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The MSFC Lunar Precursor and Robotic Program Office manages projects and directs studies on lunar robotic activities across NASA.
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MSFC and Lunar
The Lunar Roving Vehicle ( LRV ), popularly known as the " Moon Buggy ," was developed by MSFC to provide transportation for exploring a limited amount of the Moon's surface.
In 2006, the program was renamed to the Lunar Precursor Robotic Program and management responsibility re-assigned to the Marshall Space Flight Center ( MSFC ).
MSFC and Program
In what would be called the Apollo Program, the primary mission of MSFC was developing the heavy-lift rockets – the Saturn family.
The HEAO spacecraft was conceived by MSFC in the late 1960s, but, with the Apollo Program, funding did not become available for some time.
MSFC and Office
Starting in 2006, the MSFC Exploration Launch Projects Office began work on the Ares projects.
MSFC and manages
MSFC manages the GBM, and Charles A. Meegan of MSFC is the Principal Investigator.
MSFC and projects
At MSFC, Gerald J. Fishman is presently the principal investigator of a project to continue examination of data from BATSE and other gamma-ray projects.
The initial projects at MSFC were primarily continuations of work initiated earlier at ABMA.
From the start, MSFC has had strong research projects in science and engineering.
MSFC and studies
In the February 1964 issue of Popular Science, von Braun, then director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center ( MSFC ), discussed the need for a lunar surface vehicle, and revealed that studies had been underway at MSFC in conjunction with Lockheed, Bendix, Boeing, General Motors, Brown Engineering, Grumman, and Bell Aerospace.
Beginning in the early 1960s, a series of studies centering on lunar mobility were conducted under MSFC.
All of the first MSFC studies were based on this dual-launch assumption, allowing a large, heavy, roving vehicle.
In early 1963, NASA selected MSFC for studies in an Apollo Logistics Support System ( ALSS ).
In June 1964, MSFC awarded contracts for MOLAB studies and Mobility Test Articles ( MTAs ) to Bendix and to Boeing, with GMDRL as vehicle technology subcontractor.
Even before HEAO-2 ( the Einstein Observatory ) was launched in 1978, MSFC began preliminary studies for a larger X-ray telescope.
MSFC and on
Following the conclusion of the ALT test flight program, on March 13, 1978, Enterprise was flown once again, but this time half way across the country to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center ( MSFC ) in Alabama for the Mated Vertical Ground Vibration Testing ( MGVT ).
Located on the Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville, Alabama, MSFC is named in honor of General of the Army George Marshall.
MSFC officially opened at Redstone Arsenal on this same date, then was dedicated on September 8 by President Eisenhower in person.
In early March 2011, NASA Headquarters announced that MSFC will lead the efforts on a new heavy-lift rocket that, like the Saturn V of the lunar exploration program of the late 1960s, will carry large, man-rated payloads beyond low-Earth orbit.
In this program, MSFC was responsible for propulsion on the heavy-lift vehicles.
MSFC was responsible for the external tank, but few or no changes to the tank were made ; rather, NASA decided that it was inevitable that some insulation might be lost during launch and thus required that an inspection of the orbiter's critical elements be made prior to reentry on future flights.
The two-module embryonic ISS remained unmanned until the next module, Destiny, the U. S. Laboratory, arrived on February 7, 2001 ; this module was also built by Boeing at MSFC.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory, originating at MSFC, was launched on July 3, 1999, and is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
For 10 years, MSFC has suppored activities in the U. S. Laboratory ( Destiny ) and elsewhere on the International Space Station through the Payload Operations Center ( POC ).
MSFC was also responsible for Spacelab, the research facility carried in the Shuttle's cargo bay on certain flights.
USML-2 was launched in October 1995 on STS-73 with an MSFC scientist, Frederick W. Leslie, as an on-board Payload Specialist.
As the Project Scientist, MSFC brought on board C. Robert O ’ Dell, then chairman of the Astronomy Department at the University of Chicago.
The first NASA launch facility there ( Launch Complex 39 ) was designed and operated by MSFC, then in on July 1, 1962, the overall site achieving equal status with other NASA centers and was named the Launch Operations Center, later renamed the Kennedy Space Center ( KSC ).
The Apollo Spacecraft and its components were developed by other NASA centers, but were flight-tested on Saturn I and IB vehicles from MSFC.
At a meeting at MSFC on August 19, 1966, George E. Mueller, NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight, pinned down the final concept for the major elements.
By a presidential executive order on 15 March 1960, ABMA became NASA's George C. Marshall Space Flight Center ( MSFC ).
MSFC flew version 2 of the IU on SA-8, 9 and 10.
It was designed by MSFC but manufactured by IBM in their factory at Huntsville, and flew on all Saturn IB and Saturn V launches.
U. S. Representative Gerald Ford | Gerald R. Ford, Jr., of Michigan, MSFC director Wernher von Braun, Representative George H. Mahon, and NASA Administrator James E. Webb, visit the Marshall Space Flight Center on April 28, 1964, for a briefing on the Saturn program.
MSFC and lunar
From the start of MSFC, Huntsville, Alabama-based Brown Engineering Company ( BECO ) had participated in all of its lunar mobility efforts.
MSFC and robotic
MSFC was also examining unmanned robotic rovers that could be controlled from the Earth.
MSFC and activities
Following the highly successful Moon landing, including initial scientific exploration, MSFC had a major role in Post-Apollo activities ; this included Skylab, the United States ' first space station.
In addition to supporting NASA's key missions, the spinoffs from these activities at MSFC have contributed broadly to technologies that improve the Nation and the World.
The administrative activities in MSFC were led by persons with backgrounds in traditional U. S. Government functions, but all of the technical heads were individuals who had assisted von Braun in his success at ABMA.
The initial technical activities and leaders at MSFC were as follows:
MSFC and NASA
Included are: VISTA ( Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, 1987 ), Discovery II ( NASA / GRC, 2002 ), Human Outer Planet Exploration ( NASA / MSFC, 2003 ), ICAN-II ( The Pennsylvania State University )
The NASA / MSFC Human Outer Planets Exploration ( HOPE ) group has investigated a manned MTF propulsion spacecraft capable of delivering a 163 933-kilogram payload to Jupiter's moon Callisto using 106-165 metric tons of propellant ( hydrogen plus either D-T or D-He3 fusion fuel ) in 249 – 330 days.
Each center is managed by either MSFC, the host NASA facility, or the University of Alabama in Huntsville, the host university.
Shortly before activating its new Field Center in July 1960, NASA described the MSFC as the only self-contained organization in the nation that was capable of conducting the development of a space vehicle from the conception of the idea, through production of hardware, testing, and launching operations.
The next year, NASA took the project, sending a 1. 2 meter X-ray observatory, into consideration, then let Marshall Space Flight Center ( MSFC ) teamed with Harvard-Smithsonian take responsibility of this mission and fund the group for studying the feasibility of the project.
The instrument unit ( IU ) for Saturn V was designed by NASA at Marshall Space Flight Center ( MSFC ) and was developed from the Saturn I IU.
The chemical release project was managed by NASA / MSFC and utilized the release of chemicals from onboard canisters at low altitudes near dawn and dusk perigee times and at high altitudes near local midnight.
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