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NASA SETMO Newsletter | WINTER 2022 

National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration 

NEW AND NOTABLE 

A recent article by Armstrong Test Facility Director 

Gen. David Stringer has been posted on the SETMO 

website. Entitled “Why Test Spacecraft and Delivery 

Systems?”, the piece summarizes testing’s many 

benefts, not solely for missions, but also to ensure 

workforce competencies and continuity, as well as 

facilities sustainment and improvements. 

In December, NASA Langley personnel demon 

strated the Test and Evaluation Simulator (TES) 

confgured for lunar lander simulations to astro 

nauts Victor Glover and Drew Feustel from NASAs 

Astronaut Crew Offce. The pair few combinations 

of approach trajectories, control laws, variations in 

control power, heads-down display elements, and 

enhanced vision elements. The TES is a stand-up, 

rapid-prototyping simulator being used by the 

Human Landing System Program for crew interface 

design and assessments of handling qualities. 

The Lucy spacecraft continues its journey toward 

the asteroid belt and the grouping known as Trojan 

asteroids, captured within the planet Jupiter’s orbit. 

Launched this past October, with Lucy’s systems 

verifed during NASA-supported testing, Lucy’s mis 

sion is slated to last 12 years and will focus on some 

of the oldest rocky bodies known to exist within 

the solar system. Although Lucy’s solar array didn’t 

latch after deployment — an issue the mission team 

is working to resolve — all spacecraft systems are 

normal. The arrays are producing ample energy, 

charging the spacecraft’s battery as expected. 

With its launch in late November, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft – DART for short 

– remains on target this coming autumn to hit head 

on Dimorphos, a small moonlit asteroid. Part of a 

binary asteroid system that orbits the Sun between 

7 and 11 million miles from Earth, Dimorphos was 

chosen to demonstrate kinetic impactor technology. Such a capability could mitigate or eliminate a 

serious potential terrestrial asteroid-impact threat 

should one ever be detected. The DART spacecraft’s 

NEXT-C ion thruster engine underwent acceptance 

testing in NASA Glenn’s VF-6 chamber. 

A colorful autumn has given way to winter’s 

darker hues. It’s a time of transition, as temperatures have plunged and the winds feel 

more raw than renewing. Hopefully, despite 

the ongoing Covid pandemic challenges, you 

were able to spend some quality holiday time 

with your family and friends. Thankfully, 2021 

is over, and better times beckon for 2022. 

We at SETMO have our own transitions as 

well: in particular, three on our team have 

retired from NASA and have moved on to the 

next phase of their lives. We’re profling them 

— Bob Kowalski, Mike Montz and Jean Roberts 

— in this issue of Horizons, and learning where 

they’ve been and where they’re now planning 

to go. 

All three have contributed enormously to our 

work. I am grateful for their deep expertise 

and fortunate to have counted them as colleagues. They will be missed, and I know our 

entire team wishes them the very best. 

Once in a Generation 

One of the nation’s biggest transitions — and 

NASA’s — is the long-anticipated addition of 

the next-generation James Webb Space Telescope to our array of space-based observatories. A fawless JWST Christmas Day launch 

has been followed by a number of complex 

and successful steps as the telescope arranged itself into its fnal confguration. 

Now that the JWST has settled into its target 

orbit nearly a million miles from Earth, the 

telescope will begin to study an array of 

astronomical phenomena, both in our own 

solar system and well beyond, to the furthest 

reaches of the observable universe. If history 

is any guide, there will be surprises and excellent images to accompany them. 

In an upcoming Horizons issue, we’ll be taking 

a look at the testing behind the JWST: the 

painstaking processes that ensured that this 

once-in-a-generation instrument and its various systems were prepared to withstand and 

excel in the extreme conditions the telescope 

now experiences. 

New on the Site 

Our website continues to evolve as we add 

content. Our frst video, an overview look 

at SETMO’s technical capabilities and the 

facilities we support, is posted there. We’ll 

also be including information on additional 

SETMO-sustained facilities, as well as a data 

compendium that provides a deeper dive into 

each facility’s unique characteristics. 

As always, don’t hesitate to reach out to 

us at hq-setmo@mail.nasa.gov with any 

comments or feedback. Hope you enjoy this 

latest Horizons issue. 

Michael Mastaler 

FROM THE DIRECTOR
 

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Robert Kowalski 

decade performing propulsion systems testing positions. He concluded his Agency career 

and becoming the subsystem manager for the as manager of the ATF Space Environments 

Shuttle Reaction Control System. Complex. There, he and his team of civil ser 

vants and support contractor staff managed Bob later moved to the Johnson Space Cen -

ter’s White Sands Test Facility (WSTF), in Las 

Cruces, New Mexico, where he would remain 

for a quarter century testing and evaluating 

potentially hazardous materials, space fight 

components, and rocket propulsion systems. 

and operated four space-dedicated testing 

laboratories that assess stresses during liftoff, 

fight and extended missions from vibration 

and sound, electromagnetic radiation, and the 

general impacts of continued exposure to a 

hard vacuum. Because of its remote location and unique 

capabilities, White Sands can safely conduct 

studies that otherwise may pose some danger 

to more densely populated areas. 

No longer concentrating on space travel, Bob’ 

focus now is more down to Earth. He will be 

focusing on his primary passion: travel. Two 

other priorities, volunteering and camping, are Bob grew up near Chicago, and his wife in 

New Mexico and West Texas. When Bob’s par -

ents 

also on the list. It’s time, he says, to do other 

IN PROFILE SETMO Bids a Fond Farewell 

things, things much more terrestrial. “got tired of shoveling snow” they moved 

to Phoenix, Arizona, and Bob moved to Tucson “Working for NASA has been an amazing thing. As a child, Bob Kowalski had stars in his to attend the University of Arizona. A co-op 

opportunity led to the career at NASA. 

The work has been fascinating, he says. “I’ve 

eyes – more accurately, space. His heart been hands-on with the shuttle, with the 

was set on becoming a member of NASAs space station, with Orion, with rockets. And Prior to becoming chief of the White Sands 

Propulsion astronaut corps, but he would have to wait the people: so intelligent, in a class by them Test Offce in 2012, Bob was until adulthood to even begin the process. selves. acting chief of the Technical Services Offce, Then came the applying, and the flling out of 

responsible for WSTF’s enabling capabilities, Bob’s wife is planning to open a personal applications. And more applications ... which support all WSTF’s test programs. An 

opportunity would arise at NASA Glenn’s Plum 

Brook location – now the Armstrong Test Facil -

ity (ATF) – and one that Bob and his wife (also 

catering business. Bob may be drafted as an 

“I applied at least a half-dozen times starting in apprentice sous-chef. A second career could 

the late 1980s, Bob says. “I few on the Vomit be in the offng.

Comet. I got my pilot’s license. I fgured all of 

“I’m still a little anxious about leaving. It’s that would help. But ... I just didn’t have what a NASA engineer) couldn’t pass up. going to be different, Bob says. “But I’ve had it took, I guess, at least not then. 

“We wanted to do something different, he experiences few people have – research in 

He may not have rocketed directly to the high 

frontier, but Bob’s work has been essential 

in helping others do just that. Bob began his 

says. “So when this opportunity came up, I space exploration and space travel. Those 

said to my wife, ‘Let’s go do it!” things I’ve played some small role in. It’s been 

pretty great. In all, Bob worked for NASA for over 40 years career at Johnson Space Center in Houston, 

Texas where he would spend a little over a in various engineering and management

Michael Montz 

meant suiting up in a NASA EMU – short for 

Extravehicular Mobility Unit – one of two types 

of spacesuits currently worn by astronauts 

on the International Space Station during 

spacewalks. 

“I became certifed as a suit test subject and 

have worn the EMU during numerous cham 

ber tests, he says. “We fnd, during testing, is 

sues we’re able to address and correct. That’s 

been very satisfying to me, especially working 

with the mission crews. 

Mike left the modeling and testing part of his 

life behind once he retired from NASA at the 

end of December. Owner of a small ranch near 

Alvin, Texas, he plans to spend most of his 

time there, except when he and his wife are 

traveling, something Mike says “we haven’t 

done in all these years.

 Few who are employed by NASA can attest It’s been a journey that, education-wise, began 

to being a working model, but Mike Montz has for Mike in a small elementary school where 

been one. Though “model” in this case doesn’t each teacher provided instruction to three 

refer to a person appearing in an extended grades in a single room. His class numbered 

magazine photoshoot, but as a literal test just three students. The high school count was 

article in a chamber. Specifcally, for Mike, that a little larger: 36 classmates in all. 

Once graduated from the University of 

Nebraska, Mike began to work for Boeing in 

Wichita, Kansas. Making plans for a Thanks 

giving reunion with his family, Mike gave a lift 

home to one of his grade-school classmates, 

who likewise was working in Wichita. The re 

sult was that “Juanita and I have been together 

since that time. We were married in June 1980, 

12 days before I started at Johnson Space 

Center and just a little over 41 years ago. 

A NASA application and a call from Johnson 

Space Center (JSC) later, Mike would begin 

his career as a test director in small thermal 

vacuum chambers, part of a complex that still 

includes JSC storied Chambers A and B. Long 

before Mike’s work began, those chambers 

hosted both the Apollo Command and Service 

and Lunar Excursion Modules for tests, and 

were “man-rated, certifed for testing space 

suits as crew members wore and moved 

around in them. 

Involvement with space shuttle testing would 

follow, as would testing of the aforementioned 

EMU and tools and hardware used during 

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Jean Roberts 

Gardening, it is said, is good for the soul. For 

Jean Roberts, now retired from her post as 

the Armstrong Test Facility’s (ATF) business 

manager, it is a particular devotion, one Jean 

says she’s eager to fully indulge. “I’m ready to 

get going on my hobbies – gardening espe 

cially. My mom had a big fower garden and I 

learned a lot from her. And I have a vegetable 

garden too. 

Jean got her start in the early 1980s working 

for a U.S. Department of Energy program that 

leased space from NASA at what was then 

called Plum Brook Station (now ATF). As a 

security specialist, Jean managed classifed 

documents and classifed equipment, includ 

ing faxes and telephones, and assisted in 

processing security clearances. 

By October 1986, Jean had become a NASA 

civil servant serving as an administrative aide 

to the chief of the Plum Brook Management 

Offce. Off the bat, things didn’t go as smooth 

ly as Jean would have liked. “When I frst start 

ed, in my frst two weeks, we were typing up 

charts on why we shouldn’t close Plum Brook 

down, she recalls. “I asked myself: what have 

I stepped into? But Plum Brook’s uniqueness 

and value persuaded the Agency otherwise. 

By September 1990 Jean had been promoted 

to a contract specialist with a small purchase 

warrant authority, placing all NASA orders 

under $25,000 for Plum Brook Station; she 

also assumed the role of contracting offcer 

technical representative for the Station’s 

prime contract. By October 2008, Jean took on 

the role of fnancial management specialist, 

managing all Plum Brook funds while main 

taining her previously assigned contracting 

-offcer duties. 

“It was a roller coaster ride for the test facilities 

over my career at Plum Brook, she says. “I’ve 

seen the facilities not having any testing 

customers to then seeing all four of the major 

ones come out of standby and be active. Each 

time Plum Brook seemed to come back stron 

ger than ever. 

Certainly for the general public, the Station 

was a big draw. During the times Plum Brook 

organized open houses, attendance was ro 

bust, drawing many from nearby communities 

to witness for themselves the progress made 

by NASAs projects and programs. 

“Whenever we had the open houses, the public 

was so enthused about our facility, Jean says. 

“It was pretty neat for everyone to see what 

we were actually doing. 

Jean credits SETMO’s predecessor, the 

Shared Capability Asset Program, or SCAP, 

for smoothing the budget ride, ensuring that 

funds were available to sustain, maintain 

and improve essential testing competencies. 

Among other issues, there was a sizable list 

of deferred Station maintenance items that 

needed to be addressed. 

“You have to have a budget to maintain your 

facilities, to keep them open and working, 

Jean says. “We didn’t have that until SCAP. 

Once funding was stabilized, that was when 

Plum Brook started pulling in customers. 

Jean and her husband still live in a small 

town about seven miles from the Armstrong 

Test Facility. Two adult children live close by 

in that same town. In addition to tending to 

her fower and vegetable gardens, she is a 

dedicated card player, an enthusiastic traveler, 

and always on the hunt for treasures at fea 

markets. 

“It’s time for me to leave. I have no regrets, Jean 

says. “I’ve loved to see how Plum Brook, now 

Armstrong, has grown. I hope they will con 

tinue to get work and commitments from big 

programs. But I will defnitely miss the people. 

spacewalks. In all, Mike would be the primary 

test director for 105 manned tests, and assis 

tant test director for 65. 

Even back in college days, I was interested 

in testing, he says. “There’s the challenge of 

putting equipment in a chamber so that crew 

can work with it. It was always interesting to 

see how the hardware components came 

together and interacted. There was something 

new all the time. 

Mike would ultimately be promoted to deputy 

branch chief – and, by 2019, branch chief – 

for the JSC Systems Test Branch, where he 

would oversee Chamber A testing of the James 

Webb Telescope. A lot of very talented people 

worked to make the JWST test successful, he 

says. “I was glad to have played some small 

part in that once-in-a-life-time project. 

Of his involvement with SETMO, Mike says he 

was especially grateful to have had the op 

portunity to see frst-hand other test facilities 

across NASA. Now, though, it is time for the 

next chapter. “Forty years [working] is suff 

cient, he says. “It’s been a very satisfying life. 

IN FOCUS Testing Preps JWST Success 

IN PROFILE | SETMO Bids a Fond Farewell

The most complex – and powerful – inspace observatory ever created, the James 

Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is beginning 

to assume its fnal confguration. Following 

Webb’s arrival at its orbital destination around 

Lagrange Point 2 on January 24, the mission 

operations team began working its way 

through a critical series of steps: powering on 

all the science instruments, turning off heaters to begin a long cooldown process, and 

ultimately capturing the frst photons on the 

JWST primary camera to enable a months-long 

alignment of the telescope. 

Such progress would not have been possible 

without extensive terrestrial testing of all 

Webb systems and components prior to the 

telescope’s launch and deployment. 

One example: when the vault-like, 40-foot diameter, 40-ton door of NASA’s Johnson Space 

Center’s Chamber A was sealed shut on July 

10, 2017, it signaled the beginning of about 

100 days of cryogenic testing for Webb. 

Before Webb was placed inside, Johnson 

engineers built a large cleanroom around the 

Chamber A entrance. The cleanroom enabled 

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IN FOCUS | Testing Preps JWST Success 

the telescope to be hoisted from its shipping 

container and unwrapped from protective 

bagging, deployed, rotated from horizontal to 

vertical, placed on its test platform and, fnally, 

slid into the chamber on rails and hung from 

the six long suspending rods. 

The observatory’s optical telescope and integrated science instrument module – known 

as OTIS – were put through a series of tests 

designed to ensure the telescope functioned 

A Dress Rehearsal for Artemis 1 

Work continues inside the Vehicle Assembly 

Building (VAB) at NASAs Kennedy Space Center 

in Florida in preparation for an Artemis I launch 

pad wet dress-rehearsal test, currently targeted 

for sometime in March. Teams have been 

installing the rocket’s fight termination system 

and are working on the frst of a two-part test 

of the system. Once the rocket and spacecraft 

systems are verifed during the dress rehearsal, 

the 322-foot-tall rocket will roll back into the 

VAB for fnal inspections and checkouts, before 

returning to the pad for launch. 

as expected in an extremely cold, airless 

environment akin to that of space. 

While Webb was inside the chamber, insulated from both outside visible and infrared 

light, engineers monitored it using thermal 

sensors and specialized camera systems. 

The thermal sensors kept tabs on the temperature of the telescope, while the camera 

systems tracked the physical position of 

Webb to see how its components moved 

First JWST Images 

Anticipated this Summer 

Mirror alignment for the James Webb Space 

Telescope continues, a process that thus 

far has led to completion of three of seven 

planned phases. When all seven are fnished, 

Webb’s optics team will ensure that the 

observatory’s 18 primary mirror segments 

have formed a single mirror surface. The fully 

aligned telescope will then be ready for instru 

ment commissioning. The frst scientifc imag 

es are expected to be delivered to the world 

in the summer. Additional work continues in 

tandem to prepare the observatory for full 

operation using all four of its instruments. One 

essential Webb instrument, the Near Infrared 

Camera, continues to approach its target 

temperature of approximately -244 degrees 

Fahrenheit (-153 degrees Celsius). 

Visit us at 

https://www.nasa.gov/offices/setmo 

during the cooldown process. 

Other types of testing would also occur, a 

necessary prelude to prep the observatory for 

long and robust operation. An upcoming Horizons article will examine those assessments, 

and do a deeper dive into exactly how central 

testing has been to the JWST journey in its 

quest to peer deeply into the vast expanse of 

the observable universe. 

Ground Testing 

Begins for the X-59 

NASAs X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology 

aircraft (QueSST) has been moved from man 

ufacturer Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works in 

California to the company’s facilities in Texas 

to prepare for ground testing, as progress 

continues toward the aircraft’s expected frst 

fight later this year. The Texas studies are to 

ensure the aircraft can withstand the loads 

and stresses that typically occur during fight. 

The team will also calibrate and evaluate fuel 

systems before the X-59 makes the journey 

back to California for additional tests and 

completion. A key X-59 component is a 

synthetic vision system, extensively vetted 

and validated in NASA simulators. 

WHAT’S NEXT 

www.nasa.gov

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