Moon Express MX-1E lunar 

lander capable of transferring from Earth orbit to the moon, making a soft landing 
94Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

on the lunar surface, and performing post-landing relocations through propulsive 

“hops.” In July, the FAA made a favorable payload determination for the Moon 

Express MX-1E spacecraft/lander. The FAA has determined that the launch of 

the payload does not jeopardize public health and safety, the safety of property, 

U.S. national security or foreign policy interests, or international obligations of the 

United States. This is the first-of-its-kind payload determination for a spacecraft 

meant to visit the lunar surface. This action was seen as a step toward supporting 

commercial activities beyond Earth orbit.

Additional information about the FAA Office of Commercial Space 

Transportation, regulations, reports, and other documents can be found online at 

https://www.faa.gov/go/space.
95Department of Commerce

Department of Comm

DOC

In January 2016, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

(NOAA) released its Commercial Space Policy, which sets a broad framework for 

usage of commercial space-based approaches for the agency. The policy establishes 

critical components for engaging with the commercial sector, including designating the Office of Space Commerce as a single point of entry for commercial providers to streamline engagement; establishing an open and transparent marketplace; 

defining guiding principles, implementation considerations, and strategic planning 

for potential commercial data buys; and establishing demonstration projects to test 

and evaluate new potential data sources and provide an avenue to operational commercial data buys.

The Commercial Space Policy calls for NOAA to explore and pursue demonstration projects to validate the viability of adding commercial environmental data 

and products into NOAA’s meteorological models. The Commercial Weather Data 

Pilot (CWDP) will serve as one such demonstration project, evaluating commercial 

data to demonstrate the quality of the data and their impact on weather forecast 

models, as well as informing NOAA’s process for ingesting, evaluating, and utilizing commercial data in the future. During FY 2016, NOAA held an industry day, 

issued two public solicitations related to the CWDP, and awarded contracts to two 

U.S. companies for space-based commercial weather data. Under the contracts, 

the companies will provide GPS radio occultation data for the purpose of data 

demonstration. Radio occultation is a technique for performing key atmospheric 

measurements. The CWDP paves the way for future operational data buys in support of NOAA weather forecasting.
96Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) East satellite captured this image of 

Hurricane Matthew in the Bahamas on its way to the Florida coast at 1445 UTC on October 6, 2016.

In November 2015, Congress passed a law renaming the Department of 

Commerce’s (DOC) Office of Space Commercialization as the Office of Space 

Commerce and updating the office’s statutory responsibilities to include promoting 

U.S. geospatial technologies and providing support to the National Coordination 

Office (NCO) for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT). At 

that point, DOC had already hosted the NCO for ten years, and it continued to do 

so in FY 2016. This included hosting the http://www.gps.gov Web site, a top result in 

Internet searches for “GPS.” The NCO is the Secretariat of the National Executive 

Committee for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing, the senior body 

that advises and coordinates Federal agencies on matters affecting GPS. DOC continued to serve as a member of that committee throughout FY 2016.

Also during FY 2016, DOC participated in various dialogues on satellite navigation and space cooperation with other nations and other entities, including Europe, 

China, and the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems. 

In March 2016, DOC cochaired a meeting of a U.S.-European working group on 

trade issues affecting GPS and Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system. DOC 

also supported a number of speaking engagements and other outreach activities to 

promote global understanding and use of the U.S. GPS.
97Department of Commerce

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

In FY 2016, the importance of NOAA’s operational meteorological and environmental satellites remained as critical as ever as they monitored the severe drought 

and wildfires in the West, record heat in the Southwest, devastating flooding in 

Louisiana caused by over two feet of rain, and the planet’s warmest year on record 

(2015, besting the previous record set in 2014). Twenty-four-hour global coverage 

from NOAA’s satellites provides scientists, decision makers, and the public with 

a continuous stream of information used in preparation for events impacting our 

climate, weather, and oceans. NOAA operates four primary types of environmental satellites: geostationary environmental satellites, polar-orbiting environmental 

satellites, ocean altimetry satellites, and a deep space satellite for space weather 

monitoring and forecasting.

NOAA’s Geostationary Satellites

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) satellites continuously monitor the Western Hemisphere by circling Earth in a geosynchronous orbit 

The eye of Hurricane Patricia is visible on October 23, 2015, from GOES East. Patricia became the 

strongest hurricane on record in the eastern North Pacific and North Atlantic basins before making 

landfall on the coast of southwestern Mexico as a category 4 hurricane.
98Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

22,000 miles above the equator, meaning they remain over one position on the 

surface by orbiting at a speed matching that of Earth’s rotation. GOES imagery and 

data help meteorologists with forecasting weather in the short term, tracking severe 

storms, and estimating precipitation for issuing winter storm warnings and spring 

snow-melt advisories. In FY 2016, GOES-15 flew at 135° west longitude and served 

as “GOES West,” while GOES-13 flew at 75° west longitude and served as “GOES 

East.” The newest generation of GOES launched in late 2016. Continuing 40 years 

of GOES coverage, the GOES-R satellite is more advanced than any other weather 

satellite of its kind and will provide more detailed and accurate data for forecasters.

NOAA’s Polar-Orbiting Satellites

NOAA’s primary polar-orbiting environmental satellites, Polar-orbiting 

Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) and Suomi National Polar-orbiting 

Partnership (Suomi NPP), orbit Earth at an altitude of approximately 517 miles, 

passing close to both poles and providing complete views of weather around the 

world. POES provides full global coverage with advanced sensors for weather and 

climate data, collecting information on temperature, atmospheric conditions, wind 

speed, cloud formation, and drought conditions over the entire Earth. All major 

numerical weather prediction (NWP) centers around the world use this information as the basis of nearly every medium-term weather forecast.

The Suomi NPP satellite remained NOAA’s primary operational polar-orbiting 

satellite. Suomi NPP is a joint NOAA-NASA mission and serves as a bridge 

between NOAA’s current fleet of polar-orbiting satellites and the upcoming nextgeneration Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). JPSS-1 took a major step forward on 

its journey to launch as its fifth and final instrument, the Advanced Technology 

Microwave Sounder, was integrated with the satellite. The spacecraft entered the 

environmental testing phase, the next step toward launch. NOAA-19, NOAA’s 

previous primary operational polar-orbiting satellite, also remains a critical part 

of NOAA’s polar constellation and provides valuable contributions to National 

Weather Service forecasts.

April 15, 2016, marked the ten-year anniversary of the launch of the 

Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate 
99Department of Commerce

(COSMIC) constellation, which provides precision radio occultation (RO) soundings to support improved NWP model forecasts. The project is a partnership 

between the National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan and the United 

States. Over its lifetime, COSMIC has proven to be an extremely cost-effective 

way to gather an abundance of atmospheric data, including three-dimensional 

profiles of temperature, humidity, and pressure. Due to the success of the COSMIC 

program, the follow-on advanced COSMIC-2/FORMOSAT-7 mission is being 

developed under the May 27, 2010, agreement between the American Institute 

in Taiwan (AIT) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in 

the United States (TECRO), for which NOAA is AIT’s designated representative 

and NSPO is TECRO’s designated representative. The first six of 12 satellites are 

planned for launch no earlier than September 15, 2017, into an equatorial orbit. 

The second set is planned to be launched into a polar orbit about three years later.

NOAA’s Ocean Altimetry Satellite

NOAA, in partnership with NASA, Centre National d’Études Spatiales 

(CNES), and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological 

Satellites (EUMETSAT), operates Jason-2, a sea surface topography mission that 

flies an altimeter to provide high-precision measurements of sea surface height. 

Jason-2 has been crucial to improvements in weather modeling and tropical storm 

intensification forecasting because the temperature of the ocean and its currents 

can change the height of the sea, which can affect the world’s weather, including tropical storms. Jason-3, launched in January 2016, continues NOAA’s ocean 

altimetry mission. Jason-3 reached its final orbit and travels one minute and 20 

seconds behind Jason-2. These satellites are flying in tandem formation in order to 

calibrate and validate Jason-3’s data. Jason-3 was declared NOAA’s primary operational spacecraft in 2016.

NOAA’s Space Weather Satellites

NOAA, in partnership with NASA and the United States Air Force, celebrated 

its first year in deep space. Launched in February 2015, the Deep Space Climate 
100Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Observatory (DSCOVR) mission is NOAA’s first operational deep space mission. 

The satellite has become America’s primary warning system for solar magnetic 

storms and solar wind data; it also gives Earth scientists a unique vantage point for 

studies of the planet’s atmosphere and climate. Without timely and accurate warnings, space weather events—like the geomagnetic storms caused by changes in 

solar wind—have the potential to disrupt nearly every major public infrastructure 

system, including power grids, telecommunications, aviation, and GPS. Once fully 

calibrated and validated, DSCOVR succeeded NASA’s Advanced Composition 

Explorer’s (ACE) role in supporting solar wind alerts and warnings from the 

Lagrange point 1 (L1) orbit, the neutral gravity point between Earth and the sun 

Shown here are sea-level anomalies from February 12 through 22, 2016, from both the Jason-2 and 

Jason-3 satellites. This first map of sea surface height from Jason-3 corresponds well to data from its 

predecessor, Jason-2. Higher-than-normal sea levels are red; lower-than-normal sea levels are blue. El 

Niño is visible as the red blob in the eastern equatorial Pacific.
101 Department of Commerce

approximately one million miles from Earth. DSCOVR was declared the primary 

operational spacecraft in 2016.

NOAA’s Additional Space-Based Capabilities

NOAA, together with international partners, flew two other types of instruments on some of its satellites. Argos is a data collection and location relay system 

administered under an agreement between NOAA and CNES initiated in 1974. 

CNES provides sensors that collect a wide variety of in situ measurements, including data on atmospheric pressure, sea temperature, ocean-current velocity, animal 

migration patterns, and river water levels. The Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided 

Tracking (COSPAS-SARSAT) system is an international system that uses satellites 

to locate emergency beacons carried by ships, aircraft, or individuals and communicate location information to search-and-rescue authorities. The system has 

rescued over 39,000 people worldwide since 1982. NOAA provides space on its 

polar-orbiting satellites for the French processor and Canadian receiver.

Another capability lies in the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 

(AMSR2). The AMSR2 on board the Global Change Observation Mission–Water 

(GCOM-W1) satellite is a remote sensing instrument for measuring weak microwave emission from the surface and atmosphere of Earth. From about 435 miles 

(700 kilometers) above Earth, AMSR2 provides us with highly accurate measurements of the intensity of microwave emission and scattering. AMSR2’s antenna 

rotates once per 1.5 seconds and obtains data over a 901-mile (1,450-kilometer) 

swath. This conical scan mechanism enables AMSR2 to acquire a set of daytime 

and nighttime data with more than 99 percent coverage of Earth every two days.

International Activities

NOAA and EUMETSAT signed a major agreement in December 2015 to continue to share the responsibility of operating polar-orbiting weather satellites for the 

next 20 years. Under the Joint Polar System Agreement, NOAA and EUMETSAT 

will continue to split responsibility for and share data from the two primary polar 

orbits: EUMETSAT satellites will cover the midmorning orbit, while NOAA will 
102Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

be responsible for the afternoon orbit. The agreement covers NOAA’s planned 

JPSS-2, -3, and -4 satellites and EUMETSAT’s second-generation Metop satellites, 

ensuring that the United States, Europe, and the world will have the data required 

for modern weather forecasting through the late 2030s. The agreement builds on 

existing cooperation with the first-generation EUMETSAT Metop satellites, as well 

as NOAA POES, Suomi NPP, and JPSS-1 satellites.

On October 16, 2015, the United States signed a cooperative arrangement with 

the European Union that will give the United States secure, near-real-time access 

to data from Europe’s Sentinel series of Earth observation satellites. The signing 

of the current bilateral arrangement formalizes the collaboration between NASA, 

NOAA, the United States Geological Survey (USGS), EUMETSAT, and the 

European Space Agency (ESA) to realize the full value of these Earth observation 

satellites for research and operational purposes.

Based on a high-level statement of joint intent, the Japan Aerospace Exploration 

Agency (JAXA) and NOAA are planning to develop a successor sensor for the 

Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) on the Global Change 

Observation Mission–Water (GCOM-W) to avoid a gap in the availability of data 

required for global weather forecasting. JAXA is beginning research on the sensor 

in the next year.

National Institute of Standards and Technology

In FY 2016, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) continued to provide the aerospace industry, academia, and Federal agencies with 

the research, standards, products, services, and guidance needed to advance the 

President’s aeronautics and space agenda. These wide-ranging NIST outputs are 

grouped into four main categories: 1) measurements to support aerospace manufacturing, 2) measurements to support the aerospace industry and space exploration, 

3) technology developments to support the aerospace industry and space exploration, and 4) calibrations of satellite sensors.
103 Department of Commerce

NIST Measurements to Support Aerospace Manufacturing

In FY 2016, NIST used measurement expertise in mass, force, networking, and 

other areas to partner with Boeing, Honeywell Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, 

Northrop Grumman, General Electric Aviation, Rolls-Royce, United Technologies 

Aerospace, Spirit Aerospace, and others in addressing the measurement needs of 

aerospace manufacturing companies. To meet these needs, NIST

• identified technical issues and requirements definitions for industrial 

wireless networking, cybersecurity in manufacturing environments, and 

prognostics for manufacturing systems;

• engaged with the FAA, DOD, and NASA to identify proposed approaches 

for qualification and certification of additive manufacturing materials, 

processes, and parts;

• collaborated with members of the Additive Manufacturing Consortium 

(AMC) to conduct round-robin testing and determine the mechanical 

properties of Inconel 625 parts;

• discussed technology advancements and new standards relevant to aircraft manufacturing and sustainment at the 2016 Aircraft Airworthiness 

and Sustainment (AA&S) Conference; and

• performed measurements to enable new capabilities for collaborative 

robotics.

In the first three quarters of FY 2016, the NIST Manufacturing Extension 

Partnership (MEP) engaged in 189 projects with 113 individual manufacturing 

companies designated with an aerospace North American Industry Classification 

System number (NAICS 3364). The MEP post-project followup survey of aerospace NAICS companies revealed that MEP services resulted in the creation or 

retention of 5,895 aerospace jobs, over $133 million in new sales, nearly $193 million in retained sales, over $147 million in new investment, and $126 million in 

cost savings.
104Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

NIST Measurements to Support the Aerospace Industry and Space Exploration

In FY 2016, NIST supported the aerospace industry and relevant Government 

agencies across various programs by providing measurements, calibration services, 

and research traceable to international standards, where NIST

• worked with DOD and Boeing to develop calibration methodologies and 

facilities for laser-scanner systems used for the accurate dimensional measurements of aircraft components;

• provided air-speed measurement calibrations of anemometers used at airports, on aircraft, and in wind tunnels;

• prepared a new release of the online NIST Atomic Spectra Database, 

used by astrophysicists and astronomers for the calibration of equipment 

searching for exoplanets;

• utilized the NIST Van de Graaff accelerator with SolAero Technologies 

Corporation to “space qualify” solar cells by irradiating them with the 

equivalent number of electrons that the cells would experience in several 

decades of Earth orbit; NIST and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center 

(GSFC) also used high-energy electron beam radiation to test components destined for the Interstellar Mapping Probe (IMAP), Europa Deep 

Geophysical Explorer (EDGE), and Europa Clipper missions;

• used the M48 Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) to accurately 

measure composite alignment mounts for the Primary Mirror Backplane 

Support Structure (PMBSS)—the largest single structure on the James 

Webb Space Telescope (JWST); and

• continued to support NASA in the development of its MaterialsLab 

microgravity materials science program for materials experiments aboard 

the International Space Station (ISS); for more information, see https://

www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/materialslab.

NIST, members of the aerospace field (Thermacore, Marshall Space Flight 

Center, and the Air Force Academy), and members of academia (the University 

of Tennessee, the University of Missouri, and Michigan Technology University) 

used unique NIST neutron facility resources to perform measurements on several 

aerospace-related systems, including metal heat pipes that cool the leading edge of 
105 Department of Commerce

and high-powered electronics within hypersonic aircraft, ISS spacesuit relief valves, 

cryogenic liquid propellants critical for understanding long-term microgravity storage of cryogens, proton-exchange membrane fuel cells, and aluminum alloys originated during supersonic particle deposition.

NIST Technology Developments to Support the Aerospace Industry and 

Space Exploration

In FY 2016, NIST collaborated with NASA and NASA-related entities such as 

GSFC; the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL); the Space Science Laboratory; and 

Sensor Sciences, LLC, on a diverse set of projects for developing detectors used in 

space applications. To reach project goals, NIST

• designed and fabricated nanotextured gallium nitride (GaN) and GaN 

nanowires to serve as raw materials for photocathode-based detectors;

• created superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs), 

including small arrays of this detector technology;

• generated superconducting transition-edge sensor (TES) polarimeters to 

provide the most-sensitive measurements of cosmic microwave background 

(CMB) polarization to date and for incorporation into the balloon-borne 

instrument SPIDER;

• fabricated NIST-developed Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors 

(MKIDs) to measure electromagnetic signals from millimeter waves 

to x-rays and for deployment in the Balloon-borne Large-Aperture 

Submillimeter Telescope–The Next Generation (BLAST-TNG);

• disseminated Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs) 

and SQUID-based multiplexers to multiple researchers and used the 

related detector expertise to develop magnetic micro-calorimeters; and

• developed precision microchannel plate detectors using novel cross-strip 

anode readouts, relevant for neutron imaging and in x-ray telescopes that 

peer into space.

Also in FY 2016, NIST supported ESA’s Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space 

(ACES) and Space Optical Clock (SOC) programs by continuing preparations to 
106Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

host a Microwave Link Ground Terminal and participating in microwave link time 

and frequency transfers.

NIST worked with NASA GSFC by using NIST-developed infrared interferometry methods to characterize and certify critical imaging parts of NASA’s WFIRST 

space telescope, which was designed to investigate the distribution and evolution 

of dark energy and dark matter in the universe.

NIST collaborated with the University of Texas at Austin on a NASA-funded 

project to improve the performance of immersed silicon diffraction gratings for a 

new generation of compact satellite-based spectrometers used in the analysis of 

remote stars, interstellar gases, and extrasolar planets.

NIST partnered with the University of Colorado Laboratory for Atmospheric 

and Space Physics (LASP) and NASA to develop and fabricate a Carbon Nanotube Electrical Substitution Radiometer (CNT ESR) for the Compact Solar 

Irradiance Monitor (CSIM) instrument.

NIST Calibrations of Satellite Sensors

In FY 2016, NIST continued to provide calibration measurements, services, and 

support for multiple space-related programs. The satellite systems relied on unique 

measurement expertise, where NIST

• provided calibration support for sensors within the satellite missions 

JPSS and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R Series 

(GOES-R), with NIST transferring its calibration technology to NASA 

GSFC and LASP;

• utilized the NIST Synchrotron Ultraviolet Radiation Facility (SURF) III 

to support the calibration of the Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Variability 

Experiment (EVE) aboard NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO); 

the EUV and X-ray Irradiance Sensor (EXIS) for NOAA’s GOES-S, -T, 

and -U satellite missions; and the Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer 

(MinXSS) nanosatellite;

• performed measurements of the amount of light from the moon and sun to 

enable the moon to serve as a calibration source for satellite sensors while 

in Earth orbit;
107 Department of Commerce

• calibrated the Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY), which is in turn used in the 

calibration of satellite sensors for ocean-color measurements, and worked 

with NOAA to improve measurement variability and uncertainty as part 

of the MOBY Refresh effort;

• utilized the NIST-developed Missile Defense Transfer Radiometer 

(MDXR) to perform calibrations for infrared remote sensors used by the 

Missile Defense Agency;

• calibrated optical apertures for the NASA Total and Spectral Solar 

Irradiance Sensor (TSIS), which is used aboard the ISS to measure solar 

power per unit area that reaches Earth; and

• continued to develop versions of the NIST Spectral Irradiance and 

Radiance Responsivity Calibrations using Uniform Sources (SIRCUS) 

facility, which provides tunable, powerful, and uniform irradiance to calibrate satellite sensors, with both NASA GSFC and LASP.

International Trade Administration

Industry and Trade Policy

The Office of Transportation and Machinery (OTM) pursued multiple paths to 

promote exports of products and services that will support the Next Generation 

Air Transportation System. OTM created and published an online NextGen 

Solutions Vendors Guide to help foreign customers identify U.S. companies 

that can provide products that meet the requirements of the International Civil 

Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Aviation System Block Upgrade (ASBU) technology roadmaps. OTM participated in the World Air Traffic Management Congress 

in Madrid, Spain, to cohost (with the Aerospace Industries Association) a networking reception for foreign air navigation device providers to meet with industry 

and hear from the senior Federal Aviation Administration leadership. OTM also 

took the opportunity to learn about the specific air-navigation procurement needs 

of specific countries, counsel individual companies on NextGen-related prospects, and recruit participants for the NextGen Solutions Vendors Guide while 

at the Congress. OTM also participated in a number of domestic conferences and 
108Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

exhibitions (such as the 58th Air Traffic Control Association Conference and 

Exhibition and the 2014 Air Transportation Information Exchange Conference) to 

discuss the future of the NextGen market with individual companies.

Additionally, OTM worked with the FAA, the Transportation Security 

Administration (TSA), and the State Department in preparation for the 39th ICAO 

Assembly in September 2014, providing the International Trade Administration 

(ITA) perspective on aviation safety, aviation security, air-navigation policy and 

procurement, and the economics of air transportation. ICAO formally endorsed 

the ASBU roadmaps at the Assembly.

OTM also participated in the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Symposium 

and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) 

Unmanned Systems Conference to engage with Government, academic, and 

industry stakeholders within the UAS community, to learn more about the projected market for UAS, to hear about the latest roadmaps for the technology, and 

to recruit participants for the NextGen Solutions Vendors Guide (particularly the 

section on Remotely Piloted Aircraft). Specifically, OTM cultivated contacts with 

various state business development offices at Unmanned Systems 2016, with particular emphasis on the regions represented in the FAA’s six UAS test sites.

OTM renewed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with Embry-Riddle 

Aeronautical University (ERAU) to share data and aerospace information and to 

promote the competitiveness, sustainability, and innovation of the U.S. aerospace 

manufacturing industry. The renewed MOA includes an addendum detailing a 

new virtual research partnership program in which ERAU-Worldwide students will 

research topics suggested by ITA.

Throughout the year, OTM organized and led four meetings of the Industry 

Trade Advisory Committee for Aerospace Equipment (ITAC 1). The committee 

provides advice to the Secretary of Commerce and the U.S. Trade Representative 

on aerospace-related trade policy issues.

ITA continues to support the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on issues 

relating to the enforcement of U.S. rights under the World Trade Organization 

concerning trade in civil aircraft. In particular, OTM has provided support for the 

ongoing U.S.–European Union (EU) trade dispute over subsidies to manufacturers 
109 Department of Commerce

of large civil aircraft, providing industry expertise in areas relating to changes in 

the market and actions of the major stakeholders.

ITA’s OTM and Office of Finance and Insurance Industries (OFII) continued 

to participate in the Group on the Sector Understanding on Export Credits for 

Civil Aircraft (the “Aircraft Sector Understanding” or ASU) at the Organization 

for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The governments of almost 

all countries with major aircraft manufacturers are signatories to the ASU, an 

annex to the OECD Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits, which 

establishes rules for export credit agencies. The OECD rules aim to ensure that 

government-provided export financing is not a competitive factor in civil-aircraft 

sales competitions. A new ASU, which had been completed in early 2011, went 

into full effect in 2013, and its effects were still being observed in 2016. As a member of the U.S. delegation, ITA helped ensure that the interests of industry were 

addressed as the new ASU was implemented and monitored and provided advice 

on how Ex-Im Bank programs affect the aerospace industry.

ITA and NOAA continued their active participation in the implementation of 

the current National Space Policies, which include industrial base and competitiveness issues. ITA’s OTM actively participated in the implementation of several 

actions that were identified in the June 2010 National Space Policy, which revised 

and updated several aspects of the previous policies. In order to ensure that commercial interests continue to be adequately addressed, OTM and NOAA continued to ensure that all of the policies’ implementation actions would improve U.S. 

industry’s competitiveness, stimulate the American economy, increase exports, and 

create U.S. jobs.

OTM continues to represent commercial remote sensing satellite industry interests within the Remote Sensing Interagency Working Group (RSIWG), led by the 

State Department. The RSIWG coordinates policy for the export of commercial 

remote sensing satellite systems and negotiates government-to-government agreements that address the safeguarding of those systems’ technology. The RSIWG 

consulted with several foreign countries on satellite cooperation and met with 

industry representatives to understand the impact on related businesses.

ITA continued to play an important role in promoting U.S. aerospace trade 

interests as the industry faced mounting competition from abroad. ITA participated 
110Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

in and organized trade events and provided advocacy to support U.S. companies 

in international aerospace competitions, including commercial sales for aircraft 

and helicopters, airport construction, communications, remote sensing satellites, 

commercial projects, and air traffic management projects.

Industry and Trade Promotion

In July 2016, ITA organized and supported the Commerce Department’s participation in the Farnborough International Air Show and arranged senior-level 

meetings for the Secretary of Commerce and the Assistant Secretary for Industry 

and Analysis with foreign government and industry officials as well as U.S. industry executives. ITA/OTM met with numerous U.S. and foreign government and 

industry officials to discuss ongoing policy issues impacting the competitiveness of 

U.S. industry.

ITA’s Global Aerospace and Defense Team recorded approximately 204 Written 

Impact Narratives (WINs) in FY 2016. A WIN is a new organizational metric that 

showcases ITA’s contribution to a company’s success. These include Commercial 

Service (CS) personnel–impacted deals with small- and medium-sized companies, as well as with larger corporations such as Bell Helicopter, Boeing, General 

Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, and United Technologies Corporation.

The Global Team held over 800 counseling sessions with U.S. aerospace companies, helping them to resolve international trade issues, identify new export 

markets, and develop strategies for entering those markets.

The Global Team participated in over 35 domestic and international aerospace 

trade events at which team members supported U.S. industry with one-on-one 

counseling sessions, arranged individualized business-to-business meetings with 

international business partners, and provided additional export counseling services. ITA trade show support generated hundreds of trade leads for participating companies, allowing them to enter or expand their exports to international 

markets. These international trade events included the Farnborough International 

Air Show, the Seoul Airshow, the Singapore Airshow, Feria Internacional del Aire 

y del Espacio (FIDAE, South America), and the Africa Aerospace and Defense 

Summit, among others.
111 Department of Commerce

Bureau of Industry and Security

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) continued to support the President’s 

Export Control Reform efforts as they relate to spacecraft. During this fiscal year, 

BIS worked with industry and the interagency Space Working Group on iden-

tifying changes to the current regulations on spacecraft and related items. The 

changes under discussion include updates to the remote sensing controls and 

other areas identified by industry. BIS expects to publish changes in these areas 

in the first quarter of FY 2017. Feedback from industry continues to be very posi-

tive. BIS participated in the Commercial Satellite Technical Advisory Committee 

International Space Policy Working Group and added some space expertise to its 

Transportation Technical Advisory Committee.

113 Department of the Interior

Department of the In

DOI

Remotely sensed data and derived information contribute significantly to 

mission-critical work across the Department of the Interior (DOI). This DOI section highlights a sample of DOI remote sensing applications and illustrates a range 

of technology, platforms, and specialized sensors employed.

U.S. Geological Survey

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is both a user and a provider of remotely 

sensed data. The USGS manages the Landsat satellite series and a Web-enabled 

archive of global Landsat imagery dating back to 1972. The entire Landsat archive 

became available for download at no charge in December 2008, and by the end of 

September 2015, more than 29 million Landsat scenes had been downloaded by 

the user community. In addition to distributing aerial photography through the 

National Map, the USGS archived and distributed historical aerial photography; 

light detection and ranging (lidar) data; declassified imagery; hyperspectral imagery; data collected by unmanned aircraft systems; and imagery from a variety of 

government, foreign, and commercial satellites. These data are used for a wide 

variety of applications, such as mineral resource development; U.S. and global ecosystem health monitoring; land-use change; emergency response; and assessments 

of natural hazards such as fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, droughts, and floods.
114Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Assessing Vulnerability to Drought in Dryland Ecosystems

Scientists at the USGS Southwest Biological Science Center are partnering 

with the USGS Western Geographic Science Center, the USGS Earth Resources 

Observation and Science Center, and the University of Arizona to help managers 

plan for and manage drought-impacted ecosystems in the western United States by 

conducting research that synthesizes plot-based and remotely sensed vegetationmonitoring data. Analyses using a time series of Moderate Resolution Imaging 

Spectroradiometer (MODIS)– and Landsat-derived vegetation indices reveal the 

importance of critical climate windows and pivot points that drive vegetation 

condition across ecoregions of the western United States. The team is working to 

understand how landscape and soil attributes, in combination with management 

actions, mediate climate-vegetation relationships and the balance between grasses 

and woody plants, which has important implications for ecosystem function. The 

team is building short-term forecasts of vegetation condition using multi-model 

ensembles of climate and water balance variables that can help managers make 

short-term decisions and plan for long-term changes in vegetation composition and distribution. More information can be found at https://nccwsc.usgs.gov/

display-project/5050cb0ee4b0be20bb30eac0/551ad102e4b03238427837ba.

Green-Up and Evapotranspiration of the Colorado River Delta

During the spring of 2014, 130 million cubic meters of water was released from 

Morelos Dam on the lower Colorado River, allowing water to reach the Gulf of 

California for the first time in 13 years. Nearly two years later, scientists continue 

to analyze the effects of this historic experiment—the result of a new agreement 

between the United States and Mexico. To assess the response of vegetation to the 

pulse flows, remote sensing techniques were used to measure green-up and evapotranspiration (ET) of vegetation within the delta’s riparian corridor. ET was assessed 

with an algorithm derived from MODIS Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) data, 

while green-up was measured using Landsat 8 Normalized Difference Vegetation 

Index (NDVI) data. There was a small but significant increase (three percent) in 

ET and a significant increase (17 percent) in NDVI from 2013 (pre-pulse) to 2014 
115 Department of the Interior

(post-pulse) within the delta’s riparian corridor (P < 0.05). While NDVI declined in 

2015, it was still significantly higher than in 2013 (P < 0.05). This increase reverses 

an overall decline in NDVI and ET since the last major flood in 2000. Using the 

ET findings coupled with salinity data collected during the pulse flows, USGS 

researchers developed a conceptual model explaining the role of groundwater and 

surface flows in maintaining the riparian corridor in Mexico. Based on preliminary 

findings, pulse flows could be an effective tool for restoring the lower Colorado 

River’s riparian zone.

Hindcasting Turbidity in Lake Clark National Park

National Park Service (NPS) water-clarity data were recently combined with 

Landsat remote sensing data to hindcast turbidity trends in Lake Clark for a 30-year 

time period (1985–2014). Lake Clark is a glacially influenced nursery lake for sockeye 

salmon, located in the headwaters of Bristol Bay, Alaska, the most productive wild 

salmon fishery in the world. Water clarity is a key water-quality property in salmonbearing lakes. Decreases in water clarity due to increases in glacial runoff have been 

shown to reduce salmon production by lowering the abundance of prey such as zooplankton. Anecdotal accounts suggest that Lake Clark water clarity is decreasing 

over time, but no long-term measurements exist to substantiate these observations.

This study addressed that data gap by reconstructing long-term, lakewide water 

clarity for Lake Clark using the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced 

Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) surface reflectance products and in situ waterclarity data. No significant change was detected in the mean annual turbidity of 

Lake Clark for the time period examined. However, a significant positive trend in 

May turbidity was found between 2000 and 2014, which could represent an advance 

in the timing of initial sediment input to the lake via glacial meltwater runoff.

This study demonstrates the utility of hindcasting turbidity in a glacially influenced lake using the Landsat surface reflectance products. It may also provide a 

framework for reconstructing turbidity records in lakes that lack in situ observations, and it can be a starting point for predicting future water-clarity conditions 

based on projected climate scenarios. More information can be found at http://www.

mdpi.com/2072-4292/7/10/13692.
116Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection

The USGS Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection (LCMAP) 

initiative centers on structured, operational, ongoing, and timely collection and 

delivery of accurate and relevant information and knowledge on land use, cover, 

and condition. LCMAP supports a wide array of objectives: 1) provide documentation and understanding of historical land change and contemporary land change 

as it occurs; 2)  explain how past, present, and future land change affects society, natural systems, and the functioning of the planet at local to global scales; 

3) alert relevant stakeholders to important or emerging land-change events in their 

jurisdictions; and 4) support others in the use of land-change information and 

science results.

During the past year, significant progress has been made in implementing the 

first objective. The assembly of an “analysis-ready” Landsat archive that will provide data cubes of Landsat 4–8 surface reflectance and top-of-atmosphere reflectance data for the United States is under way; these data contain pixel-level quality 

assurance information to enable the screening of clouds and cloud shadows. In 

addition, prototype 1985–2015 annual land-cover and land-cover-change datasets 

have been completed for a large portion of the Pacific Northwest and another 10 

sites around the country. By late 2017, LCMAP capabilities will include a routine 

continuous U.S. land-change monitoring capability that is supported by analysisready Landsat data, all feeding an agile capacity to provide timely land-change data 

and assessments for decision makers. LCMAP initially will be implemented for the 

United States but can be expanded to provide global coverage.

Lidar Assessment of the Black Forest Wildfire

Prolonged drought and climate change continue to increase the prevalence and 

severity of wildland fire, while the growing number of houses set within natural 

areas around urban developments (i.e., within the wildland urban interface [WUI]) 

adds to the potential hazard exposure. Characterizing the risk to WUI housing 

from wildfire is an important area of natural hazards and applied remote sensing 

research. This project is investigating how lidar data can be used to describe the 
117 Department of the Interior

vertical structure and fine-scale fuel characteristics within the home ignition zone. 

Using the Black Forest Fire of 2013 near Colorado Springs, Colorado, this research 

is generating lidar-derived vegetation measures, structure characteristics, and landscape features to quantify the prefire conditions that increased or decreased the 

likelihood of structure ignition and consumption in the state’s most destructive 

wildfire event to date. In addition to addressing this disaster, answers derived from 

these methods are useful for informing hazard-mitigation decisions across the growing wildland urban interface in the western United States. More information can 

be found at http://geography.wr.usgs.gov/science/fire/.

Mapping When and Where Invasive Buffelgrass Is Green

Buffelgrass is a perennial grass that is invasive to the Sonoran Desert of the 

Southwest, where it threatens desert ecosystems by out-competing native plants 

and altering fire regimes, with the potential to transform the Sonoran Desert ecosystem from a diverse assemblage of plants to a grassland monoculture. The USGS 

has developed a new and innovative suite of landscape metrics (i.e., “ClimateLandscape Response” or CLaRe metrics) that are proven effective in mapping 

when and where invasive buffelgrass is green in Saguaro National Park (SNP) near 

Tucson, Arizona. CLaRe phenometrics, derived from gridded climate data and 

250-meter MODIS data, capture the strength of the landscape greenness response 

to climate and expose buffelgrass due to its rapid and strong response to recent 

precipitation. Buffelgrass remains dormant much of the year but has short windows 

when it is photosynthetically active and vulnerable to herbicide. By mapping when 

and where buffelgrass is green, land managers can optimize their treatment activities, saving money. In addition, current results suggest that it is possible to detect 

nascent populations of buffelgrass covering less than five percent of the landscape 

by monitoring the trends of these CLaRe phenometrics. More information can be 

found at http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/8/7/524.
118Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Modeling Landscape-Scale Habitat Relations for Landbirds During Migration

Millions of landbirds migrate through the Gulf of Mexico region each spring 

and autumn. Migration is taxing, and these migrants depend on stopover habitats 

to provide the food and cover needed to complete their journeys. For some species, as much as 85 percent of annual mortality occurs during migration. Stopover 

habitats in the Gulf of Mexico region have been lost or degraded due to the effects 

of development, agriculture, livestock grazing, timber industry activities, and the 

spread of exotic species. The continued loss or degradation of stopover habitat 

poses a risk to migrating birds, so knowing the location and landscape composition where peak numbers of birds consistently stop to rest and forage is critical for 

conservation planning. USGS Wetland and Aquatic Research Center scientists 

are using weather surveillance radar data and landscape metrics to model birdhabitat relations within 43 miles (70 kilometers) of four radar stations along the 

western coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Reflectivity data collected from 2008 to 2012 

were used to estimate migratory landbird density during spring and fall migration. 

Landscape variables were measured from 2006 Coastal Change Analysis Program 

(C-CAP) land cover, National Elevation National Hydrography, and 2010 U.S. 

Census Bureau Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing 

(TIGER) datasets. Results of this research will support the conservation plans of 

the Gulf Coast Joint Venture by identifying the factors that characterize suitable 

migratory landbird stopover habitat.

Remote Sensing Support for Burned Area Emergency Response Teams

Since 2003, the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) 

Center and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Remote Sensing Applications Center 

(RSAC) have jointly provided satellite-derived burn severity mapping products to 

meet the requirements of DOI and USFS Burn Area Emergency Response (BAER) 

teams. BAER teams are mandated to quickly (within two weeks) evaluate the 

effects of wildland fires and develop mitigation plans to safeguard valuable natural resources, protect human life and property, and promote landscape recovery. 

Derived from Landsat images, the soil burn severity map is a major resource used by 
119 Department of the Interior

the BAER teams to develop postfire hazard-mitigation prescriptions. Additionally, 

burn severity maps are provided to USGS Landslide Hazards staff to support ongoing debris flow modeling and prediction analyses associated with wildland fires.

The USGS EROS Center rapidly processes Landsat and other satellite imagery 

enabling the timely generation of map products for large wildland fires on DOImanaged lands, generally less than two days after fire containment. These map 

products allow the BAER teams to better understand the patterns of burn severity and make more precise mitigation recommendations. Since 2003 and through 

the 2015 fire season, the USGS and USFS have mapped 1,594 wildfires representing 46.7 million burned acres in support of BAER and local DOI and USFS 

land managers.

In 2016, wildland fire activity on DOI-managed lands was extensive. By early 

June, the USGS had responded to five DOI requests for burn area mapping support. Additionally, USGS assistance was requested by the Provincial Operations 

Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, to help with the acquisition of Landsat and 

other satellite imagery for the wildfire near Fort McMurray that covered over one 

million acres.

This composite image shows a Landsat postfire image (September 20, 2015; left) and preliminary soil 

burn severity map superimposed on a Landsat prefire image (September 1, 2014; right) for the August–

September 2015 National Creek Complex fire in Oregon’s Crater Lake National Park. The fire burned 

16,744 acres just north of Crater Lake and was the largest in the recorded history of the park. Within 

the postfire image, the burn scar is medium to bright red, while vegetation appears in various shades of 

green. Within the burn severity map, dark green indicates non-burn, light blue indicates low severity, 

yellow indicates moderate severity, and red indicates high severity. The approximate burn perimeter is 

designated by a red polygon in both images.
120Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Satellite-Based Water Use Mapping

The USGS is applying satellite remote sensing resources and expertise to quantify evapotranspiration for the National Water Census and the Sustain and Manage 

America’s Resources for Tomorrow (WaterSMART) initiative. Work developed at 

the USGS EROS is focused on understanding and quantifying the spatial and 

temporal distribution of water consumption, i.e., water that is used by the soil and 

vegetation complex and returned to the atmosphere in the form of evaporation 

and transpiration, which makes it unavailable for other uses. The USGS works 

collaboratively with stakeholders to enable powerful technical capabilities within 

a geographical context by targeting efforts in watersheds or basin-level Focus Area 

Studies, where the resulting tools and information can soon become the basis for 

monitoring and assessing water use across the Nation.

Changes in climate, land use, and water demand are placing increased pressure 

on the Upper Rio Grande Basin’s (URGB) limited water resources, necessitating 

careful water management decisions. Accordingly, in collaboration and coordination with the USGS New Mexico Water Science Center, maps of estimated water 

use were created for the 2015 growing season in the URGB using freely available 

Landsat thermal (infrared) imagery and weather data. These water use maps are 

being validated with data from 2007 to 2014; once they are validated, they can be 

applied going forward. By planning today for water tomorrow, this work helps to 

ensure that the research is timely and relevant in a regional and national context.

Determining remotely sensed ET and agricultural consumptive use from Landsat 

allows for temporal evaluation with a critical spatial component to see trends at the 

level of individual fields and across entire landscapes. Water use maps can allow 

insight into crop-specific productivity, drought implications, and water budget 

analyses, which can include surface and groundwater, along with environmental 

flow. The USGS EROS develops and shares these ET products with USGS Water 

Science Centers that are responsible for compiling water use data every five years. 

Similarly, researchers at the North Central Climate Center and the Bureau of 

Reclamation are evaluating these products for their usefulness for continual scientific analyses and agro-hydrologic modeling. More information can be found at 

http://water.usgs.gov/watercensus.
121 Department of the Interior

Saturn’s Moon Titan—A Last Look with Cassini

USGS scientists have been involved in mission planning, cartographic data 

processing, and scientific studies for the international Cassini-Huygens mission to 

the Saturnian system since its inception in the early 1990s. Saturn’s Mercury-sized 

moon Titan, which has a range of geological features and processes unmatched by 

any other body besides Earth, has been the main focus of these efforts. With a little 

over a year left before the spacecraft is deliberately flown into Saturn’s atmosphere 

to burn up, the mission is embarking on a “Grand Finale” that will bring its nearest orbit around Saturn to just outside the ring system and then into the narrow 

gap between the rings and the planet’s cloud tops. These final orbits will provide 

unprecedented detailed views of Saturn’s rings and atmosphere as well as measurements of the gravitational and magnetic fields. They will also provide the last looks 

at Titan with multiple instruments, including a final peek at the “magic island” in 

In this Cassini synthetic aperture radar image of the north pole of Saturn’s moon Titan, the dark 

feature is Ligeia Mare, a 248-mile (400-kilometer)-wide sea of liquid hydrocarbons. The inset shows the 

so-called “magic island,” which appeared in 2013 and then vanished again. A variety of explanations 

for the transient feature have been considered, but the most likely is that it was a “glint” off a patch of 

waves on the sea surface caused by local winds.
122Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

the north polar hydrocarbon sea Ligeia Mare, which has been visible only intermittently in previous observations.

Space-Based Tracking of Inundated Area Dynamics

The Dynamic Surface Water Extent (DSWE) product under development at 

the USGS can be used to systematically characterize cycles and changes in surface 

inundation for a broad variety of applications. DSWE presents the results of tests 

for the presence of open water and mixtures of surface water and vegetation in 

Landsat Thematic Mapper, Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus, and Operational 

Land Imager (OLI) image pixels collected over the United States. As one regionalscale example, DSWE data from 1984 through 2015 were used to calculate the 

yearly proportion of pixels free of clouds, cloud shadows, and snow that are classified as “open water” for the entire Chesapeake Bay Watershed (CBW). These 

proportions resulted in a time series of CBW areas that were consistently inundated 

on an annual basis. Such data can in turn be summarized over smaller areas such 

as watersheds or counties. A county-level assessment of changes between 1985 and 

2015 in the CBW identified Sussex County, Delaware, as having a relatively large 

increase in perennially inundated area. A semi-decadal subset of these maps shows 

the consistent trend toward greater perennially open water in the area of the Prime 

Hook National Wildlife Refuge. Restoration efforts are currently under way to 

reverse this trend; the derivation of DSWE data from Landsat images collected in 

the future will hopefully show decreases in open water as those areas are replaced 

by improved habitat (i.e., water/vegetation mixtures). Research is under way to 

increase DSWE thematic accuracy and temporal resolution by combining Landsat 

scenes with other remotely sensed images and in situ monitoring data. For the end 

user, the DSWE product will provide a cost-effective, temporally consistent means 

of assessing inundation dynamics over intra- and inter-annual periods not only for 

habitat and water resource management, but for climate and land-use change science and forecasting. This work is supported by the USGS Land Remote Sensing 

and Land Change Science Programs. More information can be found at http://

remotesensing.usgs.gov/ecv/SWE_overview.php.
123 Department of the Interior

Users, Uses, and Value of Landsat Imagery

Landsat data are an invaluable resource of moderate-resolution satellite imagery 

available to the public for free through the USGS. These data, available from 1972 

through the present, have been used in countless studies, including monitoring 

land-use change, deforestation, glacier recession, sea ice extent, invasive species, and 

population growth. To help 

assess the uses and value of 

Landsat imagery, social scientists at the USGS Social 

and Economic Analysis 

(SEA) Branch of the Fort 

Collins Science Center 

in Colorado are leading 

a long-term study, which 

includes surveys and case 

studies of Landsat imagery 

users. A series of surveys 

provides longitudinal data 

on how the users and uses 

of the imagery are changing over time in response to changes in the provision of the imagery, which include 

the shift to online access (including the development of the full-resolution browser 

function), the no-cost downloading policy, and the launch and decommission of 

different Landsat satellites. The results allow analysts to explore the value of the 

imagery. Multiple case studies that focus on the use and benefits of Landsat imagery 

in water, agriculture, forestry, and private-sector technological applications provide 

context and depth to complement the more quantitative survey data. In 2016, a 

report on the results of the most recent 2014 survey of Landsat users was published 

and can be found at https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2016/1032/ofr20161032.pdf. Additional 

analysis of the 2014 survey data, as well as 2015 user data from the USGS Earth 

Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, was completed to help inform 

This “Earth as Art” Landsat image shows the Great Salt Desert 

in Iran.
124Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

the collection of Landsat 10 requirements. The Landsat Study can be accessed at 

https://www.fort.usgs.gov/landsat-study.

Using Repeat Airborne Lidar and Landsat to Quantify Arctic Tundra 

Fire Impacts

Wildfire disturbance is an important factor contributing to ecosystem and landscape changes. The impact of fires on permafrost-influenced terrain in boreal forest 

regions is well-documented; however, the role of fires in initiating thermokarst 

development in arctic tundra regions is poorly understood. Rapid climate change at 

high latitudes has increased interest in the spatial and temporal dynamics of thermokarst and other permafrost thaw-related features in diverse disciplines including 

landscape ecology, hydrology, engineering, and biogeochemistry. As a result, there 

is an urgent need to develop new techniques and tools to observe and quantify 

changes to near-surface permafrost terrain.

Remote sensing provides a means for documenting and quantifying many of 

the changes now occurring on arctic landscapes. In particular, the application of 

multitemporal airborne lidar allows for the detection of terrain subsidence caused 

by thermokarst. Lidar elevation model differencing provides a direct measure of 

land-surface elevation changes over time. This study compares two airborne lidar 

datasets covering approximately 400 square kilometers acquired in the aftermath 

of the large and severe Anaktuvuk River tundra fire that occurred in 2007 in 

northern Alaska. Digital terrain models (DTMs) at one-meter spatial resolution 

were developed from the lidar datasets that were acquired two years and seven 

years postfire. These datasets were differenced using the Geomorphic Change 

Detection tool to quantify thermokarst development in response to the tundra 

fire disturbance.

Results show permafrost thaw subsidence (more than 0.2 meters) occurring 

across 34 percent of the burned tundra area studied, compared to less than one 

percent in similar undisturbed, ice-rich tundra terrain. Postfire thermokarst development as detected in the airborne lidar data shows a relationship with trends in 

a dense time series of different multispectral indices (including Tasseled Cap and 

NDVI) derived from multispectral Landsat satellite data. These relationships allow 
125 Department of the Interior

scaled-up mapping of thaw-affected terrain area across the entire ~1,000-squarekilometer area impacted by the Anaktuvuk River tundra fire; where sufficient 

cloud-free Landsat data are available, they may also allow for the assessment of 

thermokarst impacts across other tundra fire disturbances since the mid-1980s.

These new methodologies will enable the assessment of the vulnerabilities of 

ice-rich permafrost terrain to changing disturbance regimes in northern highlatitude landscapes. A better understanding of the processes controlling thermokarst initiation and development in Arctic regions is important because of 

the resulting impacts on the land-atmosphere exchange of water, energy, and 

greenhouse gases, along with the influence on surface hydrology, snow accumulation, and vegetation dynamics. More information can be found at http://www.

nature.com/articles/srep15865.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), in concert with its international, 

Federal, tribal, state, local, and nongovernmental organization partners, uses a large 

number of remote sensing technologies to find optimal solutions to monitor and 

manage fish and wildlife populations, habitats, waters, wetlands, and landscapes. 

The FWS utilizes acoustic GPS and radio telemetry sensors on fish and wildlife for 

time and location information tied to a variety of remote sensing image products 

such as aerial and satellite optical imagery, as well as thermal, radar, sonar, and 

lidar imagery. This time and geospatial system of imagery and location is used to 

map habitats, find invasive plants, determine flight paths of birds and bats, conduct 

fish and wildlife inventories, watch over refuge lands, and monitor trust species.

Benefits of Sage Grouse Landscape Protection Strategies for Songbirds, a 

Rangewide Assessment: Migratory Birds—Intermountain West Joint Venture

FWS researchers investigated whether the recent, unprecedented scale of sage 

grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) conservation in the American West has had 

beneficial effects on other sagebrush-obligate species. North American Breeding 

Bird Survey (BBS) count data and machine learning were used to assess predictors 
126Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

influencing spatial distribution and abundance of three sagebrush-obligate songbirds: Brewer’s sparrow (Spizella breweri), sagebrush sparrow (Artemisiospiza 

nevadensis), and sage thrasher (Oreoscoptes montanus). Researchers quantified cooccurrence of songbird abundance with sage grouse lek (breeding and nesting site) 

distributions using point pattern analyses and evaluated the concurrence of songbird abundance within sage grouse habitat restoration and landscape protection.

Sagebrush land-cover predictors were positively associated with the abundance 

of each songbird species in all models. Individual songbird models identified 

an apparent 40 percent threshold in sagebrush land cover over which songbird 

abundances nearly doubled. Songbird abundances were positively associated with 

sage grouse distributions (P  <  0.01); rangewide landscapes supporting greater 

than 50 percent of males on leks also harbored 13–19 percent higher densities of 

songbirds compared to rangewide mean densities. Additionally, 85 percent of the 

conifer removal conducted through the Sage Grouse Initiative coincided with high 

to moderate Brewer’s sparrow abundance. The core area of Wyoming’s landscapes 

protected for sage grouse encompasses half of the high- to moderate-abundance 

sagebrush sparrow and sage thrasher populations. In the Great Basin, half of the 

high- to moderate-abundance sagebrush sparrow and sage thrasher populations 

coincides with sage grouse Fire and Invasive Assessment Tool (FIAT) priorities 

where conservation actions are being focused in an attempt to reduce the threat 

of wildfire and invasive plants. This work illustrates that spatially targeted actions 

being implemented ostensibly for sage grouse largely overlap high-abundance 

centers for three sagebrush-obligate passerines and are likely providing significant 

conservation benefits for less well-known sagebrush songbirds.

Color Infrared Imagery Informs Wetland Habitat Survey in the Prairie 

Pothole Region

Each spring since 1987, FWS staff has conducted the Four-Square-Mile Breeding 

Waterfowl Survey across five states and two FWS regions in the Prairie Pothole 

Region of the northern Great Plains. Part of the study includes the manual digitization of surface-water extent for approximately 75,000 wetlands on two- by two-mile 

sample plots to monitor wetland conditions and provide baseline data for modeling 
127 Department of the Interior

annual waterfowl distribution and abundance. In 2014, Habitat and Population 

Evaluation Team (HAPET) researchers began integrating new camera systems 

into the remote sensing protocol to collect submeter color infrared imagery at 

380 sample plots. These changes were implemented with the intent of introducing automated water classification algorithms into the workflow to reduce annual 

effort and increase accuracy.

Using images collected in spring 2015, researchers used eCognition software to 

produce an automated surface-water classification. Although the classification outputs continue to require some manual interpretation, the average time required to 

process each remote sensing plot has been reduced approximately 60 percent (from 

two hours to 45 minutes per plot, or approximately 500 hours less effort per year). 

With continued enhancement to the classification algorithm, the workload could 

be reduced further. Additionally, changes were made to the image acquisition protocols that also reduced pilot interaction with the system. Efforts are currently 

under way to introduce a more robust flight management system (incorporating 

highly accurate navigational tools and automated camera control) to further reduce 

the burden on pilots and increase operational safety.

This protocol has also been used to provide input data for studies identifying 

priority habitat for the rare Wyoming toad (Anaxyrus baxteri), provide highresolution (three-centimeter or ground sample distance [GSD]) orthophotos to 

inventory three American white pelican nesting colonies (approximately 25,000 

individuals), and investigate effects of oil/gas exploration on waterfowl abundance 

and productivity.

Great Lakes Remote Sensing—Coastal Wetlands

Repeated collection of high-spatial-resolution satellite imagery over the entire 

Great Lakes coastal zone will allow resource managers to better understand, manage, and preserve the region’s dynamic wetland ecosystems. In a binational effort 

led and funded by the FWS, researchers at Michigan Tech Research Institute, 

the University of Minnesota, and SharedGeo are collaborating with the Canada 

Centre for Remote Sensing and with Environment and Climate Change Canada to 
128Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

produce updated and improved maps of critical coastal wetland characteristics such 

as surface-water extent, water levels, and vegetation classifications.

This multi-year effort will obtain submeter DigitalGlobe optical imagery via the 

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and RADARSAT-2 radar imagery via the 

Canadian Space Agency. Optical imagery will be acquired through the National 

Science Foundation (NSF)–supported Polar Geospatial Center and processed by 

University of Minnesota personnel. Radar imagery will be processed jointly by the 

Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation (Natural Resources Canada) 

and the Wildlife Research and Landscape Science Unit (Environment and Climate 

Change Canada), in collaboration with the Michigan Tech Research Institute. 

SharedGeo will provide additional computing and outreach support. Combining 

information about the physical, chemical, and biological properties of coastal wetlands over space and across time will yield improved coastal wetland habitat information and knowledge. More information can be found at http://www.tandfonline.

com/doi/abs/10.1080/17538947.2011.608813 and https://www.fws.gov/midwest/es/.

Lidar Collection in the Outer Coastal Regions of the Yukon and 

Kuskokwim River Deltas: Science Applications, Western Alaska Landscape 

Conservation Cooperative

At roughly 50,000 square miles, the Yukon-Kuskokwim River Delta forms a vast, 

flat expanse in western Alaska that is a critical northern breeding and staging 

habitat for migrating waterbirds and hosts more than 35 indigenous villages. Due to 

its orientation, shallow bathymetry, and low relief, the delta is highly vulnerable to 

coastal flooding associated with storm surges, which can reach miles inland. The 

region also appears to be subsiding, which further exacerbates flooding concerns. 

As a result, the villages in the area are some of the most imperiled communities 

in Alaska. Existing elevation datasets are not adequate for emergency response 

planning or resource management purposes; high-resolution data are required to 

accurately map the subtle topography of the delta. In response to the USGS’s 3D 

Elevation Program (3DEP) request for proposals, the Western Alaska Landscape 

Conservation Cooperative and FWS staff organized a total of six state and Federal 

agencies to jointly apply for a grant to acquire lidar data over a portion of the 
129 Department of the Interior

delta. The USGS is contributing additional funding and working with vendors 

to arrange for lidar acquisition in 2016 and 2017. The intent is to acquire roughly 

1,500 square miles of lidar data over some of the most highly productive and vulnerable areas in the delta. The final digital elevation model will have an average 

accuracy of four to six inches and will be hydro-flattened to allow water bodies 

to be seen in detail. Lidar data can also be used to assist conservation efforts to 

establish sustainable summer trails in communities. The project will cover several 

communities facing substantial climate-change impacts, providing baseline elevation data at a suitable resolution.

Bureau of Land Management

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) requires field-based measurements 

to support management decisions covering vast expanses of land. By integrating 

remote sensing into the BLM’s Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring strategy, 

field-based monitoring data are leveraged to generate information and maps that 

would otherwise be too expensive to produce. The BLM is developing a core set of 

integrated and scalable remote sensing tools that will provide an integrated, quantitative monitoring approach to efficiently and effectively document the impacts 

from authorized and unauthorized disturbance and land-treatment activities at 

local and regional scales.

Forest Vegetation Information System Woodland Inventory—Utah

The national-scale BLM Forest Vegetation Information System (FORVIS) provides 

data about forest attributes and associated land-management activities to inform vegetation inventory and monitoring efforts. Remote sensing technology contributes 

to this program, facilitating a more efficient and complete inventory of vegetative 

resources, including non-forested land-cover types such as shrublands and grasslands. 

This multi-year BLM project will give Utah comprehensive coverage of all vegetative data, making the inventory useful for a wide range of resource applications. For 

example, one of the inventory project goals in Utah is to identify areas such as pinyon, juniper, and mixed conifer stands that are suitable for biofuel production.
130Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

The Cedar City Field Office area has been the starting point for the inventory, 

which includes 22.9 million acres managed by the BLM in Utah. The process of 

converting disparate FORVIS data layers into meaningful land-cover information 

involves the analysis of field and remote sensing data in Trimble eCognition software, which assigns pixels to vegetation categories based on their spectral properties and spatial arrangements. The remote sensing data layers leveraged include 

one-meter National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP) aerial photography, 

five-meter digital elevation model (DEM) data, and derived slope and aspect products. Field data are collected specifically for this project as well as assembled from 

multiple additional sources, including existing datasets compiled during other BLM 

projects, online data portals, and USFS Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data.

Supervised classifications are iteratively performed in eCognition until an 

acceptable threshold accuracy is reached, at which point the data are entered into 

the national FORVIS database. Once the Cedar City area is complete, the focus 

will shift and the program will repeat the process for the Vernal Field Office area. 

More information can be found at http://www.blm.gov/nstc/resourcenotes/respdf/

RN48.pdf.

Juniper Expansion Management in the Upper North Platte Watershed

Native woody juniper shrubs (Juniperus spp.) are expanding beyond their normal 

historical ranges as a result of wildfire suppression, prolonged drought, and reduced 

demand for juniper products such as fencing and building material. As juniper 

woodlands spread, typically from steep rocky slopes into adjacent foothill riparian 

and shrub-steppe communities, critical mule deer and greater sage grouse habitat is reduced. Early stages of encroachment can be controlled with cost-effective 

mechanical treatments, whereas the only economical management strategy for 

denser canopy cover requires prescribed fire, which is difficult to implement and 

can lead to increased establishment of invasive grasses. As a result, the BLM 

Rawlins Field Office actively monitors juniper community expansion to identify 

early-stage areas suitable for mechanical treatment based on canopy cover and 

wildlife habitat needs.
131 Department of the Interior

BLM analysts used the Feature Analyst extension in Esri ArcMap 10.3.1 to 

conduct supervised classification of juniper canopy cover from the 2015 fourband, 0.5-meter-resolution NAIP aerial photos acquired over 60,000 acres of 

BLM-managed rangeland near Saratoga, Wyoming. The study area comprised six 

separate management units. Representative juniper canopies were used to train 

the software to recognize the spectral signature and spatial pattern of juniper and 

classify the imagery for those traits. The river corridor was masked to avoid false 

positives from willow, alder, and cottonwood. The resulting juniper canopy cover 

maps provide a simple management tool for determining treatment priorities. 

For example, the blue and green pixels in the classified image (C) represent lowcanopy-cover areas that are suitable for mechanical treatment.

Mine Production Verification Using High-Resolution Stereo Imagery, 

Royal Gorge Office, Colorado

The BLM uses an array of remote sensing technologies to support resource 

management. The BLM National Operations Center (NOC) is currently employing unmanned aircraft systems (UASes) and spaceborne high-resolution imaging 

systems to assist the Royal Gorge Field Office (RGFO) with mine production 

Geographic Information System (GIS) products derived from classification of the original 2015 NAIP 

imagery (image A) included a pixel-level juniper canopy polygon layer (B) and a layer showing juniper 

canopy cover aggregated by acre unit (C).
132Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

verification. For several RGFO mines, the BLM has developed preliminary finescale (approximately one-meter) digital surface model elevation products derived 

from WorldView-2 and WorldView-3 stereo imagery acquired in late 2015 and 2016 

that document elevation changes due to ore extraction and tailings accumulation. 

These WorldView-derived products provide a current depiction of surface cover; 

they also fill a gap between, and are complementary to, broader-scale elevation 

data (e.g., National Elevation Dataset [NED]) and datasets derived from fine-scale 

systems (e.g., UAS flown at close range).

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation

The Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) uses Landsat data to help monitor consumptive water use throughout the western United States. BOR analysts use Landsat 

imagery to map irrigated crops for estimating water demand and to monitor interstate and inter-basin water compact compliance. The BOR is also involved in ecological restoration of a number of rivers in the West. Lidar data, multispectral aerial 

imagery, and sonar data are used to generate maps of topography, vegetation, and 

river channel bathymetry, which guide restoration activities.

Dam-Failure Flood Inundation Modeling, Mapping, and Life-Loss 

Consequences Analysis

BOR performs dam-failure inundation modeling and mapping in support of 

emergency evacuation planning and dam safety risk analysis. Interferometric 

Synthetic Aperture Radar (IFSAR), lidar, and other geospatial terrain data are 

used within an Esri ArcGIS environment for pre- and post-processing of numeric 

hydraulic models. Hydraulic modeling employs one- and two-dimensional modeling 

techniques and relies primarily on the models produced with MIKE software by 

DHI (formerly Danish Hydraulic Institute). Inundation modeling results are used to 

create maps and are overlaid with residential census data to estimate affected populations at risk. This work is an integral component of emergency action plans for 

dams and provides data for estimating the potential for life loss from dam failure.
133 Department of the Interior

Minute 319: Colorado River Delta: Colorado River Delta—Water for the 

Environment and Environmental Benefits

First-ever plans to facilitate and promote actions that foster environmental benefits in the Colorado River Delta were set in motion by a historic binational agreement known as Minute 319, which was signed in 2012 by the United States and 

Mexico. The agreement included a science-based plan for a one-time “pulse flow” 

release of 105,392 acre-feet (130 million cubic meters) of water from the Morelos 

Dam near Yuma, Arizona, in March 2014. Remotely sensed images are being used 

to document the effects of this flow. Pre-pulse baseline vegetation information 

is being derived from WorldView-2 satellite imagery and lidar data; Landsat and 

MODIS data will be used for analyses of the post-pulse biologic and hydrologic 

effects. Scientific investigations continued in 2016. More information can be found 

at http://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/feature/minute319.html.

San Joaquin River Restoration Program

The San Joaquin River Restoration Program (SJRRP) is a comprehensive, longterm effort to revive the river’s self-sustaining Chinook salmon fishery by restoring water flows to the river from the Friant Dam to the confluence of Merced 

River, a distance of over 100 miles. A goal of the SJRRP is to mitigate or avoid 

adverse water supply impacts from the restoration releases. To satisfy this requirement, BOR’s Technical Service Center (TSC) has been tasked with completing the 

design of a compact bypass that provides fish passage around Mendota Pool as well 

as floodplain grading and revegetation over this reach of the river. In support of 

these efforts, TSC staff developed lidar-based terrain models to test the hydraulic 

behavior of the proposed designs. More information can be found at http://www.

restoresjr.net/.

National Park Service

The National Park Service (NPS) has a substantial investment and long history 

in using aerial and spaceborne remote sensing and GPS technologies. The NPS 
134Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Inventory and Monitoring Program conducts baseline inventories for more than 

270 parks across the Nation. Remote sensing data are a critical source of information regarding geology, soils, vegetation, and infrastructure. Aerial photography 

and satellite imagery have been utilized to compile vegetation maps; a monumental 

task given that the agency is responsible for over 30 million acres. These data 

are particularly critical for NPS activities in Alaska because of its remote and 

vast expanses of public land and the fact that the Arctic is warming rapidly in 

response to climate change. The NPS takes advantage of the free Landsat archive 

to quantify decadal changes in glacier ice cover and document land-cover change 

in national park units. NPS has been the DOI sponsoring agency to map all 

large wildland and prescribed fires as part of the DOI Monitoring Trends in Burn 

Severity project, using the Landsat archive. GPS supports field data collection, 

navigation, and search-and-rescue operations conducted by the agency.

Growing-Season Monitoring in Alaska’s Arctic National Parks: Arctic 

Inventory and Monitoring Network

The length and warmth of the growing season is changing in arctic Alaska, with 

important implications for wildlife and overall ecosystem productivity. The NPS in 

Alaska is monitoring vegetation using EROS MODIS (eMODIS) weekly composite 

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index satellite data, a measure of vegetation 

greenness. The NPS Arctic Inventory and Monitoring Network (the five national 

parks in northern Alaska), in cooperation with the University of Alaska Fairbanks 

(UAF) Geographic Information Network for Alaska (GINA), have processed the 

available eMODIS collection (2000–15) to obtain growing-season metrics for each 

year, including the date of the start of the green season, the date of the midpoint of 

spring green-up, maximum greenness, the date of the midpoint of fall senescence, 

and the date of the end of the green season (http://www.gina.alaska.edu/projects/

modis-derived-ndvi-metrics). Results show large year-to-year variations in the magnitude of maximum summer greenness and the timing of green-up and senescence. 

The timing of spring green-up can vary by almost a month between years; green-up 

is closely linked to the warmth of the spring and early summer and the timing of 

snow loss. Trend analysis across the 16-year period of record shows that in recent 
135 Department of the Interior

years, spring green-up has arrived about a week earlier than it did in the early 

2000s, but maximum summer greenness has generally not increased. Information 

on the timing of spring helps biologists understand the reproductive success of 

wildlife such as Dall’s sheep. More information can be found at http://science.nature.

nps.gov/im/units/arcn/vitalsign.cfm?vsid=28.

Lake Ice Phenology of Southwest Alaska

Reductions in the duration of annual lake ice cover in Alaska are expected 

to produce profound environmental changes. These include biological productivity changes in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, reduced albedo, and shifts in 

the timing of ice-jam flooding—all of which impact human activities, including 

These maps show the date of the midpoint of spring vegetation green-up in the national parks of 

northern Alaska (outlined in black). The upper image is from 2001, a year with late green-up, and the 

lower image is from 2015, a year with early green-up.
136Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

transportation and subsistence. The duration and seasonality of lake ice are sensitive to wind, air temperature, and snow accumulation and are correlated with 

climate variability and change. To help understand these dynamics, the Southwest 

Alaska Network of the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program is using MODIS 

satellite data to analyze lake ice phenology—the freeze and break-up timing of lake 

ice—for 17 southwestern Alaska lakes and lake clusters from 2001 to 2016.

Near-daily 250-meter-resolution visible, near-infrared (NIR), and shortwave 

infrared (SWIR) reflectance data from the MODIS Terra and Aqua sensors are 

used in this analysis. The frequent imagery collection allows the detection of ice 

cover on lakes as it forms, collects snowfall, intermittently thaws, refreezes, and 

clears when lake extents are free of cloud cover. A grid-based mapping approach to 

estimate percentages of lake area covered by ice is accomplished through supervised 

classification using a one-square-kilometer grid in which each grid square is given a 

value of ice-covered (50–100 percent ice cover) or ice-free (0–49 percent ice cover) 

status for each day of the year that the areal lake extent is visible. Calibration and 

validation of results is accomplished using ground-based observations from lake 

temperature arrays and remote automated weather stations. Correlation is apparent 

between increased air temperature and reduced lake ice cover and duration.

The analysis produced a dataset of daily percent lake ice cover for each of 17 

lakes or lake clusters with dates for initial freeze-up (days with greater than 10 percent but less than 90 percent ice cover), complete ice cover (days with greater than 

90 percent ice cover), break-up (days after complete cover with less than 90 percent but more than 10 percent ice cover), and complete exposure (days with less 

than 10 percent ice cover). Data for 2001–16 will be published and available from 

the Southwest Alaska Network. The use of these data in collaborative research to 

investigate the interaction between lake ice phenology on aquatic and terrestrial 

ecosystems is ongoing and encouraged. More information can be found at http://

science.nature.nps.gov/im/units/swan/monitor/lake_ice_about.cfm.
137 Department of the Interior

Satellite Imagery Used for Sitka Alaska Landslide Response

A heavy rain event on August 18, 2015, triggered two landslides in the southeastern Alaska community of Sitka. The slides claimed three lives and caused 

substantial damage to property and infrastructure. Approximately 40 other slides 

occurred in the surrounding area on the same day. One outcome of the local, state, 

and Federal response to the disaster was the formation of the Sitka GeoTask Force, 

a multi-agency scientific work group that is studying the meteorological and geotechnical conditions leading up to the event to help the community better prepare 

for similar events in the future. As part of the task force, the NPS worked with the 

U.S. Geological Survey’s Commercial Remote Sensing Policy (CRSSP) and the 

Hazards Data Distribution System (HDDS) to provide new and archived satellite 

imagery to assist with the analysis of past landslide phenomena and the evaluation 

of future risk. In the months that followed the slides, over 120 Landsat 7/8 and 

WorldView 2/3 scenes were made available to participating agencies through the 

HDDS Explorer distribution portal. The imagery serves as a valuable resource for 

responders, community planners, and scientists by providing an inexpensive and 

detailed view of a large, remote area in southeastern Alaska. The imagery has been 

used by the task force to assess soil stability, update existing landslide inventory 

datasets, aid situational awareness for responders, and create predictive models of 

landslide hazards. More information can be found at http://www.sitkascience.org/

wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Sitka-Geotask-Force-Summary-Final-2016.pdf.

Bureau of Indian Affairs

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) applies remote sensing to activities such as 

planning land use, responding to non-point-source pollution affecting subsistence 

hunting and fishing, ameliorating climate-change effects such as sea-level rise for 

coastal tribes, locating and identifying potential dam hazards, and generating digital terrain data for the use of open-channel hydraulics.
138Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Vegetative Response to Water Availability on the San Carlos 

Apache Reservation

On the San Carlos Apache Reservation in east-central Arizona, vegetation 

types such as ponderosa pine forests, pinyon-juniper woodlands, and grasslands 

have important ecological, cultural, and economic value for the tribe. This value 

extends beyond the tribal lands and across the western United States. Vegetation 

across the southwestern United States is susceptible to drought conditions and 

fluctuating water availability. Remotely sensed vegetation indices can be used to 

measure and monitor spatial and temporal vegetative response to these water and 

drought dynamics. USGS scientists derived the Modified Soil Adjusted Vegetation 

Index II (MSAVI2) from MODIS imagery to measure the condition of three dominant vegetation types (ponderosa pine forest, woodland, and grassland) in response 

to two fluctuating environmental variables: precipitation and the Standardized 

Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). The analysis, conducted for 2002 

through 2014, showed that grassland and woodland have a similar moderate to 

strong, year-round, positive relationship with both precipitation and SPEI. This 

result suggests that these vegetation types respond negatively to drought conditions 

and are more susceptible to initial precipitation deficits. Ponderosa pine forest had 

a comparatively weaker relationship with monthly precipitation and summer SPEI, 

indicating that it is more buffered against short-term drought conditions. This 

research highlights the response of multiple dominant vegetation types to seasonal 

and interannual water availability and demonstrates the effectiveness of multitemporal remote sensing imagery as a tool for the detection of vegetation response to 

climate change at regional scales. Such tools can provide cost-effective monitoring 

to inform management of drought-affected areas. More information can be found 

at https://www2.usgs.gov/climate_landuse/lcs/projects/vcarbon.asp and http://geography.

wr.usgs.gov/science/TribalLandVegetation/index.html.
139 Federal Communications Commission

Federal Communicati

Commission

FCC

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) formulates rules to facilitate 

the provision of commercial satellite services in the United States. It also issues 

licenses for the deployment and operation of all nongovernmental U.S. satellites. 

Internationally, the FCC coordinates satellite radio-frequency usage with other countries. The FCC’s activities in FY 2016 related primarily to commercial communications satellites and Earth observation satellites, as well as experimental satellites.

The FCC took several significant actions in administrative and rulemaking 

proceedings in FY 2016. As part of an overall FCC process reform initiative, on 

December 17, 2015, the FCC adopted changes to the FCC rules that apply to most 

satellite communications services. The FCC revised over 200 rules and definitions 

and eliminated unnecessary rules. Among the major changes are:

• modifying the FCC’s process for submitting orbital and spectrum coordination filings to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 

order to facilitate the international frequency coordination of new U.S. 

satellite networks;

• simplifying the FCC’s rules requiring timely satellite construction and 

modifying the related financial performance bond requirement in order 

to discourage the filing of speculative license applications and encourage 

the surrender of licenses that will not be used; and

• modifying the FCC rules concerning 2° spacing between geostationary 

satellites in the fixed satellite service to support the increasing use of small 

earth station antennas.
140Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

The FCC also launched a new electronic form for documenting the technical 

characteristics of the operation of space stations seeking FCC approval and created 

a single Web page listing all space stations approved under the FCC rules for commercial satellite services.

On July 14, 2016, the FCC adopted rule changes designed to harmonize the 

operations of commercial satellite services with terrestrial services, including nextgeneration mobile service, in certain frequency bands. As part of this proceeding, 

known as “Spectrum Frontiers,” the FCC adopted rules on spectrum sharing that 

will enable the agency to continue to authorize satellite operations in the 27.5- to 

28.35-gigahertz (GHz) and 37.5- to 40.0-GHz frequency bands while also opening 

these frequency bands to additional mobile uses.

On August 15, 2016, the FCC adopted an order revising licensing procedures for 

nongeostationary space stations.

In FY 2016, the FCC authorized a number of commercial communication satellite deployments and operations. These authorizations included the following:

• October 29, 2015: To Skynet Satellite Corporation, to construct, 

deploy, and operate a Ku- and Ka-band satellite at the longitude 15° west 

orbit location.

• February 25, 2016: To Intelsat License, LLC, to construct, deploy, 

and operate a C-, Ku-, and Ka-band satellite at the longitude 60° west 

orbit location.

• May 11, 2016: To DirecTV Enterprises, LLC, to construct, deploy, and 

operate a Ku-band satellite at the longitude 43.1° west orbit location.

• June 9, 2016: To Intelsat License, LLC, to construct, deploy, and operate 

a C- and Ku-band satellite at the longitude 68.5° east orbit location.

• July 6, 2016: To Horizons-3 License, LLC, to construct, deploy, and operate a C- and Ku-band satellite at the longitude 169° east orbit location.

• September 15, 2016: To Hughes Network Systems, LLC, to construct, 

deploy, and operate a Ka-band satellite at the longitude 97.1° west 

orbit location.

During FY 2016, the FCC granted authority to three companies—Spire Global, 

Inc.; Planet Labs, Inc.; and Terra Bella Technologies, Inc.—to deploy and operate 
141 Federal Communications Commission

nongeostationary small satellites in low-Earth orbit, primarily for remote sensing 

activities. The specifics follow:

• March 18, 2016: To Spire Global, Inc., for nine satellites to be deployed 

at orbital altitudes at or below 435 kilometers.

• June 6, 2016: To Terra Bella Technologies, Inc., for one satellite to be 

deployed in an orbit with a perigee of 502 kilometers and an apogee of 

510 kilometers.

• June 15, 2016: To Planet Labs, Inc., for up to 600 satellites during a 

15-year license term to be deployed at orbital altitudes between 350 kilometers and 660 kilometers.

• June 16, 2016: To Spire Global, Inc., for an additional 20 satellites to be 

deployed at orbital altitudes between 400 and 550 kilometers.

• August 31, 2016: To Terra Bella Technologies, Inc., for an additional 12 satellites to be deployed at orbital altitudes between 400 and 

630 kilometers.

• September 15, 2016: To Planet Labs, Inc., to permit 56 of the 600 previously authorized satellites to operate in an orbit with a perigee of 450 

kilometers and an apogee of 720 kilometers.

In addition to these commercial operations, the FCC continued to grant applications for experimental operations by nongovernmental small satellites. Many of 

the experimental grants by the FCC for small-satellite operations were given to 

universities and institutions conducting research and developing new spacecraft 

technologies. The satellites’ missions included testing new equipment for use on 

satellites; demonstrating small-spacecraft proximity operations; demonstrating 

high-speed optical data transmission; and making Earth observations, including imaging. Other experimental licenses granted in FY 2016 included grants to 

SpaceX to test prototype satellites for the provision of broadband service, as well as 

grants for space-to-space communications between the Globalstar, Inc., nongeostationary satellite system and certain CubeSats.

The FCC granted a number of license modifications and Special Temporary 

Authorizations for satellite networks. Many involved routine testing or redeployment of satellites within a multi-satellite system. Several of these actions, however, 

warrant particular mention:
142Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

• August 1, 2016: The FCC granted Iridium Constellation, LLC, a license 

modification to include authority to construct, deploy, and operate 

66 nongeostationary satellites, as well as 15 spare satellites, as secondgeneration satellites to replace its existing satellite system. Iridium’s 

second-generation satellite system will continue to provide mobile voice 

and data services, with improved voice quality and enhanced data transmission speeds. It will also provide aeronautical mobile-satellite route service to oceanic, polar, and remote areas. This service concerns the safety 

and regularity of flights.

• September 1, 2016: The FCC granted special temporary authority to 

Intelsat License, LLC, for 180 days to move its Galaxy 11 satellite to the 

longitude 45° east orbit location and to operate there consistent with 

Germany’s ITU filings.

The FCC also added non-U.S.-licensed space stations to its permitted list to 

allow these space stations to provide domestic and international satellite service to 

U.S. earth stations that have routine technical parameters.

• June 23, 2016: The FCC added New Skies Satellite B.V.’s SES-10 satellite to the permitted list, operating under the authority of Colombia 

and using the Ku-band at the longitude 67° west orbit location. SES-10 

was approved, in part, to replace the service provided by the AMC-3 and 

AMC-4 space stations at the same orbit location.

• July 12, 2016: The FCC added SES Satellites (Gibraltar) Ltd.’s SES-15 

satellite to the permitted list, operating under the authority of the United 

Kingdom (Gibraltar) and using the Ku- and Ka-bands at the longitude 

129.15° west orbit location. SES-15 was approved, in part, to replace the 

service provided by the AMC-1 space station at the same orbit location.

• July 21, 2016: The FCC added Empresa Argentina de Soluciones 

Satelitales, S.A.’s ARSAT-2 satellite to the permitted list, operating under 

the authority of Argentina and using the C- and Ku-bands at the longitude 81° west orbit location.

• August 31, 2016: The FCC added Telesat International Limited’s Telstar 

19 Vantage satellite to the permitted list, using the Ka- and Ku-bands at 

the longitude 63° west orbit location. The Telstar 19 Vantage satellite will 
143 Federal Communications Commission

operate under the authority of Brazil for Ka-band operations in Brazil and 

for all Ku-band operations, and under the authority of the United Kingdom, 

on behalf of the Isle of Man, for Ka-band operations outside of Brazil.

In addition, the FCC took action on the following requests for non-U.S.-licensed 

space stations to provide service in the United States on a nonroutine basis: • April 7, 2016: At the request of Inmarsat plc, the FCC made a modi

-

fication to the “ISAT List,” a list of approved satellites in the Inmarsat 

mobile-satellite service system that U.S. earth stations may access, to add 

the Inmarsat-3 F5 satellite at the longitude 54° west orbit location.

• June 30, 2016: The FCC granted the applications of Panasonic Avionics 

Corporation and Gogo, LLC, for earth stations aboard aircraft to commu-

nicate with the Yamal 300K satellite operating in the Ku-band under the 

authority of Russia at the longitude 177° west orbit location. The Yamal 

300K satellite was also separately authorized to communicate with the 

Denali 20020, LLC, earth station in the state of Washington.

• August 5, 2016: The FCC granted Hawaii Pacific Teleport, LP’s appli-

cation for its Hawaii earth station to communicate with the JCSAT-2B 

satellite operating in the Ku-band under the authority of Japan at the 

longitude 154° east orbit location.

145

U.S. Department of Agricultu

U.S. Departme

Agricult

USDA

Farm Service Agency

Since the 1930s, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) has been tasked with administering farm commodity, credit, conservation, disaster, and loan programs as laid out 

by Congress through a network of Federal, state, and county offices. Historically, 

geospatial systems and data have played a fundamental role in FSA’s program delivery.

FSA’s core spatial dataset, the Common Land Unit (CLU) layer, is a dynamically 

updated, nationally consistent digital dataset representing farm and field boundaries. Integrated with associated nonspatial farm data in a common foundational 

system, it allows producers to provide core information and, leveraging advancements in geospatial technology, helped the agency ensure accurate and consistent 

information of annual commodity plantings. FSA used geospatial data, including 

the CLU, to support producer crop-reporting activities and the administration of 

conservation, commodity, and lending programs.

Remotely sensed data, such as Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer 

(MODIS), Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS), and other high-resolution aerial 

and satellite imagery collected as a result of interagency coordination, are examples 

of imagery sources used during periods of 2016 disaster recovery—like the Texas 

and Louisiana flooding events—to support FSA disaster programs such as the 

Emergency Loan and Emergency Conservation Programs.

As the primary source of aerial imagery for the U.S. Department of Agriculture 

(USDA), FSA continues to administer the National Agriculture Imagery Program 
146Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

(NAIP), leveraging partnership funds from other Federal, state, and local entities 

to acquire imagery during the growing season over the contiguous United States. 

In 2016, FSA acquired nearly 1.5 million square miles of four-band (natural-color 

and near-color-infrared) imagery in 22 states. FSA also made the imagery available 

through the Early Access Web Services (EAWS) to all states in which imagery 

was acquired. EAWS provided minimally processed NAIP imagery Web services, 

direct from flying contractor to end customer, between two and seven days after 

acquisition. This allowed FSA and partner agencies to perform time-sensitive quality service checking with the most current imagery available months in advance of 

receiving production-level NAIP imagery.

In addition to distributing the most up-to-date NAIP imagery, FSA also hosted a 

large imagery archive that was accessible to Federal agencies and the public through 

the USDA Geospatial Data Gateway. FSA has begun digitizing its extensive historical imagery to eventually be made available for service providers, and these digital 

records will be archived at the National Archives and Records Administration.

Foreign Agricultural Service

The Foreign Agricultural Service’s (FAS) Office of Global Analysis (FAS/OGA) 

serves as a major source of objective and reliable global agricultural production 

information for the USDA’s monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand 

Estimates (WASDE) report, the primary source of the USDA’s global commodity 

outlook. In FY 2016, the monthly WASDE reports provided public access to information that affected world food security and was crucial to decisions involving U.S. 

agriculture, trade policy, and food aid. FAS/OGA used satellite imagery at regional, 

national, and subnational scales to operationally monitor and analyze monthly 

changes in global crop production. FAS archived and displayed global monthly 

crop production, supply, and distribution (PSD) data from the USDA’s WASDE 

report on the FAS PSD Online Web site (https://apps.fas.usda.gov/psdonline/).

The International Production Assessment Division (IPAD) operated the remote 

sensing program at FAS/OGA. IPAD is an operational user of remotely sensed 

imagery and processed multiple U.S. and international sources of global imagery 

and satellite-derived weather information. Landsat 7 and Landsat 8 served as the 
147

U.S. Department of Agricultu

primary satellites used by FAS/OGA/IPAD for mapping crop area and crop type 

for numerous countries worldwide, whereas NASA’s MODIS sensor, on board the 

Aqua and Terra satellites, is used by IPAD to monitor crop conditions and relative crop yields. The USDA-NASA Global Agricultural Monitoring (GLAM) Web 

system displayed and archived historical MODIS-Terra (i.e., 2000–present) and 

MODIS-Aqua (i.e., 2002–present) imagery, and the GLAM Web interface easily 

allowed public users to analyze and compare current crop conditions with past 

years’ crop conditions (https://glam1.gsfc.nasa.gov). FAS hoped that VIIRS would 

be operationally ready this year, but the lack of a cross-calibrated time series (with 

MODIS) pushed the start date to 2017 or later. FAS worked on processes to supplement Landsat imagery with Sentinel-2 imagery.

FAS/OGA also maintained several public global agricultural datasets by processing, archiving, and displaying on the Web a variety of satellite imagery products. 

The FAS/OGA Crop Explorer Web system allows the user to monitor, analyze, 

and display rainfall, temperature, soil moisture, and vegetation conditions by utilizing satellite imagery from NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) 

satellite network, NOAA’s Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites 

(POES), ESA’s Proba-V, and satellite-derived weather information from the U.S. 

Air Force’s 557th Weather Wing. In addition, the Global Reservoir and Lake 

Monitor (G-REALM) monitored and displayed reservoir and lake water heights 

by utilizing satellite radar altimeter data from NASA’s Topography Experiment 

(TOPEX)/Poseidon, Jason-1, and Jason-2 satellites. See http://www.pecad.fas.usda.

gov/cropexplorer for more information.

FAS/OGA is part of the early-adopter program for Soil Moisture Active Passive 

(SMAP). As an operational user, FAS relies on the Agricultural Research Service 

(ARS) and NASA researchers to provide the process to ingest SMAP products.

FAS/OGA managed the USDA’s Satellite Imagery Archives (SIA) program 

and displayed all moderate-resolution satellite imagery archived via SIA’s Archive 

Explorer (AE). In 2000, the USDA’s Remote Sensing Coordinating Committee 

(RSCC) established the SIA program, which is chaired by the USDA’s Remote 

Sensing Advisor. During 2016, the USDA/FAS purchased satellite imagery with 

22-meter spatial resolution from the Deimos-1 and UK-DMC2 satellites and 

archived it via SIA’s AE. The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service 
148Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

used the Deimos-1 and UK-DMC2 satellite imagery covering the lower 48 U.S. 

states to map crop type for the 2016 United States crop season and to monitor crop 

damage caused by natural disasters such as drought, fires, diseases, or insects. FAS/

OGA/SIA provided funding to USGS/EROS to process Indian Space Research 

Organisation (ISRO) Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) and Linear Imaging 

Self Scanner (LISS) imagery. The ISRO imagery will help fill needed temporal and 

spatial resolution gaps for coverage of the United States.

Forest Service

As the primary forestry agency of the United States and the largest agency in 

the USDA, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) continues to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation’s forests and grasslands. This work encompasses 

partnerships with states, tribes, and other Federal agencies to address forestry and 

natural resource issues; administer and manage 155 national forests and 20 national 

grasslands collectively known as National Forest System (NFS) lands, totaling 193 

million acres; and provide assistance to private land owners and state, tribal, and 

community forestry agencies in the stewardship of approximately 500 million acres 

of non-Federal forest lands.

In FY 2016, the USFS collaborated with NASA, NOAA, the USGS, and other 

agencies to apply operational satellite and airborne imagery and the most advanced 

remote sensing and geospatial technologies. Specific accomplishments included 

the following:

• Collected comprehensive Earth Observing System (EOS), MODIS, and 

Suomi NPP VIIRS direct-broadcast data and Landsat 8 OLI data via the 

USGS’s EROS for the United States and Canada. Provided operational 

processing and dissemination of near-real-time fire-mapping and geospatial data products to fire managers and the general public. (https://fsapps.

nwcg.gov/afm/)

• Continued activities with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Direct 

Readout Laboratory under a USFS-NASA interagency agreement to test 

and operationally implement direct-readout technologies, including land, 

atmospheric, and ocean science processing algorithms for EOS and Suomi 
149

U.S. Department of Agricultu

NPP sensors, to support evolving resource management and operational 

information needs. (https://directreadout.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/)

• Coordinated with the GSFC Direct Readout Laboratory to plan and 

execute the Ninth NASA Direct Readout Conference in June 2016. The 

meeting focused on the use of real-time Earth observations from NASA’s 

EOS, Suomi NPP instrument data, similar Earth observation assets from 

international space agencies, and related data-processing/analysis technologies to support the enhancement of decision-support systems.

• Continued operational processing and analysis of MODIS and Landsat 

imagery for systematic detection of forest damage and changing forest 

health conditions in our Nation’s forests. (http://foresthealth.fs.usda.gov/

portal/Flex/FDM?dL=0)

• Continued to distribute 250-meter forest attribute data surfaces derived 

from MODIS imagery and other geospatial predictor data using nearest neighbor imputation methods. (http://data.fs.usda.gov/geodata/

rastergateway/forest_type/index.php)

• Continued to distribute 250-meter forest carbon estimates derived from 

MODIS imagery and other geospatial predictor data using nearest neighbor imputation methods. (http://data.fs.usda.gov/geodata/rastergateway/

biomass/index.php)

• Continued coordination with NASA Ames Research Center to overhaul 

and update Autonomous Modular Sensor (AMS) electronics and sensor 

components and further develop the AMS onboard processing system 

capabilities and user interface to support operational integration flights 

on USFS aircraft.

• Continued coordination with Goddard Space Flight Center on the testing and evaluation of the Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric 

Correction (MAIAC) for MODIS, along with its potential use for land 

and atmospheric remote sensing applications.

• Operationally applied Earth Observing 1 Advanced Land Imager 

Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM) and Landsat 8 OLI imagery to respond to approximately 231 requests to map the location, extent, 

and severity of large wildfires to support post-fire emergency stabilization/
150Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

hazard mitigation activities and forest restoration planning/management 

activities. (http://www.fs.fed.us/eng/rsac/baer and https://www.fs.fed.us/

postfirevegcondition/index.shtml)

• Continued to operationally apply Landsat 4/5 Thematic Mapper (TM) 

and Landsat 7 ETM imagery to inventory, map, and characterize historical large fires to assess the effectiveness of national fire management policies as part of the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) project. 

MTBS mapping activities through FY 2016 included the completion of 

more than 19,000 fires covering more than 140 burned acres between the 

years 1984 and 2015. (http://www.mtbs.gov)

• Continued coordination with the University of Maryland and NASA, 

under the auspices of a NASA Research Opportunities in Space and 

Earth Sciences (ROSES) A35 Wildfires Project, to further implement the 

375-meter VIIRS I-band active fire detection product as part of operational 

USFS strategic fire detection and monitoring program activities. Also, 

coordinated with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Direct Readout 

Laboratory to implement the VIIRS algorithm within the global directreadout processing framework and ensure its availability to direct-readout 

data practitioners throughout the world. (https://fsapps.nwcg.gov/afm/)

• Coordinated with the University of Maryland, NASA, and the USGS, 

under the auspices of a NASA ROSES A35 Wildfires Project, to execute 

and test Sentinel 2 prototype active fire detection algorithms (complementing Landsat 8 algorithms implemented in FY 2015) and conduct 

preliminary evaluation of derived output products to support USFS operational fire support activities.

• Continued technology transfer activities between the USFS and Ames 

Research Center regarding unmanned aircraft systems and related 

technologies under the auspices of the NASA-USFS Wildfire Research 

Applications Partnership and a USFS-NASA interagency agreement. 

(http://geo.arc.nasa.gov/sge/WRAP/index.html)

• Coordinated with Ames Research Center on advancing the Thermal 

Mapping Airborne Simulator (TMAS) (developed under the NASA 
151

U.S. Department of Agricultu

Small Business Innovation Research program) and the Staring Wide Area 

Imager (StareWAI) to higher Technology Readiness Levels.

• Used imagery from Landsat 5 TM and from Landsat 8 OLI and NAIP to 

initiate, complete, and update mid-level vegetation-mapping products for 

national forest lands and adjacent land areas throughout the country.

• Completed Tree Canopy Cover (TCC) data for the continental United 

States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands using 

imagery from Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 OLI and NAIP as part of the 

Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC) National 

Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2011 update and also initiated production 

on NLCD TCC 2016.

• Expanded the use of Landsat TM/ETM/OLI time-series stacks to detect 

and monitor forest land-cover change from the mid-1980s to the present 

in the watersheds of the Great Lakes and all national forests in the Pacific 

Northwest. This activity is now being conducted using automated changedetection capabilities in the Google Earth Engine.

• Used Landsat TM/ETM/OLI and NAIP imagery in conjunction with 

other core geospatial datasets to conduct ecological and soil-type mapping on NFS lands in the northeast and western United States, which 

the USFS, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and other 

agencies apply to resource management, planning, and decision making. 

(http://www.fs.fed.us/eng/rsac/programs/teui/about.html)

• Progressed toward a comprehensive and consistent land-cover/land-use 

monitoring system, the Landscape Change Monitoring System (LCMS), 

for the continental United States. LCMS utilizes Landsat TM/ETM/OLI 

time-series stacks to detect and monitor land-cover/land-use change from 

the mid-1980s to the present across all administrative ownerships. This 

effort is being conducted in collaboration with several Federal and academic partners. (http://larse.forestry.oregonstate.edu/lcms-landscape-changemonitoring-system and http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/?p=10868)

• Continued to develop standards and practices for integrating lidar into forest and resource management (e.g., defining acquisition specifications, dataquality assessment, and analysis/modeling procedures for forest parameters). 
152Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

• Continued to expand USFS involvement in the USGS 3D Elevation 

Program to ensure consistent acquisition specifications and to minimize 

redundant collections by partnering with other state and Federal entities 

on data acquisitions.

• Provided support to NASA Applied Remote Sensing Training (ARSET) 

program training activities/workshops, including the “Remote Sensing for 

Wildfire Applications” workshop at Idaho State University in October 

2015. Also, continued collaboration to enhance NASA and Forest Service 

remote sensing training programs and leverage existing Forest Service 

training investments to increase awareness about emerging technologies 

and practical resource applications.

National Agricultural Statistics Service

The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) used remote sensing data 

to construct and sample area frames for agricultural statistical surveys and to estimate crop area and yield. It also continued contributing to two NASA science 

grants on fallowed California agricultural land and a flood-disaster-based crop loss 

assessment system. Additionally, NASS published papers describing the development of crop-specific area frame stratifications based on geospatial crop frequency 

and cultivation data layers and a comprehensive remote sensing assessment of crop 

yields and MODIS products.

NASS used Landsat imagery, digital NAIP orthophoto quadrangles, and other 

remotely sensed inputs for the contiguous United States and Puerto Rico to select 

the yearly area-based samples for the June Agricultural Survey. In addition, NASS 

updated new area-based sampling frames for Nebraska and Wisconsin.

NASS continued to utilize a new geospatial Cropland Data Layer (CDL)–based 

automated stratification method for area sampling frame operations, resulting in 

nine updated state area frames built at reduced cost with improved objectivity and 

efficiency, along with a 29 percent improvement in accuracy. The CDL data were 

used as the basis for the objective stratification of NASS area frame primary sampling units rather than visual interpretation of aerial photography or satellite data.
153

U.S. Department of Agricultu

The remote sensing acreage estimation program used Disaster Monitoring 

Constellation (DMC) and Landsat data to produce crop acreage estimates for crops 

at the state and county levels during the 2016 crop year. Acreage estimates were 

created for all market-sensitive crops and states. NASS’s Agricultural Statistics 

Board (ASB) was able to utilize the remote sensing acreage indications as independent input for setting the official estimates for its monthly Crop Production 

Reports. Analysts derived remote sensing–based acreage indications from the 

CDL. The primary satellite imagery inputs were from the FAS SIA, which provided 

growing-season coverage with DMC imagery through a cooperative partnership 

while utilizing growing-season Landsat 8 imagery. In addition, NASS distributed 

the CDL for 48 states to stakeholders for the previous 2015 crop season via the 

USDA Geospatial Data Gateway and the CropScape data visualization portal at 

https://nassgeodata.gmu.edu/CropScape.

NASS utilized NASA MODIS NDVI products for modeling corn and soybean 

yield indications over the 12 largest production states. Updated yield estimates were 

delivered operationally to the ASB as an independent indication for setting official August, September, and October yield estimates by state, district, and county. 

MODIS Land Surface Temperature (LST) products served as an independent variable for yield estimation.

NASS is developing a Decision Support System, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Florida and University of Nebraska, to improve yield 

forecasts using crop indicators obtained during critical stages of the crop’s growing 

season. A study was conducted that focuses on the evaluation of the potential use 

of satellite data, crop simulation models, and/or mathematical models to develop 

critical crop indicators. Research objectives included 1) the determination of corn 

and soybean phenological critical stages; 2) how critical stages can be predicted 

or identified using remote sensing, mathematical models (i.e., crop simulation 

models), and/or a combination of these techniques; 3) how to retrieve and relate 

information about soil moisture, spectral reflectance, and other available products 

during critical stages; and 4) how to develop metrics at critical stages or critical 

crop indicators to improve corn and soybean yield forecasts.

The Web-based national vegetation condition geospatial portal VegScape 

(https://nassgeodata.gmu.edu/VegScape) continued to deliver timely crop condition 
154Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

vegetation indices based on MODIS daily, weekly, and biweekly products throughout the growing season. VegScape showed crop condition/vegetation greenness 

and drought anomaly assessments. NASS continued work on a NASA science 

grant titled “Fallowed Area Mapping for Drought Impact Reporting and Decision 

Making,” to which NASS contributed monthly growing-season CDL-based fallowed land estimates for California water resource stakeholders.

NASS investigated using the NASA SMAP mission products for U.S. cropland 

soil moisture monitoring and assessment. NASS is collaborating with NASA, the 

Agricultural Research Service, and George Mason University in prototyping a 

Web-based operational cropland soil moisture monitoring and assessment based on 

NASS operational Web-based vegetation condition geospatial application within 

the VegScape system. The prototyped system will provide regular and frequent 

revisit cycles of both top- and sub-soil moisture observations with complete continental United States coverage.

NASS is collaborating with George Mason University, the USDA Risk 

Management Agency, and the University of Colorado in developing a remote 

sensing–based flood disaster crop loss assessment system from a NASA research 

grant titled “A Remote-Sensing-Based Flood Crop Loss Assessment Service System 

(RF-CLASS) for Supporting USDA Crop Statistics and Insurance Decision 

Making.” The proposed system will provide the capability of flood disaster crop 

acreage loss and crop yield loss assessments using NASA remote sensing data and 

science results.
155 National Science Foundation

National Sc

Foundati

NSF

The National Science Foundation (NSF) continued to serve as the lead Federal 

agency for the support of ground-based astronomy and space science. Through the 

divisions of Astronomical Sciences, Physics, Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, 

and Polar Programs, the NSF sponsored a broad base of observational, theoretical, 

and laboratory research aimed at understanding the states of matter and physical 

processes in the universe. Areas of research ranged from the most distant reaches 

of the universe and the earliest moments of its existence to nearby stars and planets—including our own sun and planetary system—as well as Earth’s atmosphere 

and space environment.

Division of Astronomical Sciences

The Division of Astronomical Sciences (AST) within the Mathematics and 

Physical Sciences (MPS) Directorate supported the development of advanced 

technologies and instrumentation for astronomical sciences, in addition to providing core support for the optical and radio observatories with state-of-the-art 

instrumentation and observing capabilities accessible to the community on the 

basis of scientific merit. The NSF’s national astronomical facilities included the 

National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the Arecibo Observatory (AO), 

the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), and the National Solar 

Observatory (NSO). The NSF also served as the executive agency for the Gemini 

Observatory—an international partnership operating optical/infrared telescopes 
156Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres—providing the United States’ 

share of support for the program.

During FY 2016, AST, in partnership with Europe, Canada, Japan, the Republic 

of Korea, and Taiwan, continued science operations of the Atacama Large 

Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an interferometer located near San 

Pedro de Atacama, Chile. ALMA received over 1,500 observing proposals, the 

most for any observatory on the ground or in space. New capabilities offered to 

the community included very-long-baseline interferometry with a global network 

of other telescopes, solar observing, and spectral line polarization observations. 

A scientific conference highlighted results from the first five years of ALMA and 

covered a broad range of topics, including planets and planet formation, protostellar and debris disks, low- and high-mass star formation, stellar evolution, normal 

galaxies, galactic centers, and galaxy formation and evolution.

AST continued its oversight of the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST—

previously referred to as the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope, or ATST), 

the next-generation U.S. ground-based solar telescope. DKIST is the result of a 

collaboration of scientists from more than 20 institutions representing a broad segment of the U.S. solar physics community, and it had previously earned the strong 

recommendation of the National Research Council of the National Academy of 

Sciences. When completed in late 2019/early 2020, DKIST will be the world’s flagship ground-based telescope designed specifically for the study of solar magnetic 

fields on scales as small as 30 kilometers. In August 2013, the National Science 

Board approved a new baseline cost for the DKIST project of $344.13 million. 

Construction of the telescope enclosure is nearly complete, and fabrication of the 

major telescope subsystems and instruments is ongoing. The project is approximately 70 percent complete and is both on budget and on schedule. Construction 

of the DKIST facility is led by the NSO. In August 2014, the National Science 

Board approved the renewal of the cooperative agreement for the management and 

operations of the NSO for a period of ten years.

The importance of the potential impacts of space weather on the Nation’s 

critical infrastructure has raised the level of awareness of space weather within the 

Federal Government. Personnel from MPS/AST, along with colleagues from the 

Directorate for Geosciences (GEO)/Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (AGS), 
157 National Science Foundation

participated in the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Space 

Weather Operations, Research, and Mitigation (SWORM) multi-agency task force. 

The NSTC tasked SWORM with developing a National Space Weather Strategy 

(NSWS) and an associated National Space Weather Action Plan. The White 

House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) hosted an event rolling 

out the NSWS entitled “Enhancing National Preparedness for Space-Weather 

Events.” This increased level of awareness of space weather has resulted in focused 

attention concerning the data products provided by NSO’s Global Oscillations 

Network Group (GONG) facility. GONG provides detailed synoptic solar data 

crucial to operational space weather forecasting. In FY 2016, the NSF received 

a one-time increase of $2.5 million to refurbish GONG and make it operationally robust. Operations of the refurbished GONG facility will be jointly funded 

through an Interagency Agreement between the NSF and the National Oceanic 

and Atmospheric Administration signed in August 2016.

Construction of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) project continued in FY 2016, with allowances for realized risks remaining comfortably within 

the available cost and schedule contingencies calculated at the beginning of the 

project. Only a few significant contracts remain to be finalized. With construction approaching one quarter completed, some future tasks are being replanned 

and fleshed out in more detail, benefiting from lessons learned to date. In LSST’s 

planned ten-year prime mission, imaging the entire accessible sky many hundreds 

of times, the multicolor survey will populate a science-ready database of unprecedented size, enabling breakthrough research in dark energy and dark matter, 

in galactic structure, and in solar system astronomy. The relentless, repeated 

observations will also open up the time domain and revolutionize the study of 

transient events. There have been some small delays absorbed by schedule float, 

and construction is still on schedule for “first light” in 2020. Two years of subsequent commissioning will shake down and tune all the complex interrelated 

operating systems. The NSF and the Department of Energy (DOE) expect full 

science observing to start in 2022 and to generate 30–40 terabytes of data every 

night, night after night, for at least ten years. DOE is funding the camera in a 

project led by the SLAC (originally Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) National 

Accelerator Laboratory. The NSF is funding the telescope, building, site, network 
158Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

and software pipelining, and data management systems that allow specialized 

access separately for research and for education and public outreach. Long-leadtime items and technology development essential for mitigating risks identified 

early in the project came from private funding. The NSF and DOE will support 

installation and commissioning together and will augment their operations funding by negotiated contributions from international partners. The LSST project has 

strong support worldwide.

AST’s Mid-Scale Innovations Program (MSIP) granted new multi-million-dollar 

five-year awards to a number of astronomy projects in FY 2016, including the 

Cosmic Large Angular Scale Survey (CLASS), a pair of telescopes being built at 

5,200 meters (17,000 feet) on Cerro Toco near the ALMA site on the Atacama 

Plateau in Chile, designed to measure so-called “B-mode” polarization of the 

cosmic microwave background (CMB, the radiation at microwave wavelengths 

that is a remnant of the Big Bang); TolTech, a 3,000-pixel millimeter-wavelength 

camera for observing our galaxy and distant dusty galaxies, to be installed on the 

Large Millimeter Telescope in Mexico; the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array 

(HERA), for construction of 240 14-meter-diameter low-frequency radio telescopes 

in the Karoo Desert of South Africa to observe the 21-centimeter emission signal of 

neutral hydrogen from the Epoch of Reionization in the early universe; and Subaru 

Measurement of Images and Redshifts (SuMIRE), a camera and observing program 

developed by Princeton for use on the Japanese telescope Subaru on Mauna Kea 

in Hawaii, to conduct a very deep optical survey of distant galaxies. Awards were 

also made to provide the U.S. astronomical community with observing time at 

the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) optical interferometer on Mount Wilson in California and at the Las Cumbres Observatory, a 

network of 18 optical telescopes at eight sites around the world working together 

as a single instrument.

Ongoing MSIP programs in FY 2016 included the Zwicky Transient Facility 

(ZTF), a telescope/camera combination at Mount Palomar in California dedicated 

to high-cadence optical surveys and a pathfinder for the LSST; the Atacama 

Cosmology Telescope (ACT), a six-meter-diameter millimeter-wave telescope; and 

POLARBEAR, a 3.5-meter-diameter millimeter telescope. The last two are both 

(like CLASS) on Cerro Toco and designed to measure minute variations in the 
159 National Science Foundation

intensity and polarization of the CMB. POLARBEAR is funded in partnership 

with the Simons Foundation. Also ongoing is an award for the Event Horizon 

Telescope, designed to measure, at extremely high resolution, radio emissions originating from the near environs of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

Division of Physics

The Division of Physics (PHY) continued to operate its Laser Interferometer 

Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), which in FY 2016 announced the 

groundbreaking direct detection of gravitational radiation from a pair of massive 

black holes rapidly in-spiraling to merge into a single black hole with a mass equal 

to 62 times the mass of the sun. The event occurred at a distance of 1.3 billion 

light years, and its final merger stage as observed by LIGO took less than half a 

second. This major discovery was decades in the making, following the development, construction, upgrade, and operation of LIGO, which has two observatory 

sites—one in Hanford, Washington, and the other in Livingston, Louisiana. The 

characteristic signal of a merging black hole system was seen simultaneously at 

both sites. A second robust merger detection was also made during FY 2016.

Complementing LIGO, the Division of Physics, in partnership with AST, continued its funding of a new Physics Frontiers Center awarded the previous year 

for the study of gravitational radiation, called the North American Nanohertz 

Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav). NANOGrav uses large radio 

telescopes to study the arriving clocklike signals from a number of rapidly spinning pulsars to search for deviations in the timing that could indicate the passage 

of a single gravitational wave through our galaxy or the presence of a stochastic 

background of many gravitational wave sources throughout the universe. A typical 

source of gravitational waves for NANOGrav would be a single black hole or pair 

with millions of times the mass of the sun, in contrast to LIGO’s tens to hundreds 

of solar masses, and the wave itself would have a period of several years.

For a description of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, partially supported by 

PHY, see the Division of Polar Programs section below.
160Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences

The Geospace Section (GS) within the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace 

Sciences (AGS) supported a wide variety of research programs in space science in 

FY 2016. These included the funding of advanced radar systems to study the ionosphere and magnetosphere, ground-based optical equipment to study the aurora 

and airglow, partial support for ground-based solar telescopes and instruments, 

and a wide-ranging portfolio of basic research in space physics. Major GS-funded 

activities in FY 2016 included the Geospace Facilities (GF) program; the Space 

Weather Research (SWR) program; the Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of 

Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) program; the Geospace Environment Modeling 

(GEM) program; and the Solar, Heliosphere, and INterplanetary Environment 

(SHINE) program.

The NSF implemented the GS’s Faculty Development in Space Sciences (FDSS) 

Program in FY 2004 to ensure the health and vitality of solar and space sciences 

within university teaching faculties; it offers five-year awards for the creation of 

new tenure-track faculty positions within the intellectual disciplines that compose 

the space sciences. A new space physicist was hired as tenure-track faculty at the 

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under the FDSS program in FY 2016.

Also in FY 2016, the GS continued to support its program for CubeSat-based 

small-satellite science missions for geospace and atmospheric research and education. During FY 2016, one project continued to operate successfully in space and 

one new mission was launched. The analysis of high-quality observations from 

many of the previous missions continued to deliver scientific findings and results 

throughout FY 2016. Development efforts also continued on another seven projects for future CubeSat launches that will add new capabilities and breadth to the 

overall CubeSat program.

In FY 2016, the GS continued to support the satellite-based Active 

Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment (AMPERE), 

which is now in its second implementation phase, AMPERE-II. AMPERE utilized 

the 66 networked satellites of the existing Iridium constellation to create a new 

facility for collecting geomagnetic field data. The AMPERE facility continued to 

provide the first-ever global observations of the electric currents that link Earth’s 
161 National Science Foundation

magnetosphere and ionosphere and the first-ever continuous global observations 

for tracking geomagnetic storm-time dynamics. Geomagnetic storms occur when 

charged particles emitted by solar eruptions interact with Earth’s magnetosphere. 

Such storms can cause major disruptions of power and communications systems 

on the ground. The data collection for AMPERE continued during FY 2016, and 

the addition of new data and software updates to the AMPERE data server facility 

made the data freely available to researchers.

Throughout FY 2016, the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) 

for space weather research, cosponsored by the NSF (GS of AGS) and NASA and 

located at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, continued to provide the research 

community with access to state-of-the-art space weather models and conducted 

important model-validation activities necessary for transitioning research models 

into operational use.

Research facilities remained as the key component of GS efforts. In FY 2016, 

the Geospace Facilities program continued to enable basic research on the structure and dynamics of Earth’s upper atmosphere. In particular, the CEDAR and 

GEM programs conducted research utilizing these facilities. Throughout FY 2016, 

observations made by the Advanced Modular Incoherent-Scatter Radar (AMISR) 

at Poker Flat, Alaska, demonstrated the unique capabilities of this new instrument, including its ability to image the ionospheric effects of auroral particle 

precipitation in three dimensions. These observations provided a wealth of data 

particularly useful to modelers interested in validating space weather models. A 

second AMISR system has been operating at Resolute Bay in Arctic Canada since 

2009. In FY 2016, new high-quality data were generated from upgrades made to the 

Resolute Bay Incoherent Scatter Radar (RISR)–C facility at the end of FY 2015. 

AMISR is ideally situated to observe the properties of the ionosphere in the polar 

cap, a region that is characterized by high ionospheric variability that often causes 

disruption of important navigation and communication systems.

The GS solar physics community also continued to benefit from AST’s ongoing efforts to develop and manage the DKIST being constructed in Hawaii. In 

FY 2016 and in part through a new award cofounded with AST, the GS continued 

to provide oversight for much-needed upgrades at the Owens Valley Solar Array 

in California.
162Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

In FY 2016, the AGS’s Atmosphere Section (AS) continued to support the 

Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate 

(COSMIC). The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) 

and its collaborator, Taiwan’s National Space Organization, designed and built 

the COSMIC six-satellite constellation, which launched on April 14, 2006, with 

the support and assistance of the U.S. Air Force’s Space Test Program. Shortly 

thereafter, data became available from the three payloads: the special space-based 

GPS radio occultation (RO) receivers, the so-called Tiny Ionosphere Photometers, 

and the Tri-Band Beacons. These data have been provided freely to the world 

scientific community.

COSMIC radio occultation data have been assimilated at many operational 

weather prediction centers, including the U.S. National Centers for Environmental 

Prediction (NCEP), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts 

(ECMWF), Météo France, the United Kingdom’s Met Office, the Meteorological 

Service of Canada, Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau, and others. All of these 

centers have reported that RO data had a significant positive impact on numerical weather forecasts. In ionospheric studies, COSMIC RO data accelerated the 

development of physical models for space weather prediction by providing dense, 

accurate, and global electron density measurements used for model testing and 

initialization, including the response of the global ionosphere to the impact of 

solar storms.

During FY 2016, four of the six COSMIC satellites remained operational (well 

beyond their expected life cycle), providing 1,000 to 1,500 radio occultation profiles 

per day. Approximately 90 percent of real-time processed COSMIC data are available for the users and operational weather forecasting centers within three hours. 

COSMIC supported more than 1,100 registered users from 52 countries. In collaboration with UCAR’s Unidata, COSMIC soundings have been provided in real 

time to support the university community. UCAR also reprocessed data to provide 

consistent records for the duration of the mission and produced post-processed and 

reprocessed data from several GPS radio occultation (GPSRO) missions of opportunity, including GPS/Meteorology (GPS/MET), the CHAllenging Mini-satellite 

Payload (CHAMP), Satélite de Aplicaciones Científicas (SAC-C), Meteorological 

Operational satellite programme–A/Global navigation satellite system Receiver for 
163 National Science Foundation

Atmospheric Sounding (METOP-A/GRAS), METOP-B/GRAS, TerraSAR-X, the 

Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), and the Communications/

Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS). The NSF and NASA are jointly 

funding the COSMIC mission.

NSF continued to collaborate with NOAA, USAF, Taiwan, and UCAR to 

ensure the success of the follow-on COSMIC-2 mission. The NSF-funded laser 

retroreflectors were assembled in FY 2016. These will allow more precise orbital 

determination, which will be beneficial for applications, including better determination of the mean geoid.

Division of Polar Programs

For FY 2016, the primary activities of the Division of Polar Programs (PLR) in 

ground-based space science and astronomy included continued full-scale observations at the U.S. Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station with the 10-meter off-axis 

South Pole Telescope (SPT), the battery of five small-aperture (25-centimeter) 

telescopes called the Small Polarimeter Upgrade for Degree Angular Scale 

Interferometer (SPUD) array, and another small-aperture telescope called 

Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP3) that observed 

in concert with the SPUD array.

The SPT (with the SPT polarization-sensitive [SPTpol] polarization receiver) 

and the BICEP3/SPUD array are focused currently on measurements of the CMB 

polarization anisotropy. On large angular scales, they target measurements of the 

B-mode polarization imprinted by primordial gravitational waves, as well as the 

B-mode signal caused by the gravitational lensing of the intrinsic CMB’s E-mode 

signal. Polarization measurements on smaller angular scales measured with the 

SPT are being used to increase the precision of the CMB-lensing determination of 

projected mass maps of the sky. In December 2016, the SPT will be upgraded with a 

new, next-generation receiver, SPT-3G, and wide-field optics to continue measuring 

the CMB polarization with much higher sensitivity.

Recent scientific results from SPT include 1) cosmological constraints from the 

2,500-square-degree Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ) effect survey, including improved 

dark-energy constraints; 2) a search for orphan Gamma Ray Burst afterglows at 
164Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

millimeter wavelengths (with one candidate found), thus opening a new window 

on transient astronomy; 3) active and growing SPT and Dark Energy Survey collaborative analysis that includes CMB lensing tomography; 4) detection of kinematic SZ effect (kSZ); and 5) CMB-lensing shear and photo-z calibration.

Recent scientific results from the BICEP Collaboration include deep multifrequency (95-, 150-, and 220-GHz) maps of degree-scale B-mode polarization that 

measure gravitational lensing and foregrounds to unprecedented precision and 

place leading constraints on primordial gravitational waves.

The High Elevation Antarctic Terahertz (HEAT) robotic telescope, deployed 

since 2011 at the highest point of the Eastern Antarctic Plateau (Ridge A), completed its successful operation through FY 2016 and will be removed and shipped 

back to the home institution. Scientific data collected throughout the lifetime of 

this project will be processed and analyzed for publications, and the original observational data will be shared with the scientific community.

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory (jointly operated at the South Pole by the 

NSF’s Division of Polar Programs and Division of Physics) has now collected data 

for almost six years of operation from a complete array of 86 strings of optical 

photodetectors deployed in the ice under the South Pole Station in Antarctica 

at depths between 1.4 and 2.4 kilometers. In FY 2016, the ICNO Collaboration 

reported approximately 100 high-energy neutrino events that exceeded 50 teraelectronvolts (TeV) and came from anywhere in the sky. (One electronvolt [eV] is the 

energy an electron or proton gains when it is accelerated by a voltage of one volt; 

one TeV is a trillion eV; two eV is about the energy of a photon in the visible 

orange light band.)

IceCube identified the first astrophysical high-energy neutrino flux ever, with 

the significance at 5.7 sigma level after analyzing three years of collected data 

(2010–13), and by now a few extremely high-energy events (over one petaelectronvolt [PeV] = 1,000 TeV) were recorded by ICNO in the range from 1.0 to 9.0 PeV. 

The search for very-high-energy neutrinos is primarily driven by the quest for discovering the origin and nature of cosmic rays; however, the dozens of astrophysical neutrinos observed so far do not yet allow the identification of any individual 

source. Nevertheless, the surprisingly high level of the neutrino flux observed 

implies that a significant fraction of the energy in the non-thermal universe is 
165 National Science Foundation

generated in hadronic accelerators. These are the first “pixels” of the first picture 

of the distant neutrino universe—an excellent confirmation of IceCube’s having 

opened the doors to a new era in particle astrophysics.

The Division of Polar Programs also supports NASA’s Long Duration Balloon 

(LDB) Program in the Antarctic, providing at McMurdo Station the necessary 

logistics for astrophysics payload assembly and final testing, then helping to launch 

the balloons and organize and support payload recovery after LDB termination in 

various regions of the Antarctic continent.

167 Department of State

Department of

DOS

The Department of State (DOS) carries out diplomatic and public diplomacy 

efforts to strengthen understanding of and support for U.S. national space policies 

and programs. State supports U.S. civil space activities through the negotiation 

of bilateral and multilateral agreements with partner countries and leads U.S. 

participation in numerous international space and technological activities and 

international organizations.

In FY 2016, the DOS Office of Space and Advanced Technology (SAT) within 

the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs 

(OES) continued to lead the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Committee on 

the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS) and supported its Legal (LSC) 

and Scientific and Technical (STSC) subcommittees. DOS also continued to lead 

the participation of both U.S. Government and private-industry participation in 

the Working Group on Long-Term Sustainability (LTS) of Outer Space Activities; 

during the June 2016 Committee meeting, the U.S. delegation facilitated consensus on 12 of the LTS-proposed 26 voluntary “best practice” guidelines submitted 

by various member countries. The delegation was influential in consolidating 

many of the proposed guidelines concerning policies; regulatory frameworks and 

practices that support the sustainability of the outer space activities; international 

intergovernmental organizations authorizing or conducting space activities; safety 

of space operations; and international cooperation and awareness. In FY  2017, 

U.S. participation in the LTS Working Group and intersessional meetings will 

continue, with a goal of achieving consensus on the remaining, more contentious 

guidelines. To ensure alignment with U.S. space and foreign policy goals, DOS 

contributed to the development of the seven thematic priorities and the agenda 
168Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

for the 50th anniversary of the first United Nations conference on the Exploration 

and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE+50) planned for 2018; State will 

serve in a leadership role for a new action team to develop a plan of activities to be 

approved in 2018, as well as identifying a mechanism for coordinating global space 

exploration efforts.

DOS continued to promote space weather as an important foreign-policy topic 

worldwide, and during the February 2016 COPUOS STSC conference, the United 

States and Canada organized a Space Weather Workshop under the auspices of 

the Space Weather Expert Group. Topics of discussion included the assessment 

of recommendations and priorities established by international bodies; an overview of national and international efforts; actions to advance the priorities of the 

U.N. Committee on Space Research (COSPAR)/International Living With a Star 

(ILWS) Space Weather Roadmap, including possible routes to implementation; 

and the refining of the Expert Group Work Plan. Building off this momentum, 

the Committee agreed to include an “international framework for space weather 

services” as one of seven thematic priorities to commemorate UNISPACE+50 at its 

59th session (2017).

DOS participated in the interagency Space Weather Operations, Research, and 

Mitigation Task Force, which drafted the 2015 National Space Weather Strategy 

and the National Space Weather Action Plan. With NOAA, DOS co-led the 

interagency team focused on Goal 6: “Increase International Cooperation”; State 

also hosted international workshops and meetings, sustained U.S. participation in 

relevant United Nations activities, and raised awareness for space weather among 

our international partners to support the goal. In April 2016, State-OES/SAT and 

the Secure World Foundation convened a panel discussion called “Space Weather 

as a Global Challenge” (https://2009-2017.state.gov/e/oes/sat/spaceweather/index.htm). 

This public event brought together top space weather experts from government, 

industry, and academia to discuss the international aspects of the recently released 

space weather strategy and to inform policy makers of the potential impacts of 

space weather on infrastructure and the global economy.

In November 2015, the United States hosted the 10th anniversary meeting of 

the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG) in 

Boulder, Colorado, under DOS leadership. This meeting brought together more 
169 Department of State

than 200 experts and government officials representing more than 20 countries 

and organizations to discuss global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) service provision and their use in a multilateral forum. The four ICG working groups include 

1) Systems Signals and Services; 2) Enhancement of GNSS Services Performance; 

3) Information Dissemination and Capacity Building; and 4) Reference Frames, 

Timing, and Applications. Results of the working groups were 12 recommendations 

adopted by the full ICG in an effort to improve GNSS compatibility and interoperability, as well as to improve outreach to the user community.

DOS also continued to promote the use of GPS in Africa, working through the 

AfricaArray consortium and the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs 

(UNOOSA). AfricaArray is a public-private partnership led by academic researchers at both the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and Pennsylvania 

State University. The organization focuses on supporting training and research in 

Earth, atmospheric, and space sciences in Africa. At the AfricaArray annual meeting, held January 11, 2016, in Johannesburg, South Africa, OES/SAT facilitated the 

travel of scientists from over 12 Sub-Saharan African countries to participate in 

workshops and training sessions on a broad spectrum of Earth and space sciences.

The U.S. hosted the eighth U.S.-European Union bilateral Space Dialogue in 

December 2015. The discussions focused on a number of different topics, including 

space sciences and research, Earth observation, and GNSS. In Earth observation, 

the United States and the European Union signed a “Copernicus Cooperation 

Arrangement” on October 16, 2016. As a result, European Sentinel satellite data 

are now being shared across the Atlantic Ocean for disaster management, climate 

change monitoring, and a multitude of Earth science applications through the 

Copernicus Coordination Group (CCG), which brings together remote sensing 

experts from both sides to enable more effective exchange of information.

Working-level discussions with the European Union on GNSS also continued 

in FY 2016 through working groups formed by the 2004 U.S.-EU GPS-Galileo 

Cooperation Agreement, administered for the United States by State/OES/SAT. 

The working group on next-generation GNSS applications, including aviation 

applications, met in October 2015 and April 2016 and has continued to make 

progress on Advanced Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (ARAIM), 

publishing a Milestone 3 report in FY 2016. The working group on trade and civil 
170Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

applications met in December 2015 and March 2016. In August 2016, U.S. and EU 

delegations met to discuss and reiterate U.S. interest in negotiating access to the 

EU Public Regulated Service (PRS) signal. The European Union gained approval 

for its security-related Common Minimum Standards for PRS in June 2016, which 

was followed by a negotiating mandate given to the European Commission.

DOS continued to lead productive bilateral meetings in FY 2016 with China. 

In October 2015, the Subgroup on Aviation Augmentations and Applications 

met in Washington, DC, to discuss the Chinese Satellite Based Augmentation 

System (SBAS) and other aviation-related topics. In May 2016, the United States 

and China met on the margins of the China Satellite Navigation Conference in 

Changsha. This conference included another meeting of the Aviation Subgroup, as 

well as the Subgroup on Compatibility and Interoperability, where the discussions 

focused on GNSS signals and improved interoperability. Another bilateral meeting 

of the Subgroup on Compatibility and Interoperability took place in September 

2016 in Portland, Oregon, on the margins of the U.S. Institute of Navigation’s 

GNSS+ 2016 Conference.

On June 27, 2016, DOS facilitated an Expert Workshop on Satellite Collision 

Avoidance and Orbital Debris Mitigation with China as a followup to the first 

U.S.-China Civil Space Dialogue held in September 2015 in Beijing. Topics of 

discussion included further collaboration related to space debris and the long-term 

sustainability of outer space activities, as well as an exchange of views on coordination and communication related to satellite collision avoidance.

DOS conducted the second U.S.-Vietnam civil space talks to promote Vietnam’s 

increasingly active role in regional and global space activities. The dialogue took 

place in Hanoi, Vietnam, in December 2015, and focused on new projects covering 

space weather, space geodesy, space technologies to manage the Mekong Delta, 

and the exchange of Earth observation data. The discussion also covered the use of 

global navigation satellite systems, orbital debris mitigation, and maritime domain 

awareness. DOS encouraged Vietnam to accede to the UN Outer Space treaties 

and to develop national space legislation. The United States and Vietnam continued to work toward finalizing a civil space framework agreement.

The second U.S.–Republic of Korea (ROK) Civil Space dialogue was held 

on April 27, 2016, in Seoul, South Korea. The U.S. Ambassador, Mark Lippert, 
171 Department of State

and ROK Minister of Foreign Affairs Yun Byung-Se signed the Cooperation in 

Aeronautics and the Exploration and Use of Airspace and Outer Space for Civil 

and Peaceful Purposes Framework Agreement. The signing ceremony symbolizes 

the commitment President Barack Obama and President Park Geun-hye made during their summit meeting in October 2015 to expand space cooperation in certain 

areas. The dialogue focused on the importance of space exploration and continued 

economic and technological progress between our two alliances. The United States 

highlighted two main points: the increase in activity by the private sector in the 

U.S. civil space sector and the importance of space weather operations research 

and mitigation. The United States also encouraged the ROK to play a stronger role 

in multilateral activities. Both sides overwhelmingly agreed that the dialogue was 

a success, and they agreed to hold the next dialogue in Washington, DC, in 2017.

At the request of the Republic of Korea, DOS held a bilateral dialogue in 

Washington, DC, in September 2016 regarding U.S. export control reforms as they 

relate to the export of U.S.-manufactured components for the ROK’s next series 

of Earth observation satellites. The ROK sought to better understand the recent 

changes in the DOS International Trade and Arms Regulations (ITAR) regime 

and the space-related components that have been moved to the Department of 

Commerce’s Commerce Control List (CCL). The dialogue offered the ROK an 

insight into the U.S. interagency process and mechanisms for better communication on export control activities between the two nations.

As part of Secretary John Kerry’s “Safe Ocean Network” initiative, DOS 

conducted the second Civil Maritime Domain Awareness (CMDA) workshop 

in Hanoi, Vietnam, with support from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and 

Pacific Command (PACOM) in September 2016. The workshop concentrated on 

strengthening and enhancing Vietnam’s maritime situational awareness, focusing on the technological foundations for space-based vessel detection, processing, 

visualization, and analysis—the capacities that contribute to combating illegal, 

unreported, and unregulated fishing; illegal wildlife and human trafficking; disaster management; customs and border protection services; and port planning and 

navigational safety systems.

A space dialogue with Ukraine took place on May 24, 2016, cochaired by State/

OES/SAT and the State Space Agency of Ukraine. U.S. Federal departments and 
172Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

agencies presented an overview of U.S. space policy, including implementation of 

the June 2010 National Space Policy directive, and such space activities as space 

exploration, satellite data and remote sensing, and global navigation satellite systems. The two sides discussed areas for potential future cooperation and current 

developments in both countries’ space programs. The participating organizations 

agreed that discussions on cooperation would continue through a range of bilateral agency-to-agency–level mechanisms as well as through relevant international 

multilateral venues.
173 Department of Energy

Department of En

DOE

The Department of Energy (DOE) participates in the national effort to further 

U.S. interests in space. Three organizations within DOE provide this capability: the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Defense 

Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development (DNN R&D), the Office of 

Science (SC), and the Office of Nuclear Energy (NE).

Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research 

and Development

The Nuclear Detonation Detection program builds the Nation’s operational 

sensors to monitor the entire planet from space in order to detect and report 

surface, atmospheric, or space nuclear detonations (NuDets). The Space-Based 

Nuclear Detonation Detection (SNDD) subprogram provides much of the Nation’s 

capability to detect, report, locate, and identify nuclear explosions using orbiting satellites. SNDD develops, builds, and delivers these satellite payloads to meet 

interagency performance and schedule commitments and provides launch and onorbit operational support for the current generation of the U.S. NuDet Detection 

System (USNDS).

Since the 1960s, beginning with the Vela satellite program, NNSA and its 

predecessors have provided the underlying science and technology capability for 

space-based detection of foreign nuclear weapon detonations to meet Test Ban 

Treaty monitoring needs. This fiscal year, the SNDD subprogram continued fullscale production and delivery of sensor payloads as needed to meet national security requirements. To ensure that the technologies and capabilities developed for 
174Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

the program support stakeholder needs, DNN R&D actively engaged in intergovernmental working groups to reduce duplication of effort, refine user requirements, 

and improve the quality of relevant technologies across funding agencies.

The NNSA weapons laboratories—specifically Los Alamos National Laboratory 

(LANL), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), and Lawrence Livermore National 

Laboratory (LLNL)—supply the science, technology, and engineering required 

for USNDS. LANL and SNL lead the production of sensor-laden payloads, and 

LLNL contributes to the end-to-end modeling of USNDS. These laboratories 

have a unique and comprehensive understanding of nuclear weapons, as well as 

the observables associated with nuclear detonations and the propagation of signals 

to sensors. Moreover, these laboratories have extensive capabilities in the design, 

construction, calibration, deployment, and operation of satellite-based instruments, 

along with detailed modeling and analysis. To support continuous global monitoring, the operations communities routinely receive analysis, insights, and computer 

codes based on this research.

Two payload suites built at the NNSA laboratories accomplish the NuDets 

reporting mission: the Global Burst Detector (GBD) and the Space and 

Atmospheric Burst Reporting System (SABRS). The GBD is hosted on all GPS 

satellites, and SABRS is carried on satellite hosts in geosynchronous orbit. In order 

to maintain a vital capability to design and implement these systems, DNN R&D 

supported demonstration-validation payloads both to explore new technologies and 

new sensing modalities and to increase the Technology Readiness Level for parts 

that might be used in future payload designs.

Office of Science

In FY 2016, the Office of Science supported several activities that contribute to 

a broad range of space interests. These activities included SC fundamental research 

that is of mutual interest to the NASA mission, NASA researchers, SC program 

offices, and SC-sponsored scientists; collaborative research efforts with NASA; and 

the operation of SC scientific facilities that are available to NASA and the broader 

scientific community for space-related research.
175 Department of Energy

SC supports fundamental research in plasma science that contributes to 

SC-NASA mutual interests in knowledge of heliospheric and astrophysical systems. Some of the research supported by SC’s Office of Fusion Energy Sciences 

(FES) advances the development of a comprehensive understanding of heliospheric and astrophysical magnetized-plasma processes, including Alfven wave 

acceleration of auroral electrons, magnetic reconnection and turbulent processes 

in Earth’s magnetosphere and the solar corona, the formation and evolution of 

astrophysical jets, and dynamo processes creating planetary/galactic magnetic field 

structures. Specific examples included 1) the Large Plasma Device (LAPD) at the 

Basic Plasma Science Facility (BaPSF) at the University of California, Los Angeles, 

which enables controlled studies of Alfven waves that carry energy and momentum 

from the sun to Earth and throughout the universe; 2) the Magnetic Reconnection 

Experiment (MRX) at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), which 

permits laboratory studies of magnetic reconnection and particle energization processes in Earth’s magnetotail and solar flares; and 3) the Max Planck–Princeton 

Center for Plasma Physics, established in 2012 in partnership with the Max Planck 

Society in Germany, which specifically explores the application of plasma science 

to solar and astrophysical problems and their connections to fusion science.

In addition, FES sponsored unmagnetized plasma research, such as increased 

understanding of the role of dusty plasmas in planetary rings and interstellar 

media, the properties of plasmas created by hypervelocity impacts, and the properties of warm dense matter similar to that found in planetary cores. In 2015, FES 

sponsored a series of community-led research opportunities workshops to identify 

compelling scientific challenges at the frontiers of plasma physics, with workshop 

reports delivered in 2016. Attention was paid to opportunities in the next decade. 

Plasma science governing space weather was highlighted, an area of broad mutual 

interest to NASA and FES. Furthering the study of laboratory plasmas for growing 

our understanding of astrophysical plasma phenomena was also a focus.

SC also funds the development of experimental techniques and instrumentation for use on NASA space missions to study fundamental physics and investigate high-priority national science objectives. Examples of these efforts include 

the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space 

Telescope (FGST). The AMS is a particle physics experiment supported by DOE 
176Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

and international partners, who designed and built the AMS-02 detector and associated systems. Launched on Space Shuttle Endeavour on mission STS-134 in May 

2011 and mounted on the International Space Station (ISS), AMS searches for 

various types of unusual matter in the cosmos through its exquisite accuracy in 

the measurement of cosmic rays. AMS science goals include a search for evidence 

of dark matter and cosmic domains of antimatter, as well as for novel features 

in cosmic-ray spectra. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between 

DOE and NASA defined NASA’s responsibilities to include provision of power, 

data handling, and other services on the ISS, while DOE’s responsibilities would 

include experimental operations and data analysis. In 2016, AMS published results 

of its measurement of the cosmic-ray antiproton spectrum using the first four years 

of data. The precision of the spectral measurement is unprecedented and provides 

experimental information, over the largest extended energy range to date, in the 

study of elementary particles travelling through space. Novel features are seen that 

as yet are unexplained. Previously, the collaboration published key results that 

placed constraints on models of energetic cosmic-ray electrons, positrons, protons, 

and helium, including on the existence of dark matter.

The Large Area Telescope (LAT), the primary instrument on NASA’s FGST, 

is a particle physics detector in space to study the gamma-ray sky for high-energy 

acceleration mechanisms generated by supermassive black holes and supernovae 

and to search for dark matter. It does a complete survey of the entire sky in highenergy gamma rays every three hours and enables searches for transient phenomena over a wide range of timescales. SC managed the LAT fabrication and now 

operates the LAT Instrument Science Operations Center. In 2016, FGST published 

results in its search for a signal from gravitational wave sources in conjunction 

with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, which announced 

in February 2016 the first-ever direct detection of gravitational waves emanating 

from the coalescence of two black holes. Although no signal in gamma rays was 

observed, the results provided limits on the presence of transient counterparts to 

the gravitational wave signal. SC also made crucial contributions to the European 

Space Agency–NASA Planck cosmic microwave background satellite mission. 

Planck measures the cosmic microwave background, which allows studies of the 

inflationary epoch in the early universe, as well as dark energy, dark matter, and 
177 Department of Energy

neutrino properties. A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed between NASA 

and DOE provided dedicated National Energy Research Supercomputing Center 

(NERSC) computing resources for the Planck mission.

SC and NASA also engaged in many collaborative research efforts in the areas 

of atmospheric science and terrestrial ecology. In FY 2016, SC’s Atmospheric 

Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility (ARM) activity provided a 

cloud spectrometer and impactor (CSI) aircraft instrument to support NASA’s 

Olympic Mountain Experiment (OLYMPEX) measurement campaign in the Pacific 

Northwest region of the United States. The overall purpose of the campaign was 

to improve remote sensing retrievals of cloud and precipitation properties in winter storms from over the ocean to over complex terrain in support of the NASA 

Global Precipitation Measurement mission.

During FY 2016, SC’s ARM and Terrestrial Ecosystem Science (TES) activities supported aircraft measurements of atmospheric trace gases in Oklahoma to 

improve understanding of the influence of atmospheric and terrestrial processes 

on atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. DOE coordinated flights under 

the NASA Tropospheric Emission Sounder and Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 

(OCO-2) satellites for the testing of carbon dioxide retrievals. ARM provided support for ground-based measurements of carbon dioxide in Oklahoma as part of the 

Total Column Carbon Observing Network (TCCON); these measurements are 

being used to validate NASA’s OCO-2 satellite. SC’s ARM activity also included 

support for the launch of dedicated radiosonde observations during satellite overpasses at three sites (Southern Great Plains, Oklahoma; Graciosa Island, Azores; 

and Barrow, Alaska) to obtain profiles of temperature and moisture for validation 

of algorithms for the Cross-track Infrared Sounder and Advanced Technology 

Microwave Sounder on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite and 

future Joint Polar Satellite System satellites.

The TES activity is participating in the interagency Carbon Cycle Science 

topic of the 2016 NASA Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences 

solicitation on Arctic/boreal ecosystems research. SC’s Next Generation 

Ecosystem Experiment (NGEE)–Arctic is working with the NASA Arctic-Boreal 

Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) study to couple real-time ground-based and 

airborne-based measurements of soil moisture, temperature, carbon dioxide (CO2), 
178Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

and methane (CH4) flux over Barrow and Council, Alaska. An MOA to leverage 

the complementary expertise between these two activities has been developed; it 

provides the generation of high-resolution lidar and elevation data products as well 

as including representatives on each project’s science team to provide coordination 

of data and modeling efforts. NASA Goddard’s Lidar, Hyperspectral and Thermal 

(G-LiHT) airborne imager will be used to characterize tropical forest dynamics 

across a range of edaphic, climatic, and land-use gradients in the Amazon and 

Puerto Rico to support SC’s NGEE-Tropics activity. Through interagency agreements, SC’s Atmospheric System Research (ASR) activity also supported collaboration with NASA scientists on studies using ARM and NASA observations to 

investigate aerosol and cloud processes and their role in Earth’s energy balance.

SC has been working with NASA in several areas to help support NASA’s mission interests, providing scientific user facilities, including particle accelerators 

and ion beams, for biological and electronic systems radiation studies. The NASA 

Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL), a leading facility for radiobiology studies 

in the United States, was established at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory 

(BNL) to study the effects of cosmic radiation exposure on astronauts. The NSRL 

uses beams of heavy ions extracted from BNL’s Booster accelerator (these are also 

produced for SC’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider [RHIC] facility) to increase our 

understanding of the link between ionizing radiation and cell damage, leading 

to safer space exploration for astronauts. An upgrade mutually beneficial to and 

jointly funded by NSRL and RHIC was the construction of the Electron Beam 

Ion Source (EBIS), which extended the range of ion species available for both 

radiological effects research and fundamental nuclear science; EBIS was fully commissioned in 2015. In 2016, BNL started the “Extended EBIS” upgrade, which will 

yield benefits to NSRL as a new gas injection system for elements hydrogen (H) to 

helium (He-4), allowing for effective high-intensity light ion operations.

Electronics space-radiation effects testing that is necessary for mission assurance occurs at several DOE accelerator facilities, including BNL and the Lawrence 

Berkeley National Laboratory’s 88-inch cyclotron. SC and NASA, along with other 

stakeholders, have recently initiated a National Academy Study focused on a comprehensive assessment of the future needs of the electronics space-radiation effects 

testing program in the United States. SC also supports fundamental research on 
179 Department of Energy

nuclear reactions of astrophysical interest, contributing to SC-NASA mutual interests in the knowledge of stellar evolution, neutron star mergers, gamma-ray bursts, 

and the composition of interstellar space.

In addition, since FY 2001, DOE and NASA have engaged in coordinated efforts 

to better understand and predict the health risks associated with exposure to lowdose radiation. SC’s Low Dose Radiation Research Program has coordinated with 

NASA’s Space Radiation Project within NASA’s Human Research Program. The 

SC Low Dose program focuses on doses of radiation measured at or below current 

workplace exposure limits; current collaborations are limited due to a decreasing 

emphasis on human radiation research within SC’s research portfolio.

Office of Nuclear Energy

The Office of Nuclear Energy supports NASA’s planetary science and human 

exploration programs by maintaining capabilities to develop, produce, and deliver 

radioisotope power systems (RPSs) for Federal user agencies, such as NASA. The 

RPS infrastructure capabilities, funded by NASA and managed by NE, support 

NE’s production of RPSs for current space mission applications. NE and its predecessors have provided RPSs that have safely enabled deep space exploration and 

national security missions for over five decades. The RPSs convert the heat from 

the natural radioactive decay of plutonium (Pu)-238 into electricity. RPSs reliably 

operate for decades under the harsh conditions encountered in deep space or on 

the surfaces of other planets.

NE continues to support the next RPS-powered mission, Mars 2020. In FY 2016, 

NE completed work on the nuclear risk assessment for the NASA National 

Environmental Policy Act process. In addition, NE initiated the fuel processing 

of existing Pu-238 stock in FY 2015, as well as continuing to prepare the Safety 

Analysis Reports to support the nuclear launch approval processes. With NASA 

funding support, NE continues to work on making enhancements to the current 

RPS production infrastructure by upgrading equipment for more robust operations, 

primarily at Los Alamos National Laboratory. In FY 2016, NE and NASA continued to investigate advances in both thermoelectric and Stirling power conversion technologies that could result in more efficient and capable RPSs for NASA’s 
180Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

long-term exploration goals. Advanced thermoelectric technology—developed 

by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and showing promising benefits—has been 

transferred to private industry for final development and manufacturing feasibility. 

DOE and NASA partnered to review the technology for potential insertion into 

the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) system as a 

future system advancement. The technology and its transfer to industry continue 

to make progress, and a formal technical evaluation process is being initiated for its 

review. The outcome of the process could lead to a technology insertion into the 

MMRTG, increasing its performance.

NE continues working with NASA to re-establish domestic Pu-238 production at 

existing facilities, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory, 

in order to ensure continued availability of RPS power systems for future science 

missions. The project began in FY 2011, is fully funded by NASA, and is managed 

by NE. In 2016, the project conducted an end-to-end demonstration of chemical 

processing steps needed to recover Pu-238 from irradiated targets. Fifty grams of 

Pu-238 oxide was separated and sent to LANL. NE and DOE national laboratories 

provide key support in the areas of programmatic planning, reactor and system 

modeling, and fuel development and qualification for NASA’s Nuclear Cryogenic 

Propulsion Stage project, commonly known as Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP). 

In 2015, the project successfully fabricated and tested a hexagonal four-coolant 

channel surrogate graphite composite fuel element to temperatures and for durations relevant to proposed Mars missions.
181 Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Insti

The Smithsonian Institution continued to contribute to national aerospace 

goals through a variety of activities in FY 2016. The Smithsonian Astrophysical 

Observatory (SAO) and the Harvard College Observatory form the HarvardSmithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

Through this organization, more than 300 scientists engaged in a broad program 

of research in astronomy, astrophysics, Earth and space sciences, and science 

education during the year. The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum 

(NASM) and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) in 

Washington, DC, also contributed to national aerospace goals through research 

and education activities.

The most popular news story coming from SAO in FY 2016 was the discovery of 

a cosmic “death star” that is eating a planet. Researchers found a white dwarf star 

orbited by several rocky objects and a cloud of dust. These bits of debris are all that 

remain from a small planet that was ripped apart by tidal forces.

In FY 2016, preliminary findings were announced from the Event Horizon 

Telescope, a project that unites telescopes around the world to study the event 

horizon of the massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Using the Event 

Horizon Telescope, scientists for the first time detected magnetic fields just outside 

the black hole, firmly grounding decades of theoretical work. These magnetic fields 

drive turbulence within the disk of material near a black hole, allowing the black 

hole to pull matter inward and convert its gravitational energy into light. The 

magnetic fields can also launch jets of material moving away from the black hole 

at nearly the speed of light. Over the next few years, the Event Horizon Telescope 

will expand its capabilities to produce the first images of black holes and their 

surrounding magnetic fields.
182Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

FY 2016 marked an important milestone for SAO and its international partners 

on the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). On November 11, 2015, these partners 

celebrated groundbreaking for the GMT in Chile. The ceremony featured President 

Bachelet of Chile and U.S. Ambassador Michael Hammer. The GMT will combine 

seven huge mirrors to create the world’s largest telescope. It will address key questions in cosmology, astrophysics, and the study of planets outside our solar system.

The Chandra X-ray Observatory continues to play an important role in the 

exploration of the universe. SAO controls science and flight operations for the 

Chandra X-ray Center from its location in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

With its unrivaled ability to obtain high-resolution x-ray data, Chandra has 

enabled astronomers to investigate phenomena as diverse as comets, black holes, 

supernova remnants, galaxy clusters, dark matter, and dark energy. Chandra continues to operate at high efficiency, carrying out observations for teams from all 

over the world. It has high productivity, with an average of 450 publications per 

year. The community of Chandra users (~4,000) increases by ~190 per year and 

represents a significant percentage of the international astronomical community.

Chandra science continues to have high visibility and popularity in the press 

and in social media. For example, in FY 2016, researchers used Chandra and other 

telescopes to set a new record for the most distant galaxy cluster seen. This galaxy 

cluster may have been caught right after birth—a brief but important stage of evolution never seen before. Another team used Chandra to discover an extraordinary 

ribbon of hot gas trailing behind a galaxy like a tail. This ribbon, or x-ray tail, is 

likely due to gas stripped from the galaxy as it moves through a vast cloud of hot 

intergalactic gas and is likely the largest such tail ever detected.

During this past year, scientists also used Chandra to make the first detection of 

x-rays from Pluto as it observed the dwarf planet while the New Horizons mission 

approached and then passed it in 2015. These observations offer new insight into 

the space environment surrounding the largest and best-known object in the solar 

system’s outermost regions.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory provides better-than-HD-quality images of the 

sun’s surface and outer atmosphere. SAO is a major partner in the Atmospheric 

Imaging Assembly (AIA)—a group of four telescopes that photograph the sun in 
183 Smithsonian Institution

ten different wavelength bands, or colors, once every 12 seconds, producing the 

most spectacular images ever recorded of the active surface of the sun.

NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) satellite offers a unique 

view of the sun’s mysterious chromosphere and transition regions. SAO built the 

telescope feed and has an active role in IRIS operations, calibration, and science. 

IRIS is providing information on particle acceleration in hot coronal loops, allowing us to better understand the physical processes in solar flares.

In 2016, SAO scientists were also involved in the development and assembly 

of new instruments, including the Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons 

(SWEAP) Faraday Cup experiment on the Solar Probe Plus mission (which will 

fly to within 10 solar radii of the sun), the Hi-C II and Marshall Grazing Incidence 

X-ray Spectrograph (MaGIXS) rockets (which will observe the solar corona while 

pushing the limits of spatial resolution and x-ray spectral coverage, respectively), 

and the Air Force Airborne Infrared Spectrograph (AIR-SPEC) experiment (an 

airplane-borne infrared telescope to observe the 2017 solar eclipse).

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, now in its 14th year of operation, has continued to produce exciting new views of the universe at infrared wavelengths. 

Spitzer is the fourth and final space telescope in NASA’s Great Observatory series. 

Spitzer’s Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) was developed at SAO, with Giovanni 

Fazio as Principal Investigator, and constructed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight 

Center. SAO scientists, in collaboration with the Spitzer Science Center, continue 

to play an important role in the operation of IRAC, the data analysis, and the use 

of Spitzer for astronomical observations.

Spitzer’s IRAC, jointly with the Hubble Space Telescope, has been used by SAO 

scientists to uncover new insights into galaxy birth and evolution in the very early 

universe. These observations have resulted in the discovery of a remarkably luminous and developed galaxy that existed only ~400 million years after the Big Bang. 

This is the earliest time such a galaxy has ever been detected. These observations 

also determined the galaxy’s stellar mass, age, and star formation rate.

SAO scientists, using the Spitzer Space Telescope, recently completed a Near 

Earth Object (NEO) Survey consisting of a total of ~1,000 objects with estimated 

sizes and reflectivities (albedos). A new series of NEO observations has been 

initiated that will take place over the next two years and provide another 1,100 
184Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

measurements, yielding a large and uniform catalog of NEO properties. An independent size distribution of NEOs at 100 meters will be determined that is free 

from albedo assumptions, addressing a current controversy. Through albedo measurements, the compositional distribution of NEOs will be measured as a function 

of size. The changes in brightness for nearly 1,000 NEOs will be measured, thus 

constraining asteroid shapes in addition to sizes and compositions. This catalog 

will enable a number of other science cases to be pursued by SAO scientists and 

other researchers. This work was carried out jointly with a group at Northern 

Arizona University.

In public outreach, SAO continued its popular monthly Observatory Night lectures and observing sessions. Begun by observatory director Harlow Shapley in 

1930, these public nights offer the local community an opportunity to learn about 

the latest advances in astronomy and to view the moon, stars, and planets through 

a variety of telescopes. Observatory Night talks also reach worldwide audiences 

via YouTube.

In FY 2016, SAO partnered with Project Decathlon to conduct international 

outreach to Ghana in West Africa. Ten SAO astronomers gave oral interviews for 

the astronomy portion of this project, which reaches more than 1,000 students. 

SAO also served as a liaison between Project Decathlon and Astronomers Without 

Borders to provide 300 pairs of eclipse glasses so that Ghanaian students could 

witness a September 1 annular eclipse of the sun safely.

“The Dynamic Sun,” an exhibit conceived, designed, and built by SAO 

researchers, expanded to new locations via temporary exhibits in the Harvard Art 

Museum’s Lightbox Gallery and at North Carolina State University. This exhibit 

features a giant video wall intended to create a visceral impact and show visitors 

how an ever-changing sun affects Earth. The original “Dynamic Sun” at NASM in 

Washington, DC, continues to be seen by eight million visitors per year.

In FY 2016, NASM continued to educate and inspire the public through exhibits, research, and education programs, including Discovery Stations; lecture series; 

family educational events; publications; science, technology, engineering, and 

mathematics (STEM) Webcasts; and intern training. The annual Exploring Space 

Lecture Series focused on “Life in the Solar System and Beyond,” with presentations on Europa exploration, astrobiology, and exoplanet searches. The annual 
185 Smithsonian Institution

John H. Glenn Lecture in Space History featured a conversation on the topic 

“Spaceflight: Then, Now, and Next” between Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins 

and space entrepreneur Jeff Bezos. Financier and philanthropist David Rubenstein 

moderated the panel.

For the 40th anniversary of the museum’s flagship building on the National 

Mall, NASM renovated the central Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall, rearranging 

the iconic aircraft and spacecraft for greater coherence and updating the displays 

with new exhibit techniques. For this project, both the Mercury Friendship 7 and 

Gemini IV capsules underwent thorough inspections and cleaning, and the Apollo 

Lunar (landing) Module-2 (LM-2) was relocated into this hall. LM-2 was inspected, 

conserved, and reconfigured slightly to represent the Apollo 11 LM-5, Eagle. The 

Explorer 1 satellite and Pioneer 11/12 spacecraft, which are all suspended from the 

ceiling, also received treatment and repositioning. A new addition was the fan from 

the famed National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics’ (NACA) wind tunnel 

used at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, now mounted prominently 

on a wall in the Milestones Hall.

Staff members in NASM’s Center for Earth and Planetary Studies (CEPS) continued to participate in the science teams of several spacecraft missions. Dr. John 

Grant is a participating scientist for the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission 

that is currently operating on Mars. He is a chair of the MER Science Operations 

Working Group, and in that capacity, he leads day-to-day science planning for 

the Opportunity rover. In addition, he is cochair of the Mars 2020 Landing Site 

Steering Committee. In FY 2016, Dr. Bruce Campbell served as a cochair for the 

Next Mars Orbiter study group. CEPS staff members also serve on the science 

teams for the Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity), the Mars Advanced Radar for 

Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) instrument on Mars Express, 

both the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) and Shallow 

Subsurface Radar (SHARAD) instruments on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter 

(MRO), the radar sounder on ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), the 

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, 

GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft, and the Radar for Icy 

Moon Exploration (RIME) radar sounder on the Europa Clipper Mission. CEPS 

continued its active research program in planetary and terrestrial geology and 
186Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

geophysics with research on such topics as comparative planetology; Martian 

fluvial, aeolian, and volcanic features; and radar studies of the moon, Venus, 

and Mars.

NASM’s Archives added several significant collections to its holdings this year. 

The Robert Truax Papers contain the papers of his career as naval officer detailed 

to the Air Force for top-secret projects, and later as a corporate aerospace executive 

and an entrepreneur. The ILC Dover Apollo Reports and Aperture Card Drawings 

Collection contains the drawings and reports of the ILC engineering development 

and manufacturing company. The company is best known for being awarded the 

prime contract for the Apollo spacesuits. ILC designed and manufactured the suit 

worn by Apollo astronauts, including the 12 who walked on the moon. The Fred 

Weick Papers contain the papers covering Weick’s work as an aeronautical engineer. While working for the NACA, he developed the NACA low-drag cowling 

for radial engines (1928) and built a low-landing-speed aircraft as an independent 

project sparked by a series of light-aircraft design seminars at the NACA’s Langley 

Research Center (1931).

The NASM Archives processed the Sally Ride Papers and the Arthur C. Clarke 

Collection. Both collections are available online on the Smithsonian Online 

Virtual Archive at http://sova.si.edu/.

In July 2016, the NASM Archives received over one million digital files from 

the Gale Cengage Digitization Project. The digital assets and the accompanying metadata will be reviewed by the staff for quality and accuracy, and a workflow will be developed for ingesting the assets in the Digital Asset Management 

System (DAMS) of the Smithsonian. The digital files will then be available to 

Smithsonian staff and researchers worldwide.

The NASM Space History and Aeronautics departments maintained a brisk pace 

of aerospace historical research and publication, with 170 journal articles, books 

and book chapters, magazine articles, reviews, and blog posts published in FY 2016. 

Articles appeared in the Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms, Geology, Geophysical 

Research Letters, History and Technology, Icarus, the Journal of Geophysical Research, 

Physics Today, Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly, Science, Technology 

and Culture, and others. Dr. John D. Anderson published the sixth edition of 

his renowned Fundamentals of Aerodynamics, a text used in aerospace education 
187 Smithsonian Institution

worldwide. Research and publication reflect the Smithsonian’s dedication to the 

“increase and diffusion of knowledge” and are a primary channel for expanding 

public awareness of the technical and cultural dimensions of aerospace history.

NASM added several significant aerospace artifacts to the National Collection 

via excess property transfers from NASA. These included flight hardware from 

the Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions, backup cameras for the Lunar 

Reconnaissance Orbiter mission, the Robonaut 1 developmental unit, the Space 

Shuttle–borne Large Format Camera and Spacelab 2 Infrared Telescope, a fullscale model of the Curiosity Mars rover, and a variety of smaller payloads and 

equipment. Preservation and display of these material artifacts enables the museum 

to tell the Nation’s and NASA’s stories of space exploration.

NASM continued its popular series of special-focus family days, often with 

NASA participation. Space Day, Mars Day, Women in Aviation and Space Day, 

African American Pioneers in Aviation and Space Day, Hispanic Heritage in 

Air and Space, and others draw large crowds, primarily families, to participate 

in hands-on activities and opportunities to meet pilots, astronauts, scientists, and 

engineers. NASM has expanded its STEM in 30 [minutes] Webcasts and What’s 

New in Aerospace broadcasts in cooperation with NASA Television, sending lively 

programs on hot topics, often with astronaut speakers, to subscribers and classrooms worldwide. These programs effectively broaden public outreach for both the 

museum and the space agency.

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History continued, through the 

Department of Mineral Sciences and the Offices of Education and Exhibits, its 

mission of education, research, and curation related to space exploration. In addition to the approximately 1 million people per year who visit the Moon, Meteorites 

and Solar System Gallery of the Geology, Gems and Meteorites Hall, NMNH 

conducted two episodes of the award-winning Science How? broadcast from the 

Q?rius learning center, focused on meteorites, with scientists Dr. Tim McCoy and 

Dr. Catherine Corrigan. NMNH scientists remain actively engaged in spacecraft 

missions, with Dr. McCoy serving as a co-investigator on the newly launched 

OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which will visit asteroid Bennu and return samples to 

Earth for study. McCoy is leading efforts to map the geology of the asteroid and 

will study the mineralogy and origin of the samples when they return to Earth in 
188Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

2023. He will lead efforts to exhibit a sample of Bennu at NMNH. McCoy also 

participated in the MESSENGER mission to Mercury and is a co-investigator on 

the Psyche mission, which is being considered by NASA to visit a metallic asteroid; 

sampling the core of an ancient asteroid will provide the best glimpse of cores like 

that of our own planet.

Scientists in the Department of Mineral Sciences remain engaged in the study of 

meteorites and asteroids to unravel their origin in the early solar nebula, their evolution on asteroids, the differentiation of asteroids in the early history of the solar 

system, and the geologic evolution of Mars. Finally, NMNH completed a renewal 

of a three-agency agreement with NASA and the National Science Foundation 

for the continued collection, description, curation, and distribution of meteorites 

from Antarctica. This program has collected more than 23,000 meteorites, including samples from Mars, the moon, and numerous poorly known asteroids. These 

samples have addressed fundamental questions about the origin and evolution of 

our solar system.
189

Appendices

ppendice
190Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Appendix A-1

U.S. Government Spacecr

(Includes spacecraft from cooperating countries launched by U.S. launch vehicles.)

Calendar 

Year

Earth Orbita Earth Escapeb

Success Failure Success Failure

1957 0 1 0 0

1958 5 8 0 4

1959 9 9 1 2

1960 16 12 1 2

1961 35 12 0 2

1962 55 12 4 1

1963 62 11 0 0

1964 69 8 4 0

1965 93 7 4 1

1966 94 12 7 1b

1967 78 4 10 0

1968 61 15 3 0

1969 58 1 8 1

1970 36 1 3 0

1971 45 2 8 1

1972 33 2 8 0

1973 23 2 3 0

1974 27 2 1 0

1975 30 4 4 0

1976 33 0 1 0

1977 27 2 2 0

1978 34 2 7 0

1979 18 0 0 0

1980 16 4 0 0

1981 20 1 0 0

1982 21 0 0 0

1983 31 0 0 0

1984 35 3 0 0

1985 37 1 0 0

1986 11 4 0 0

1987 9 1 0 0

Calendar 

Year

Earth Orbita Earth Escapeb

Success Failure Success Failure

1988 16 1 0 0

1989 24 0 2 0

1990 40 0 1 0

1991 32c 0 0 0

1992 26c 0 1 0

1993 28c 1 1 0

1994 31c 1 1 0

1995 24c, d 2 1 0

1996 30 1 3 0

1997 22e 0 1 0

1998 23 0 2 0

1999 35 4 2 0

2000 31f 0 0 0

2001 23 0 3 0

2002 18 0 0 1b

2003 28c, f 0 2 0

2004 8c 0 1 0

2005 10 0 2 0

2006 20d 0 2 0

2007 16 2 2 0

2008 22f 0 0 0

2009 24f 1 0 0

2010 15 0 0 0

2011 16 1 3 0

2012 13 0 0 0

2013 18 0 1 0

2014 22 1 0 0

2015 12 1 1 0

2016* 21 3 2 0

* (through September 30, 2016)

TOTAL 1769 162 113 16

a. The criterion of success or failure used is attainment of Earth orbit or Earth escape rather than judgment of mission success. “Escape” flights 

include all that were intended to go to at least an altitude equal to lunar distance from Earth.

b. This Earth-escape failure did attain Earth orbit and, therefore, is included in the Earth-orbit success totals.

c. This excludes commercial satellites. It counts separately spacecraft launched by the same launch vehicle.

d. This counts various sets of microsatellites as a single payload.

e. This includes the Small Spacecraft Technology Initiative (SSTI) Lewis spacecraft that began spinning out of control shortly after it achieved Earth orbit.

f. This includes American spacecraft not launched in the U.S.
191 Appendices

Appendix A-2

World Record of Space Launches S

in Attaining Earth Orbit o

(Enumerates launches rather than spacecraft; some launches orbited multiple spacecraft.)a

Calendar 

Year

United

Statesb

USSR/

CIS Francec Italyc Japan

People’s 

Republic

of China Australia

United

Kingdomc

European 

Space

Agency India Israel Iran

North

Korea

South

Korea

1957 2

1958 5 1

1959 10 3

1960 16 3

1961 29 6

1962 52 20

1963 38 17

1964 57 30

1965 63 48 1

1966 73 44 1

1967 57 66 2 1 1

1968 45 74

1969 40 70

1970 28 81 2 1 1 1

1971 30 83 1 2 2 1 1

1972 30 74 1 1

1973 23 86

1974 22 81 2 1

1975 27 89 3 1 2 3

1976 26 99 1 2

1977 24 98 2

1978 32 88 3 1

1979 16 87 2 1

1980 13 89 2 1

1981 18 98 3 1 2 1

1982 18 101 1 1

1983 22 98 3 1 2 1

1984 22 97 3 3 4

1985 17 98 2 1 3

1986 6 91 2 2 2

1987 8 95 3 2 2

1988 12 90 2 4 7

1989 17 74 2 7 1

1990 27 75 3 5 5 1

1991 20 62 2 1 9 1

1992 31 55 2 3 7 2

1993 24 45 1 1 7

1994 26 49 2 5 6 2

1995 27 33 1 2 12 1

1996 32 25 1 3 10 1

1997 37 28 2 6 12 1

1998 34 24 2 6 11

1999 32 26 4 10 1

2000 30 34 5 12

2001 23 23 1 1 8 2

2002 18 23 3 4 11 1 1

2003 26 21 2 6 4 2

2004 19 22 8 3 1

2005 16 26 2 5 5 1

2006 15 16 5 3 5

2007 25 33 3 13 8 3 1

2008d 19 26 1 11 7 3

2009 25 29 3 4 9 4 1

2010 15 30 2 15 6 1 1

2011 17 33 3 18 7 3 1

2012 13 27 2 19 10 2 1 1

2013e 19 29 3 14 7 3 1

2014e 22 31 4 16 10 4 1

2015 13 16 3 9 8 4 1

2016* 23 23 2 24 10 7 1 1

*(through September 30, 2016)

TOTAL 1,524 3,045 10 8 93 234 1 1 249 52 8 4 2 1

a. This includes commercial expendable launches and launches of the Space Shuttle as well as launches to useless orbit.

b. Launches from U.S.-Russia joint platform included in U.S. totals.

c. Since 1979, all launches for ESA member countries have been joint and are listed under ESA.

d. Since 2008, the ESA statistics include the Soyuz launches from Guiana Space Centre.

e. The data published in the FY 2014 report reflect incorrect totals and have been adjusted.
192Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Appendix B

Successful Launches to Orbit on U

October 1, 2015–September 30, 2016

Launch Date

Spacecraft Name

COSPAR* Designation

Launch Vehicle Mission Objectives

Apogee and

Perigee (km),

Period (min),

Inclination to Equator (°) Remarks

October 2, 2015

Morelos 3

2015-056A

Atlas 5-421

Communications 35,855.5

35,782

1,436.09

6.6

MEXSAT-3 for the Mexican Government

October 8, 2015

NROL 55

2015-058A

Atlas 5-401

Military/Communications 1,208.3

1,021.3

107.4

63.4

U.S. National Reconnaissance Office 

October 31, 2015

Navstar 75 GPS IIF-11

2015-062A

Atlas 5-401

Navigation 20,246.1

20,132.7

718.0

55.0

U.S. Air Force, combined military/civilian Global 

Positioning System

November 4, 2015

HaikaSat/CubeSats

2015-F03A

Super Strypi

International Space Station FTO Failed to orbit; first-stage motor malfunction

December 6, 2015

Cygnus/CRS-4

2015-072A

Atlas 5-401

International Space Station ISS Cargo resupply

December 22, 2015

Orbcomm OG2

2015-081A

Falcon 9 v1.2

Communications 720.5

715.5

99.0

47.0

Communications satellite constellation

January 17, 2016

Jason 3

2016-002A

Falcon 9 v1.1

Earth observation 1,354.4

1,342.8

112.5

66.0

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 

Earth science observation mission

February 5, 2016

GPS IIF-12

2016-007A

Atlas 5-401

Navigation 20,259.4

20,219.0

720.0

54.9

Global Positioning System Block 12 (GPS IIF-12) on 

behalf of U.S. Air Force

February 10, 2016

NROL-45

2016-010A

Delta 4M+5,2

Military/communications 1,092.2

1,085.4

106.9

123.0

U.S. National Reconnaissance Office

March 4, 2016

SES 9

2016-013A

Falcon 9 v1.2

Communications 35,796.5

35,791.1

1,436.1

0.0

Operated by SES S.A.

March 23, 2016

Cygnus OA-6

2016-19A

Atlas 5-401

International Space Station 230.0

229.8

92.0

51.6

Cargo resupply

April 8, 2016

Dragon/CRS-8

2016-024A

Falcon 9 v1.2 

International Space Station 253

309

51.7

Cargo resupply, delivered Bigelow Expandable Activity 

Module (BEAM) to ISS

May 6, 2016

JCSAT 14

2016-028A

Falcon 9 v1.2

Communications 35,804.1

35,784.5

1436.1

0.0

Japanese Communications SATellite (JCSAT) provides 

communications services to Asia, Oceania, and Hawaii

* U.N. Committee on Space Research
193

Launch Date

Appendices

Spacecraft Name

COSPAR* Designation

Launch Vehicle Mission Objectives

Apogee and

Perigee (km),

Period (min),

Inclination to Equator (°) Remarks

May 27, 2016

Thaicom 8

2016-031A

Falcon 9 v1.2

Communications 35,810.8

35,777.4

1,436.1

0.1

Provides communications coverage to India, Thailand, 

and Africa

Built by Orbital ATK, managed by Thaicom PLC of 

Thailand

June 11, 2016

NROL 37

2016-036A

Delta 4 Heavy

Military/Communications 36,009.2

35,579.3

1,436.1

7.4

U.S. National Reconnaissance Office

June 15, 2016

Eutelsat 117 West B

2016-038A

Falcon 9 v1.2

Communications 37,166.9

34,459.4

1,437.1

0.1

Also launched ABS-2A

June 24, 2016

MUOS 5

2016-041A

Atlas 5-551

Military/Communications 35,170.5

15,249.6

942.9

9.8

Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) for the U.S. 

Navy

July 18, 2016

Dragon CRS-9

2016-046A

Falcon 9 v1.2

International Space Station 250.99

249.18

51.6

92.62

Cargo resupply

August 14, 2016

JCSAT 16

2016-050A

Falcon 9 v1.2

Communications 35,876.3

35,863.9

1,440.0

0.0

Japanese Communications SATellite (JCSAT)

August 19, 2016

GSSAP 3/4 (AFSPC 6) 

2016-052A

Delta 4M+4,2

Military/communications 35,745.9

35,730.9

1,433.3

0.2

Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program 

(GSSAP) constellation for U.S. Air Force 

September 1, 2016

AMOS-6

2016-E01

Falcon 9 v1.2

Communications FTO Carried Israeli-built Affordable Modular Optimized 

Satellite-6 (Amos-6). Launch vehicle and payload 

destroyed on pad 

September 8, 2016

OSIRIS-REx

2016-055A

Atlas 5-411

Asteroid sample return 

mission

Heliocentric Orbit Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource 

Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRISREx) reaches asteroid Bennu in 2018, returns sample to 

Earth in 2023

Appendix B (cont.)

Successful Launches to Orbit on U

October 1, 2015–September 30, 2016
194Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Appendix C

Human Spacefli

October 1, 2015–September 30, 2016

Spacecraft Launch Date Crew

Flight Time 

(d:h:min) Highlights

Soyuz TMA-19M

(Expedition 46)

December 15, 2015 Tim Kopra

Yuri Malenchenko

Tim Peake

185:22:12 Musculoskeletal research to inform future expeditions to Mars

Soyuz TMA-20M

(Expedition 47)

March 18, 2016 Jeff Williams

Alexey Ovchinin

Oleg Skripochka

172:03:22 Installed Bigelow Expandable Activity Module 

(BEAM) prototype inflatable habitat

Jeff Williams set NASA record for cumulative time 

in space—534 days

Orbital ATK’s Cygnus CRS OA-6 docked to ISS 

March 26, 2016

SpaceX CRS-8 docked to ISS April 10, 2016, to 

deliver BEAM

Soyuz MS-01

(Expedition 48)

July 6, 2016 Anatoly Ivanishin

Kate Rubins

Takuya Onishi

115:02:21 Installed International Docking Adapters for future 

commercial vehicles
195 Appendices

Appendix D-1A

Space Activities of the U.S.

HISTORICAL TABLE OF BUDGET AUTHORITY

(in millions of real-year dollars)

FY

NASA 

Total

NASA 

Space DODa Otherb DOEc DOC DOI USDA NSFd DOT Total Space

1959 331 261 490 34 34 785

1960 524 462 561 43 43 1,066

1961 964 926 814 68 68 1,808

1962 1,825 1,797 1,298 199 148 51 3,294

1963 3,673 3,626 1,550 257 214 43 5,433

1964 5,100 5,016 1,599 213 210 3 6,828

1965 5,250 5,138 1,574 241 229 12 6,953

1966 5,175 5,065 1,689 214 187 27 6,968

1967 4,966 4,830 1,664 213 184 29 6,707

1968 4,587 4,430 1,922 174 145 28 0.2 1 6,526

1969 3,991 3,822 2,013 170 118 20 0.2 1 31 6,005

1970 3,746 3,547 1,678 141 103 8 1 1 28 5,366

1971 3,311 3,101 1,512 162 95 27 2 1 37 4,775

1972 3,307 3,071 1,407 133 55 31 6 2 39 4,611

1973 3,406 3,093 1,623 147 54 40 10 2 41 4,863

1974 3,037 2,759 1,766 158 42 60 9 3 44 4,683

1975 3,229 2,915 1,892 158 30 64 8 2 54 4,965

1976 3,550 3,225 1,983 168 23 72 10 4 59 5,376

TQ* 932 849 460 43 5 22 3 1 12 1,352

1977 3,818 3,440 2,412 194 22 91 10 6 65 6,046

1978 4,060 3,623 2,738 226 34 103 10 8 71 6,587

1979 4,596 4,030 3,036 248 59 98 10 8 73 7,314

1980 5,240 4,680 3,848 231 40 93 12 14 72 8,759

1981 5,518 4,992 4,828 234 41 87 12 16 78 10,054

1982 6,044 5,528 6,679 313 61 145 12 15 80 12,520

1983 6,875 6,328 9,019 327 39 178 5 20 85 15,674

1984 7,458 6,858 10,195 395 34 236 3 19 103 17,448

1985 7,573 6,925 12,768 584 34 423 2 15 110 20,277

1986 7,807 7,165 14,126 477 35 309 2 23 108 21,768

1987 10,923 9,809 16,287 466 48 278 8 19 112 1 26,562

1988 9,062 8,322 17,679 741 241 352 14 18 115 1 26,742

1989 10,969 10,097 17,906 560 97 301 17 21 121 3 28,563

1990 12,324 11,460 15,616 506 79 243 31 25 124 4 27,582

1991 14,016 13,046 14,181 772 251 251 29 26 211 4 27,999

1992 14,317 13,199 15,023 798 223 327 34 29 181 4 29,020

1993 14,310 13,064 14,106 731 165 324 33 25 180 4 27,901

1994 14,570 13,022 13,166 632 74 312 31 31 179 5 26,820

1995 13,854 12,543 10,644 759 60 352 31 32 278 6 23,946

1996 13,884 12,569 11,514 828 46 472 36 37 231 6 24,911

1997 13,709 12,457 11,727 789 35 448 42 39 219 6 24,973

1998 13,648 12,321 12,359 839 103 435 43 39 213 6 25,519

1999 13,653 12,459 13,203 982 105 575 59 37 200 6 26,644

2000 13,601 12,521 12,941 1,056 164 575 60 44 207 6 26,518

2001 14,230 13,304 14,326 1,062 145 577 60 36 232 12 28,692

2002 14,868 13,871 15,740 1,180 166 644 64 28 266 12 30,791

2003 15,364 14,360 19,388 1,305 191 649 74 42 337 12 35,053

2004 15,379 14,322 19,115 1,464 209 745 71 61 366 12 34,901

2005 16,198 15,234 19,690 1,551 229 807 70 73 360 12 36,475

2006 16,623 15,765 22,114 1,647 245 860 82 84 364 12 39,526

2007 16,285 15,568 22,418 1,680 200 912 87 65 404 12 39,666

2008 17,117 16,502 24,795 1,698 195 862 90 59 479 13 42,995

2009 17,775 17,275 26,528 1,868 200 1,078 64 27 485 14 45,671

2010 18,725 18,228 26,463 2,057 203 1,261 67 27 484 15 46,748

2011 18,432 17,898 27,234 2,186 229 1,444 66 20 412 15 47,318

2012 17,773 17,203 26,677 2,580 199 1,876 76 7 406 16 46,460

2013 17,395 16,865 10,818 2,578 185 1,865 84 20 409 15 30,261

2014 17,647 17,081 10,400 2,839 174 2,087 82 19 461 16 30,320

2015 18,010 17,359 10,325 3,010 182 2,223 83 19 485 18 30,694

2016 19,285 18,645 9,655 3,158 178 2,346 87 18 508 22 31,458

a. DOD reported that improvements to the estimating methodology resulted in a change in estimated budget authority and outlays starting in 

FY 2013.

b. The Other column is the total of the non-NASA and non-DOD budget authority figures that appear in the succeeding columns. The total is 

sometimes different from the sum of the individual figures because of rounding. The Total Space column does not include the NASA Total 

column because the latter includes budget authority for aeronautics as well as space. For the years 1989–97, this Other column also includes small 

figures for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as $2.1 billion for the replacement of Space Shuttle Challenger in 1987.

c. DOE has recalculated its space expenditures since 1998.

d. The NSF has recalculated its space expenditures since 1980, making them significantly higher than reported in previous years.

* Transition Quarter
196Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Appendix D-1B

Space Activities of the U.S.

HISTORICAL TABLE OF BUDGET AUTHORITY

(in millions of inflation-adjusted FY 2016 dollars)

FY

Inflation 

Factors

NASA 

Total

NASA 

Space DODa Otherb DOEc DOC DOI USDA NSFd DOT Total Space

1959 6.499 2,151 1,696 3,185 221 221 5,102

1960 6.401 3,354 2,957 3,591 275 275 6,823

1961 6.312 6,085 5,845 5,138 429 429 11,413

1962 6.227 11,364 11,189 8,082 1,239 922 318 20,511

1963 6.164 22,640 22,350 9,554 1,584 1,319 265 33,488

1964 6.089 31,052 30,541 9,736 1,297 1,279 18 41,573

1965 6.015 31,580 30,907 9,468 1,450 1,378 72 41,825

1966 5.912 30,593 29,943 9,985 1,265 1,106 160 41,193

1967 5.787 28,740 27,952 9,630 1,233 1,065 168 38,815

1968 5.616 25,759 24,878 10,793 978 814 157 1 6 36,649

1969 5.430 21,670 20,753 10,930 925 641 109 1 5 169 32,608

1970 5.191 19,447 18,414 8,711 732 535 42 5 5 145 27,857

1971 4.926 16,310 15,276 7,448 798 468 133 10 5 182 23,522

1972 4.689 15,505 14,399 6,597 625 258 145 28 9 185 21,621

1973 4.477 15,247 13,846 7,265 660 242 179 45 9 185 21,771

1974 4.290 13,028 11,835 7,575 678 180 257 39 13 189 20,089

1975 4.007 12,937 11,679 7,580 632 120 256 32 8 215 19,892

1976 3.631 12,889 11,709 7,200 611 84 261 36 15 215 19,520

TQ* 3.395 3,164 2,882 1,562 146 17 75 10 3 41 4,590

1977 3.296 12,585 11,339 7,951 638 73 300 33 20 213 19,928

1978 3.167 12,859 11,475 8,672 716 108 326 32 25 225 20,862

1979 2.968 13,640 11,960 9,010 736 175 291 30 24 217 21,707

1980 2.747 14,393 12,855 10,570 635 110 255 33 38 198 24,060

1981 2.527 13,944 12,615 12,200 592 104 220 30 40 198 25,407

1982 2.302 13,911 12,723 15,372 720 140 334 28 35 183 28,815

1983 2.154 14,806 13,628 19,424 704 84 383 11 43 183 33,756

1984 2.063 15,386 14,149 21,033 814 70 487 6 39 212 35,996

1985 1.993 15,091 13,800 25,443 1,163 68 843 4 30 219 40,406

1986 1.929 15,058 13,819 27,245 919 68 596 4 44 208 41,984

1987 1.886 20,598 18,497 30,713 878 91 524 15 36 211 2 50,088

1988 1.845 16,716 15,351 32,610 1,367 445 649 26 33 212 2 49,328

1989 1.787 19,598 18,040 31,993 1,001 173 538 30 38 216 5 51,034

1990 1.718 21,176 19,691 26,832 869 136 418 53 43 213 7 47,393

1991 1.658 23,244 21,635 23,517 1,281 416 416 48 43 350 7 46,433

1992 1.602 22,930 21,139 24,060 1,278 357 524 54 46 289 6 46,477

1993 1.563 22,371 20,423 22,052 1,143 258 507 52 39 281 6 43,617

1994 1.527 22,249 19,885 20,105 966 113 476 47 47 274 8 40,955

1995 1.494 20,704 18,745 15,907 1,134 89 526 46 48 415 9 35,785

1996 1.463 20,318 18,393 16,849 1,211 67 691 53 54 338 9 36,454

1997 1.437 19,694 17,896 16,847 1,134 50 644 60 56 315 9 35,877

1998 1.412 19,267 17,393 17,447 1,185 145 614 61 55 301 8 36,026

1999 1.394 19,039 17,374 18,411 1,369 146 802 82 52 279 8 37,155

2000 1.377 18,729 17,242 17,820 1,454 226 792 83 61 285 8 36,515

2001 1.349 19,196 17,947 19,325 1,433 196 778 81 49 313 16 38,704

2002 1.317 19,588 18,274 20,736 1,555 219 848 84 37 350 16 40,565

2003 1.296 19,919 18,617 25,136 1,692 248 841 96 54 437 16 45,444

2004 1.272 19,564 18,220 24,317 1,862 266 948 90 78 466 15 44,399

2005 1.241 20,108 18,911 24,443 1,925 284 1,002 87 91 447 15 45,280

2006 1.204 20,007 18,975 26,616 1,982 295 1,035 99 101 438 14 47,573

2007 1.166 18,983 18,147 26,132 1,958 233 1,063 101 76 471 14 46,238

2008 1.135 19,425 18,727 28,139 1,927 221 978 102 67 544 15 48,793

2009 1.112 19,762 19,206 29,493 2,077 222 1,199 71 30 539 16 50,776

2010 1.099 20,579 20,033 29,083 2,260 223 1,386 74 29 532 16 51,376

2011 1.089 20,080 19,498 29,669 2,381 249 1,573 72 21 449 16 51,548

2012 1.068 18,977 18,368 28,483 2,754 212 2,003 81 7 433 17 49,606

2013 1.049 18,240 17,684 10,818 2,703 194 1,956 88 21 429 16 31,731

2014 1.031 17,647 17,081 10,400 2,839 174 2,087 82 19 461 16 31,256

2015 1.014 18,010 17,359 10,325 3,010 182 2,223 83 19 485 18 30,694

2016 1.000 19,285 18,645 9,655 3,158 178 2,346 87 18 508 22 31,458

a. DOD reported that improvements to the estimating methodology resulted in a change in estimated budget authority and outlays starting in FY 2013.

b. The Other column is the total of the non-NASA and non-DOD budget authority figures that appear in the succeeding columns. The total is 

sometimes different from the sum of the individual figures because of rounding. The Total Space column does not include the NASA Total 

column because the latter includes budget authority for aeronautics as well as space. For the years 1989–97, this Other column also includes small 

figures for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as $2.1 billion for the replacement of Space Shuttle Challenger in 1987.

c. The DOE has recalculated its space expenditures since 1998.

d. The NSF has recalculated its space expenditures since 1980, making them significantly higher than reported in previous years.

* Transition Quarter
197 Appendices

Appendix D-2

Federal Space Activiti

(in millions of dollars by fiscal year)

Federal 

Agencies

Budget Authority Budget Outlays

2014

actual

2015

actual 

2016

actual

2017

est.

2014

 actual

2015

 actual

2016

 actual

2017

 est.

NASA1 17,080.5 17,359 18,645 18,234.7 16,558.7 17,697.4 18,225 18,377

DOD2, 3 10,400 10,325 9,655 10,136 11,507 10,854 10,300 10,400

DOE4, 5 174 182 178 158 174 198 180 158

DOC6 2,087.1 2,223.1 2,346 2,305 1,167.3 1,300.3 2,053 1,361

DOI7 82 83 87.1 102 81 82 85.5 109.1

USDA8 19.3 18.9 18.5 17.7 18.7 17.3 17.1 17.8

DOT 16 17.6 21.8 24.7 16 17.6 21.8 24.7

NSF9 461 485.2 507.5 479.1 391 444.6 382.6 473.06

1. The FY 2017 estimate is based on the prior year’s Outlays versus Budget Authority. FY 2017 Enacted Funding Levels were not available at the time 

this report was requested. The FY 2017 Budget Authority Estimate is based on the 2017 President’s Budget Request.

2. Does not include DOD or Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) intelligence programs. DOD FY 2014, FY 2015, and FY 2016 

figures for Budget Authority and Outlays are estimated at the time of preparing this report. Improvements to the estimating methodology resulted 

in a change in estimated Budget Authority and Outlays starting in FY 2013.

3. DOD estimates of projected budget outlays are rounded to the nearest hundred million due to the estimating methodology.

4. In prior years, the High Energy Physics program also reported Ground- and Underground-Based Astrophysics Projects. These projects and the 

associated funding are no longer included, starting in the FY 2009 report.

5. At the time of preparing this report, DOE submitted estimates, not actuals.

6. The Budget Outlays columns reflect dollars “costed” in a fiscal year specific to that same fiscal year’s appropriated dollars.

7. The numbers for FY 2014 Actual and Outlays are estimates for both satellite and aerial funding.

8. At the time of preparing this report, the USDA submitted FY 2016 estimates, not actuals.

9. “Actual” = actual obligations.
198Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

Appendix D-3

Federal Aeronautics Activit

(in millions of dollars by fiscal year)

Federal 

Agencies

Budget Authority Budget Outlays

2014

actual

2015

actual 

2016

actual

2017

est.

2014

 actual

2015

 actual

2016

 actual

2017

 est.

NASA1 566 651 640 790.4 538.7 578.3 609 608

USDA2 34.4 26.7 37.3 37.6 32.6 32.6 36.6 37.2

DOD3, 4 75,500 50,800 50,557 45,328 68,025 37,744 37,500 31,800

DOI5 31 31 36 35 30 31 35 35.6

DOT 2,744 2,741.8 3,004.9 2,990.4 2,851 2,761.1 2,733.9 3,115.9

1. The FY 2017 estimate is based on the prior year’s Outlays versus Budget Authority.

2. At the time of preparing this report, the USDA submitted estimates, not actuals.

3. DOD FY 2014, FY 2015, and FY 2016 figures for Budget Authority and Outlays are estimated at the time of preparing this report. Improvements to 

the estimating methodology resulted in a change in estimated Budget Authority and Outlays starting in FY 2013.

4. DOD estimates of projected budget outlays are rounded to the nearest hundred million due to the estimating methodology.

5. The numbers for FY 2014 Actual and Outlays are estimates for both satellite and aerial funding.
199 c Acrony

ronyms

3DEP 3D Elevation Program

A

AA&S Aircraft Airworthiness and Sustainment

AAG Air-to-Air-to-Ground

AATE Advanced Affordable Turbine Engine

AAVP Advanced Air Vehicles Program

ABEDRR Advanced Booster Engineering Demonstration and/or Risk Reduction

ABoVE Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment

ACAT/FRRP Automatic Collision Avoidance Technology/Fighter Risk Reduction Program

ACE Advanced Composition Explorer

ACES Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space

ACS Altitude Combustion Stand

ACT Atacama Cosmology Telescope

ACT-America Atmospheric Carbon and Transport–America

ADS-B Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast

AE Archive Explorer

AEFS Advanced Electronic Flight Strips

AEHF Advanced Extremely High Frequency

AES Advanced Exploration Systems

AETD Adaptive Engine Technology Development

AFB Air Force Base

AFRICOM United States Africa Command

AFRL Air Force Research Laboratory

AFRL/RQ AFRL/Aerospace Systems Directorate

AFSPC Air Force Space Command

AFTC Air Force Test Center

AFTMS airframe TMS

AGS Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences

AIA Atmospheric Imaging Assembly

AIR-SPEC Airborne Infrared Spectrograph

A-ISR Aerial Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance

AIT Accident Investigation Team; American Institute in Taiwan

ALIAS Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System

ALMA Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array

AMC Additive Manufacturing Consortium

AMISR Advanced Modular Incoherent-Scatter Radar

AMPERE Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment

AMS Autonomous Modular Sensor; Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer

AMSR2 Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2

AO Arecibo Observatory

APKWS Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System

ARAIM Advanced Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring

ARD analysis-ready data

ARI Aviation Restructure Initiative

ARL Airborne Reconnaissance Low

ARM Asteroid Redirect Mission; Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility

ARMD Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate
200Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

ARRM Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission

ARS Agricultural Research Service

ARSET NASA Applied Remote Sensing Training

ARSTRAT Army Forces Strategic Command

ARTS Automated Radar Terminal System

AS Atmosphere Section

ASB Agricultural Statistics Board

ASBU Aviation System Block Upgrade

ASI Italian Space Agency

ASR Atmospheric System Research

ASRS Aviation Safety Reporting System

AST Office of Commercial Space Transportation; Division of Astronomical Sciences

ASTER Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emissions and Reflection Radiometer

ASU Group on the Sector Understanding on Export Credits for Civil Aircraft (also called Aircraft 

Sector Understanding)

ATD-1 Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration–1

ATD-2 Airspace Technology Demonstration 2

ATLO assembly, test, launch, and operations

ATom Atmospheric Tomography

ATSR Along-Track Scanning Radiometer

ATST Advanced Technology Solar Telescope

Auto ACAS Automatic Air Collision Avoidance System

Auto GCAS Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System

Auto ICAS Automatic Integrated Collision Avoidance System

AUVSI Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International

AVD Air Vehicle Demonstrator

AVHRR Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

AWiFS Advanced Wide Field Sensor

B

BAER Burn Area Emergency Response

BARREL Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses

BaPSF Basic Plasma Science Facility

BBS Breeding Bird Survey

BEAM Bigelow Expandable Activity Module

BIA Bureau of Indian Affairs

BICEP3 Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization

BIS Bureau of Industry and Security

BLAST-TNG Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Submillimeter Telescope–The Next Generation

BLM Bureau of Land Management

BNL Brookhaven National Laboratory

BOR Bureau of Reclamation

C

CAL Cold Atom Laboratory

Caltech California Institute of Technology

CASIS Center for the Advancement of Science in Space

CBW Chesapeake Bay Watershed

CCAFS Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

C-CAP Coastal Change Analysis Program

CCG Copernicus Coordination Group
201 Acronyms

CCL Commerce Control List

CCMC Community Coordinated Modeling Center

CCMD Combatant Commands

CCP Commercial Crew Program

CCS Counter Communications System

CCSC Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities

CCSDS Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems

CCtCap Commercial Crew Transportation Capability

CDD Capabilities Development Document

CDL Cropland Data Layer

CDR Critical Design Review

CEDAR Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions

CENTCOM United States Central Command

CEPS Center for Earth and Planetary Studies

CfA Center for Astrophysics

CFD Computational Fluid Dynamics

CHAMP CHAllenging Mini-satellite Payload

CHARA Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy

CLaRe Climate-Landscape Response

CLASS Cosmic Large Angular Scale Survey

CLU Common Land Unit

CMA Crew Module Adapter

CMB cosmic microwave background

CMC ceramic-matrix composite

CMDA Civil Maritime Domain Awareness

CMM Coordinate Measuring Machine

CNES Centre National d’Études Spatiales

C/NOFS Communications/Navigation Outage Forecasting System

CNT ESR Carbon Nano-tube Electrical Substitution Radiometer

CO2 carbon dioxide

CODE Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment

COE CST Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation

comsat communications satellite

CORAL COral Reef Airborne Laboratory

COSMIC Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate

COSPAR U.N. Committee on Space Research

COSPAS-SARSAT Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking

COWVR Compact Ocean Wind Vector Radiometer

CPS Conventional Prompt Strike

CPT Command Post Terminal

CRP Commercialization Readiness Program

CRS Commercial Resupply Services

CRSSP Commercial Remote Sensing Policy

CS Commercial Service

CSA Canadian Space Agency

CSI cloud spectrometer and impactor

CSIM Compact Solar Irradiance Monitor

CTOL Conventional Take-Off and Landing

CuSP CubeSat to study Solar Particles

CV Carrier Variant

CWDP Commercial Weather Data Pilot

CYGNSS Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System
202Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

D

DAMS Digital Asset Management System

Data Comm Data Communications

DB Direct Broadcast

DC direct current

DE directed energy

DEM digital elevation model

DEVA Death Valley National Park

DHI Danish Hydraulic Institute

DIAL Differential Absorption Lidar

DKIST Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope

DLR German Aerospace Center

DMC Disaster Monitoring Constellation

DNH Do-No-Harm

DNN R&D Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development

DOC Department of Commerce

DOD Department of Defense

DOE Department of Energy

DOI Department of the Interior

DOS Department of State

DR Direct Readout

DSAC Deep Space Atomic Clock

DSCOVR Deep Space Climate Observatory

DSN Deep Space Network

DSP Defense Support Program

DSWE Dynamic Surface Water Extent

DT-2 Developmental Test 2

DTM digital terrain model

DTN Disruption Tolerant Networking

DVE degraded visual environments

E

EAWS Early Access Web Services

EBIS Electron Beam Ion Source

ECMWF European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts

ECS Environmental Control System

ECU Early Combatant Command Use

EDGE Europa Deep Geophysical Explorer

EDL entry, descent, and landing

EELV Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle

EFTMS engine fuel TMS

ELaNa Educational Launch of Nanosatellites

ELV Expendable Launch Vehicle

ELVO Enhanced Low Visibility Operations

EMARSS Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance Surveillance System

EMC Evolvable Mars Campaign

eMODIS EROS MODIS

EOS Earth Observing System

EPA Environmental Protection Agency

EPIC Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera

EPS Enhanced Polar System

ERA Environmentally Responsible Aviation

ERAM En Route Automation Modernization
203 Acronyms

ERAU Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

EROS Earth Resources Observation and Science

ESA European Space Agency

ESD Exploration Systems Development; Earth Science Division

E-STA European Service Module Structural Test Article

ET evapotranspiration

ETM Enhanced Thematic Mapper

ETM+ Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus

EU European Union

EUMETSAT European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites

EUV Extreme Ultraviolet

eV electronvolt

EVA extravehicular activity

EVE Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment

EVI Enhanced Vegetation Index

Ex-Im Export-Import

EXIS X-ray Irradiance Sensor

EXPRESS EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments for Space Station

F

FAA Federal Aviation Administration

FAB-T Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals

FAS Foreign Agricultural Service

FAST Formulation Assessment and Support Team

FCC Federal Communications Commission

FDSS Faculty Development in Space Sciences

FES Office of Fusion Energy Sciences

FF Fire and Forget

FGST Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

FIA Forest Inventory and Analysis

FIAT Fire and Invasive Assessment Tool

FOC Full Operational Capability

FONSI Finding of No Significant Impact

FORVIS Forest Vegetation Information System

FSA Farm Service Agency

FT4 Flight Test Series 4

FUN3D Fully Unstructured Navier-Stokes 3-Dimensional

FWS Fish and Wildlife Service

FY fiscal year

G

GaN gallium nitride

GBD Global Burst Detector

Gbps gigabits per second

GBSAA Ground Based Sense and Avoid

GBSD Ground Based Strategic Deterrent

GCD Game Changing Development

GCOM-W Global Change Observation Mission–Water

GEM Geospace Environment Modeling

GEO Geosynchronous Earth Orbit; Directorate for Geosciences

GF Geospace Facilities

G-FOLD Guidance for Fuel Optimal Large Diverts

GHz gigahertz
204Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

GINA Geographic Information Network for Alaska

GIS Geographic Information System

GISS Goddard Institute for Space Studies

GISTEMP GISS Surface Temperature Analysis

GLAM Global Agricultural Monitoring

G-LiHT Goddard’s Lidar, Hyperspectral and Thermal

GMT Giant Magellan Telescope

GNSS global navigation satellite systems

GOES Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite

GOES-R Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R Series

GOLD Global-scale Observations of Limb and Disk

GONG Global Oscillations Network Group

GPIM Green Propellant Infusion Mission

GPM Global Precipitation Measurement

GPS Global Positioning System

GPS/MET GPS/Meteorology

GPSRO GPS radio occultation

GRACE Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment

GRC Glenn Research Center

G-REALM Global Reservoir and Lake Monitor

GS Geospace Section

GSD ground sample distance

GSDO Ground Systems Development and Operations

GSFC Goddard Space Flight Center

GSSAP Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program

H

HAPET Habitat and Population Evaluation Team

HAWKC+ High-Resolution Airborne Wideband Camera-plus

HBCUs Historically Black Colleges and Universities

HDDS Hazards Data Distribution System

HEAT High Elevation Antarctic Terahertz

HEO Highly Elliptical Orbit

HEOMD Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate

HERA Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array

HIBRID Higher Bypass Ratio Inlet Development

HIID HIBRID Inlet Integration Demonstration

HiRISE High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment

HLV Heavy Lift Vehicle

HPSC High Performance Spaceflight Computing

HRP Human Research Program

HWB Hybrid Wing Body

I

IBEX Interstellar Boundary Explorer

ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization

ICBM Intercontinental Ballistic Missile

ICG International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems

ICON Ionospheric Connection Explorer

ICPS Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage

IDA International Docking Adapter

IDAC Integrated Departure/Arrival Capability

IFSAR Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar

IGD integrated ground demonstration
205 Acronyms

ILWS International Living With a Star

IMAP Interstellar Mapping Probe

IMERG Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM

INSCOM Intelligence and Security Command

InSight Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport

INVENT INtegrated Vehicle Energy Technology

IOC Initial Operational Capability

IPAD International Production Assessment Division

IR infrared

IRAC Infrared Array Camera

IRIS Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph

ISARA Integrated Solar Array and Reflectarray Antenna

Isp specific impulse

ISR Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance

ISRO Indian Space Research Organisation

ISS International Space Station

ITA International Trade Administration

ITAC 1 Industry Trade Advisory Committee for Aerospace Equipment

ITAR International Trade and Arms Regulations

ITEP Improved Turbine Engine Program

ITU International Telecommunication Union

ITWS Integrated Terminal Weather System

IVF Integrated Vehicle Fluids

J

JAGM Joint Air-to-Ground Missile

JASD Joint Agency Satellite Division

JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

JICSpOC Joint Interagency Combined Space Operations Center

JMR TD Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator

JMS JSpOC Mission System

JOTR Joshua Tree National Park

JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory

JSpOC Joint Space Operations Center

JPSS Joint Polar Satellite System

JSF Joint Strike Fighter

JSOW Joint Standoff Weapon

JUICE Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer

JWST James Webb Space Telescope

K

KDP Key Decision Point

KSC Kennedy Space Center

kSZ kinematic SZ

KUS Kennedy Uplink Station

L

L1 Level 1; Lagrange point 1

L2 Level 2

LAE Launch Abort Engines

LANL Los Alamos National Laboratory

LAPD Large Plasma Device
206Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

LaRC Langley Research Center

LASP Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics

LAT Large Area Telescope

LCH4 liquid methane

LCMAP Land Change Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection

LCMS Landscape Change Monitoring System

LCRD Laser Communication Relay Demonstration

LCS Launch Communications Station

LDB Long Duration Balloon

lidar light detection and ranging

LIGO Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory

LILT low-intensity, low-temperature

LISA Laser Interferometer Space Antenna

LISS Linear Imaging Self Scanner

LLNL Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

LM Lunar Module

LOX liquid oxygen

LRO Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

LSC Legal Subcommittee

LSP Launch Services Program

LSST Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

LST Land Surface Temperature

LTS Long-Term Sustainability

Lunar CATALYST Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown

M

MAGIC CARPET Maritime Augmented Guidance with Integrated Controls for Carrier Approach and Recovery 

Precision Enabling Technologies

MaGIXS Marshall Grazing Incidence X-ray Spectrograph

MAIAC Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction

MARS Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport

MARSIS Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding

MARSOC Marine Special Operations Command

MAV Mars Ascent Vehicle

MAVEN Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN

MCS-2 Mission Control System–2

MCSB-2 Mission Control System Backup–2

MDA Missile Defense Agency

MDXR Missile Defense Transfer Radiometer

MEDA Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer

MEDLI Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation

MEP Manufacturing Extension Partnership

MER Mars Exploration Rover

MESSENGER MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging

METOP-A/GRAS Meteorological Operational satellite programme–A/Global navigation satellite system 

Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding

MEU Marine Expeditionary Units

MIL-STD Military Standard

MinXSS Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer

MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MKID Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector

MMRTG Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator

MMS Magnetospheric Multiscale

MOA Memorandum of Agreement
207 Acronyms

MoBE Microbiology of the Built Environment

MOBY Marine Optical Buoy

MODIS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer

MOJA Mojave National Preserve

MOPS Minimum Operating Performance Standards

MOSA Modular Open System Approach

MOU Memorandum of Understanding

MOXIE Mars Oxygen In Situ Resource Utilization Experiment

MPCV Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle

MPS Mathematics and Physical Sciences

MRLC Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium

MRO Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

MRX Magnetic Reconnection Experiment

MSAD Mission Systems Architecture Demonstrator

MSAVI2 Modified Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index II

MSFC Marshall Space Flight Center

MSIs Minority Serving Institutions

MSIP Mid-Scale Innovations Program

MSV Modular Space Vehicle

MTBS Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity

MUOS Mobile User Objective System

MWTA Megawatt Tactical Aircraft

N

NACA National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics

NAICS North American Industry Classification System

NAIP National Agricultural Imagery Program

NANOGrav North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves

NAS National Airspace System

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASCENT National Airspace System Constraint Evaluation and Notification Tool

NASM National Air and Space Museum

NASS National Agricultural Statistics Service

NASTAR National Aerospace Training and Research

NAVAIR Naval Air Systems Command

NCEP National Centers for Environmental Prediction

NCO National Coordination Office

NDVI Normalized Difference Vegetation Index

NE Office of Nuclear Energy

NEA Near-Earth Asteroid

NED National Elevation Dataset

NEN Near Earth Network

NEO Near Earth Object

NERSC National Energy Research Supercomputing Center

NERVA Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Applications

NextGen Next Generation; Next Generation Air Transportation System

NextSTEP Next Space Technology for Exploration Partnerships

NFS National Forest System

NGEE Next Generation Ecosystem Experiment

NIAC NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts

NICER Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer

NICT National Institute of Information and Communications Technology

NIFC-CA Naval Integrated Fire Control–Counter Air

NIR near-infrared
208Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology

NLCD National Land Cover Database

NMNH National Museum of Natural History

NNSA National Nuclear Security Administration

NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NOAO National Optical Astronomy Observatory

NOC National Operations Center

NPP National Polar-orbiting Partnership

NPS National Park Service

NRA NASA Research Announcement

NRAO National Radio Astronomy Observatory

NRC National Research Council

NRCS Natural Resources Conservation Service

NROL National Reconnaissance Office Launch

NSA National Security Agency

NSF National Science Foundation

NSO National Solar Observatory

NSPO National Space Organization

NSRL NASA Space Radiation Laboratory

NSS National Security Space

NSTC National Science and Technology Council

NSWS National Space Weather Strategy

NTF National Transonic Facility

NTP Nuclear Thermal Propulsion

NuDets nuclear detonations

NuSTAR Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array

NWP numerical weather prediction

O

OA Orbital ATK; operational assessment

OBOGS On-Board Oxygen Generation System

OCO Orbiting Carbon Observatory

OCSD Optical Communications and Sensor Demonstration

ODNI Office of the Director of National Intelligence

OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

OES Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs

OFII Office of Finance and Insurance Industries

OGA Office of Global Analysis

OGE out-of-ground effect

OGS Optical Ground Station

OLI Operational Land Imager

OLYMPEX Olympic Mountain Experiment

OMAC Orbital Maneuvering Attitude Control

OMPS Ozone Mapping Profiler Suite

ORACLES ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS

Orbital Orbital Sciences Corporation/Orbital ATK

ORS Operationally Responsive Space

OSBP Office of Small Business Programs

OSD Office of the Secretary of Defense

OSIRIS-REx Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security–Regolith Explorer

OSTP Office of Science and Technology Policy

OTA other transaction authority

OTM Office of Transportation and Machinery

OVERFLOW OVERset grid FLOW solver
209 Acronyms

P

PACE Plankton, Aerosols, Clouds, and ocean Ecosystem

PACOM Pacific Command

PAR Presidential Aircraft Recapitalization

PBN Performance Based Navigation

PBS Plum Brook Station

PCM HX Phase Change Material Heat Exchanger

PDA progressive damage analysis

PDL Ponce de Leon

PDR Preliminary Design Review

PeV petaelectronvolt

PHY Division of Physics

PLR Division of Polar Programs

PMBSS Primary Mirror Backplane Support Structure

PNT Positioning, Navigation, and Timing

POES Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites

POSEIDON Ocean Topography Experiment

PP Precision Point

PPPL Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

PRS Public Regulated Service

PSD Planetary Science Division; production, supply, and distribution

PTMS power and TMS

Pu plutonium Q

QCL quantum-cascade laser R

RCF Range Communication Facility

RCS Reaction Control System

RED Regional Economic Development

RERP Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program

RF-CLASS Remote-Sensing-Based Flood Crop Loss Assessment Service System

RFMG Radio Frequency Mass Gauge

RFP Request for Proposal

RGFO Royal Gorge Field Office

RHIC Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider

RIME Radar for Icy Moon Exploration

RISR Resolute Bay Incoherent Scatter Radar

RLV Reusable Launch Vehicle

RNP Required Navigation Performance

RO radio occultation

ROD Record of Decision

ROK Republic of Korea

ROSES Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences

Rp refined propellant

RPA Remotely Piloted Aircraft

RPS radioisotope power system

RPT Rocket Propulsion Test

RRSW Rapid Response Space Works

RSAC Remote Sensing Applications Center

RSCC Remote Sensing Coordinating Committee
210Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

RSIWG Remote Sensing Interagency Working Group

RTCA Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics

S

SAA Sense and Avoid

SAB Scientific Advisory Board

SABRS Space and Atmospheric Burst Reporting System

SAC-C Satélite de Aplicaciones Científicas

Saffire-1 Spacecraft Fire Experiment–1

SAL Semi-Active Laser

SAM Sample Analysis at Mars

SAMS Sensitivity Analysis for Multidisciplinary Systems

SAO Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

SAT Special Action Team; Office of Space and Advanced Technology

SATCOM Satellite Communications

SBAG Small Bodies Assessment Group

SBAS Satellite Based Augmentation System

SBIR Small Business Innovative Research

SBIRS Space Based Infrared System

SBP Space Biology Program

SBSS FO Space Based Space Surveillance Follow-On

SC Office of Science

S-CAESAR Small-Component and Engine Structural Assessment Research

SCaN Space Communications and Navigation

SDD System Development and Demonstration

SDO Solar Dynamics Observatory

SEA Social and Economic Analysis

SEP solar electric propulsion

SEXTANT Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology

SGM small guided munition

SHARAD Shallow Subsurface Radar

SHIIVER Structural Heat Intercept Insulation Vibration Evaluation Rig

SHINE Solar, Heliosphere, and INterplanetary Environment

SIA Satellite Imagery Archives

SIRCUS Spectral Irradiance and Radiance Responsivity Calibrations using Uniform Sources

SJRRP San Joaquin River Restoration Program

SLAC Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

SLC Space Launch Complex

SLS Space Launch System

SM Service Module

SMA Service Module Adapter

SMAP Soil Moisture Active Passive

SMC Space and Missile Systems Center

SMD Science Mission Directorate

SMDC Space and Missile Defense Command

SN Space Network

SNaP SMDC Nanosatellite Program

SNDD Space-Based Nuclear Detonation Detection

SNL Sandia National Laboratories

SNP Saguaro National Park

SNSPD superconducting nanowire single-photon detector

SO2 sulfur dioxide

SOA service-oriented architecture

SOC Space Optical Clock
211 Acronyms

SOCOM Special Operations Command

SOFIA Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy

SOHO Solar and Heliospheric Observatory

SP Service Pack

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corporation

SPB Super Pressure Balloon

SPEI Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index

SPMAGTF-SC Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force–Southern Command

SPO System Program Office

SPP Solar Probe Plus

SPT South Pole Telescope

SPTpol SPT polarization-sensitive

SPUD Small Polarimeter Upgrade for Degree Angular Scale Interferometer

SQUID Superconducting Quantum Interference Device

SRR Sample Return Robot

SRTM Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

SSA Space Situational Awareness

SSC Stennis Space Center

SSDP Space Security and Defense Program

SST Space Surveillance Telescope

SSTP Small Spacecraft Technology Program

STA structural test article

Stare WAI Staring Wide Area Imager

STARS Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System

STE structural test equipment

STELR Supersonic Engine for Long Range

STEM science, technology, engineering, and mathematics

STEREO Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory

STMD Space Technology Mission Directorate

STMSat-1 St. Thomas More Cathedral School Satellite–1

STOVL Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing

STP Space Test Program

STSC Scientific and Technical Subcommittee

STTR Small Business Technology Transfer

SuMIRE Subaru Measurement of Images and Redshifts

Suomi NPP Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership

SURF Synchrotron Ultraviolet Radiation Facility

SWEAP Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons

SWIM System Wide Information Management

SWIR shortwave infrared

SWORM Space Weather Operations, Research, and Mitigation

SWR Space Weather Research

SZ Sunyaev-Zel’dovich T

TALISMAN Tendon-Actuated Lightweight In-Space MANipulator

TAMR Terminal Automation Modernization and Replacement

TBFM Time Based Flow Management

TBW Truss Braced Wing

TCC Tree Canopy Cover

TCCON Total Column Carbon Observing Network

TCL Technology Capability Level

TDRS Tracking and Data Relay Satellite

TDRSS Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System
212Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2016 Activities

TECRO Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States

TES transition-edge sensor; Terrestrial Ecosystem Science

TESS Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite

TeV teraelectronvolt

TFDM Terminal Flight Data Manager

TFMS Traffic Flow Management System

THEMIS Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms

TIGER Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing

TM Thematic Mapper

TMAS Thermal Mapping Airborne Simulator

TMRR Technology Maturation and Risk Reduction

TMS thermal management system

TOPEX Topography Experiment

TRACON Terminal Radar Approach Control

TRL Technology Readiness Level

TSA Transportation Security Administration

TSAS Terminal Sequencing and Spacing

TSC Technical Service Center

TSIS Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor

TT&C telemetry, tracking, and communication

U

UAF University of Alaska Fairbanks

UAS unmanned aircraft system

UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

UCAR University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

UDP Unit Deployment Program

UGCS Universal Ground Control Station

UHF Ultra-High Frequency

ULA United Launch Alliance

ULI University Leadership Initiative

UNCOPUOS United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space

UNISPACE+50 50th anniversary of the first United Nations conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses 

of Outer Space

UNOOSA United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs

URGB Upper Rio Grande Basin

USAF United States Air Force

USAID U.S. Agency for International Development

USDA U.S. Department of Agriculture

USFS U.S. Forest Service

USGS United States Geological Survey

USMC United States Marine Corps

USNDS U.S. NuDet Detection System

USSTRATCOM U.S. Strategic Command

UTM UAS Traffic Management

V

VASIMR Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket

VCLS Venture Class Launch Service

Veggie Vegetable Production System

VIIRS Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite

VSMI Vehicle Systems Model Integration

VSPT Variable-Speed Power Turbine

VTOL Vertical Take-Off and Landing
213 Acronyms

W

WASDE World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates

WaterSMART Sustain and Manage America’s Resources for Tomorrow

WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access

WFIRST Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope

WGS Wideband Global SATCOM

WIN Written Impact Narrative

WMAP Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe

WMN Western Range Modernization of Network

WSF Weather Satellite Follow-on

WSTF White Sands Test Facility

WUI wildland urban interface Z

ZTF Zwicky Transient Facility

NP-2017-05-2391-HQ