In October 1968, the American human spaceflight program took significant steps toward achieving President John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth before the end of the decade. American astronauts returned to space after a 23-month hiatus. The success of the 11-day Apollo 7 mission heralded well for NASA to decide to send the next mission, Apollo 8, to orbit the Moon in December. The Saturn V rocket for that flight rolled out to its seaside launch pad two days before Apollo 7 lifted off. Preparations for later missions to test the Lunar Module (LM) in Earth orbit and around the Moon continued in parallel, as did work in anticipation of astronauts and their lunar samples returning from the Moon. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union also resumed its human spaceflight program.

Left: Apollo 7 astronauts Donn F. Eisele, left, Walter M. Schirra, and R. Walter Cunningham review flight trajectories with Director of Flight Crew Operations Donald K. “Deke” Slayton shortly before launch. Middle: Schirra, left, Eisele, and Cunningham suit up for launch. Right: Liftoff of Apollo 7, returning American astronauts to space!

The liftoff of Apollo 7 astronauts Walter M. Schirra, Donn F. Eisele, and R. Walter Cunningham on Oct. 11, 1968, signaled the end of a 23-month hiatus in American human spaceflights resulting from the tragic Apollo 1 fire. To prevent a recurrence of the fire and to increase overall safety, NASA and North American Rockwell in Downey, California, redesigned the Apollo spacecraft, and Schirra, Eisele, and Cunningham spent months training to test it in Earth orbit. By the time they lifted off from Launch Pad 34 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, the Saturn V rocket for the Apollo 8 mission had already rolled out to Launch Pad 39A a few miles away.

Left: View of Apollo 7 lifting off from Launch Pad 34, with the Saturn V for Apollo 8 on Launch Pad 39A in the background. Middle: The Apollo 7 S-IVB third stage, used as a rendezvous target. Right: Apollo 7 astronauts Donn F. Eisele, left, Walter M. Schirra, and R. Walter Cunningham on the prime recovery U.S.S. Essex following their successful 11-day mission.

During their 11-day mission, Schirra, Eisele, and Cunningham thoroughly tested the redesigned Apollo spacecraft. Early in the mission, they performed rendezvous maneuvers with their rocket’s S-IVB second stage, a maneuver planned for later missions to retrieve the LM. They thoroughly tested the Service Propulsion System engine, critical on later lunar missions for getting into and out of lunar orbit, by firing it on eight occasions, including the critical reentry burn to bring them home. The three astronauts conducted the first live television broadcasts from an American spacecraft, providing viewers on the ground with tours of their spacecraft. Teams from the U.S.S. Essex (CV-9) recovered Schirra, Eisele, and Cunningham and their Command Module (CM) from the Atlantic Ocean on Oct. 22. Apollo program managers declared that Apollo 7 “accomplished 101%” of its planned objectives. 

Left: Apollo 8 astronauts James A. Lovell, left, William A. Anders, and Frank Borman attend the rollout of their Saturn V from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A. Middle: The Apollo 8 Saturn V at Launch Pad 39A. Right: Borman, left, Lovell, and Anders pose with their Saturn V following a crew egress exercise from their spacecraft.

The success of Apollo 7 gave NASA the confidence to announce in November that the next mission, Apollo 8, would attempt to enter orbit around the Moon. In early October, workers in High Bay 2 of KSC’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) completed the stacking of the Saturn V rocket for Apollo 8 by adding the Command and Service Module (CSM). On Oct. 9, two days before Apollo 7 lifted off, as the Apollo 8 crew of Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, and William A. Anders and other NASA officials looked on, the completed Saturn V rolled out from the VAB to begin its eight-hour journey to Launch Pad 39A, three and a half miles away. After the rocket arrived at the pad and engineers began testing it, on Oct. 23, Borman, Lovell, and Anders suited up and practiced emergency egress from the spacecraft, as did their backups Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, and Fred W. Haise.

Left: Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, left, William A. Anders, and James A. Lovell on the deck of the M/V Retriever prepare for their water egress test. Middle: Anders, left, Lovell, and Borman inside the boilerplate Apollo spacecraft during the water egress test. Right: Anders, left, Lovell, and Borman in the life raft after egressing from their spacecraft.

As part of their training, Borman, Lovell, and Anders conducted water egress training in the Gulf of Mexico near Galveston, Texas. On Oct. 25, sailors aboard the Motor Vessel M/V Retriever lowered a mockup CM with the crew inside into the water in a nose-down position. Flotation bags inflated to right the spacecraft to a nose-up position. The astronauts then exited the capsule onto life rafts and recovery personnel hoisted them aboard a helicopter. The next day, backups Armstrong, Aldrin, and Haise repeated the test. 

Left: Workers in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida lower the S-IVB third stage onto the S-II second stage during stacking operations of the Apollo 9 Saturn V. Middle: Apollo 9 astronaut Russell L. Schweickart practices entering and leaving the Command Module while wearing a pressure suit during brief periods of weightlessness aboard a KC-135 aircraft. Right: Engineers conduct a docking test between the Apollo 9 CM, bottom, and Lunar Module in an altitude chamber in KSC’s Manned Spacecraft Operations Building.

Preparations for Apollo 9 included training for the first spacewalk of the Apollo program. According to the mission plan, with the LM and CM docked, crew members in both spacecraft would open their hatches. During the spacewalk, one astronaut would transfer from the LM to the CM using handrails for guidance and enter the CM in a test of an emergency rescue capability. The training for this activity took place aboard a KC-135 aircraft from Patrick Air Force Base (AFB) in Florida. By flying repeated parabolic trajectories, the aircraft could simulate 20-30 seconds of weightlessness at a time, during which the astronauts wearing space suits practiced entering and exiting a mockup of the CM. Backup crew members Alan L. Bean and Richard F. Gordon completed the training on Oct. 9 followed by David R. Scott and Russell L. Schweickart of the prime crew the next day. North American Rockwell delivered the Apollo 9 CSM to KSC in early October. At the end the month, technicians in KSC’s Manned Spacecraft and Operations Building (MSOB) conducted a docking test of the Apollo 9 LM and CSM to verify the interfaces between the two vehicles. In the VAB’s High Bay 3, workers stacked the three stages of the Saturn V rocket for Apollo 9 during the first week of October.

Left: Workers in the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building (MSOB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida uncrate the Apollo 10 Lunar Module (LM) descent stage shortly after its arrival. Middle: MSOB workers unwrap the Apollo 10 LM ascent stage. Right: MSOB workers prepare to mate the Apollo 10 LM ascent stage to its descent stage.

In preparation for Apollo 10, planned as a test of the CSM and LM in lunar orbit, the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation in Bethpage, New York, delivered the LM for that mission to KSC. The descent stage arrived Oct. 11, followed by the ascent stage five days later. Technicians in the MSOB mated the two stages and installed the assembled vehicle into a vacuum chamber on Nov. 2 to begin a series of altitude tests.

Left: A flight of the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston. Middle: The forward instrument panel of the Lunar Module Test Article-8. Right: Richard Wright, administrative assistant for the Lunar Receiving Laboratory, gives astronaut Michael Collins a tour of the gloveboxes for examining lunar samples.

The Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV), built by Bell Aerosystems of Buffalo, New York, allowed Apollo astronauts to master the intricacies of landing on the Moon by simulating the LM’s performance in the final few hundred feet of the descent to the surface. Although an excellent training tool, the LLTV and its predecessor the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) also carried some risk. Astronaut Armstrong ejected from an LLRV on May 6, 1968, moments before it crashed at Houston’s Ellington AFB. The final accident investigation report, issued on Oct. 17, cited a loss of helium pressure that caused depletion of the fuel used for the reserve attitude thrusters, with inadequate warning to the pilot as a contributing factor. By that time, Chief of Aircraft Operations Joseph S. “Joe” Algranti piloted the properly modified LLTV during its first flight on Oct 3. Algranti and NASA pilot H.E. “Bud” Ream completed 14 checkout flights before a crash in December grounded the LLTV. In October, NASA began a series of critical thermal-vacuum tests to certify the Apollo LM for lunar missions. The tests, conducted in the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory (SESL), at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), now NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, involved Grumman pilots Gerald P. Gibbons and Glennon M. Kingsley and astronaut James B. Irwin. The tests using Lunar Module Test Article-8, concluded in November, and simulated the temperatures expected during a typical flight to the Moon and descent to the surface.

To receive astronauts and their lunar samples after their return from the Moon, NASA built the Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL) in MSC’s Building 37. The LRL’s special design isolated astronauts and rock samples returning from the Moon to prevent back-contamination of the Earth by any possible lunar micro-organisms. By October 1968, with the Moon landing likely less than a year away, the LRL had reached a state of readiness that warranted a simulation of some its capabilities. Between Oct. 22 and Nov. 1, managers, scientists, and technicians carried out a 10-day simulation of LRL operations following a lunar landing mission. Although the exercise uncovered many deficiencies, enough time remained to correct them before the actual Moon landing.

Left: Lift off of Soyuz 3 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome carrying cosmonaut Georgi T. Beregovoi. Middle: Beregovoi during a television broadcast from Soyuz 3. Right: The Soyuz 3 spacecraft carrying Beregovoi descends under its parachute for a soft-landing. Image credits: courtesy Roscosmos.

As a reminder that a race to the Moon still existed, the Soviet Union also resumed crewed missions, halted in April 1967 by the death of Soyuz 1 cosmonaut Vladimir M. Komarov. Just three days after the Apollo 7 splashdown, the Soviets launched Soyuz 2, but without a crew. The next day, Soyuz 3 lifted off with cosmonaut Georgi T. Beregovoi aboard, at 47 the oldest person to fly in space up to that time. Although Beregovoi brought the two spacecraft close together, he could not achieve the intended docking. Soyuz 2 landed on Oct. 28 and Beregovoi in Soyuz 3 two days later. Following the Zond 5 circumlunar flight in September, rumors persisted that the next Zond mission may soon carry two cosmonauts on a similar circumlunar flight. The apparently successful Zond 5 mission coupled with the rumors of an imminent Soviet crewed lunar mission possibly contributed to the decision to send Apollo 8 on its historic circumlunar flight in December 1968.

News from around the world in October 1968:

Oct. 2 – Redwood National Park established to preserve the tallest trees on Earth.

Oct. 7 – The Motion Picture Association of America adopts a film rating system.

Oct. 12 – Equatorial Guinea gains independence from Spain.

Oct. 12 – The XIX Olympic Games open in Mexico City, the first time the games held in Latin America.

Oct. 14 – The Beatles finish recording the double “White Album.”

Oct. 16 – The Jimi Hendrix Experience releases its last studio album “Electric Ladyland.”

Oct. 17 – Release of the film “Bullitt,” starring Steve McQueen.

Oct. 20 – American high jumper Dick Fosbury introduces the Fosbury Flop technique at the Mexico City Olympics.

Oct. 24 – The 199^th and last flight of the X-15 hypersonic rocket plane takes place at Edwards Air Force Base in California, piloted by NASA pilot William H. Dana.

Oct. 25 – Led Zeppelin gives its first concert, at Surrey University in England.

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is the latest satellite contributing to a 30-year sea level record that researchers are using to compare this year’s El Niño with those of the past.

Not all El Niño events are created equal. Their impacts vary widely, and satellites like the U.S.-European Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich help anticipate those impacts on a global scale by tracking changes in sea surface height in the Pacific Ocean.

Water expands as it warms, so sea levels tend to be higher in places with warmer water. El Niños are characterized by higher-than-normal sea levels and warmer-than-average ocean temperatures along the equatorial Pacific. These conditions can then propagate poleward along the western coasts of the Americas. El Niños can bring wetter conditions to the U.S. Southwest and drought to regions in the western Pacific, including Indonesia. This year’s El Niño is still developing, but researchers are looking to the recent past for clues as to how it is shaping up.

There have been two extreme El Niño events in the past 30 years: the first from 1997 to 1998 and the second from 2015 to 2016. Both caused shifts in global air and ocean temperatures, atmospheric wind and rainfall patterns, and sea level. The maps above show sea levels in the Pacific Ocean during early October of 1997, 2015, and 2023, with higher-than-average ocean heights in red and white, and lower-than-average heights in blue and purple. Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich captured the 2023 data, the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite collected data for the 1997 image, and Jason-2 gathered data for the 2015 map.

By October 1997 and 2015, large areas of the central and eastern Pacific had sea levels more than 7 inches (18 centimeters) higher than normal. This year, sea levels are about 2 or 3 inches (5 to 8 centimeters) higher than average and over a smaller area compared to the 1997 and 2015 events. Both of the past El Niños reached peak strength in late November or early December, so this year’s event may still intensify.

“Every El Niño is a little bit different,” said Josh Willis, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “This one seems modest compared to the big events, but it could still give us a wet winter here in the Southwest U.S. if conditions are right.”

More About the Mission

Launched in November 2020, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is named after former NASA Earth Science Division Director Michael Freilich. The satellite is one of two that compose the Copernicus Sentinel-6/Jason-CS (Continuity of Service) mission.

Sentinel-6/Jason-CS was jointly developed by ESA (European Space Agency), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), NASA, and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with funding support from the European Commission and technical support on performance from the French space agency CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales).

To learn more about Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/sentinel-6

News Media Contacts

Jane J. Lee / Andrew Wang
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-0307 / 626-379-6874
jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov

NASA’s Brian Key and Scott Bellamy accepted the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal on behalf of a mission team for the first planetary defense test during a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington on Oct. 17.

The awards program for career federal employees, known as the Sammies, aims to highlight key accomplishments that benefit the nation, seeks to build trust in government, and inspire people to consider careers in public service.

Known as DART, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission successfully impacted a known asteroid in September 2022 and altered its orbit, demonstrating one planetary defense method that could be used to protect Earth from a potentially hazardous asteroid on a collision course with our home planet if one were ever discovered.

Key and Bellamy served as program manager and mission manager for DART, respectively, and are based in the Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. For their work on the mission, the team was honored in the Science, Technology, and Environment category of the Heyman awards.

“DART was a first-of-its-kind mission that marked a watershed moment for planetary defense. The DART team members are some of the very best of NASA, and we are so excited to see Brian Key and Scott Bellamy recognized for their contributions and leadership,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said. “Brian, Scott, and the entire DART team have shaped the course of human space exploration, inspiring people around the world through innovation. Thanks to their dedication and hard work, NASA is better prepared to defend our home planet, and will be ready for whatever the universe throws at us.”

In his role on DART, Key maintained budget, staff, and schedule oversight for the mission and worked directly with DART spacecraft developers at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.

“I’m elated to see our team honored with this award and hope it will bring more attention to the valuable work NASA does to defend our home world,” Key said, who oversees management of NASA’s $2 billion portfolio spanning the Discovery Program, the New Horizons Program, and the Solar System Exploration Program, which covers the full range of large and small science missions exploring the planets, moons, asteroids, comets and other destinations of interest in the solar system.

Bellamy was tasked with keeping the team on track to launch and operate the mission. He echoed Key’s praise for the entire DART team.

“We’re just the managers,” Bellamy said. “Our role has been to serve the team, keeping things moving forward as smoothly as possible to enable them to do the actual hands-on, pencilwork-to-hardware that brought this mission from concept to reality.”

That mission could not have gone more flawlessly, they agreed. Launched in November 2021, the DART spacecraft traveled to more than 6.8 million miles from Earth with one simple goal: to intentionally impact into Dimorphos, a 492-foot-diameter asteroid, at roughly 14,000 miles per hour, thus altering its orbit around its much larger parent asteroid, Didymos. DART’s collision with Dimorphos altered the asteroid’s roughly 12-hour orbit period around its parent by about a half-hour.

“I don’t even have the words to describe the release of emotion in the control room when we got confirmation that DART had impacted,” Bellamy said. “The whole team went from nail-biting suspense to unbelievable excitement in a matter of seconds.”

As for future planetary defense activities, NASA and its partners will build on DART’s success. A follow-up mission by ESA (European Space Agency), called Hera, is scheduled to launch in 2024 to further assess DART’s impact on Dimorphos. NASA also is developing the NEO Surveyor mission, which is designed to accelerate the rate at which the agency can discovery potentially hazardous near-Earth objects, asteroids and comets which can come close to Earth and could pose an impact risk.

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory managed the DART mission for NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office. The agency provided support for the mission from several centers, including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California; Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston; Glenn Research Center in Cleveland; and Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

Learn more about NASA’s Planetary Missions Program and Planetary Defense Coordination Offices online.

-end-

News Media Contacts

Jackie McGuinness
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
jackie.mcguinness@nasa.gov

Jonathan Deal
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
jonathan.e.deal@nasa.gov

While aboard the International Space Station, astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli took this picture of the Moon passing in front of the Sun during the annular solar eclipse on Oct. 14, 2023. As the space station orbits Earth, astronauts take images of the planet below and phenomena in space.

Visible in parts of the United States, Mexico, and many countries in South and Central America, millions of people in the Western Hemisphere experienced this eclipse. If you weren’t in the path of the annular eclipse, or you want to relive this exciting event, watch our coverage of the 2023 annular solar eclipse.

Image credit: NASA/Jasmin Moghbeli

A team of engineers from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and Honeybee Robotics in Altadena, California, inspect TRIDENT – short for The Regolith Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain – shortly after its arrival at the integration and test facility. In the coming months, the team will integrate the drill into NASA’s first robotic Moon rover, VIPER – short for the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover. 

TRIDENT is the fourth and final science instrument for VIPER to arrive at the clean room, where the vehicle is being built. NASA engineers have already successfully integrated VIPER’s three other science instruments into the rover. These include: the MSOLO (Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations), which was integrated in  July, and the NSS (Neutron Spectrometer System) and NIRVSS (Near-Infrared Volatiles Spectrometer System) instruments, which were integrated in August. 

TRIDENT will dig up soil cuttings from as much as three feet below the lunar surface using a rotary percussive drill – meaning it both spins to cut into the ground and hammers to fragment hard material for more energy-efficient drilling. In addition to being able to measure the strength and compactedness of the lunar soil, the drill features a tip that carries a temperature sensor to take readings below the surface. 

MSOLO is a commercial off-the-shelf mass spectrometer modified to withstand the harsh lunar environment by engineers and technicians at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. MSOLO will help NASA analyze the chemical makeup of the lunar soil and study water on the surface of the Moon. 

NIRVSS will detect which types of minerals and ices are present, if any, and identify the composition of the lunar soil.

NSS will help scientists study the distribution of water and other potential resources on the Moon, by targeting its search for hydrogen – the element that’s the telltale sign of water, or H2O.

Over the past few months, engineers and technicians from the agency’s Johnson, Kennedy, and Ames Research Center, performed pre-integration operations, such as installing external heaters, harnesses, instrumentation sensors, and multi-layer insulation onto the instruments. This critical hardware will help monitor and control how hot or cold the instruments get as the rover encounters different temperature conditions on the Moon; depending on whether the rover is in sunlight or shade, temperatures can vary by as many as 300 degrees Fahrenheit.  

VIPER will launch to the Moon aboard Astrobotic’s Griffin lunar lander on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. It will reach its destination at Mons Mouton near the Moon’s South Pole in November 2024. During VIPER’s approximately 100-day mission, these four instruments will work together to better understand the origin of water and other resources on the Moon, which could support human exploration as part of NASA’s Artemis program.  

Name: Lynn Bassford

Title: Hubble Space Telescope Mission Flight Operations Manager

Formal Job Classification: Multifunctional Engineering and Science Manager

Organization: Astrophysics Project Division, Hubble Space Telescope Operations Project, Code 441

What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? How do you help support Goddard’s mission?

I help Goddard’s Hubble Space Telescope Mission Operations Team to make sure that we’re taking care of the health and safety of the spacecraft. This includes commanding and playing back data from Hubble and working with the ground system and subsystems engineering teams to coordinate procedures, train people, schedule everyone, and manage resources.

How did you find your path to Goddard?

I graduated and wasn’t quite sure where a physics major would go for a position. So, I picked up a copy of Physics Today, went through every company in there, and sent out my résumé. After sending approximately 200, an application came back from Lockheed. It said to fill it out and send it to the Lockheed closest to you. There were 10 different locations, so I sent it to all 10. One day, there was a message on the answering machine that said, “Hey, Lynn, just wondering if you would like to work on a telescope in space for NASA.” The person who called, his name sounded like “Mr. Adventure,” and I gave him a call back and found out his name was Mr. Ed Venter. I can’t help but think it’s pretty cool, actually, because it has indeed been a great adventure!

What is your favorite part of working at Goddard?

Working with the spacecraft! Physically sending a command up and seeing it come back is just utterly amazing.

Over the years, I’ve had the luck of being able to meet several astronauts that have gone up in our servicing missions. In a couple cases, we had them visit us in the middle of the night on our long shifts. Meeting them is like meeting a rock star.

What first sparked your interest in space?

Space was a combination of sci-fi and reality. The Apollo 11 Moon landing took place a couple of months after I was born, so my dad and I like to say that I was in front of the TV watching and it just got absorbed into my persona. One day, I saw Sally Ride up working in space and the TV said she had a background in physics, so I did physics.

What is your educational background?

I was always very good at science and math and absolutely loved them. In middle school, I wanted to do astrogeology, but everyone I talked to said I kind of made that up. Now it’s all around the place! I went to University of Lowell for physics, which became UMass at Lowell. I ended up working for a physics professor who was also the head of the astronomy department.

You’ve held many roles over your years at Goddard. How do you feel that they’ve contributed to your current role as a manager?

Everything I’ve done aligns. I learn from everyone at all levels that I interact with. I did eight-and-a-half years of rotating shift work with flight operations, and I made sure that I moved across the room from console to console learning the different areas. Then I went into science instruments system engineering for over five years, where I became the lead. Then I moved into this role in mission operations, which combines those but also brings in employee performance, career growth, safety, diversity and inclusion, and engagement. Understanding what each area does and how they work together helps you optimize everything. It’s just a fact of my life to learn something new every day until the day I die. I’m not happy being stagnant.

How do you manage stressful situations when working with the telescope?

I don’t even think about how stressful it is because of the training I had in those early days: working with and learning from the experts about what you look at, who you call, what you do, and how to keep the telescope in a safe condition. Even during issues or service missions, we’re actually a very calm team.

What is your proudest accomplishment at Goddard?

When I was a Flight Operations Team shift supervisor in charge of my own crew for Hubble, on Jan. 6, 1996, we got hit with a three-foot snowstorm. Back in those days, we were on rotating shift work. When I left work that day, there was a light layer of snow, so I went home and collected whatever I could in the house for food, knowing there were at least five people on-site that might not go home. I drove back to work with half-a-foot of snow. Seven people stayed for two-and-a-half days straight. We pulled the foam coverings off the walls, piled them up in layers, and made a mattress out of it. We put it in one of the warmer inner offices so we could take turns sleeping eight hours and splitting 16 hours between working real-time operations and moving our vehicles from lot to lot for the Goddard snowplows. NASA gave us a small award afterwards.

What is the coolest part of your job?

Hubble’s mission is just generally the coolest. It’s helping to discover, and to rewrite science books. Helping humanity discover what’s out there and move forward into the universe is groundbreaking.

What advice would you give to people looking to have jobs at Goddard?

For students, make sure you work hard even though college can be quite a challenge. That’s the intention – to get you thinking in all different ways and broaden your mind. Don’t give up, even when it’s challenging.

For workers, diversifying your interests and not specializing in one area will make you open to a lot of different opportunities that you might not know about. You need to keep learning in order to be the best asset to an employer.

Do you have a favorite space or Hubble fact?

Hubble is a green telescope! We had solar panels before houses did.

How do you like to spend your time outside of work?

My dedication to work and family takes up most of my time, admittedly. If I can fit it in, I like to walk outside, do artwork that involves Hubble, and do challenging sports like white water rafting and bungee jumping.

In the ’90s, I played on the men’s softball team at Goddard. I was a pitcher for the Hubble team.

What is your “six-word memoir”? A six-word memoir describes something in just six words. We’re all made of stardust, IDIC. IDIC stands for infinite diversity in infinite combinations – it comes from Star Trek’s Spock.

Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.

By Hannah Richter

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

NASA develops a variety of technologies to explore space and beyond for the benefit of humanity. One measure of its success is the impact on the daily lives of millions of people with injuries and disabilities who are assisted with innovative treatments and products developed from NASA-derived technology.

After all, it was thanks to NASA’s resources that Adam Kissiah, an electronics instrumentation engineer at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, was able to create what would become the cochlear implant. This assistive technology is now considered a medical wonder and has restored hearing to hundreds of thousands of adults and children across the planet since its creation nearly 50 years ago.

And now, NASA is making it easier than ever to find and access patented inventions born from space exploration that could help design or manufacture assistive technologies. To help spur the next generation of assistive technologies, NASA has compiled patented technologies with potential applications to this industry in one place. Companies are invited to browse the list for innovations that can help improve an existing product or launch the creation of something new.

“NASA is no stranger to improving the world of health and medicine. Our technologies benefit all humanity, and making them easier to find for companies creating these tools to improve people’s quality of life just made sense,” said Dan Lockney, program executive for NASA’s Technology Transfer program. “We can’t wait to learn how these innovations born from NASA expertise will help people lead healthy, productive, and independent lives.”

According to the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA), assistive technologies are products, equipment, and systems that enhance learning, working, and daily living for people with disabilities. This includes everything from hardware, such as prosthetics, hearing aids, and wheelchairs, to software like screen readers and communication programs.

Another notable NASA assistive technology spinoff is JORDY, or Joint Optical Reflective Display. The device enables people with low vision to read and write. JORDY enhances an individual’s remaining sight by magnifying objects up to 50 times and allowing them to change contrast, brightness, and display modes, depending on what works best for their low-vision condition.

The curated list on technology.nasa.gov features hardware and software available for licensing, including:

• A robotic upper body exoskeleton that helps the user control the shoulder and elbow to rehabilitate people suffering from the effects of a stroke or traumatic brain injury
• A glove to help reduce the grasping force needed to operate tools for an extended period of time, born from a collaboration to build a robotic astronaut
• 3D printing techniques to help build delicate or complex parts
• New and improved processes to fabricate circuitry

In January 2024, representatives from NASA’s Technology Transfer program will be present at the ATIA conference in Orlando, Florida. Attendees will be able to learn more about the assistive technologies available for licensing.

NASA’s Technology Transfer program, managed by the Space Technology Mission Directorate, ensures technologies developed for missions of exploration and discovery are broadly available to the public, maximizing the benefit to humanity. Learn more by visiting the Technology Transfer Portal at:

https://technology.nasa.gov

The crew of the International Space Station saw this view of the north coast of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur as the space station orbited 258 miles above on Oct. 14, 2023.

In 24 hours, the space station makes 16 orbits of Earth, traveling through 16 sunrises and sunsets. The station’s orbital path takes it over 90 percent of the Earth’s population, with astronauts taking millions of images of the planet below. See more photos of our planet here.

Image credit: NASA

On Oct. 18, 1963, NASA announced the selection of its third group of astronauts. Chosen from 720 military and civilian applicants, the newest group of 14 astronauts comprised the best educated class up to that time. Seven represented the U.S. Air Force, four the U.S. Navy, one the U.S. Marine Corps, and two were civilians. NASA selected them to fly the two-seat Gemini spacecraft designed to test techniques for the Apollo Moon landing program as well as the Apollo missions themselves. Tragically, four of their members died before making their first spaceflight. The 10 surviving members of the group flew 18 important missions in the Gemini and Apollo programs, with seven traveling to the Moon and four walking on its surface. In addition, one flew a long-duration mission aboard Skylab.

The Group 3 astronauts pose following their introduction during the Oct. 18, 1963, press conference – front row, Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, left, William A. Anders, Charles M. Bassett, Alan L. Bean, Eugene A. Cernan, and Roger B. Chaffee; back row, Michael Collins, left, R. Walter Cunningham, Donn F. Eisele, Theodore C. Freeman, Richard F. Gordon, Russell L. Schweickart, David R. Scott, and Clifton C. Williams.

On June 5, 1963, NASA announced that it would select 10-15 new candidates to augment the existing cadre of 15 active duty astronauts from its first two selections in 1959 and 1962. The agency had enough astronauts to staff the Gemini missions, but with Apollo missions then expected to begin in 1965, with up to four flights per year, it needed more astronauts. Selection criteria at the time for the candidates included U.S. citizenship, a degree in engineering or physical science, test pilot experience or 1,000 hours flying jets, 34 years old or younger, and no taller than six feet. From the 720 applications received by the July deadline, the selection board chose 136 candidates for further screening and narrowed that field down to 34 for extensive medical evaluations at Brooks Air Force Base (AFB) in San Antonio between July 31 and Aug. 15. The chair of the selection board, coordinator of astronaut activities Donald K. “Deke” Slayton, presented the names of the top 14 applicants to Robert R. Gilruth, director of the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), now NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, who approved the list. Slayton then called each of the winning candidates with the good news. On Oct. 18, he introduced the new astronauts during a press conference in Houston. On average, this third group of astronauts were younger, slightly taller and heavier than the previous two groups, and better educated, six with master’s degrees and one having earned a doctorate.

Mercury 7 astronaut and chief of operations and training for the astronaut office Walter M. Schirra, with back to camera, briefs the newly arrived 14 astronauts at the Manned Spacecraft Center, now NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The Fourteen reported to work on Feb. 3, 1964, stationed initially at Houston’s Ellington AFB while construction of the MSC main campus on Clear Lake continued. During their first few months as astronauts, they visited various NASA centers and contractor facilities to become familiar with the space program’s major elements. Each astronaut received a technical assignment to gain expertise in specific aspects of spaceflight to pass their knowledge on to the rest of the group, and to help in the design of spacecraft, rockets, spacesuits, control systems, and simulators. Additionally, their 240-hour course work covered topics such as astronomy, aerodynamics, rockets, communications, space medicine, meteorology, upper atmospheric physics, navigation, orbital mechanics, computers, and geology. Because some of the group members could potentially receive assignments to land on the Moon, training including field trips to geologically interesting sites where they received instruction from geologists. They conducted jungle survival training in Panama, desert survival training around Reno, Nevada, and water survival training at the Pensacola, Florida, Naval Air Station.

Left: Group 3 astronaut Russell L. “Rusty” Schweickart, center, gets hands on experience as capsule communicator (capcom) during Gemini IV, the first flight controlled from the Mission Control Center at the Manned Spacecraft Center, now NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Middle: Schweickart, geologist Uel Clanton, Michael Collins, and Roger B. Chaffee during geology training near Bend, Oregon. Right: David R. Scott, left, and Richard F. Gordon examine a rock sample during a geology field trip to the Nevada Test Site at Yucca Flats.

Of the 14, seven came from the U.S. Air Force (USAF), four from the U.S. Navy (USN), one from the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), and two were civilians at the time of selection but had military experience. The astronauts included Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin (USAF), William A. Anders (USAF), Charles M. Bassett (USAF), Alan L. Bean (USN), Eugene A. Cernan (USN), Roger B. Chaffee (USN), Michael Collins (USAF), R. Walter Cunningham (civilian), Donn F. Eisele (USAF), Theodore C. “Ted” Freeman (USAF), Richard F. Gordon (USN), Russell L. “Rusty” Schweickart (civilian), David R. Scott (USAF), and Clifton C. “CC” Williams (USMC). Williams had the distinction as the first bachelor astronaut, a distinction he lost in July 1964.

Group 3 astronauts Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, left, William A. Anders, and Charles M. Bassett.

Aldrin, who wrote his thesis on orbital rendezvous techniques for his Ph.D. in astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, earned the nickname Dr. Rendezvous. Appropriately, Slayton tasked him to help with mission planning. Aldrin received his first crew assignment as the backup pilot for Gemini IX that included training for a spacewalk. He put that experience, plus additional training in a neutral buoyancy simulator, or underwater training to better simulate weightlessness, during his four-day Gemini XII flight during which he successfully completed three spacewalks. Moving on to the Apollo program, Aldrin next served as the backup Command Module Pilot (CMP) for the Apollo 8 first lunar orbital mission. As the prime Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) on Apollo 11, Aldrin became the second man to walk on the Moon in July 1969. He retired from NASA the following year.

Slayton assigned Anders, who held a master’s degree in nuclear engineering, to follow the development of environmental controls for Gemini and Apollo spacecraft. His first mission assignment came as the backup pilot for Gemini XI, and then as prime LMP on Apollo 8. He is credited with taking the famous Earthrise photo while he and his crewmates orbited the Moon. He served as backup CMP on Apollo 11, before retiring from NASA in August 1969 to join the National Aeronautics and Space Council.

Bassett’s technical assignment included training and simulators. Slayton assigned him as pilot on Gemini IX, a mission that included docking and a spacewalk. Tragically, on Feb. 28, 1966, just three months before their planned mission, Bassett and his command pilot Elliott M. See died in the crash of their T-38 Talon aircraft as they approached Lambert International Airport in St. Louis in inclement weather.

Group 3 astronauts Alan L. Bean, left, Eugene A. Cernan, and Roger B. Chaffee.

Bean’s primary technical assignment involved spacecraft recovery systems. Slayton first assigned him as backup command pilot on Gemini X with Williams as his pilot. He next served as the backup LMP on Apollo 9, the first mission to test the Lunar Module (LM) in Earth orbit. That put him in position as the prime LMP on Apollo 12. During that mission he became the fourth man to walk on the Moon. He later served as the commander for the 59-day Skylab 3 mission in 1973 and as the backup commander for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) in 1975. He retired from NASA in 1981.

Cernan, with a master’s in aeronautical engineering, followed the development of spacecraft propulsion and the Agena docking target for Gemini missions. Slayton assigned him as backup pilot for Gemini IX, and following the deaths of See and Bassett, Cernan and his commander Thomas P. Stafford took over as the prime crew. As luck would have it, they did not have a chance to dock with an Agena as it did not make it to orbit. Cernan conducted the second American spacewalk during that mission. He served as Aldrin’s backup on Gemini XII and then as the backup LMP on Apollo 7. That rotated him to the prime crew on Apollo 10, the dress rehearsal for the Moon landing during which he and Stafford took their LM to within nine miles of the lunar surface. He served as backup commander for Apollo 14, and then as prime commander of Apollo 17, the final Apollo Moon landing mission, he left the last footprints of that program in the lunar soil in December 1972. He remains one of only three people to have traveled to the Moon twice. He retired from NASA in 1976.

Chaffee’s technical assignment led him to follow the development of spacecraft communications systems. In March 1966, Slayton assigned him to the first crewed Apollo mission, along with commander Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom and senior pilot Edward H. White. Tragically, the three died on Jan. 27, 1967, in a fire aboard their spacecraft during a ground test on the launch pad.

Group 3 astronauts Michael Collins, left, R. Walter Cunningham, and Donn F. Eisele.

Collins, who had applied for the 1962 class but did not get selected, followed the development of pressure suits and spacewalking systems. As his first crew assignment, he served as the backup pilot for the long duration Gemini VII mission. He next served as the pilot for Gemini X, the first mission to complete a rendezvous with two Agena targets, and during which he conducted two spacewalks. He briefly served as the CMP on the Apollo 8 crew before being sidelined by surgery to correct a bone spur in his neck. After his recovery, he served as the CMP on Apollo 11, the first Moon landing mission. He retired from NASA in 1970, and went on to serve as the director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., overseeing the building of its new facility that opened for the nation’s bicentennial in 1976.

Cunningham, who held a master’s degree in physics and had nearly completed work on his Ph.D. when selected, oversaw the development of ground-based experiments to support spaceflights. Slayton assigned him to the second crewed Apollo mission, along with classmate Eisele and Walter M. Schirra as their commander. Later, Slayton reassigned them to back up the first Apollo crew of Grissom, White, and Chaffee. After the Apollo fire, Schirra, Eisele, and Cunningham became the prime crew for Apollo 7, the first crewed Apollo flight. After working on the Skylab program, he retired from NASA in 1971.

Slayton assigned Eisele, who held a master’s degree in astronautics, to oversee the development of spacecraft attitude control systems. Slayton assigned Eisele, along with Schirra and Cunningham to the second crewed Apollo mission, then reassigned them to back up the first Apollo crew. After the fire, Schirra, Eisele, and Cunningham became the prime crew for the first Apollo mission, completing the 11-day Apollo 7 mission in October 1968. Eisele later served as the backup CMP for Apollo 10. He retired from NASA in 1972.

Group 3 astronauts Theodore C. Freeman, left, Richard F. Gordon, and Russell L. “Rusty” Schweickart.

With a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering, Freeman’s technical assignment involved following the development of the various boosters for the Gemini and Apollo programs. Tragically, before he received a flight assignment, Freeman died in the crash of a T-38 Talon aircraft on Oct. 31, 1964, near Ellington AFB in Houston. He was the first active duty astronaut to perish.

Slayton put Gordon in charge of following the design of cockpit controls. Gordon’s first crew assignment was as backup pilot for Gemini VIII, the first docking mission. He next served as the pilot for Gemini XI that completed the docking with their Agena target on the first revolution. He conducted two spacewalks during that mission. On his next assignment, he served as the backup CMP for Apollo 9, and then as prime CMP on Apollo 12, the second Moon landing mission. His last official assignment as backup commander of Apollo 15 would have led him to most likely be commander of Apollo 18, but budget cuts in September 1970 canceled that mission. He retired from NASA the following year.

Schweickart, the youngest member of this astronaut class and with a master’s in aeronautics and astronautics, oversaw the development and integration of inflight experiments. First assigned in March 1966 as Chaffee’s backup on the first crewed Apollo mission, Schweickart and his crew mates James A. McDivitt and fellow classmate Scott were reassigned to the mission to carry out the first in-orbit test of the LM. They flew that mission as Apollo 9 in March 1969. Schweickart later served as the backup commander of the first Skylab crew. He retired from NASA in 1977.

Group 3 astronauts David R. Scott, left, and Clifton C. “CC” Williams.

Slayton placed Scott, who held a master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics, in charge of monitoring the development of guidance and navigation systems. On his first crew assignment, he served as pilot on Gemini VIII, the mission that featured the first docking with an Agena target and the first in-space emergency requiring an immediate return to Earth. Just days after that harrowing flight in March 1966, Scott was named to the backup crew for the first Apollo mission, but later he, McDivitt, and Schweickart were reassigned to the first flight to test the LM in space, the flight that flew as Apollo 9 in March 1969. Scott next served as backup commander of Apollo 12, then as prime commander of Apollo 15. He became the seventh man to walk on the Moon and the first to drive there, using the Lunar Roving Vehicle. After leaving the astronaut corps, he served first as the deputy director and then the director of NASA’s Dryden, now Armstrong, Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB in California’s Mojave Desert. He retired from NASA in 1977.

Williams, the only Marine and lone bachelor of the group (he married in July 1964), oversaw range operations and crew safety. Slayton assigned Williams as the backup pilot for Gemini X, and later he served as the LMP on a backup crew for the first flight of the LM in Earth orbit, along with Charles “Pete” Conrad and fellow classmate Gordon. Tragically, Williams died in the crash of a T-38 Talon aircraft near Tallahassee, Florida, on Oct. 5, 1967. Bean replaced him on Conrad’s crew, that became the Apollo 9 backup crew and ultimately the prime crew for Apollo 12. At Bean’s suggestion, Williams is memorialized on the Apollo 12 crew patch as a fourth star, the other three stars representing the actual flight crew.

Summary of spaceflights by Group 3 astronauts. The boxes with flight names in italics represent astronauts who died before they could undertake the mission.

As a group, The Fourteen tragically had the highest mortality rate of any astronaut class. The surviving 10 astronauts completed a total of 18 flights, five Gemini missions, 12 Apollo missions, and one Skylab mission. Of the group, Collins received the first crew assignment as Gemini VII backup pilot, while Scott made the first spaceflight on Gemini VIII. Bean made the last spaceflight by a Fourteen, as commander of Skylab 3 in 1973, and also the last to receive a crew assignment as the backup commander for the ASTP mission in 1975. Seven of The Fourteen traveled to the Moon, one of them twice, and four walked on its dusty surface. One even drove on it.

Left: Michael Collins, lower left, the first of The Fourteen to receive a crew assignment as backup pilot on Gemini VII. Middle: David R. Scott, lower left, received the first assignment to a prime crew as Gemini VIII pilot – fellow Fourteen Richard F. Gordon was assigned as his backup. Right: Scott awaits launch inside Gemini VIII.

Each year, researchers nationwide embark on journeys of discovery facilitated by funding from NASA’s Space Technology Research Grants (STRG) program. They uncover innovations that benefit future research and their careers after graduation.

In 2023, STRG hit a significant milestone, making its thousandth award through the most recent cohort of NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunity (NSTGRO) selections.

The STRG program supports academic researchers – graduate students to senior faculty –­ through five unique solicitations to examine ideas and approaches critical to making science and space exploration more effective, affordable, and sustainable. The vast majority of STRG awards go to graduate students through NSTGRO, resulting in the development of innovative technology while enriching the careers of students and the aerospace workforce.

The next 2024 NSTGRO opportunity is open for proposals through Nov. 1, 2023. It marks the 14th consecutive year that STMD has sponsored U.S. citizen and legal permanent resident graduate students who show significant potential to contribute to NASA’s goal of creating innovative new space technologies for our nation’s science, exploration, and economic future.

This space technology research investment milestone prompted NASA to reflect on three grantees inspiring and developing a diverse U.S. aerospace technology community.

Eliad Peretz wanted to apply before becoming a graduate student at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Growing up in Israel, working on his grandfather’s olive grove taught him the value of planning and working hard at a young age.

“I knew NASA was the place for me,” said Peretz. He viewed STRG as a way in the door, to work directly with NASA and, maybe, one day for NASA.

Funded by a 2015 grant, Peretz used artificial intelligence to design lightweight spacecraft solar cells. He spent summers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. There, he had direct access to agency experts who helped advance the research while discovering something along the way.

“I realized that I didn’t want to be a person who can only solve a single problem; I wanted to solve many problems for spaceflight,” said Peretz. “For me, it was a life-changing program and experience.”

Today, Peretz works in the Heliophysics Division mission at NASA Goddard. He asks scientists and engineers for their most challenging problems and comes up with concepts, unlike anything that’s been done before.

Monique McClain, a 2017 grant recipient, embarked on a different path after graduating from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. She is an assistant professor in Purdue’s School of Mechanical Engineering, using her past STRG experience to help her students.

“I was hooked on science fiction as a kid and thought the chief engineer in ‘Star Trek’ was the coolest job,” said McClain. “They got to solve all the challenging problems.”

The “problem” of her research was to improve control over how a solid rocket motor burns by creating complex propellant shapes using a new 3D printing technology.

“Space Tech Research Grants stood out because it was more than just a stipend,” said McClain. “It allowed me to make research decisions, visit government labs, and develop professionally.”

McClain tested her 3D-printed components at NASA Marshall and the U.S. Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake, California.

Her current work focuses on understanding multi-material properties and improving 3D printer designs, while other researchers continue to build on her graduate project and are exploring technology commercialization opportunities.

In graduate school at the University of Texas in Austin, Kaci Madden worked on robotic exoskeletons. Her uncle is an amputee; growing up, she saw how prosthetic technology evolved. Madden wanted to design devices that helped people.

Funded by a 2015 NASA grant, she learned how to evaluate fatigue using robots to monitor astronaut health and performance more accurately. At NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Madden tested Robo-Glove, collected data, and built her professional network.

“NASA has a sense of comradery, vision and mission,” said Madden. “Everyone I met was willing to help or introduce me to someone who could further my research and support theirs.”

Madden said the opportunity propelled her career forward. She found a different mechanism for helping people and currently works for a healthcare start-up that empowers researchers to study rare diseases.

“I have a lot of gratitude to the STRG program itself for offering these funds and the people I got to work with,” said Madden. “They deserve a lot of credit – they are the shoulders I stood on to complete my dissertation under this fellowship.”

NASA Space Technology Research Grants are part of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). This program is one of many early-stage funding opportunities for researchers in academia. To browse other funding opportunities, visit:

https://techport.nasa.gov/opportunities