NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) 19990054617: Dreams, Hopes, Realities: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the First Forty Years

236 Pages·51.3 MB·English

by  NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

To my Uncle Ned
A gifted teacher who introduced me to the stars
And to my Morn and Dad --
Who made me believe I could reach them.
Table of Contents
Foreword ......................................................... vii
Preface ............................................................ ix
Goddard's First Forty: The Quest to Learn ................................. 1
A Place for Science .................................................. 13
The Tools ......................................................... 53
Exploring the Heavens ............................................... 81
Exploring the Earth ................................................ 131
The Endless Frontier ................................................ 165
References ........................................................ 175
Bibliographic Essay ................................................. 191
Appendix A: Glossary of Acronyms ..................................... 193
Appendix B: Goddard Launches ........................................ 197
Appendix C: Directors of the Goddard Space Flight Center 1959-1998 ........... 205
Acknowledgements ................................................. 207
Index ........................................................... 209
The NASA History Series ............................................. 215
About the Author .................................................. 219

NASA SP-4312
DREAMS, HOPES,
REALITIES
by Lane E. Wallace
NASA_s Goddard Space Flight Center
The First Forty Years
The NASA History Series
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NASA History Office
Office of Policy and Plans
Washington, D.C. 1999
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wallace, Lane E., 1961-
Dreams, hopes, realities: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/The first forty
years/by Lane E. Wallace.
p. cm. -- (The NASA history series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Supt. of Docs. no.: NAS 1.21:SP-4312
1. Goddard Space Flight Center--History.
I. Title. II. Series.
TL862.G6W35 1999
629.4'0973--dc21
98-55745
CIP
For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office
Superintendent of Documents, Mail Stop: SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-9328
ISBN 0-16-049947-X
CHAPTER 1-
Goddard's First Forty:
The Quest to Learn
The ISEE-C satellite
undergoing evaluation
On the night of October 4, 1957, a large rocket lifted off
in a dynamic test
chamber at Goddard.
from its pad at a remote, secret installation in the Kazakhstan
region of the U.S.S.R. In its nose cone was a 22-inch diameter
sphere weighing 175 pounds. _A few minutes later, the rocket dis-
appeared from sight. But the reverberations from that launch were
felt more than half a world away. Almost 200 years after the Battle
of Lexington and Concord, another shot had been heard around
the world. And it, too, would change the course of history.
The Russians' launch put Sputnik I, the world's first successful
satellite, into orbit. In a single stroke, it also launched the space age
and a race between two superpowers that would lead to the
creation of a civilian U.S. space agency, a landing on the Moon, and
40th Anniversary History 1
2 Goddard Space Flight Center
Aerial view of the test an unprecedented level of support for an Aeronautics (NACA) had several aeronauti-
and evaluation facilities
entirely new field of science--one that cal research centers around the country,
at the Goddard Space
would explore what lay beyond the atmos- but the size and scope of their projects
Flight Center. (NASA
phere and give us a new perspective of were much smaller than the large-scale
Photo G93-010-030)
Earth itself.
"big science" efforts a space program
The sudden boom of the space age would require. As plans for the new
brought with it an acute need for new National Aeronautics and Space
infrastructure to organize and manage pro- Administration (NASA))- progressed
jects that would involve thousands of peo- throughout 1958, decision makers realized
ple and millions of dollars. In 1958, the the need for new research centers devoted
National Advisory Committee for expressly to space projects.