origins of the marshall space flight · pdf filement related to german rocket research. ......

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Marshall’s rocket and space legacy also has roots

in Germany. Among those who joined President

Eisenhower at the dedication of the new Marshall

Center was Dr. Wernher von Braun, the Center’s first

director. Von Braun’s interest in rocketry dated back

to his early years growing up in his native Germany

prior to World War II. Von Braun had studied under

the famous rocket theoretician, Hermann Oberth,

and had joined him in early rocket experiments

conducted under the sponsorship of the German

Society for Space Travel.

Marshall Space Flight Center’s legacy of contribu-

tions to the American space program dates back to

September 8, 1960. On that date, President Dwight

Eisenhower formally dedicated the George C.

Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville as a new

field installation of the National Aeronautics and

Space Administration (NASA). Named for the late

General George C. Marshall, the Marshall Center

resulted from the transfer in Huntsville of 4,670 Army

civil service employees and 1,840 acres of Redstone

Arsenal property and facilities worth $100 million.

The original German rocket team shortly after their arrival in 1946 at Fort Bliss, Texas.

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Origins of the Marshall Space Flight Center

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During World War II, von Braun was technical director

at the Peenemünde Rocket Center in Germany. There

he and his growing team of specialists built the

famous V–2 rocket that established the technological

basis for post-war experimentation with even more

powerful rockets. When von Braun and his team

recognized that the war was ending and that Russian

troops would soon occupy Peenemünde, they

decided to evacuate the rocket development site.

Traveling in caravans by any number of means, the

scientists headed south bluffing their way through

German checkpoints, eventually deciding to surren-

der to American forces. As World War II ended, the

United States government manifested interest in the

technical capability of the von Braun team. A group

of American scientists was dispatched to Europe on

August 14, 1945, to collect information and equip-

ment related to German rocket research. As a result,

the components for approximately 100 V–2 ballistic

missiles were recovered and shipped from Germany

to White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico. In

late 1945, more than 100 members of the von Braun

team agreed to come to the United States to work

under U.S. Army supervision.

Assigned to Fort Bliss, Texas, the Germans and

Americans rebuilt, tested, and flew the V–2 rockets

previously shipped to the U.S. from Germany. The first

American-assembled V–2 was static fired on March

14, 1946, at White Sands. June 28,1946, marked the

first successful launch of a V–2 rocket fully instru-

mented for upper air research. The rocket attained

a height of 67 miles.

A young Wernher von Braun holding a model of theV-2 rocket.

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As the 1940’s closed, the Army expanded its rocket

program and moved the von Braun team to Hunts-

ville and to World War II arsenal facilities originally

used to produce various chemical compounds and

Huntsville and the Space Program in the 1950s

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Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director Dr. James Pickering; Dr. James van Allen of the StateUniversity of Iowa; and Army Ballistic Missile Agency Technical Director Dr. Wernher vonBraun triumphantly display a model of Explorer I, America’s first satellite, shortly afterthe satellite’s launch on January 31, 1958. Dr. von Braun’s rocket team at the RedstoneArsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, developed the Juno I launch vehicle, which was a modifiedJupiter-C. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory packed and tested the payload, which wasradiation detection equipment designed by Dr. van Allen.

pyrotechnical devices. In Huntsville, the Germans

joined a growing cadre of U.S. rocketry specialists.

Working under von Braun, the combined team built

missiles to counter Soviet Cold War threats. The most

Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director Dr. James Pickering; Dr. James van Allen of the StateUniversity of Iowa; and Army Ballistic Missile Agency Technical Director Dr. Wernher vonBraun triumphantly display a model of Explorer I, America’s first satellite, shortly afterthe satellite’s launch on January 31, 1958. Dr. von Braun’s rocket team at the RedstoneArsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, developed the Juno I launch vehicle, which was a modifiedJupiter-C. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory packed and tested the payload, which wasradiation detection equipment designed by Dr. van Allen.

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famous was officially named “Redstone” on April 8,

1952, in recognition of its development at Redstone

Arsenal in Huntsville. The name of the arsenal, in

turn, referred to the rock and soil in Huntsville.

In early 1958, world attention focused on the

Huntsville rocket team. Earlier in the decade, von

Braun had proposed using a Huntsville rocket to

launch an American satellite to beat the Russians into

space. Instead, Eisenhower favored a Navy program

called Vanguard. Then in October 1957, the Soviets

launched Sputnik, the first manmade object ever to

orbit the Earth. The U.S. countered on December 6

with an effort to launch a Vanguard rocket. Misfor-

tune struck, however, when the rocket exploded in

flames on the launch pad. It was, one newspaper

headline said, time for the Huntsville team to come

through. Von Braun got the go-ahead from Washing-

ton, and on January 31, 1958, his Huntsville team

launched a four stage Jupiter-C rocket from the

Florida launch site. It carried Explorer I, the Nation’s

first Earth-orbiting satellite, and marked the United

States’ initial entry in the space race.

Following Explorer I, American leadership debated

over whether the U.S. space program should be

administered by a military or civilian agency. The

debate resulted in the creation of NASA, a civilian

organization, on October 1, 1958. In turn, President

Eisenhower later signed an executive order indicating

that personnel from the Development Operations

Division of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency in

Huntsville should transfer to NASA, subject to the

approval of Congress. The activation of the Marshall

Center on July 1, 1960, meant that the Army would

continue the growing task of developing and provid-

ing military rockets and missile systems. The Marshall

Center would provide launch vehicles for NASA’s

civilian exploration of outer space.

Von Braun and his fellow Germans had received

American citizenship in the 1950’s and had made

Huntsville their home. The team met the challenge

of launching America’s first satellite into space. As

the new NASA team in Huntsville entered the 1960’s,

they faced even larger challenges, like “Saturn,”

a vehicle eventually selected to launch American

astronauts to the surface of the Moon.

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machine workers from the East Coast, electrical

engineers from the Midwest and promising young

chemists from Georgia Tech and California,” said

U.S. News and World Report.

Residents searched for ways to accommodate the

city’s rapid growth. Hannes Luehrsen, who had been

trained in architecture and city planning in Germany,

drew plans for a major detour around the city’s

original business district. With the school population

growing by 1,200 students a year, the spouses of

scientists and engineers at Redstone Arsenal helped

fill the need for teachers, and in January 1950, the

University of Alabama opened a branch in Huntsville.

Later, von Braun lobbied for a research institute and

a permanent full undergraduate program.

By 1967, Huntsville’s population was over 100,000

and still growing. Federal dollars streamed into

Huntsville. Legend has it that von Braun sent

government photographers outside the gates of

the Marshall Center to take pictures of dilapidated

houses. He then presented the pictures to city

leaders to demonstrate how the city looked when

visitors came to town. At the end of World War II,

Huntsville had about 12 industries and 3,500 homes.

By 1964, the city had more than 40 industries and

30,000 homes.

Huntsville celebrated the launch of Explorer I with

fireworks in the streets. National attention focused

on the city, once devoted almost entirely to growing

cotton. Huntsville got a place on the map and

became known as the “Rocket City.” Von Braun’s

picture appeared on the cover of Time.

The celebration in Huntsville in 1958 marked the

eighth year since the rocket team had moved to

Huntsville. Much had changed even before the launch

of Explorer I. Cotton traders and mule-drawn wagons

that had been so much in evidence in the first half

of the century were gone. When the German team

arrived in 1950, Huntsville’s population was 16,000.

By 1956, it had grown to 48,000, expanding with

rocket engineers and scientists from across the

United States.

There were other changes too. The Germans height-

ened the community’s cultural climate by promoting

and participating in musical and artistic endeavors.

Von Braun led the drive to build an astronomical

observatory and telescope on nearby Monte Sano

Mountain.

By the mid-1950’s, the word “rocket” was plastered

on everything from cafés to upholstery shops. The

character of the population changed as well. The city

“draws top talented physicists from New England,

“Rocket City” Expands

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As work on the Saturn rockets progressed in the

1960’s, von Braun sought ways to preserve public

enthusiasm for space exploration. By the mid-1960’s,

he and others had joined forces in establishing a

permanent site to publicly display hundreds of space

and missile-related exhibits provided by the Marshall

Center and the Army. That facility opened in 1970

and is known today as the U.S. Space and Rocket

Center.

The Huntsville Times announces the successfullaunching of America’s first satellite, Explorer I, bya Huntsville-built Jupiter-C on January 31, 1958.

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America’s growing interest in space exploration

in the late 1950’s led to the desire for launch

vehicles able to lift increasingly larger scientific

payloads. The four stage Jupiter C (sometimes called

Juno I) used to launch Explorer I had minimum

payload lifting capabilities. In fact, Explorer I weighed

slightly less than 31 pounds. Huntsville’s Juno II was

part of America’s effort to increase payload lifting

capabilities.

Among other achievements, a Juno II successfully

launched a Pioneer IV satellite on March 3, 1959,

and an Explorer VII satellite on October 13, 1959.

Pioneer IV was a joint project of the Army Ballistic

Missile Agency in Huntsville and the Jet Propulsion

Laboratory in California. It passed within 37,000

miles of the Moon before going into permanent solar

orbit. Explorer VII, with a total weight of 91.5 pounds,

carried a scientific package for detecting micro-

meteors, measuring the Earth’s radiation balance,

and conducting other experiments.

Responsibility for Juno II passed from the Army to

the Marshall Center when the Center was activated

on July 1, 1960. On November 3, 1960, a Juno II sent

Explorer VIII into a 1,000-mile deep orbit within the

ionosphere. Explorer VIII was significant in Marshall’s

history since the Center was involved in the mission

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Juno Rockets for Space Science

This is the Juno space vehicle, which was used byNASA during the period 1958–61 to launch variousEarth satellites and space probes. Marshall SpaceFlight Center assumed responsibility for the Junoafter the Center was created in 1960.

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in at least three different ways. First, the Center

had responsibility for the Juno stage of the vehicle.

Second, it had responsibility for conducting the

launch from the Launch Operations Directorate at

Cape Canaveral. Finally, Marshall shared responsibil-

ity with Goddard Space Flight Center for designing,

preparing, and testing the satellite.

Other launch vehicles later replaced the Juno II as

the primary launcher for the Explorer satellite series.

However, another Juno II provided by the Marshall

Center was fired on April 27, 1961, and launched

Explorer XI into orbit to conduct a complex gamma-

ray astronomy experiment. The spacecraft was

referred to as the S–15 astronomy satellite and

was developed by the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology.

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Next, the scientists placed a 37-pound chimpanzee

named “Ham” in a Mercury capsule and launched

him on a Redstone. Ham returned in good health

but the Redstone engine had unexpectedly run with

the throttle wide-open, a situation that caused von

Braun to call for an additional unmanned Redstone

launch on March 24, 1961. Finally, von Braun’s

Redstone was ready to launch America’s first

astronaut, Alan Shepard, into space.

Unfortunately, another event stole some of

Redstone’s thunder. On April 12,1961, the Russians

announced that Maj. Yuri Gagarin had successfully

orbited the Earth for 108 minutes in a 5-ton space-

craft. Gagarin became the first human to make a

successful orbital flight through space.

The chance to launch Shepard on a suborbital flight

came within weeks of Gagarin’s flight. On May 5, a

Redstone rocket supplied by the Marshall Center

lifted off at Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying Shepard

in his Mercury spacecraft, nicknamed “Freedom 7.”

Shepard rose to an altitude of almost 116 miles and

covered a range of more than 300 miles on a

suborbital flight that lasted less than 15 minutes.

After the Russians launched Sputnik and the

Americans launched Explorer I, the space race was

on. But Sputnik and Explorer were only machines in

space. Next the great superpowers rushed to beat

each other in a race to put a human in space.

As a result, NASA asked von Braun’s group in

Huntsville to modify and test an Army Redstone

missile that the space Agency could use to launch

a manned Mercury capsule.

Between April 1959 and July 1960, von Braun’s

engineers in Huntsville ground-tested the Redstone’s

propulsion systems more than 200 times. Unfortu-

nately, their first attempt to launch an unmanned

Redstone was a complete failure.

Already under pressure from newspapers and

politicians reminding them of the progress the

Russians were making, von Braun and his engineers

went to work on the technical problems that had

beset the launch. They successfully launched their

first unmanned Mercury-Redstone on December 19,

1960, and then launched another on January 31,

1961.

Mercury-Redstone

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Von Braun had been conciliatory toward the Russians

following the Gagarin flight. But his tone changed

after Shepard’s flight. He predicted that the Ameri-

cans would go even farther in the space race

“eventually landing a man on the moon.” The people

of Huntsville “will share in these achievements,” he

told The Huntsville Times.

Marshall Space Flight Center Director Dr. Wernhervon Braun addresses a jubilant crowd in front of theMadison County Courthouse celebrating thesuccessful flight of astronaut Alan Shepard, the firstAmerican in space, on May 5, 1961.

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The primary objective of the second Saturn flight

on April 25, 1962, was to gather engineering data

for future Saturn flights. However, the mission also

included “Project Highwater.” This experiment

released nearly 30,000 gallons of ballast water in

the upper atmosphere. Release of this vast quantity

of water in a near-space environment marked the

first purely scientific large-scale experiment con-

cerned with the space environment. The water was

released at an altitude of 65 miles where, within

only 5 seconds, it expanded into a massive ice cloud

4.6 miles in diameter that continued to climb to a

height of 90 miles.

Eight more Saturn I vehicles were flown. Following

another Saturn I launch on September 18, 1964,

the Marshall Center declared the Saturn I opera-

tional, noting that the vehicle had placed 39,000

pounds into orbit.

The eighth Saturn I flight on February 16, 1965,

placed a Pegasus I satellite into orbit. “The Pegasus

satellite will ‘sweep’ space, detecting and reporting

collisions with meteoroids. The information will give

scientists a better indication of the distribution, size

and velocity of such particles near Earth,” wrote one

observer.

Ten months after they provided the Jupiter C rocket

to launch Explorer I, von Braun’s Army team in

Huntsville began developing a high-performance

rocket for advanced space missions. Tentatively

called Juno V and finally designated Saturn, the

rocket work was turned over to NASA in late 1959.

This Saturn I vehicle and its follow-on the Saturn IB

served as test-bed rockets for the larger and more

powerful Saturn V that would eventually carry the first

humans to the Moon. Along the way towards devel-

oping the Saturn V, the Marshall Center also used the

Saturn I for two early scientific efforts. One was called

“Project Highwater.” The second was called “Pe-

gasus.”

The initial firing of two Saturn I first-stage engines

came on March 28, 1960, only a few days after

President Eisenhower officially directed that the NASA

facilities in Huntsville would be known as the George

C. Marshall Space Flight Center. After the Center’s

activation on July 1, the Marshall Center assumed

responsibility for Saturn. On October 27, 1961, the

first Saturn vehicle flew a flawless 215-mile ballistic

trajectory from Cape Canaveral. The 162-foot-tall

rocket weighed 925,000 pounds and employed a

dummy second stage.

The First Saturn Rockets

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The ninth flight of the Saturn I, on May 25, 1965,

successfully relied on both stages built by private

industry and managed by the Marshall Center. That

mission also marked the first night launch of a

Saturn and the launch of a Pegasus II satellite.

The final flight of the Saturn I on July 30, 1965,

climaxed what Marshall officials described as “a

program which started the U.S. on the road to

the Moon with 10 straight successes.”

The Saturn I launch vehicle provided NASA with

significant new payload lifting capabilities. However,

the Saturn IB vehicle, the second member of the

Saturn family, had even more power, enough for

orbital missions with Apollo spacecraft.

The Saturn IB vehicle was a two-stage rocket. The

first stage was called the “S–IB” and was based on

a redesigned first stage for the Saturn I. The second

stage was called the “S–IVB.” It was based on the

third stage of the mightiest Saturn vehicle of all, the

Saturn V. The first Saturn IB vehicle was launched

February 26, 1966. The next four were launched

July 5 and August 25, 1966, and January 22 and

October 11, 1968.

A clustered eight-engine Saturn I roars from the launch pad at KennedySpace Center in Florida. The Saturn I was developed by the MarshallSpace Flight Center.

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Saturn V had the power equal to the energy created

by 85 Hoover Dams.

At the height of the Saturn program, as many as

20,000 contractor companies were involved in

aspects of the program. From 1960 to 1964,

existing test stands at Marshall were remodeled,

and a sizable new test area was developed.

While Kennedy’s challenge to the Nation created

a sense of urgency, quality and safety were never

sacrificed. Components were tested and re-tested

throughout the 1960’s, all leading up to the Apollo

11 lunar landing.

Finally, a short 8 years after Kennedy’s challenge to

the Nation, the work by Marshall Center employees

came to fruition. The Saturn V successfully propelled

the Apollo 11 crew to the Moon’s surface. On July 20,

1969, mission Commander Neil Armstrong sent the

message back to Earth: “Houston, Tranquility Base

here. The Eagle has landed!”

Five successful Moon-landing missions boosted by

Marshall’s Saturn V followed the Apollo 11 mission.

The Apollo program was completed with the flight of

Apollo 17 in December 1972.

When President John F. Kennedy in 1961 called for

the Nation to put Americans on the Moon by the end

of the decade, the Marshall Center was ready to

answer the call. Huntsville had already earned the

title “Rocket City.” But at the time of Kennedy’s

challenge to the Nation, no rocket in the country

could take a craft to the Moon’s surface. Von Braun

answered Kennedy’s challenge by immediately

turning his attention to the Saturn V.

The Saturn V represented a dramatic departure

from early launch vehicles that were powered by

only one engine and built as a single unit. To achieve

the thrust necessary for crewed lunar missions, it

was essential to develop a multi-engine launch

vehicle that used higher performance propellants

and propulsion systems.

The towering Saturn V was the response to that

challenge. The first large vehicle in the U.S. space

program to be conceived and developed for a

specific purpose, the Saturn V was the most powerful

vehicle ever designed. More than 3 million parts,

making up 700,000 components, were contained in a

single Saturn V. When complete, the 363-foot Saturn

V stood 60 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty and

weighed 13 times more. At liftoff, the three-stage

The Saturn V Moon Rocket

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The 363-foot tall Saturn Vwas first launched on

November 9, 1967.A Saturn V was used on

July 16, 1969, to send thefirst human to the lunar

surface on Apollo 11.

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As time drew near for the manned lunar landings,

NASA decided to provide a lunar roving vehicle that

would extend the astronauts’ range of exploration

and their ability to carry equipment and lunar

samples.

The Lunar Roving Vehicle

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Apollo 15 astronautJim Irwin on the surfaceof the Moon with thelunar roving vehicle.A lunar roving vehiclewas used on the lastthree Apollo expeditionsto the Moon. The lunarroving vehicle wasdesigned and developedby Marshall SpaceFlight Center.

By 1969, Marshall was responsible for the design,

development, and testing of the new article. The

vehicle contrasted with the towering Saturn vehicles.

It was a fragile looking, open-space vehicle about

10 feet long with large mesh wheels, antenna

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appendages, tool caddies, and cameras. Powered by

two 36-volt batteries, it had four one-fourth hp drive

motors, one for each wheel. The peculiar vehicle was

collapsible for compact storage until needed, when it

could be unfolded by hand.

Marshall engineers from the Center’s laboratories

contributed substantially to the design and testing

of the navigation and deployment systems. In fact,

the backup manual deployment system developed

by Marshall proved more reliable than the automated

system and became the primary method of deploy-

ment.

The rover was designed to travel in forward or

reverse, negotiate obstacles about a foot high, cross

crevasses about 2 feet wide, and climb or descend

moderate slopes; its speed limit was about 14 km

(9 miles) per hour. To assist in development of the

navigation system, the Center created a lunar surface

simulator, complete with rocks and craters, where

operators could test drive the vehicle. The simulator

also was used during the mission as an aid in

responding to difficulties.

A lunar rover was used on each of the last three

Apollo missions in 1971 and 1972 to permit the

crew to travel several miles from the landing craft.

Outbound, they carried a load of experiments to be

set up on the Moon; on the return trip, they carried

more than 200 pounds of lunar rock and soil

samples. The vehicle performed safely and reliably

on each excursion and enhanced the astronauts’

work efficiency. It handled as well and steered as

easily on the Moon as on Earth.

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Marshall also served as the NASA interface for a

series of Skylab experiments proposed by students

from across the country.

In 1973, NASA launched Skylab into space using a

Saturn V rocket. Unfortunately, a huge panel protect-

ing the orbital workshop from micrometeoroids and

solar radiation ripped off seconds after the launch.

NASA had originally planned to launch its first three-

man crew to Skylab on May 15 using a Saturn IB

rocket. Faced with a crisis, however, NASA put those

plans on hold. Rising temperatures inside the

workshop and a crippled electrical power system

dogged engineers at Marshall and at other centers.

Some Marshall employees stayed at their posts from

dawn Monday through Wednesday looking for

immediate and long-term solutions. Hundreds at the

Center were involved in the relentless 10-day effort

to identify the repair procedures and equipment that

the astronauts eventually carried into space and

used to save Skylab.

Skylab’s first crew went into space on May 25, 1973,

and returned home on June 22. A second crew was

launched on July 28 and splashed down on Septem-

ber 25. Repair procedures were part of both mis-

sions, but attention also focused on the scientific data

that Skylab gathered. For example, the second

Launched on May 14, 1973, Skylab was the first

American space program wholly dedicated to

scientific research, and the Marshall Center played

an extremely important role in this unprecedented

scientific venture.

Skylab’s three different three-man crews spent

up to 84 days in Earth orbit and performed a

variety of more than 100 experiments. The Marshall

Center developed the major Skylab components and

the four Saturn launch vehicles used to launch the

orbital cluster and its three separate crews. Marshall

was also responsible for directing many of the

experiments.

Marshall engineers designed the centerpiece

component for Skylab, the orbital workshop, by

converting a Saturn rocket stage into a habitable

space module containing living quarters and support

systems as well as experiment areas. Marshall

assignments also included the Skylab airlock module,

docking adapter, and Apollo Telescope Mount, the

first manned astronomical observatory designed for

solar research from Earth orbit.

The Center was also responsible for investigations in

materials processing and solar physics, and designed

and built a series of Skylab biomedical experiments.

Skylab

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mission orbited a pair of common spiders, Arabella

and Anita. The experiment was designed to deter-

mine the spiders’ ability to spin a web without the

influence of gravity. It was one of the student experi-

ments coordinated by the Marshall Center for Skylab.

The third manned Skylab crew went into space on

November 16 and splashed down in February 1974

setting a new endurance record and reflecting man’s

ability to live and work in space for extended periods

of time.

This 1973 photograph clearly shows the Skylabworkshop and attached observatory as itorbits high above the Earth.

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nauts trained together in preparation for 2 days of

joint activities on their docked spacecraft, each group

becoming familiar with the other’s spacecraft, flight

procedures, and language.

On July 15, 1975, the Russian Soyuz spacecraft lifted

off from its launch pad at a Soviet launch site. The

spacecraft carried Cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and

Valeriv Kubasov. Seven and one-half hours after the

Soyuz launch, the U.S. Apollo spacecraft was

launched with its crew of Thomas Stafford, Vance

Brand, and Donald “Deke” Slayton. Rendezvous

and docking of the two ships were accomplished

on July 17. The ships remained docked for 2 days,

conducting joint experiments and exchanging national

mementos.

The Saturn IB for the mission was the last Saturn

to be launched. Marshall officials said later that the

successful performance of the Saturn IB for the

mission was another indication of the launch vehicle’s

reliability since the first and second stages of the

vehicle had been built in 1967. Both were taken out

of storage for the mission for continuous preflight

checkouts and monitoring prior to the actual launch.

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) in 1975 was

the first joint American-Soviet space mission and, as

expected, most of the world focused on its political

dimensions. The Marshall Center role, however,

focused on engineering and science. For example,

Marshall provided the Saturn IB launch vehicle for

the Apollo portion of the mission. In addition,

Marshall scientists gathered data from the results

of experiments and demonstrations conducted in

the unique environment of space.

The principal objective of the Apollo-Soyuz Test

Project was to test compatible rendezvous and

docking systems that were being developed for future

United States and Soviet manned spacecraft and

stations. The project was carried out under an

agreement signed in 1972 by President Richard

Nixon and Chairman Aleksey Kosygin.

Five years of technical cooperation among engineers

in the United States and the Soviet Union led to the

development of the international docking module,

and agreements on mission operations, flight control,

means for life support, communications, tracking,

safety and crew procedures. Astronauts and cosmo-

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

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The science team for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

included principal investigators from Marshall as well

as scientists from industry and education who were

under contract to the Center. A Marshall-managed

electric furnace for the ASTP performed perfectly

after resolution of an early cool-down problem. Seven

materials processing experiments were conducted in

the furnace.

This artist’s rendition shows the Apollo and Soyuzspacecrafts about to rendezvous in high Earth orbitas part of the Apollo/Soyuz Test Project in 1975.This was the first international meeting in spacebetween two countries.

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The value of space-based observatories was rein-

forced by the success of the High-Energy Astronomy

Observatory (HEAO) series of spacecraft: HEAO–1,

HEAO–2, and HEAO–3. Launched in 1977, 1978,

and 1979 respectively, the three unmanned space-

craft were designed to study high-energy radiation in

the universe such as x-rays, gamma rays, and cosmic

rays. The Marshall Center played a major role in the

project development and management, while

Marshall’s laboratories were heavily engaged in the

technical and scientific aspects—an undertaking that

included the construction of the Marshall X-Ray

Calibration Facility—the largest and most sophisti-

cated facility of its type in the world.

In 1976 Marshall launched the Laser Geodynamics

Satellite (LAGEOS), which the center had conceived

and manufactured in Huntsville. Basically a mirror in

space, the 900-pound, 2-foot diameter satellite was

designed to precisely reflect laser beams from

ground stations for extremely accurate ranging

measurements. This allowed the satellite to measure

movements of Earth’s crust. Movements of less than

an inch could be detected by timing the laser beam’s

3,700-mile round trip. LAGEOS was designed to

serve as a ranging system for improved understand-

ing of earthquakes, continental drift, and other

geophysical phenomena.

Increased scientific results from space served as the

theme for the Marshall Center during the late 1970’s

as it moved from Saturn and Skylab to Space Shuttle.

Earlier Marshall missions like Project Highwater

and Pegasus had demonstrated that space was

a laboratory for doing science. In addition, the

Apollo 14 mission in 1971 had included three

Marshall-developed experiments investigating the

potential for materials processing in space. That

same year, closer to Earth, the Marshall Center had

launched the 36-inch Stratoscope II astronomical

telescope from Redstone Arsenal. Carried by a

special balloon, the telescope photographed scientific

targets from an operating altitude of 82,800 feet.

Again, in the last half of the l970’s, the scientists

at the Marshall Center used this early science as

a foundation to branch into more expanded space

science missions. Space would provide Marshall

scientists with a global view of our planet for atmo-

spheric observations, a microgravity environment

for experiments in life sciences and materials sci-

ences, and an opportunity to study the radiation

and vacuum of space. Some of the missions were

significant on their own merit. Others would serve

as forerunners to more ambitious payloads in the

1980’s and 1990’s.

Space Science in the 1970s

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Also in 1976 Marshall launched the Gravitational

Redshift Probe. The purpose of the 125-pound

satellite was to test the principle of equivalence in

Einstein’s general theory of relativity. According to

theory, but never demonstrated, a clock will appear

to run faster in a weaker gravitational field, at a

greater distance from Earth. Scientists from Marshall

and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

jointly devised an ingenious experiment to test the

theory. A very stable atomic clock was launched

through Earth’s gravitational field to a peak altitude

of 6,200 miles, and its reading during the free flight

was compared with that of an identical reference

clock on the ground. The experiment confirmed the

theory. Marshall had overall management responsibil-

ity for the construction, integration, and systems

testing of the satellite.

From 1975 through 1983, Marshall conducted one

of its most successful efforts involving small pay-

loads, the Space Processing Applications Rockets

project. Marshall accomplished 10 suborbital flights,

which altogether carried several dozen small materi-

als processing experiments. Intriguing results were

achieved in the 5-minute periods of near weightless-

ness as the rocket passed through its apex.

Shown is an artist’s concept of the three High-Energy Astronomy Observatory satellites launchedin the late 1970s. The HEAO satellites weredeveloped by the Marshall Space Flight Center.

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engine. Three liquid-fueled main engines produce

nearly 1 million pounds of thrust—equivalent to

the energy of 23 Hoover Dams. Unlike the Saturn

engines, the Space Shuttle Main Engines were

designed to be throttled over a range from

65 percent to 109 percent of their rated power.

Thus the engine could be adjusted to meet different

mission needs. From the outset, it was recognized

that the engines required the greatest technological

advances of any element in the Shuttle program.

The greatest problem was to develop the combustion

devices and complex turbomachinery—the pumps,

turbines, seals, and bearings—that could contain

and deliver propellants to the engines at pressures

several times greater than in the Saturn engines.

Assembly of the first engine, Space Shuttle Main

Engine 0001, was completed in May of 1975. This

first engine, known as the integrated subsystem

test-bed engine, was used in the first ignition test

in June 1975.

The first engine firing at 100-percent power level was

conducted early in 1977 and was followed by other

tests, not all of which were successful. Problems were

discovered in the high-pressure oxidizer turbopump

during tests in March and September, but by the end

of the year the anomalies appeared to have been

resolved. Extensive engine testing continued to focus

The Space Shuttle represented an entirely new

generation of space vehicle: the world’s first reusable

spacecraft. Unlike earlier expendable rockets, the

Shuttle was designed to be launched over and over

again, and would serve as a system for ferrying

payloads and personnel to and from Earth orbit.

The Marshall Center was involved in preliminary

studies on the Space Shuttle as early as 1970,

2 years before President Nixon endorsed plans

for the new space vehicle on January 5, 1972. The

Space Shuttle would “change the nature of what

man could be in space,” then NASA Administrator

James Fletcher said.

Crucially involved with the Space Shuttle program

virtually from its inception, Marshall played a leading

role in the design, development, testing, and fabrica-

tion of many major Shuttle propulsion components.

Marshall was assigned responsibility for developing

the Shuttle orbiter’s high-performance main en-

gines—the most complex rocket engines ever built.

Marshall was also responsible for developing the

Shuttle’s massive External Tank and the Solid Rocket

Motors and boosters.

The Space Shuttle Main Engine is considered by many

to be the world’s most sophisticated reusable rocket

Space Shuttle

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The Space Shuttle Enterprise travels slowly past themain headquarters building at Marshall SpaceFlight Center in March 1978. The Enterprise wasscheduled to undergo vibration testing in Marshall’sDynamic Test Stand.

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attention on certain components. The first flight

engines were installed in orbiter Columbia in

August 1980.

The External Tank provides liquid hydrogen and liquid

oxygen to the main engines during the first 8 1/2

minutes of Shuttle flight. To develop the tank,

engineers had to overcome a number of technical

challenges. At 154 feet long and more than 27 feet

in diameter, the External Tank is the largest compo-

nent of the Space Shuttle and the structural back-

bone of the entire Shuttle system. By the end of

1975, fixtures were nearing completion at Marshall’s

Michoud Assembly near New Orleans for manufactur-

ing the External Tanks. Several of the fixtures at the

assembly site were more than half the length of a

football field and several stories high. 1977 was one

of the busiest years in the history of developing the

External Tank. Fabrication of the first flight External

Tank started in July. The first flight tank was delivered

to Kennedy Space Center in July 1979.

The Shuttle’s Solid Rocket Motors and boosters

are the largest ever built and the first designed

for refurbishment and reuse. Standing nearly

150 feet high, the twin boosters provide the majority

of thrust for the first 2 minutes of flight— about

5.8 million pounds. That’s equivalent to 44 million

horsepower, or the combined power of 400,000

subcompact cars. The major design drivers for the

Solid Rocket Motors were high thrust and reuse. The

desired thrust was achieved by using state-of-the-art

solid propellant and by using a long cylindrical motor

with a specific core design that allows the propellant

to burn in a carefully controlled manner. The test plan

included modifications to an existing Saturn test

stand to accommodate structural testing of the Solid

Rocket Motors and boosters. Testing began in 1977

at Marshall and other facilities in the United States.

Thrust vector control system testing was completed

at Marshall. Parachute recovery testing was con-

ducted in California.

1978 was perhaps the busiest year for Marshall’s

Shuttle test program. Throngs of NASA employees

and local citizens turned out to greet the arrival of

the Space Shuttle orbiter prototype Enterprise at the

Marshall Center. The orbiter was test-mated with the

External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters to undergo

a series of vibration/stress tests in Marshall’s

Dynamic Test Stand.

The excitement surrounding the first Space Shuttle

launch drew the biggest tourist crowd to Cape

Canaveral since the launch of Apollo 11. The crowd

had to wait, however, because a computer problem

delayed Columbia’s launch for 2 days.

Columbia began its voyage with a flawless launch

at 7 a.m. (EST) on April 12, 1981, with Commander

John W. Young and Pilot Robert L. Crippen guiding the

vehicle into orbit. The historic flight was concluded

2 days later when Columbia landed at Edwards Air

Force Base, California.

In a period of less than 5 years after the first Space

Shuttle flight there had been 24 launches and 24

successful missions. Then on January 28, 1986, at

73 seconds into the flight of the 25th mission, orbiter

Challenger broke up under severe aerodynamic

loads. The flames from a leaking right-hand Solid

Rocket Motor caused a severe rupture of the

External Tank, destroying it. The crew and the vehicle

were lost.

The months that followed brought unparalleled

changes in NASA’s institutional management and in

its technical operations. On March 24, 1986, NASA

directed the Marshall Center to form a Solid Rocket

Motor redesign team to re-qualify the motor of the

Space Shuttle’s Solid Rocket Booster. In addition to

Marshall personnel, the team included personnel

from other NASA Centers, industry, and academia.

The President directed NASA to implement the re-

commendations of the Presidential Commission on

the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. As part of

satisfying those recommendations, NASA developed

a plan to provide a redesigned Solid Rocket Motor.

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Marshall Space Flight Center propulsion elementslift each Space Shuttle mission into space. Theelements include the Space Shuttle Main Engines,the External Tank, and the Solid Rocket Boosters.

In mid-August 1986 the redesign team presented

a design for the Space Shuttle booster that, among

other improvements, would include tighter fitting

joints, which incorporated a so-called “capture

feature” designed to increase safety and perfor-

mance. The new design would eliminate the weak-

nesses that led to the Challenger accident and

incorporate a number of other improvements.

Laboratory, component, and subscale tests would

follow as well as simulator tests, using full-size, flight-

type segments in order to verify the joint design

under flight loads, pressure, and temperature. Full-

scale tests would be used to verify analytical models,

determine hardware assembly characteristics, identify

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joint deflection characteristics, and obtain additional

technical data concerning the redesigned hardware.

After a nearly error-free countdown, Discovery and

the STS–26 crew lifted off from pad 39B on Septem-

ber 29, 1988, at the Kennedy Space Center marking

the first Space Shuttle flight in 32 months.

Marshall’s Shuttle responsibilities did not end with

the development of the operational propulsion

elements. Instead, the Center has continued ongoing

technology advancements to improve the Shuttle

propulsion system at reduced costs. In particular,

Marshall played a key role in the upgrading of the

Space Shuttle Main Engines, which were successfully

test-fired in 1988 using a modified Space Shuttle

Main Engine in Marshall’s Technology Test-Bed,

actually a reconfigured Saturn V first stage test

stand. Improvements also included the development

of silicon nitride (ceramic) bearings for the Space

Shuttle Main Engine. The Center also developed a

new liquid oxygen pump using the latest technology

of investment casting (versus welded components).

Space Shuttle mission STS–89 in January 1998

marked the first flight of redesigned Space Shuttle

Main Engines designed to increase the reliability and

safety of Shuttle flights.

In 1994, the Center embarked on development of

a new super lightweight Space Shuttle External Tank.

The tank made its premier as part of the STS–91

mission in 1998. The new tank featured aluminum

lithium—a lighter stronger material than the alloy

used to manufacture previous External Tanks. The

new tank was essential for launching Space Station

components designed to be assembled in a more

demanding orbit than previously planned. The new

design resulted in a payload weight savings in excess

of 7,000 pounds. Structural and modal testing for the

tank was completed at Marshall. The Center also

developed weld schedules and materials character-

izations for the new tank. All of the work on the new

tank was achieved successfully on a tight schedule

of about 31/2 years.

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European Space Agency (ESA). This ultimately led to

an agreement between NASA and ESA under which

ESA assumed responsibility for funding, developing,

and building Spacelab. Under the arrangement,

Marshall did the feasibility and preliminary design

work during the Sortie studies, and ESA did the

engineering design and hardware development

based on Marshall requirements. Marshall, however,

retained responsibility for technical and program-

matic monitoring of Spacelab development activities

in Europe, which involved 50 manufacturing firms in

10 European countries.

In addition to its program management responsibili-

ties, Marshall was assigned responsibility for building

related Spacelab flight components, including an

optical window for scientific observations, and

development of a pressurized transfer tunnel for

passage of crew and equipment between the orbiter

cabin and the laboratory module.

Marshall also had responsibility for Spacelab’s

command and data management subsystem and

its high data rate multiplexer and high data rate

recorder. In addition, a software development facility

was established to develop and verify programs

for the Spacelab experiment components. Other

As Space Shuttle development began at Marshall in

the 1970’s, planners at the Center were studying

ways to use the proposed new vehicle’s capabilities

for scientific research. The ninth flight of the Shuttle

carried a multiconfiguration spaceborne scientific

laboratory called Spacelab into orbit. Early studies

at the Marshall Center had called for development

of a versatile, reusable, laboratory facility. This facility

would fit inside the payload bay of the Shuttle orbiter

and provide scientists with workbench space, power,

computer support, and racks and storage for a

scientist’s own experiment equipment.

In 1970, the Marshall Center requested proposals

from industry for the preliminary design of a research

and applications module as a way to provide versatile

laboratory facilities for Earth-orbital research and

applications work. In 1971, the Marshall Center

began in-house studies on a laboratory called the

Sortie Can, later renamed the Sortie Lab. The Sortie

concept for Spacelab included a combination of

habitable modules in which scientists could conduct

investigations, and unpressurized pallets for instru-

ments requiring direct exposure to space.

In 1972, NASA began negotiations with the European

Space Research Organization, the forerunner to the

Space-bound Payloads, for the 1980s and 1990s

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responsibilities ranged from the development of

ground support equipment to sophisticated scientific

instruments.

Spacelab also required engineers and other special-

ists at Marshall to perform systems analyses, design

and develop integration hardware, oversee assembly

and checkout, plan the flight timeline, conduct

simulation and training exercises, and provide real-

time support for the missions. Marshall’s payload

crew training complex became a training site for

Spacelab mission specialists from the astronaut

corps and payload specialists from the scientific

community. Prior to the establishment of a new

Spacelab Mission Operations Control Center facility

at Marshall, Marshall mission managers monitored,

controlled, and directed experiments aboard

Spacelab from a Payload Operations Control

Center at the Johnson Space Center.

Early Spacelab Missions

The primary purpose of the first Spacelab mission,

launched on November 28, 1983, was to demon-

strate the scientific capability of the laboratory and

check the thousands of structural, mechanical, and

electronic parts making up the laboratory. During the

10-day mission, the science crew conducted more

than 70 separate investigations in life sciences,

Payload Specialist Dr. Ulf Merbold installs a sample into the Materials Science Double Rack during theSpacelab 1 mission launched on November 28, 1983. Spacelab was the first flight for payload specialists,who were career scientists from outside the astronaut corps. Marshall Space Flight Center was responsiblefor Spacelab development and control.

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atmospheric physics, Earth observations, astronomy,

solar physics, space plasma physics, and materials

science and technology. Two additional Spacelab

missions were flown in 1985. The primary purpose

of the mission launched April 29, 1985, was to

conduct materials science experiments in a stable

low-gravity environment and to conduct research in

life sciences, fluid mechanics, atmospheric science,

and astronomy. The mission was also used to

evaluate two crystal growth furnaces, a life support

and housing facility for small animals, and two types

of apparatus for the study of fluids. Another 7-day

Spacelab mission, launched on July 29, 1985, served

as a laboratory and observatory for investigations in

solar physics, atmospheric physics, plasma physics,

high-energy astrophysics, infrared astronomy,

technology research, and life sciences. In addition

to Spacelab missions 1, 2, and 3, Spacelab hardware

and systems flew on the Spacelab D1 mission, and

several partial payload missions were launched in

the 1983–1985 time period.

Spacelab and Astrophysics

NASA launched Astro–1 on December 2, 1990.

The astrophysics mission aboard Columbia (STS–35)

represented the first Spacelab mission controlled

from NASA’s new Spacelab Mission Operations at

Marshall. It was also the first Spacelab dedicated to

a single scientific discipline. In fact, four of the seven

astronauts on board were astronomers. Managed

by Marshall, Astro–1 telescopes examined the

ultraviolet and x-ray emissions from stars and

galaxies. Specific targets included Supernova 1987a,

the nearby supergiant star Betelgeuse, and others.

In all, 135 deep space targets were examined during

the 394 observations.

Five years after Astro–1, NASA launched STS–67

carrying the Astro–2 mission, mounted on a

Spacelab pallet in the Shuttle cargo bay. Devoted

to astronomy, the mission was designed to observe

energetic objects in space in the ultraviolet portion

of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Spacelab and Atmospheric Science

Planet Earth was the subject of three Spacelab

missions in 1992, 1993, and 1994 as part of the

Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science

(ATLAS) program. All three missions were mounted

on a Spacelab pallet mounted in the Shuttle cargo

bay. ATLAS–1 was launched in March 1992 aboard

Atlantis (STS–45). The Marshall-managed instrument

package was designed to take a detailed scientific

“snapshot” of Earth’s atmosphere. This international

collaboration between the U.S., France, Germany,

Belgium, the U.K., Switzerland, the Netherlands and

Japan involved 12 instruments designed to provide

investigations in four fields—atmospheric science,

solar science, space plasma physics, and ultraviolet

astronomy. The second ATLAS mission was launched

aboard Discovery in April 1993 and was designed

to take measurements of Earth’s atmosphere to

compare with readings from satellites and other

ATLAS flights. Scientists were particularly interested

in collecting data on the relationship between the

Sun’s energy output and Earth’s middle atmosphere

and how these factors affect the Earth’s ozone layer.

ATLAS–3 was launched on Atlantis (STS–66) in

November 1994, once again to provide scientists

with new insights into how human activities are

changing the Earth’s environment.

Spacelab and Microgravity

The 1990’s marked a decade of Marshall-managed

microgravity related Spacelab missions. For example,

in September 1992, Japan’s National Space Develop-

ment Agency shared joint sponsorship with NASA in

the American-Japanese Spacelab-J mission. That

series of microgravity investigations included

24 materials science experiments and 19 life

science experiments.

Multiple Spacelab missions were also flown as part

of the International Microgravity (IML), United States

Microgravity Laboratory (USML), and United States

Microgavity Payload (USMP) series. On IML–1 in

January 1992, astronauts conducted life sciences

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and microgravity processing experiments developed

by scientists from NASA, the European Space Agency,

the Canadian Space Agency, the French National

Center for Space Studies, the German Space Agency

and the National Space Development Agency

of Japan. In all more than 220 scientists from

14 countries participated in the investigations.

On IML–2 in July 1994, Shuttle astronauts divided

into two teams and worked around the clock to

perform more than 80 experiments aboard Spacelab.

Using furnaces and facilities aboard the Spacelab

module, the investigators produced a variety of

material structures from crystals, metal alloys, and

other substances. They also studied fluid processes

not readily observable on the ground due to the

influence of Earth’s gravity.

USML–1, launched in the summer of 1992, included

experiments in crystal growth, fluid dynamics, and

combustion science. USML–2 in the fall of 1995

focused on microgravity research into fluid flows—

investigations with direct applications on Earth for

the manufacture of high-tech crystals, metals, alloys,

and ceramics.

USMP missions flew in October 1992, March 1995,

February 1996 and November 1997. These missions

advanced American expertise in low-gravity research.

In addition, some low-gravity experiments requiring

direct exposure to space were controlled remotely

by ground-based scientists during the mission.

Spacelab and Preparations for the

International Space Station

The Life and Microgravity Spacelab mission aboard

Columbia in 1996 focused on research intended to

set the stage for the forthcoming International Space

Station. In July 1997, after an abbreviated mission

in April, NASA launched the Microgravity Science

Laboratory with the focus on experiments inside

the Spacelab module and in the Shuttle’s middeck

area. The mission focused on new ways to conduct

experiments in space and on opportunities to

develop procedures that might eventually be used

on board the International Space Station.

Other Marshall Payloads

America’s Space Shuttle transportation system was

designed to serve as a “space truck”—a reliable

and reusable means for ferrying satellites, space

probes, scientific experiments, supplies, and humans

to and from Earth orbit.

Marshall-provided payloads have often occupied the

Shuttle’s cargo bays. Many of those Marshall-

managed experiments have taken place in the cargo

bay or in the Shuttle middeck. As part of the second

flight of the Columbia (STS–2) mission in November

1981, the orbiter carried the Induced Environment

Contamination Monitor, the first major Marshall-

managed Shuttle payload. The payload was designed

to measure the environment in and around the cargo

bay. STS–2 also carried another Marshall project, the

Nighttime/Daytime Optical Survey of Lightning. The

project was intended to provide atmospheric re-

searchers with valuable insights into lightning and

thunderstorms as observed from Earth orbit.

Columbia’s third flight in March 1982 marked the first

flight of the Monodisperse Latex Reactor materials

processing experiments. Developed by scientists from

Lehigh University and the Marshall Center, the

experiment produced extremely uniform latex

spheres that became the first commercial products

manufactured in space and made available to the

commercial market as laboratory calibration.

Columbia flew its fourth flight in the summer of 1982

and featured NASA’s first joint Shuttle endeavor with

industry. The Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System

(CFES) was conducted as a joint endeavor arrange-

ment pioneered and managed by the Marshall Center,

NASA, and private enterprise. Orbital tests of the

CFES (developed by McDonnell Douglas) involved the

separation of biological materials such as blood cells

and enzymes.

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The Materials Experiment Assembly flight hardware

was carried aboard Challenger on STS–7. The project

represented one of the first cooperative international

research projects to be conducted aboard a Space

Shuttle. The experiments included the “Vapor Growth

of Alloy-Type Semiconductor Crystals,” “Liquid Phase

Miscibility Gap Materials,” and “Containerless

Processing of Glass Forming Melts.”

Orbiter Discovery was the focal point for several

experiments in April 1985 leading to important

insights toward new medical treatments. The investi-

gations included the Protein Crystal Growth Experi-

ment designed to produce large uniform crystals for

pharmaceutical development. The mission also

included the Phase Partitioning Experiment for

separating biological materials.

The summer of 1984 marked the first time the

Marshall Center had overall management responsibil-

ity for a major Shuttle payload: the Solar Array Flight

Experiment. Deployed from the orbiter’s cargo bay,

the 102-foot long array was designed to convert the

Sun’s energy into electricity to study a new source

of additional electrical power for future Space Shuttle

missions.

In late 1985 Space Shuttle mission 61–B focused on

a pair of space walks by two Atlantis astronauts who

demonstrated advanced orbital construction tech-

niques in the spacecraft’s cargo bay. One technique

was called the Experimental Assembly of Structures

EVA (extravehicular activity). The other was called

the Assembly Concept for Construction of Erectable

Space Structures.

The summer of 1992 featured the first Tethered

Satellite System (TSS–1) mission. This was a joint

NASA/Italian Space Agency effort on STS–46. This

“satellite on a string” experiment was designed to

study the electrodynamics of a tether system in the

electrically charged portion of Earth’s atmosphere

as a potential source of spacecraft power. During TSS

deployment, however, the satellite reached a maxi-

mum distance of only 840 feet from the orbiter rather

than the planned 12.5 miles because of a jammed

tether line. Four years later, NASA and the Italian

Space Agency re-flew the Tethered Satellite System

aboard Columbia on STS–75. This time the tether

abruptly snapped just short of full deployment with

the satellite 12.8 miles from the orbiter. Although the

satellite could not be retrieved and broke up as it

re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere, considerable

amounts of useful information were gained from

the experiment despite the mishap.

Payload Boosters

The Space Shuttle operates in low-Earth orbit. Some

payloads, however, are intended for higher orbits,

while others are propelled out of Earth’s gravitational

influence altogether in order to embark on interplan-

etary voyages. In 1977, Marshall assumed responsi-

bility for overseeing the development of several new

propulsion elements needed to give certain Shuttle

payloads the necessary post-deployment boost. One

of these elements was the Inertial Upper Stage, (IUS)

a U.S. Air Force-developed rocket. Acting as NASA’s

management and coordination Center on the project,

Marshall provided the Agency’s design and opera-

tional requirements to the Air Force and participated

in the development of two IUS configurations for

NASA. Marshall also provided substantial input into

the design and development of Orbital Science

Corporation’s Transfer Orbit Stage (TOS), intended to

broaden the variety of payloads that could be placed

into orbit from the Shuttle.

In late 1986, NASA announced that it had selected

the IUS to carry probes to Jupiter, Venus and the Sun.

NASA also announced that the Marshall Center would

manage the IUS and the payload-to-IUS integration

for the planetary missions. NASA selected the upper

stage, built by Boeing Aerospace under Air Force

contract, for three planetary missions—Galileo,

Magellan, and Ulysses. These missions would be the

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first to employ an IUS to carry payloads to other

bodies in the solar system. On May 4, 1989, the

Space Shuttle Atlantis crew successfully deployed

the Magellan spacecraft for its rendezvous with

Venus using the IUS stage during the first day of the

STS–30 mission. On October 18, 1989, the STS–34

crew aboard Atlantis used the Marshall-managed IUS

to boost the Galileo spacecraft toward a rendezvous

with Jupiter. Approximately 1 year later, on October 6,

1990, the STS–41 crew used an IUS to send the

Ulysses probe on its 5-year journey to explore the

Polar Regions of the Sun. By 1995, the IUS had also

been used to launch more than a half dozen Tracking

and Data Relay Satellites.

In September 1992, the Mars Observer Spacecraft

was launched aboard a Titan III rocket. Marshall/

Orbital Science Corporation’s TOS rocket booster

then injected the spacecraft into a Mars-bound

journey for an 11-month journey to the Red Planet.

Unfortunately, contact with the spacecraft was

abruptly broken approximately 1 year later during

a critical Mars insertion maneuver meaning that the

spacecraft was irretrievably lost. In September 1993,

the crew of Discovery deployed the Advanced

Communications Technology Satellite. Shortly

thereafter, the satellite was boosted to geosynchro-

nous orbit by an attached Transfer Orbit Stage. This

marked the first time a TOS had flown aboard a

Space Shuttle.

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Company of Sunnyvale, California, was selected to

produce the protective outer shroud and the space-

craft systems for the telescope, as well as to

assemble and test the finished product.

Beyond assigning project contracts, Marshall

managed hardware and assembly preparations.

The Center also worked to define the project’s

science and engineering requirements. Marshall

crew systems experts developed the tools, worksta-

tions, and procedures which would be needed for

orbital servicing of the telescope, and conducted

numerous tests of orbital maintenance and repair

techniques using Marshall’s Neutral Buoyancy

Simulator. Marshall’s technical resources were also

tapped for everything from the telescope’s structural

engineering to its fine guidance sensors.

Later, Marshall Center’s involvement continued as the

facility’s personnel played key roles in tests of the

observatory on the ground and on the launch pad—

the latter monitored from Marshall’s Huntsville

Operations Support Center. The Marshall Center also

managed the activation and orbital verification of the

telescope and science instruments from Goddard

Space Flight Center during Hubble’s first several

months in orbit.

Long before mankind had the ability to go into

space, astronomers dreamed of placing a telescope

above Earth’s obscuring atmosphere. In 1923, the

German scientist Hermann Oberth proposed an

observatory in space. Oberth’s work inspired

Wernher von Braun’s interest in space travel.

Scientific instruments installed on early rockets,

balloons, and satellites in the late 1940’s through

the early 1960’s produced enough exciting scientific

revelations to hint at how much remained to be

discovered.

In 1962, just 4 years after NASA was established,

a National Academy of Sciences study group recom-

mended the development of a large space telescope

as a long-range goal of the fledgling space program.

Similar groups repeated the recommendation in

1965 and 1969.

NASA assigned responsibility for design, develop-

ment, and construction of the large space telescope

to the Marshall Center. Marshall selected two primary

contractors to build the Hubble Space Telescope.

Perkin-Elmer Corporation in Danbury, Connecticut,

was chosen to develop the optical system and

guidance sensors. Lockheed Missiles and Space

Hubble Space Telescope

1111144444○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

This artist’s concept showsthe open end of NASA’sHubble Space Telescopeas it orbits the Earth.The more than 12-tonunmanned telescope wasdesigned to see deeper intospace than ever before.Marshall Space FlightCenter has respon-sibilityfor the Hubble SpaceTelescope project.

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Construction and assembly of the space telescope

was a painstaking process that spanned almost a

decade. The precision-ground mirror was completed

in 1981, and the optical assembly was delivered for

integration into the satellite in 1984. The science

instruments were delivered for testing at NASA in

1983. Assembly of the entire spacecraft was com-

pleted in 1985.

Launch of the Hubble Space Telescope was originally

scheduled for 1986. It was delayed during the Space

Shuttle redesign that followed the Challenger acci-

dent. Engineers used the interim period to subject

the telescope to intensive testing and evaluation,

ensuring the greatest possible reliability.

The telescope was shipped from Lockheed in

California to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida

in October 1989. There, it was launched aboard

the STS–31 mission of the Space Shuttle Discovery

on April 24, 1990.

The Hubble Space Telescope, with a resolving power

calculated to be 10 times better than any telescope

on Earth, was poised to open a new era in as-

tronomy. Within a few months, however, a flaw was

discovered in Hubble’s main mirror that significantly

reduced the telescope’s ability to focus.

The focusing defect was due to spherical aberration,

an optical distortion caused by an incorrectly shaped

mirror. The mirror was too flat near the edge by

about 1/50th the width of a human hair. Instead of

being focused into a sharp point, light collected by

the mirror was spread over a larger area in a fuzzy

halo. Images of objects such as stars, planets and

galaxies were blurred. However, on relatively bright

objects, Hubble’s cameras were still able to provide

images far superior to any telescope on the ground.

The mirror itself couldn’t be fixed or changed; so

the challenge facing NASA was to develop corrective

optics for Hubble’s instruments, much like eyeglasses

or contact lenses correct human sight.

On December 2, 1993, the STS–61 crew launched

on Space Shuttle Endeavour for an 11-day mission

with a record five spacewalks planned. The astro-

nauts endured long hours of challenging spacewalks

to install instruments containing the corrective optics

and replaced the telescope’s solar arrays, gyro-

scopes, and other electronic components. The crew

completed everything it set out to do and the mission

was declared a success. After 5 weeks of engineering

checkout, optical alignment and instrument calibra-

tion, the confirmation of success came as the first

images were received on the ground from the space

telescope.

In February 1997, STS–82 astronauts on board

Discovery conducted a second Hubble servicing

mission during a 10-day flight. The objective of the

mission was to significantly upgrade the scientific

capabilities of the Hubble Space Telescope with the

installation of two state-of-the-art instruments. The

astronauts also performed routine maintenance and

installed several makeshift insulating blankets to

protect the observatory’s delicate instruments from

temperature extremes.

Space Shuttle servicing mission (STS–103) in

December 1999 restored NASA’s premier optical

space observatory to full capability beefed-up with

new electronics and critically needed replacement

gyroscopes.

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In the late 1960’s, some of America’s nuclear bomb

detection satellites unexpectedly discovered intermit-

tent bursts of gamma rays—high-energy particles

of light associated with nuclear reactions. However,

these gamma rays weren’t coming from nuclear

Burst and Transient Source Experiment

1111155555○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Scientists at the MarshallCenter are studying datafrom the Burst andTransient SourceExperiment (BATSE).BATSE has alreadyyielded new information

about the origin of high-energy gamma-ray bursts in

the universe.

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bomb tests on Earth. Instead, they seemed to be

originating from unknown points in deep space.

In order to better investigate the source of these

mysterious gamma-ray bursts, NASA launched the

Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (GRO). The

unmanned orbiting observatory was deployed from

the cargo bay of the Shuttle orbiter Atlantis (STS–37)

in April 1991. Weighing in around 17 tons, GRO was

the largest science satellite every carried by a

Shuttle, filling half of Atlantis’ cargo bay.

One of the four main astronomical instruments

aboard GRO was the Burst and Transient Source

Experiment (BATSE), built in-house at Marshall in the

mid-1980’s. Operated by the BATSE team in Hunts-

ville, BATSE has already yielded new information

about the origin of high-energy gamma-ray bursts

in the universe.

A robotic telescope managed to take the first-ever

optical images of a gamma-ray burst as it was

exploding on Saturday, January 23, 1999, guided

by a BATSE location in the sky.

BATSE’s discoveries have shown that gamma-ray

bursts do not originate in our own galaxy as was

previously assumed, but emanate instead from the

most distant parts of the observable universe,

indicating the occurrence of violent cosmic events

on a nearly unimaginable scale.

BATSE has also discovered several black hole and

neutron star binary systems, and other strange

celestial objects, which emit bursts of gamma rays.

BATSE findings and the other GRO instruments are

now putting together a picture of our universe more

incredible than anyone had ever previously guessed.

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Chandra

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The Chandra team not only produced and polished

the mirrors, but also created the systems to put them

together. The team also had to align all the compo-

nents to within miniscule tolerances, assemble them

into a spacecraft that could survive the rigors of

launch and space, then test them and validate their

performance.

In many instances, the Chandra team had to come

up with new processes for things that had never been

done before. They developed, built and validated a

measurement system that was used to make sure

the cylindrical mirrors were ground correctly and

polished to the right shape. The eight mirrors are

the largest of their kind—the biggest is 4 feet in

diameter and 3 feet long. The mirror group weighs

more than 1 ton.

The team created and executed a system to carefully

assemble the mirrors into a total package that could

survive the rigors of a rocket ride, weightlessness,

and the temperature extremes of space. The space-

craft is made of graphite epoxy to meet stringent

weight requirements, and yet Chandra is the largest

and heaviest payload ever deployed from the Space

Shuttle. Fully fueled, Chandra weighed 12,930

pounds. With the Inertial Upper Stage set of

boosters added to the craft, the assembly totaled

In July 1999, NASA launched Chandra, the world’s

most powerful x-ray telescope—packed with the

strength and accuracy to read a newspaper from

one-half a mile away or see the letters of a stop sign

from 12 miles. A month later Chandra, a member of

NASA’s family of Great Observatories, released its

spectacular first celestial images.

The journey from Chandra’s program inception to

initial image was a challenging one. Along the way,

the Marshall-managed program focused on precision

engineering and attention to detail.

Launched by the Space Shuttle, the observatory

travels one-third of the way to the Moon during its

orbit around the Earth every 64 hours. At its highest

point, Chandra’s highly elliptical, or egg-shaped, orbit

is 200 times higher than that of its visible-light-

gathering sister, the Hubble Space Telescope.

With its combination of large mirror area, accurate

alignment, and efficient x-ray detectors, Chandra has

10 times greater resolution and is 50 to 100 times

more sensitive than any previous x-ray telescope.

Chandra’s mirrors are the smoothest ever created. If

the surface of the state of Colorado were as relatively

smooth, Pike’s Peak would be less than 1-inch tall.

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50,162 pounds and measured 45.3 feet long by

64 feet wide with its solar arrays deployed.

On the other end of the size spectrum,

microtechnology was used in manufacturing pro-

cesses to make components for Chandra’s imaging

systems. Spectrographic transmission gratings,

used to precisely determine the energies of incoming

x-rays, had never been built before. The gratings

include tiny gold bars that are closer together than

a wavelength of visible light. It would take hundreds

of the bars to equal the thickness of a sheet of paper.

Plastic membranes, thin as a soap bubble, support

the bars.

While all of these incredibly small and large items

were being designed and built, the team also had

to make sure that they all came together to form

the very best overall system. The spacecraft had

to be precise and reliable. Also, the ground control

system and its operating staff had to be able to

efficiently and safely operate Chandra for 5 years

or more. The team tested, tested and re-tested the

spacecraft and ground system together to make sure

they were compatible. On the optics system testing

they made sure that they had at least two ways to

crosscheck all results. In some instances the team

had even more checks.

Calibrating and validating the telescope’s scientific

operation proved to be another challenge. Unlike

optical astronomy, where there are established, well-

known targets in the universe that can be used for

calibration purposes, there aren’t any for x-ray

images. A new world-class X-Ray Calibration Facility

was built at the Marshall Center to precisely calibrate

Chandra’s x-ray optics. The facility also provided

opportunities for additional crosschecks of the total

optical system and for an independent check of

Chandra’s optical performance.

From x-rays entering the optics to the quality of the

images produced by the science instruments, the

testing verified the exceptional accuracy of Chandra’s

optics. Chandra is so finely tuned it can detect objects

separated by one-half arc second. That is like

identifying two dimes side-by-side from 2 miles away.

This is the Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA’snewest space telescope, which will provide uniqueand crucial new information about the structureand evolution of our universe. Marshall SpaceFlight Center manages the Chandra program.

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used as the primary test stand for the development

of the F–I engine, the largest liquid rocket engine

ever developed. The F–I generated 1.5 million

pounds of thrust.

Neutral Buoyancy Simulator

The Neutral Buoyancy Simulator was designed to

provide a simulated weightless environment needed

to perform engineering tests in preparation for space

missions. The extravehicular activity protocols for the

Skylab rescue and Apollo Telescope Mount film

retrieval were developed in the facility.

The Saturn V Dynamic Test Stand

The Saturn V Dynamic Test Stand was used in

1966–67 for ground vibration testing of the Saturn V

launch vehicle and the Apollo spacecraft. Completion

of this program was the final step prior to the launch

of Apollo 11—the first manned lunar landing

mission. In 1972–73 the stand was used for tests

involving the Skylab space station, and in 1978–79

for ground vibration testing of the complete Space

Shuttle vehicle.

Saturn V Display

The Saturn V on display at the U.S. Space and Rocket

Center is the actual test rocket that was used in

dynamic testing of the Saturn facilities at Marshall.

The NASA Marshall Space Flight Center announced

on January 22, 1986, that the U.S. Department of the

Interior’s National Park Service had designated four

Marshall Center facilities as National Historic Land-

marks. On July 15, 1987, a fifth designation was

announced.

The first four facilities are the Redstone Test Stand,

Propulsion and Structural Test Facility, Saturn V

Dynamic Test Stand, and Neutral Buoyancy Simulator.

The Saturn V on display at the U.S. Space and Rocket

Center represents the fifth designation.

Historic Redstone Test Stand

The Redstone Test Stand was used during the 1950’s

in early development of the Redstone missile propul-

sion system. This was the test stand where the

modified Redstone missile that launched the first

American into space, Alan Shepard, was static tested

as the last step before the flight occurred.

Propulsion and Structural Test Facility

The Propulsion and Structural Test Facility, developed

in support of Jupiter missile development, was

modified and used for testing on the first clustered

engine stage in the American space program, the

S–IB stage of the Saturn I launch vehicle. It was also

National Historic Landmarks

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The stages of the rocket were used to check out all

the Saturn facilities at Huntsville. Although the rocket

was not intended to be flown, it was a working vehicle

that prepared the way for the Apollo expeditions to

the Moon. Officials from the Department of the

Interior referred to the vehicle as “a unique engi-

neering masterpiece that formed the key link in the

chain that enabled Americans to travel to the Moon.

The success of the Saturn V made possible the

success of the American space program.” Marshall

delivered the Saturn V at the U.S. Space and Rocket

Center in 1969 after all three stages were taken from

the Center’s Dynamic Test Stand.

The Historic Redstone TestStand was the site wherethe rockets were tested forthe Mercury-Redstonevehicle that boostedAmerica’s first astronaut,Alan B. Shepard, on asuborbital flight in 1961.

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But America wanted to get to the Moon before the

end of the 1960’s, so von Braun led the Marshall

team as they developed the massive rockets that

helped the Nation achieve this goal. Even as the

United States raced to the Moon, Marshall engi-

neers—inspired by von Braun’s ideas—continued

to study space stations, including concepts using

refurbished rocket stages. This led to a precursor

of today’s International Space Station: Skylab, a

two-level workshop made from a converted Saturn

rocket stage.

Building on their Skylab experience, Marshall engi-

neers and scientists continued space station studies

in the 1970’s and 80’s. Their designs were used to

help create the International Space Station. Today,

the Marshall Center’s facilities and technical expertise

are being used to support fabrication and testing of

Space Station components.

The Boeing Company, the prime Space Station

contractor, built Unity, the first U.S.-built component,

and the U.S. Laboratory modules in the same

Marshall Center building where decades ago others

assembled the Saturn V rocket. In addition to Boeing,

Long before his appointment as the first director

of the Marshall Center in 1960, Wernher von Braun

wrote in Collier’s magazine about his dreams for a

space station. “Development of the space station is

as inevitable as the rising of the Sun. Man has

already poked his nose into space and he is not likely

to pull it back.” Von Braun’s plans for a large space

station were published in a book the same year.

As the Space Station—a permanent, orbiting

research facility—has evolved over the last

40 years, hundreds of Marshall employees and many

Huntsville businesses have contributed to its success.

It began with von Braun’s space station ideas,

inspired by fiction writers and scientists who had

envisioned permanent outposts in space since the

turn of the century.

In the classic 1952 Collier’s article, von Braun wrote

of a majestic 250-foot-wide wheel that would orbit

1,075 miles above Earth and rotate to provide

artificial gravity, similar to the station visualized in the

movie, 2001, A Space Odyssey. “From this platform,

a trip to the Moon itself will be just a step, as scien-

tists reckon distance in space,” von Braun wrote.

Space Station

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more than 30 Alabama businesses have contributed

to the Space Station effort, providing millions of

dollars of services and equipment. In late 1998, the

Space Shuttle Endeavour carried Unity into orbit to

begin Space Station assembly.

During the last 40 years, scientists have learned not

only that humans can live in microgravity, but also

that microgravity is itself a key area of scientific

activity with benefits in the form of improved products

and processes back on Earth. Marshall, NASA’s lead

center for Microgravity Science, is fostering the

development of many International Space Station

investigations. When the Station becomes opera-

tional, it will offer scientists the first opportunity to

do experiments over extended periods in this unique

environment.

This space station concept was designed and drawnby Dr. Wernher von Braun in 1952 for an articleabout space travel in Collier’s magazine.

The Marshall Center’s proven expertise with

Spacelab—the reusable laboratory flown inside the

Space Shuttle from 1981 to 1998—is being tapped

to build Space Station experiment hardware and plan

microgravity investigations. Marshall developed a

multiple-user rack facility, which was tested aboard

Spacelab and will be used for experiments inside the

Space Station. In addition, Marshall is managing the

development of special pallets that will be used for

experiments mounted on the outside of Space

Station.

One idea has not changed since von Braun’s dream

long ago: the goal of establishing a permanent

presence in space. As von Braun wrote in his Collier’s

article more than 45 years ago, “If we do it (build a

space station), we can not only preserve the peace

but we can take a long step toward uniting mankind.”

The International Space Station is the result of 16

nations joining together on the largest, peacetime,

multinational program ever attempted. In his 1969

blueprint for the future of the space program, von

Braun wrote, “Exploration of space is the challenge

of our day. If we continue to put our faith in it and

pursue it, it will reward us handsomely.”

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