nasa facts goddard space flight center, greenbelt, maryland

8/7/2019 NASA Facts Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nasa-facts-goddard-space-flight-center-greenbelt-maryland 1/4

,

NASANAN EDUCATIONAL PUBLICATION OF T H E

~~~

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

S E R I E S0-5/10-67

Goddard mace Flight CenterGREENBELT, MARY LAND

The Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, The staff at Goddard tota ls approx imately 3,800

Maryland, is responsible for the development of of which nearly one-half (1881) are scientists or

unmanned orb i t ing sate l li tes in the in terest of basic engineers. The major ity of personnel are located

and appl ied science, sound ing rocket experiments, at the Center, al though a number are located at

and NASA's world-wide network of trac'king stations other continental U.S. instal lations such as the

missions. In addi t ion. other members of the Goddard teamserving man ned and unmanned scienti fic space Goddard Insti tute for Space Studies in New York.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Cente r's Main Administration Building.

GPO P R I C E

CFSTl P R I C E

Hard copy

ff 653 J u l y 6 5

(THRU)

3

(PAGES)

3 I(NASA CR OR TMX OR AD NUMBER)



?

I - *

are located throughout the world o perat ing satel l i te

tracking and communicat ions network stat ions, andsome are working with foreign nat ions on inter-

national space projects.

Goddard Space Flight Center was established by

the National Aeronautics a nd Space Administrat ionon May 1, 1959. It was the f irst major United

States laboratory devoted ent irely to the invest iga-t ion and explorat ion of space. Located abo ut te n

mile s northe ast of Washington, D.C., it is one of the

few instal lat ions in the world capable of condu ct ing

a ful l range space science experimen tat ion progra m

from theory, through experimentat ion, design and

construct ion, satel l ite fabricat ion an d test ing, track -

ing, data acquisition and reduct ion.

SEARCH FOR NEW KNOWLEDGE:

The Center’s scientif ic staff is concerned pri-

mari ly with research into magne tic f ields, e nerget ic

part ic les, ionospheres and radio p hysics, planetaryatmospheres, meteorology, inter-planetary matter,

solar physics, and astronomy.

Approximately one -third of al l the scient i f ic ex-

perime nts flown in spacecraft by the United States

have been conceived, designed, and built by God-

dar d scientists. And, in add ition, the Center holds

management responsibi l i ty for about one-half of

the ear th satell ites launc hed by NASA. Throu ghsuch programs, much of the basic scient i f ic infor-

mation essential for a better understanding of our

-L

planet, of the solar system, and of the universe is

being obtained.

SCIENTIFIC SATELLITES:

NASA scientists and engineers at Goddard, work-

ing closely with the scient i f ic community here and

abroad, have launched more than 30 scient i f ic

satell ites and approx imately 50 0 sound ing rocketsto study the mysteries of earth-sun relat ionships,

the nature of near-e arth space and the universe.

The satel l i tes range fro m the special ized-missionU.S. Explorer series such as the Inter-planetary

Monitoring Platforms, the Atmosphere Explorers,

through internat ional spacecraft l ike England’s

Ariel, Canada’s Alouette and I taly ’s San M arco u p to

the family of observatory satel l i tes (solar, geo-

physical, and astronomical).

Other programs include missions such as the

Radio Astronomy Explorer with antennas measur-

ing 1 ,500 feet f rom ti p to t ip and the AnchoredInterplanetary Mon i tor ing Plat form (Explorer XXXV)

which was placed into orbi t around the moon to

study interplan etary space July 22, 1967.

APPLICATIONS SATELLITES:

An important area of interest to NASA is God-

dard’s appl ications satel l ite program. Among this

group are the TIROS and Nimbus meteorologicalsatel l i te programs. A series of TIROS sate ll ites have

been launched with such rel iabi l i ty that the En-

GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

GREENBELT, MARYLAND

0 SPACE PROJECTS BUILDING

0 RESEARCH PROJECTS LABORATORY

CENTRAL FLIGHT CONTROL AND

SPACECRAFT OPERATIONS FACILITY

INSTRUMENT CONSTRUCTION AND

INSTALLATION LABORATORY

0 SPACE SCIENCES LABORATORY

0 PAYLOAD TESTING FACILITY

0 SATELLITE SYSTEMS LABORATORY

O G A T E H OUSE

0 ENVIRONMENTAL TESTING LABORATORY

0 APPLIED SCIENCES LABORATORY

@TR ACKI NG AND TELEMETRY LABORATORY

Q) DEVELOPMENT OPERATIONS BUILDING

(D METEOROLOGICAL SYSTEMSDEVELOPMENT LABORATORY

@ MECHANICAL TEST FACILITY

0 DATA INTERPRETATION LABORATORY

@NA SA SPACE SCIENCE DATA CFNTER

SCALERcL_-0 500 1000F E E T



I . -vironmental Science Services Administrat ion has

adopted the TIROS Operational System (TOS) for

regular weather rep ort ing purposes. Meteorological

research and development is now focused on the

more versat ile and advanced Nimb us satel l i te.

In the area of com mun icat ions satel l i tes, God-

dard helped develop Echo, the passive communica-

t ions bal loon, and Relay and Syncom, which am pli fyand rebroadcast radio signals back to earth. Th e

Syncom con cept has been employed in the “Early

Bir d” comm unicat ions satell ite.

TRACKING AND COMMUNICATIONS:

Another major res ponsib i l i ty is Godda rd’s role

as the hub of al l of NASA’s tracking act iv i t ies.

Without telemetry, command and control, NASA

unmanned spacecraft would be si lent pieces of

orbi t ing hardware, and ast ronauts in manned craf t

would be beyond the reach of the thousands who

support each mission.Three t rac k ing and data acquis i tion networks

support NASA’s missions: the manned space f l ight

network (MSFN), the satel l i te tracking and dataacquisit ion network (STADAN), and the Jet Propul-

sion Laboratory’s deep-space network (DSN). This

world-wide system thus serves both manned and

unmanned satel l i tes exploring near-space, and

deep-space missions to the other planets.

Goddard supports the astronauts with a world-wide network of tracking stat ions that l ink them

with the mission control center in Houston and the

recovery fleet deployed on three oceans.

Named in honor of Dr. Robert H. Goddard, the

NASA Center cont inues in the scien t i f ic tra dit ion of

this New England scient ist , who has been recog-nized as the “Father of Am erican R ocketry ” a nd

as one of the pioneers in the theoret ical exploration

of space.Robert Hutchings Goddard, born in Worcester,

Massachusetts, on October 5, 1882, was a theo-

retical scientist as well as a prac tical engineer. Hisdream was the conquest of the upper atmosphere

and ult imately space through the use of rocket

propulsion.Dr. Goddard was probably as responsible for

the dawning of the Space Age as the Wrights were

for the b eginnin g of the Air Age. Yet his work at-

tracted l i t t le serious attent ion during his l i fet ime.

When the United States began to prepare for the

Goddard SpaceGreenbelt,

Techn ic ians check ing an d tes t ing anInterplanetary Monitor ing P lat form(IMP) Spacecraf t in the test an devaluat ion area.

3



conquest of space in th e 1 950’s, Am erican rocket

scientists began to recognize the enormity of the

debt which their science owed to the New Englandprofessor. They discovered that it was vir tually im-

possible to construct a rocket or launch a satel l i te

without acknowledging the work of Dr. Goddard.

This great legacy was covered by more than 200

patents, many of which were issued after his death.

On May 1, 1959 , the National Aeronautics and

Space Administrat ion named its new Space Flight

Center at Greenbelt, Maryland, the Goddard Space

Flight Center. On September 15 , 19 59 , the Con-

gress of the United States authorized the issuance

of a gold m edal in honor of the rocket pioneer. The

Smithsonian Insti tut ion, long famil iar w ith h is work,

Spacecraft being prepared fora s imu la t ion tes t .

awarded him i t s coveted Langley M edal on June 28,

1960, in honor of his discoveries in rocketry.

The essence of Goddard’s philosophy, as heexpressed in his high school oration, serves as the

mot to of the Goddard Space Flight Center: “It is

dif f icult to say what is impossible, for the dream of

yesterday i s the hope of today and the real i ty of

tomorrow.”

DIRECTOR: DR. JOHN F. CLARK

Goddard Space Flight Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administrat ion

Greenbelt , Maryland 207 71

NASA FACTS IS AN EDUCATIONAL PUBLICATION OF NASA’s OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS DIVISION.A MAILING LIST IS MAINTAINED FOR FREE DISTRIBUTION TO TEACHERS. TO REQUEST LISTING FOR NASA FACTS WRITETO PU BLICATI ONS DISTRIBUTION, FAD-1, NAT IONA L AERONAUTICS AND ADMI NISTRAT ION, WASHINGT.ON. D.C. 20546

U.S GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1968 0-~89-(111

nasa facts goddard space flight center, greenbelt, maryland

Documents