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A History of Heavy Lifting: MSFC Veteran to Head Ares V Development

ASK OCE — January 12, 2007 — Vol. 2, Issue 1   Phil Sumrall has a history of doing the heavy lifting. After beginning his career as a junior engineer working on the Saturn V rocket that sent the Apollo astronauts to the moon, he now leads the development of Ares V, the heavy-lift launch […]

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Classics of Aerospace Literature: Inside NASA

ASK OCE — January 12, 2007 — Vol. 2, Issue 1   What’s the relationship between an organization’s performance and its culture? Dr. Howard McCurdy posed this question in his 1993 book Inside NASA, and in doing so he identified the core values and assumptions that became the basis for NASA’s technical culture. Over the […]

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Government Brief: GAO Calls for Better DoD Strategy for Space Acquisitions

ASK OCE — January 12, 2007 — Vol. 2, Issue 1   The Department of Defense needs to do a better job of estimating initial costs for its space acquisitions program, according to a November 2006 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

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Dr. Henry Pohl on the Keys to Apollo’s Success

ASK OCE — January 12, 2007 — Vol. 2, Issue 1 A tireless spirit of problem solving in the name of a common goal. A seasoned team of engineers and managers. The vital importance of learning from mistakes. Those were the keys to Apollo’s success, according to retired NASA engineer Dr. Henry Pohl. In a […]

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Archimedes Archive: Kollsman’s Barometric Altimeter

ASK OCE — January 12, 2007 — Vol. 2, Issue 1   Up is up and down is down. That much is easy for a pilot flying by the clear light of day. But at night or when a fog rolls in, a pilot must rely on instruments for guidance.

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View from the Outside: Blue Origin Takes First (Low Altitude) Step toward Space

ASK OCE — January 12, 2007 — Vol. 2, Issue 1   Blue Origin, the private space program funded by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, executed its first low-altitude test launch from its West Texas spaceport on November 14, 2006.

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Message from the Chief Engineer: The Importance of Getting Our Hands Dirty

ASK OCE — January 12, 2007 — Vol. 2, Issue 1   By Chris Scolese   This issue examines some of the key elements of NASA’s early culture. How did a government agency go from inception to the moon landing in just over ten years? What can we learn from this as NASA faces the […]

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This Week in NASA History: Lunar Prospector

ASK OCE — January 12, 2007 — Vol. 2, Issue 1   On January 6, 1998, the unmanned Lunar Prospector embarked on a one-year lunar polar mission. Its primary objective was to ascertain whether or not water ice was buried inside the lunar crust.

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JPL Director Named One of “America’s Best Leaders”

ASK OCE — January 12, 2007 — Vol. 2, Issue 1 U.S News & World Report, in conjunction with the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government named Charles Elachi of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as one of “America’s Best Leaders” for 2006. Other honorees include Warren Buffet, Sandra […]

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