December 10, 1999 Vol. 38, No. 25 Spaceport News America’s gateway to the universe. Leading the world in preparing and launching missions to Earth and beyond. John F. Kennedy Space Center

Launch nears for STS-103 It is a mantra often heard from the manage- FOOTPRINTFOOTPRINTFOOTPRINTFOOTPRINTFOOTPRINTFOOTPRINT ment of NASA and Kennedy Space Center: Safety comes first. The on a century agency and KSC proved As the 1900s dawned, space flight existed only in the their imaginations of a few authors of fiction. As the century dedication wanes, space flight is a reality taken for granted by all. to that motto In a century dominated by rapid technological vaults, with the massive and the most profound achievement has been the human meticulous inspections conquest of space. And the epicenter of that previously and repairs of the four unimaginable endeavor has been a Space Shuttle vehicles swath of land straddling the following an electrical Banana River on problem during the Florida’s East coast launch of STS-93 in July. The undertaking has – Cape Canaveral been tedious for KSC and Kennedy workers, but Shuttle Space Center. processing teams have On July 24, carried out their role. 1950, a two- The most detailed stage rocket examination of the Space called Bumper Shuttle fleet in more than soared above a decade will culminate the scrub land of with the launch of the Cape Canaveral, orbiter Discovery on mission STS-103, the christening what final Shuttle mission of would become the the year. world’s space flight The crew of Discovery capital. will embark on the third KSC employees are servicing of the Hubble well acquainted with the Space Telescope. Four historic successes that spacewalks are planned followed, from the Mercury during the flight. and Gemini programs through The mission will be led Apollo and the Space Shuttle and, by Commander Curtis L. Brown Jr. Scott J. Kelly finally, the beginning of construction will serve as Pilot and of the International Space Station. Steven L. Smith as As KSC peers into the year 2000 and Payload Commander. The beyond, more sophisticated forms of space Mission Specialists are C. travel exist not in the exotic realm of science fiction but Michael Foale, John M. in the plans of NASA managers. Those plans already are Grunsfeld and Claude taking shape in many projects at KSC. Nicollier and Jean- With this issue, we offer a pictorial history of space Francois Clervoy of the flight on pages 2 through 5. European Space Agency. Page 2 SPACEPORT NEWS December 10, 1999

Clockwise from right: The original seven Project Mercury astronauts. ... The Gemini 7 capsule, carrying astronauts Frank Borman and James Lovell, is seen from the Gemini 6A capsule during a rendevous in space. ... Astronaut Gordon Cooper walks from his living quarters at Hangar S early on May 15, 1963, trailed by Dr. H.A. Minners, Crew Flight Surgeon. Cooper was driven to Launch Complex 14 and launched on Faith 7, NASA’s fourth manned orbital mission. ... An interior view of the Mission Control Center at KSC during the launch sequence of Sigma 7 on Oct. 3, 1962. ... A Mercury-Atlas 7 lifts off from Complex 14 on May 24, 1962. The rocket, named Au- rora 7, carried astronaut Scott Carpenter on NASA’s second manned orbital mission. December 10, 1999 SPACEPORT NEWS Page 3

Clockwise from right: The swing arms of Launch Pad 39A move away and smoke rises as the Apollo 11 vehicle lifts off at 9:32 a.m. on July 16, 1969. The mission resulted in the first land- ing on the moon. ... Members of the Apollo 11 launch team watch anxiously from their consoles in the Launch Control Center in the final mo- ments before liftoff. ... During pre-launch activi- ties for Apollo 15 on July 26, 1971, a technician helps astronaut James B. Irwin with his suit in what was then known as the Manned Space- flight Operations Building. ... An expended Sat- urn IVB stage drops away from the Apollo 7 module during transportation and docking ma- neuvers. The rollout of history If the ancient Greek myth of key events that helped engage the Icarus and Daedalus is any indica- minds of inventors and push the tion, people have fantasized about parameters of the technology we flying for many millennia. take for granted today. Daedalus fashioned wings of 1040 A.D. - Explosives or feathers and wax that were strapped weapons were not even the impetus onto his son and himself to flee for China’s research into gunpow- their place of exile by flying. The der. Gunpowder was invented by road from mythology to actual alchemists seeking the elixir of flight, and especially into space, immortality. Though gunpowder however, took more than dreams was invented around the third plus many centuries of discoveries century B.C., the true gunpowder and inventions, most of them in the formula was first published about 20th century. 1040 A.D. by Tseng Kung-Liang. The road also followed a path The use of gunpowder and rockets from the Far East through Europe formed an integral aspect of to North America, from explosives Chinese military tactics by 1045 to engines, airplanes to rockets, as A.D. well as computers. Here are a few 1241 - The rocket seems to Page 4 SPACEPORT NEWS December 10, 1999

Clockwise from upper left: In the Operations and Checkout Building, astronaut Neil Armstrong prepares to enter the mod- ule for an altitude chamber test on March 18, 1969. ... The Earth is seen above the horizon of the moon during an Apollo mission. ... The “Hula Hoop” rings of Supernova 1987A as captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. ... An astronaut drives the Lunar Roving Module during Apollo 15. have arrived in Europe around centuries in both Europe and by the aviator who lies prone in the 1839 – Hydrogen fuel cells were 1241 A.D. Accounts have described America. framework and works the wings by invented by Sir William Grove, a rocket-like weapons being used by A multi-stage rocket was first pulleys. DaVinci’s later designs Welsh judge, inventor and physi- the Mongols against Magyar forces developed by the Chinese to use in often had more than a single pair of cist. He mixed hydrogen and in an invasion against Buda naval engagements. A woodcut wings, and the aviator is standing oxygen in the presence of an (Hungary). Rockets appear in Arab from The Fire-Drake Artillery upright. electrolyte, and produced electricity literature in 1258 A.D., also Manual, published in 1412, shows 1738 - Hot air balloons gave and water. The invention, which describing Mongol invaders’ use of a five-foot tube with rockets more credence to the concept that later became known as a fuel cell, them to capture the city of bundled in two levels. This rocket man could escape the binds of didn’t produce enough electricity to Baghdad. Quick to learn, the Arabs flew in a flat trajectory, three or Earth. The first balloon flight was be useful. It took nearly a century adopted the rocket into their own four feet above the water, for more made on June 5, 1783, in France. more for fuel cell research in arms inventory and, during the than a mile. It was an uncanny The balloon, using hot air for lift, Germany, in the 1920s, to pave the Seventh Crusade, used them forerunner of the modern Exocet was constructed by Joseph and way to the development of the against the French Army of King surface-skimming naval rockets. Elienne Montgolfier. It climbed to carbonate cycle and solid oxide fuel Louis IX in 1268. By 1300, rockets 1492 - A flying machine 5,906 feet and traveled nearly a cells of today. had found their way into European designed by Leonardo DaVinci mile. A few months later, on Nov. In 1932, engineer Francis T. arsenals, reaching Italy by the year recalled the Greek myth of 21, Pilatre de Rozier and Marquis Bacon began his vital research into 1500, Germany shortly afterwards, Daedalus. DaVinci’s early design d’Arlandes made the first manned fuel cells. Bacon used a less and later, England. They continued called for a wooden framework flight, also in a Montgolfier to be used in some form down the with two movable wings activated balloon. (See Timeline, Page 5) December 10, 1999 SPACEPORT NEWS Page 5

Descending from left to right:. ... The nose of the Space Shuttle glides above the Earth as seen from the Russian station Mir during STS- 81. ... A trio of astronauts makes repairs to the Intelsat satellite in the payload bay during mission STS- 49. ... Mission specialist Tamara Jernigan attaches the “Strela” crane to the International Space Station during a space walk on STS-96. ... The Space Shuttle Discovery Timeline ... Apollo space capsules. Today the rises above Pad 39B at the launch of STS-95 on October 29, 1998. ... The first two elements of the International Space Station, Unity and (Continued from Page 4) space shuttle’s electricity is provided by fuel cells, and the Zarya, in an image captured during STS-88. corrosive alkaline electrolyte and same fuel cells provide drinking inexpensive nickel electrodes. water for the crew. After 27 years, he perfected his 1903 - Orville and Wilbur fuel cell, demonstrating a five- Wright proved mechanical flight kilowatt fuel cell that could power was possible with their construction a welding machine. Bacon named and flight of the Kitty Hawk Dec. his famous fuel cell design the 17, 1903 on the Outer Banks of “Bacon Cell.” In October 1959, North Carolina. They made Harry Karl Ihrig, engineer for the history’s first powered, sustained Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing and controlled airplane flights from Company, demonstrated a fuel- level ground without any assistance cell-powered, 20 horsepower at takeoff. tractor, the first vehicle ever 1914 – Robert H. Goddard powered by a fuel cell. In the early began rocketry experiments in 1960s, General Electric produced the United States, earning two the fuel cell-based, electrical power system for NASA’s Gemini and (See Timeline, Page 6) Page 6 SPACEPORT NEWS December 10, 1999

Timeline ... age. Wernher Von Braun directed Germany’s rocket development (Continued from Page 5) program, where he and his team of patents for the first liquid-fueled scientists built the famous V2 rocket and the first modern rockets used against England multi-stage rocket. They were during World War II. Von Braun the first of 214 patents in all. later went to work for the United Soon after, he developed the States. 1946 - The first fully electronic fundamental mathematics of computer, the ENIAC I, was rocket propulsion, and in 1920 developed by John Mauchly and he proposed that it might be John Presper Eckert for the U.S. possible one day to send a military, which needed a calculat- rocket to the moon. ing device for writing artillery World War II - Advances in firing tables. It took the team about flight came rapidly during and after one year to design the ENIAC and WWII. The essentials of the 18 months and $500,000 tax dollars The frame of the Reusable Launch Vehicle hangar rises near the Shuttle modern turbojet were contained in to build it. However, it was never Landing Facility in this photo taken in October. The hangar signifies the future a 1930 patent in England by Frank used for its intended purpose of space flight at Kennedy Space Center. Whittle. His design was first tested because by the time it was built, in 1937 and flew in 1941. Indepen- the war was over. there. The launch shocked Ameri- established at Redstone Arsenal dently, Germany produced a patent 1957 - The U.S.S.R. launched cans and spurred the efforts to under Wernher von Braun’s in 1935 and flew a turbojet- Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. launch an American satellite. leadership to develop the Jupiter powered aircraft in 1939. Sputnik was equipped with 1958 - The U.S. launched its intermediate range ballistic missile. 1944 - Modern rocket develop- transmitters to broadcast on first satellite, Explorer I, from Cape A version of the Redstone rocket, ment during the 1930s and ‘40s frequencies at 20 and 40 MHz so Canaveral. In 1956, the Army known as the Jupiter C, was used to opened the window to the space everyone would know it was up Ballistic Missile Agency was launch Explorer I on Jan. 31, 1958.

Holiday generosity KSC opens fuel pumps to state Cooperation between Kennedy mately 80 percent less harmful Space Center and the Florida exhaust than gasoline. This Department of Transportation mutually beneficial agreement was (FDOT) has led to a Reimbursable made possible by the cooperation Space Act Agreement to allow the of the NASA Central Budget office, FDOT to utilize the KSC Com- Chief Counsel’s office, Logistics pressed Natural Gas (CNG) Fueling Operations, JBOSC Energy Office, Facility. This has enabled the GSA Fleet Management and FDOT. FDOT to deploy CNG-powered KSC’s allowing the FDOT to pickup trucks in Brevard County. refuel at its CNG fueling facility The initial fill-up of vehicles on will enable the state agency to Nov. 9 represents another milestone deploy approximately 10 CNG in our transition to clean-burning, powered vehicles over the next two domestically produced fuels. CNG- years to the North Brevard County powered vehicles emit approxi- area.

John F. Kennedy Space Center Spaceport News

Spaceport News is an official publication of the Kennedy Space Center and is published on alternate Fridays by the Public Affairs Office in the interest of KSC civil service and contractor employees. Contributions are welcome and should be submitted two weeks before publication to the Media Services Branch, AB-F1. E-mail submissions can be sent to Gary.White-4@ksc.nasa.gov Managing editor...... Bruce Buckingham From left, Boeing Company employees Laurie McManus, Janine Editor...... Gary White Gresham and Beth Blakeney display some of the donations received in the Toys for Tots campaign. The campaign runs through Editorial support provided by InDyne Inc. Writers Group. Dec. 16. Donations of new, unwrapped toys to any Boeing office at NASA at KSC is located on the Internet at http://www.ksc.nasa.gov KSC or Cape Canaveral Air Station will go to children in Brevard. USGPO: 533-128/00021