ASK OCE — November 3, 2006 — Vol. 1, Issue 15 The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and U.S. Air Force Space Command issued new common federal launch safety standards on August 25, 2006.
ASK OCE — November 3, 2006 — Vol. 1, Issue 15 More than 200 years ago, Italian scientist Alessandro Volta developed the first electrical battery. It represented the first continuous, practical, and reproducible source of electrical current and a critical step in the accelerated study of electromagnetism and the development of electrical components.
ASK OCE — November 3, 2006 — Vol. 1, Issue 15 By Chris Scolese I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge Dr. John Mather of Goddard Space Flight Center for winning the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics.
ASK OCE — November 3, 2006 — Vol. 1, Issue 15 On September 26, 2006, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express spacecraft completed an unusually demanding eclipse season. The spacecraft functioned in an ultra-low power mode dubbed “Sumo” (short for “survival mode”) that allowed it to conserve the power necessary for its survival […]
ASK OCE — November 3, 2006 — Vol. 1, Issue 15 On the morning of November 9, 1967, the five massive engines in the first stage of the Saturn V ignited, lifting the unmanned Apollo 4 (AS-501) skyward from the Kennedy Space Center.
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 […]
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 […]
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).
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 […]
