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Marshall Wins Award for Most Funds Raised During 2022 Combined Federal Campaign
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By NASA
6 Min Read NASA Marshall Reflects on 65 Years of Ingenuity, Teamwork
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is celebrating its 65-year legacy of ingenuity and service to the U.S. space program – and the expansion of its science, engineering, propulsion, and human spaceflight portfolio with each new decade since the NASA field center opened its doors on July 1, 1960.
What many Americans likely call to mind are the “days of smoke and fire,” said Marshall Director Joseph Pelfrey, referring to the work conducted at Marshall to enable NASA’s launch of the first Mercury-Redstone rocket and the Saturn V which lifted Americans to the Moon, the inaugural space shuttle mission, and the shuttle flights that carried the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and elements of the International Space Station to orbit. Most recently, he said they’re likely to recall the thunder of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System), rising into the sky during Artemis I.
NASA’s Space Launch System, carrying the Orion spacecraft, launches on the Artemis I flight test on Nov. 16, 2022. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, led development and oversees all work on the new flagship rocket, building on its storied history of propulsion and launch vehicle design dating back to the Redstone and Saturn rockets. The most powerful rocket ever built, SLS is the backbone of NASA’s Artemis program, set to carry explorers back to the Moon in 2026, help establish a permanent outpost there, and make possible new, crewed journeys to Mars in the years to come.NASA/Bill Ingalls Yet all the other days are equally meaningful, Pelfrey said, highlighting a steady stream of milestones reflecting the work of Marshall civil service employees, contractors, and industry partners through the years – as celebrated in a new “65 Years of Marshall” timeline.
“The total sum of hours, contributed by tens of thousands of men and women across Marshall’s history, is incalculable,” Pelfrey said. “Together they’ve blended legacy with innovation – advancing space exploration and scientific discovery through collaboration, engineering excellence, and technical solutions. They’ve invented and refined technologies that make it possible to safely live and work in space, to explore other worlds, and to help safeguard our own.
The total sum of hours, contributed by tens of thousands of men and women across Marshall’s history, is incalculable.
Joseph Pelfrey
Marshall Space Flight Center Director
“Days of smoke and fire may be the most visible signs, but it’s the months and years of preparation and the weeks of post-launch scientific discovery that mark the true dedication, sacrifice, and monumental achievements of this team.”
Reflecting on Marshall history
Marshall’s primary task in the 1960s was the development and testing of the rockets that carried the first American astronaut to space, and the much larger and more technically complex Saturn rocket series, culminating in the mighty Saturn V, which carried the first human explorers to the Moon’s surface in 1969.
“Test, retest, and then fly – that’s what we did here at the start,” said retired engineer Harry Craft, who was part of the original U.S. Army rocket development team that moved from Fort Bliss, Texas, to Huntsville to begin NASA’s work at Marshall. “And we did it all without benefit of computers, working out the math with slide rules and pads of paper.”
The 138-foot-long first stage of the Saturn V rocket is lowered to the ground following a successful static test firing in fall 1966 at the S-1C test stand at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The Saturn V, developed and managed at Marshall, was a multi-stage, multi-engine launch vehicle that stood taller than the Statue of Liberty and lofted the first Americans to the Moon. Its success helped position Marshall as an aerospace leader in propulsion, space systems, and launch vehicle development.NASA “Those were exciting times,” retired test engineer Parker Counts agreed. He joined Marshall in 1963 to conduct testing of the fully assembled and integrated Saturn first stages. It wasn’t uncommon for work weeks to last 10 hours a day, plus weekend shifts when deadlines were looming.
Counts said Dr. Wernher von Braun, Marshall’s first director, insisted staff in the design and testing organizations be matched with an equal number of engineers in Marshall’s Quality and Reliability Assurance Laboratory.
“That checks-and-balances engineering approach led to mission success for all 32 of the Saturn family of rockets,” said Counts, who went on to support numerous other propulsion programs before retiring from NASA in 2003.
“We worked with the best minds and best equipment available, pushing the technology every day to deliver the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century,” said instrumentation and electronics test engineer Willie Weaver, who worked at Marshall from 1960 to 1988 – and remains a tour guide at its visitor center, the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.
We worked with the best minds and best equipment available, pushing the technology every day to deliver the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century.
Willie Weaver
Former Marshall Space Flight Center Employee
The 1970s at Marshall were a period of transition and expanded scientific study, as NASA ended the Apollo Program and launched the next phase of space exploration. Marshall provided critical work on the first U.S. space station, Skylab, and led propulsion element development and testing for NASA’s Space Shuttle Program.
Marshall retiree Jim Odom, a founding engineer who got his start launching NASA satellites in the run-up to Apollo, managed the Space Shuttle External Tank project. The role called for weekly trips to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, which has been managed by Marshall since NASA acquired the government facility in 1961. The shuttle external tanks were manufactured in the same bays there where NASA and its contractors built the Saturn rockets.
This photograph shows the liquid hydrogen tank and liquid oxygen tank for the Space Shuttle external tank (ET) being assembled in the weld assembly area of the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF). The ET provides liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to the Shuttle’s three main engines during the first eight 8.5 minutes of flight. At 154-feet long and more than 27-feet in diameter, the ET is the largest component of the Space Shuttle, the structural backbone of the entire Shuttle system, and the only part of the vehicle that is not reusable. The ET is manufactured at the Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans, Louisiana, by the Martin Marietta Corporation under management of the Marshall Space Flight Center.NASA “We didn’t have cellphones or telecon capabilities yet,” Odom recalled. “I probably spent more time with the pilot of the twin-engine plane in those days than I did with my wife.”
Marshall’s shuttle propulsion leadership led to the successful STS-1 mission in 1981, launching an era of orbital science exemplified by NASA’s Spacelab program.
“Spacelab demonstrated that NASA could continue to achieve things no one had ever done before,” said Craft, who served as mission manager for Spacelab 1 in 1983 – a highlight of his 40-year NASA career. “That combination of science, engineering, and global partnership helped shape our goals in space ever since.”
Engineers in the X-ray Calibration Facility at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, work to integrate elements of the Chandra X-ray Observatory in this March 1997 photo. Chandra was lifted to orbit by space shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, the culmination of two decades of telescope optics, mirror, and spacecraft development and testing at Marshall. In the quarter century since, Chandra has delivered nearly 25,000 detailed observations of neutron stars, supernova remnants, black holes, and other high-energy objects, some as far as 13 billion light-years distant. Marshall continues to manage the program for NASA. NASA Bookended by the successful Hubble and Chandra launches, the 1990s also saw Marshall deliver the first U.S. module for the International Space Station, signaling a transformative new era of human spaceflight.
Odom, who retired in 1989 as associate administrator for the space station at NASA Headquarters, reflects on his three-decade agency career with pride.
“It was a great experience, start to finish, working with the teams in Huntsville and New Orleans and our partners nationwide and around the globe, meeting each new challenge, solving the practical, day-to-day engineering and technology problems we only studied about in college,” he said.
Shrouded for transport, a 45-foot segment of the International Space Station’s “backbone” truss rolls out of test facilities at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, in July 2000, ready to be flown to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch. Marshall played a key role in the development, testing, and delivery of the truss and other critical space station modules and structural elements, as well as the station’s air and water recycling systems and science payload hardware. Marshall’s Payload Operations Integration Center also continues to lead round-the-clock space station science. NASA That focus on human spaceflight solutions continued into the 21st century. Marshall delivered additional space station elements and science hardware, refined its air and water recycling systems, and led round-the-clock science from the Payload Operations Integration Center. Marshall scientists also managed the Gravity Probe Band Hinode missions and launched NASA’s SERVIR geospatial observation system. Once primary space stationconstruction – and the 40-year shuttle program – concluded in the 2010s, Marshall took on oversight of NASA’s Space Launch System, led James Webb Space Telescope mirror testing, and delivered the orbiting Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer.
As the 2020s continue, Marshall meets each new challenge with enthusiasm and expertise, preparing for the highly anticipated Artemis II crewed launch and a host of new science and discovery missions – and buoyed by strong industry partners and by the Huntsville community, which takes pride in being home to “Rocket City USA.”
“Humanity is on an upward, outward trajectory,” Pelfrey said. “And day after day, year after year, Marshall is setting the course to explore beyond tomorrow’s horizon.”
Read more about Marshall and its 65-year history:
https://www.nasa.gov/marshall
Hannah Maginot
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
hannah.l.maginot@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Feb 24, 2025 EditorBeth RidgewayLocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related Terms
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Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
The Project F.I.R.E. team, part of Falcon Research Labs and current students at Cerritos Community College in California, is researching the use of drones to extinguish fires as part of a NASA research award called the University Student Research Challenge. From left, Logan Stahl, Juan Villa, Angel Ortega, Larisa Mayoral, Jenny Escobar, and Paola Mayoral-Jimenez.Falcon Research Labs Great ideas, and the talent and passion that bring them to life, can be found anywhere.
In that spirit, NASA’s University Student Research Challenge (USRC) in 2024 selected its first group of community college students to contribute original research to the agency’s transformative vision for 21st century aviation.
The student-led group, from Cerritos Community College in California, is researching a new method of safely extinguishing wildfires using eco-friendly pellets dropped from uncrewed drones they call Project F.I.R.E. (Fire Intervention Retardant Expeller).
“Wildfires are a major problem we’re facing today,” said Angel Ortega, project technical director and lead research engineer for Project F.I.R.E. at Cerritos Community College. “The goal of our research is to demonstrate that our prototype drone with biodegradable fire retardant can successfully put out a controlled fire.”
A Community College First
Until now, USRC has only selected participants from traditional four-year institutions, compared to a two-year community college. This award exemplifies the activity’s goal of giving all of tomorrow’s aeronautical innovators a shot at NASA support for their research ideas.
“The University Innovation (UI) project provides a number of different avenues for students to contribute to aeronautics,” said Steven Holz, who manages the USRC award process. “All of the opportunities are different and help build knowledge and skills that would be advantageous to those wanting to continue working on UI opportunities or within NASA.”
This award is one of two from NASA’s USRC selected in 2024. The team received the USRC award prior to the devastating Los Angeles fires of January 2025.
“Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this tragedy,” members of the team said in a statement. “As a team, we are deeply committed to advancing innovative solutions to enhance safety and resilience, working toward a future where communities are better protected against such disasters.”
Innovating a Solution
The six team members of Project F.I.R.E. are driven by an ethic of public service. As fires continue to affect communities in their native southern California, they are applying their skills to finding a way to help.
“We want to get the public inspired that there are possible solutions at hand,” Ortega said. “And the work we’re doing now can hopefully build towards that bigger goal of a widespread solution.”
The research they are pursuing involves dropping biodegradable pellets into fires from uncrewed, autonomous drones. The pellets, upon reaching the ground, combine chemical ingredients which create a foamlike solution of fire retardant that will not contaminate the environment after the fire is extinguished.
Project F.I.R.E.’s innovative idea for fire suppression involves releasing eco-friendly foam pellets from uncrewed drones.Falcon Research Labs The team is keen to support firefighters and wildland fire managers and keep them safe while managing these natural disasters. The group has met with firefighters, discussed the idea with them, and received useful feedback on how to make the technology work best in the field.
Though the group is only at the outset of the research, their idea has existed for longer.
Blue Skies Forever
Prior to applying for a USRC, Project F.I.R.E. also presented at NASA’s 2024 Gateway to Blue Skies competition, in which they won the “Future Game-Changer” award.
Through Gateway to Blue Skies, NASA challenges college students to research climate-friendly technologies and applications related to the future of aviation and present them at an annual forum.
Following Project F.I.R.E.’s participation in the forum, they applied for a USRC grant to begin turning their vision into reality.
“Our experience with NASA has been incredibly supportive and inspiring,” said Logan Stahl, the project’s operations director. “We thought competing against some of the other schools would be intimidating, but the experience we’ve had is the complete opposite. Everyone was very welcoming, and the NASA representatives communicated with us and asked questions.”
The USRC support will allow the team to build on their earlier foundations, they said.
“Because Gateway to Blue Skies is more conceptual, it let us bring our idea to the table. Now through USRC, we can start building hands-on and make our idea come to life,” said Larisa Mayoral, chemical engineer and laboratory operations manager.
The Project F.I.R.E. team receives their “Future Game-Changer” award during the 2024 Gateway to Blue Skies forum held at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California.NASA / Brandon Torres The team expressed gratitude, speaking as community college students, for their ability to participate in and contribute research at a level that competes with top-brass universities.
“We’re very appreciative of our college and NASA providing us this opportunity,” said Paola Mayoral Jimenez, laboratory coordinator and safety manager. “By doing this project, we hope to shine a light on community colleges, their students, and what they have to offer.”
Complete details on USRC awardees and solicitations, such as what to include in a proposal and how to submit it, are available on the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate solicitation page.
About the Author
John Gould
Aeronautics Research Mission DirectorateJohn Gould is a member of NASA Aeronautics' Strategic Communications team at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. He is dedicated to public service and NASA’s leading role in scientific exploration. Prior to working for NASA Aeronautics, he was a spaceflight historian and writer, having a lifelong passion for space and aviation.
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Last Updated Feb 23, 2025 EditorJim BankeContactAngela Surgenorangela.d.surgenor@nasa.gov Related Terms
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Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions 2 min read
Sols 4450-4451: Making the Most of a Monday
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of its brightly lit workspace and its right-front wheel in the shadows, perched on some tall rocks. The rover used its Right Front Hazcam (Front Hazard Avoidance Camera) to capture the image on sol 4449 — or Martian day 4,449 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — Feb. 10, 2025, at 10:44:45 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Earth planning date: Monday, Feb. 10, 2025
Last Saturday around 20:00 Pacific Standard Time I saw a 22-degree halo encircling our mostly-full Moon and Mars; an entire planet hanging in the sky between our Moon and the atmospheric phenomenon. As I took in the view I wondered what our rover was doing at that moment… turns out the Sun had just risen over Gale crater and Curiosity was still asleep, waiting for her alarm to go off in about 2.5 hours for another full day of science.
She wouldn’t start the weekend’s drive until Monday morning about 1:30, while I was still asleep waiting for my alarm to sound at 5:15. The drive’s data arrived on Earth about 5:30, and told us we drove until our time-of-day limit for driving — stopping about 36 meters (about 118 feet) away from Friday’s location. Unfortunately, our right-front wheel was shown to be perched on some tall rocks and we couldn’t quantify the drop risk if we unstowed the arm. We decided to play it safe and keep the arm stowed instead.
Today’s two-sol plan would normally be in “nominal” sols — meaning we’d get a full day of science and a drive on the second sol — but due to some DSN downtime on Earth we moved our drive to the first sol, therefore switching to “restricted” sols a bit earlier than usual after our last soliday. Even though we couldn’t plan contact science, we’re making the most of our plan with almost 90 minutes of remote sensing. Mastcam will take an approximately 24-frame stereo mosaic of Wilkerson butte to the north, and ChemCam will shoot their laser at a rock in our workspace named “Carbon Canyon,” as well as three separate RMI mosaics! We’ll then attempt to drive until our time-of-day limit of about 15:00 local Gale time, hopefully getting us to a more stable spot on Wednesday for contact science. The second sol contains our usual dust-devil surveys with Navcam, atmospheric opacity measurements with Mastcam, and a blind LIBS on a piece of bedrock the rover chooses autonomously.
Written by Natalie Moore, Mission Operations Specialist at Malin Space Science Systems
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Electrical engineer Scott Hesh works on a sub-payload canister at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility near Chincoteague, Virginia. The cannister will be part of a science experiment and a demonstration of his Swarm Communications technology.Credits: NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility/Berit Bland Scott Hesh, an electrical engineer at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, was announced Nov. 2 as the FY22 IRAD Innovator of the Year, an award presented by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
“An electrical engineer with an insatiable curiosity, Scott Hesh and his team have worked hand-in-glove with science investigators since 2017,” said Goddard Chief Technologist Peter Hughes. “He developed a technology to sample Earth’s upper atmosphere in multiple dimensions with more accurate time and location data than previously possible with a sounding rocket.”
Related: NASA Sounding Rockets Launch Multiple Science Payloads
Newly proven technology developed at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility near Chincoteague, Virginia, turns a single sounding rocket into a hive deploying a swarm of up to 16 instruments. The technology offers unprecedented accuracy for monitoring Earth’s atmosphere and solar weather over a wide area.
Engineers Josh Yacobucci (left) and Scott Hesh test fit a science sensor sub-payload into a Black Brant sounding rocket at Wallops.Credits: NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility/Berit Bland The Internal Research and Development (IRAD) Innovator of the Year award is presented by Goddard’s Office of the Chief Technologist to individuals who demonstrate the best in innovation.
“Scott has this enthusiasm for what he does that I think is really contagious,” Sounding Rocket Program technologist Cathy Hesh said. “He’s an electrical engineer by education, but he has such a grasp on other disciplines as well, so he’s sort of like a systems engineer. If he wants to improve something, he just goes out and learns all sorts of things that would be beyond the scope of his discipline.”
Mechanical engineer Josh Yacobucci has worked with Scott Hesh for more than 15 years, and said he always learns something when they collaborate.
“Scott brings this great perspective,” Yacobucci said. “He could help winnow out things in my designs that I hadn’t thought of.”
“For his interdisciplinary leadership resulting in game-changing improvements for atmospheric and solar science capabilities,” Hughes said, “Scott Hesh deserves Goddard’s Innovator of the Year Award.”
By Karl B. Hille
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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