1 00:00:12,920 --> 00:00:13,680 I'm going to do that. 2 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:14,139 I encourage questions. 3 00:00:14,139 --> 00:00:18,710 I may not be able to answer all your questions either because, A, I don't know or, B, I cannot 4 00:00:18,710 --> 00:00:18,960 say. 5 00:00:18,920 --> 00:00:22,960 I am going to leave it to you to figure out which one is which. 6 00:00:22,960 --> 00:00:25,949 [LAUGHTER] I would like to say a few things before I start. 7 00:00:25,949 --> 00:00:31,130 One is I'm not a historian so I'm not here to give a history of the military and the 8 00:00:31,130 --> 00:00:31,380 Shuttle. 9 00:00:31,249 --> 00:00:35,670 I am here to give you my experiences with it which is a very select data slice, I think, 10 00:00:35,670 --> 00:00:37,530 as you will see. 11 00:00:37,530 --> 00:00:44,530 Second, the things I say here, although we're going to tape them, I have to [NOISE OBSCURES] 12 00:00:44,539 --> 00:00:45,160 very carefully. 13 00:00:45,160 --> 00:00:48,719 And, third, I really speak from a different era. 14 00:00:48,719 --> 00:00:53,920 I speak from an area of the '70s and early '80s when the political situation was a lot 15 00:00:53,920 --> 00:00:55,219 different than it is today. 16 00:00:55,219 --> 00:00:58,289 When a Cold War was hot. 17 00:00:58,289 --> 00:01:03,350 When there was a real threat of a massive land war, plus worse, in Northern Europe. 18 00:01:03,350 --> 00:01:07,850 When there were real threats of nuclear exchanges between the super powers. 19 00:01:07,850 --> 00:01:10,620 Things which are not true today, thank goodness. 20 00:01:10,620 --> 00:01:15,640 We have now been overcome by other threats and challenges, but I speak really from an 21 00:01:15,640 --> 00:01:17,579 era of the '70s and '80s. 22 00:01:17,579 --> 00:01:21,110 So, with that, I would like to start. 23 00:01:21,110 --> 00:01:23,240 Again, I encourage questions. 24 00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:26,509 Here is what I would like to do today. 25 00:01:26,509 --> 00:01:29,439 I would like to give you a little bit of intro and background. 26 00:01:29,439 --> 00:01:31,810 Talk about DoD and Air Force space missions. 27 00:01:31,810 --> 00:01:33,439 There is a difference which I shall highlight. 28 00:01:33,439 --> 00:01:39,539 I will talk about military system requirements and impacts on the Space Shuttle as a system. 29 00:01:39,539 --> 00:01:43,770 I will talk about facility impacts because that is easy to do, but there are impacts 30 00:01:43,770 --> 00:01:45,658 that are far more far reaching than that. 31 00:01:45,658 --> 00:01:49,399 I will close a little bit on national space policy and then I will show you a ten minute 32 00:01:49,399 --> 00:01:49,649 video. For the video I would like Tom to turn off the recording and we will just watch it kind 33 00:01:54,310 --> 00:01:56,689 of in silence. 34 00:01:56,689 --> 00:01:57,789 OK. 35 00:01:57,789 --> 00:01:59,990 Any questions? 36 00:01:59,990 --> 00:02:02,159 My background is I served 29 years in the Air Force. 37 00:02:02,159 --> 00:02:05,729 As you folks know, you can retire up to 20, so I couldn't count. 38 00:02:05,729 --> 00:02:07,939 I stayed far longer than I should have. 39 00:02:07,939 --> 00:02:11,770 The reason I stayed was because the Air Force gave me assignments I could not turn down. 40 00:02:11,770 --> 00:02:18,760 I have had lots of experience from a program office payload user perspective on Shuttle, 41 00:02:18,760 --> 00:02:21,930 Titans off both coasts, MX, Pegasus XL. 42 00:02:21,930 --> 00:02:28,930 Last January I gave a talk, which I will repeat this year, on my activities on two accident 43 00:02:28,930 --> 00:02:30,390 investigations. 44 00:02:30,390 --> 00:02:32,280 One on Titan IV and one on Pegasus. 45 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:33,239 I do that at one time. 46 00:02:33,239 --> 00:02:35,140 It takes about an hour and a half. 47 00:02:35,140 --> 00:02:37,500 If any of you are on campus in January, please come by. 48 00:02:37,500 --> 00:02:40,010 It's an interesting story. 49 00:02:40,010 --> 00:02:44,650 I served in multiple program offices in programs A and B. 50 00:02:44,650 --> 00:02:48,190 Programs A and B are subsets of the NRO. 51 00:02:48,190 --> 00:02:53,129 I won't say any more about that, but Program A is the Air Force element. 52 00:02:53,129 --> 00:02:58,159 Program A not only built Air Force satellites for the intelligence community, they also 53 00:02:58,159 --> 00:03:00,980 provided all the launch services for the intelligence community. 54 00:03:00,980 --> 00:03:03,769 I have been director of two major programs. 55 00:03:03,769 --> 00:03:05,599 The first one Space-Based Infrared Low. 56 00:03:05,599 --> 00:03:09,080 The second one was the DoD Space Test Program. 57 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:13,450 I have also been the NRO Director of Safety. 58 00:03:13,450 --> 00:03:18,959 In general, Air Force and DoD space missions fall into this laundry list. 59 00:03:18,959 --> 00:03:25,959 The first one is Navigation which you know from GPS Communication which has many satellites 60 00:03:28,310 --> 00:03:33,220 of which Nelstar and DSCS are the ones you recognize. 61 00:03:33,220 --> 00:03:37,799 DSCS was launched on the Space Shuttle I believe twice, I'm not sure. 62 00:03:37,799 --> 00:03:43,540 Meteorology, the Air Force launches the DMSP which is the polar orbiting weather satellite 63 00:03:43,540 --> 00:03:46,980 now replaced now by the NPOESS system. 64 00:03:46,980 --> 00:03:53,980 For missile launch detection, the intelligence community and the Air Force have either operated 65 00:03:54,099 --> 00:04:01,099 the DSP satellite system or else proposed SVRS which is suffering tremendous programmatic 66 00:04:01,720 --> 00:04:04,930 problems currently. 67 00:04:04,930 --> 00:04:10,180 For arms free verification, it is terribly important to have complied at one time with 68 00:04:10,180 --> 00:04:10,870 [UNINTELLIGIBLE] limitations. 69 00:04:10,870 --> 00:04:15,610 That is an interesting slice of history where at one time the total number of warheads, 70 00:04:15,610 --> 00:04:21,170 total number of bombers, submarines, ships, this sort of thing was limited by international 71 00:04:21,170 --> 00:04:26,370 agreement but it was the responsibility of the other side to verify compliance. 72 00:04:26,370 --> 00:04:29,390 There is also nuclear weapons test detection on Vela. 73 00:04:29,390 --> 00:04:36,390 And then a whole handful of what I call intelligence community or IC programs. 74 00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:44,330 Bob Siemens, a retired professor emeritus is planning to drop by today for the Q&A. 75 00:04:44,330 --> 00:04:49,730 His position, his role in this story is really very central. 76 00:04:49,730 --> 00:04:54,190 His influence is woven throughout the whole story of the DoD and the Space Shuttle, and 77 00:04:54,190 --> 00:04:56,650 I hope you will get a chance to talk to him. 78 00:04:56,650 --> 00:04:59,640 An extremely interesting and very pivotal guy. 79 00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:04,380 I would like to concentrate on Vandenberg Air Force Base right up on the Eastern Range 80 00:05:04,380 --> 00:05:09,290 for the Space Shuttle because the Vandenberg Air Force Base launch site was really built 81 00:05:09,290 --> 00:05:15,480 up for sun synchronous polar orbits, for really one payload, and that was the fellow here 82 00:05:15,480 --> 00:05:21,540 depicted in the late 1970s, launching out of the Western Range. 83 00:05:21,540 --> 00:05:24,360 This is a Titan IIID. 84 00:05:24,360 --> 00:05:28,070 I have helped launched, I think, eight of these off the West Coast. 85 00:05:28,070 --> 00:05:29,380 This is a heavy lift machine. 86 00:05:29,380 --> 00:05:33,690 It is roughly 30,000 pounds in low earth orbit, 27,000 to 30,000. 87 00:05:33,690 --> 00:05:35,090 It has two solid strap-ons. 88 00:05:35,090 --> 00:05:42,090 I saw the first one go in 1970 and subsequently was able to transition into the Program Office 89 00:05:43,690 --> 00:05:47,400 to launch several times out of there. 90 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:53,780 As some of you are aware because I have talked to you out of class, I served for many years 91 00:05:53,780 --> 00:05:57,280 not in what we call the regular Air Force but what is called the Office of Special Projects. 92 00:05:57,280 --> 00:05:59,659 It is called an Air Force Element. 93 00:05:59,659 --> 00:06:03,190 We did not report for the usual chain of command through the Air Force chains. 94 00:06:03,190 --> 00:06:08,910 We went straight up to the secdef of the JCS. 95 00:06:08,910 --> 00:06:15,280 We were given the responsibility to launch things quickly, quietly, with great national 96 00:06:15,280 --> 00:06:16,300 pressure. 97 00:06:16,300 --> 00:06:17,180 And we did that. 98 00:06:17,180 --> 00:06:23,380 And the machines we used to launch, payloads included, are Titans of various kinds, Atlases, 99 00:06:23,380 --> 00:06:26,940 as well as the Space Shuttle. 100 00:06:26,940 --> 00:06:32,120 The story I am going to tell you is really the special projects utilization of the Shuttle. 101 00:06:32,120 --> 00:06:34,670 More so than what I call the regular Air Force missions. 102 00:06:34,670 --> 00:06:41,670 In any case, when I joined SAFSP in the late 1970s, life was really exciting. 103 00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:48,770 We were in the midst of phasing out all the expendables for the Space Shuttle. 104 00:06:48,770 --> 00:06:53,620 And when I went in there, I found within the first week they said the Space Shuttle is 105 00:06:53,620 --> 00:06:57,770 designed for our program, because we were flying on a regular basis out of the Western 106 00:06:57,770 --> 00:06:58,550 Range. 107 00:06:58,550 --> 00:07:04,100 So, the payload that sits inside here is a form, fit and function drop-in in the Space 108 00:07:04,100 --> 00:07:05,190 Shuttle bay. 109 00:07:05,190 --> 00:07:10,710 At the time, there were no Space Shuttle payloads of that size yet on the drawing boards. 110 00:07:10,710 --> 00:07:15,630 The intent was to have a seamless transition from Titans into Space Shuttle, first for 111 00:07:15,630 --> 00:07:18,170 our program and then for others. 112 00:07:18,170 --> 00:07:23,930 We drove the payload bay size, as you've heard from Professor Hoffman and Aaron Cohen, 15 113 00:07:23,930 --> 00:07:25,050 x 60. 114 00:07:25,050 --> 00:07:29,330 The cross-range requirement dictated the configuration of the vehicle plus the wing size because 115 00:07:29,330 --> 00:07:35,010 the Air Force and the DoD was very, very insistent on having a return to launch base capability. 116 00:07:35,010 --> 00:07:39,220 First orbit deploy, come back cross-range, land back at Vandenberg, recycle, be ready 117 00:07:39,220 --> 00:07:42,120 to go hopefully in a matter of days. 118 00:07:42,120 --> 00:07:47,570 It is interesting to note the evolution of the Titan space launch family. 119 00:07:47,570 --> 00:07:51,360 In the 1970s we pick it up with the Titan IIID we see here. 120 00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:55,940 The 3E was a Transtage version used for basically out-of-space missions. 121 00:07:55,940 --> 00:07:57,740 This is a commercial version. 122 00:07:57,740 --> 00:08:04,740 But the DoD use went from the 34B, 3C, 34D through this family here, and now we see the 123 00:08:08,680 --> 00:08:11,900 4A and the 4B which are the heavy lift guys. 124 00:08:11,900 --> 00:08:15,620 These guys basically were the follow-on to Shuttle. 125 00:08:15,620 --> 00:08:19,080 They lifted the Shuttle payloads that the Shuttle could not carry. 126 00:08:19,080 --> 00:08:23,030 And I will explain that in a few minutes. 127 00:08:23,030 --> 00:08:27,310 Very large, expensive, complex machines, complex programs. 128 00:08:27,310 --> 00:08:33,338 At Vandenberg, it turns out that back in the '60s there was a program called the Manned 129 00:08:33,338 --> 00:08:35,529 Orbiting Laboratory, MOL. 130 00:08:35,529 --> 00:08:39,549 Many of the original Space Shuttle Mercury astronauts were part of that. 131 00:08:39,549 --> 00:08:45,250 They built up a space lodge complex up there called Slick-6 to launch the MOL. 132 00:08:45,250 --> 00:08:50,060 It was going to be a space capsule with military officers onboard to do recognizance and surveillance 133 00:08:50,060 --> 00:08:53,400 flying off a rather large Titan IIIC. 134 00:08:53,400 --> 00:08:57,200 To do that, again, back in the '60s, they built a launch pad. 135 00:08:57,200 --> 00:08:58,700 I'm sorry. 136 00:08:58,700 --> 00:09:02,330 As we got ready for the Shuttle, they took the MOL things and did all these things to 137 00:09:02,330 --> 00:09:03,930 it to make it shuttle-ized. 138 00:09:03,930 --> 00:09:05,440 They operated a launch pad. 139 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:07,640 They put in a Mobile Service Tower. 140 00:09:07,640 --> 00:09:12,140 As you know, at the Cape, what they do is kind embrace the Shuttle and its stack with 141 00:09:12,140 --> 00:09:12,760 a gantry. 142 00:09:12,760 --> 00:09:14,510 And they pull back a little bit and then they launch. 143 00:09:14,510 --> 00:09:20,580 The Mobile Service Tower is a large, almost like a skyscraper complex that completely 144 00:09:20,580 --> 00:09:26,820 encloses the rocket during processing and then rolls back several hundred yards to expose 145 00:09:26,820 --> 00:09:31,060 the vehicle for launch, a totally different OPS concept. 146 00:09:31,060 --> 00:09:36,560 This facility here, the OMCF is similar to the KSC Orbiter Processing Facility. 147 00:09:36,560 --> 00:09:38,000 Then they have other facilities here. 148 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:42,400 The payload preparation room where the payloads are received from transportation put together 149 00:09:42,400 --> 00:09:43,440 and tested. 150 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:46,910 The PCRs were the payloads actually put into the shuttle bay. 151 00:09:46,910 --> 00:09:50,370 The Vandenberg runway was almost doubled in length. 152 00:09:50,370 --> 00:09:54,140 And then all this infrastructure is put in here, including crew quarters for the astronauts. 153 00:09:54,140 --> 00:09:57,360 And they were able to reuse the MOL facilities. 154 00:09:57,360 --> 00:09:58,440 A lot of [UNINTELLIGIBLE]. 155 00:09:58,440 --> 00:10:04,210 But what you see here is the buildup of a complex very similar to Cape Kennedy only 156 00:10:04,210 --> 00:10:05,580 on a California coast. 157 00:10:05,580 --> 00:10:10,650 Very, very elaborate, very, very complicated, very expensive, and taking a tremendous amount 158 00:10:10,650 --> 00:10:15,970 of budget to go do it. 159 00:10:15,970 --> 00:10:22,110 Back in the '70s by law or by policy, which is perhaps even more powerful, the Space Shuttle 160 00:10:22,110 --> 00:10:26,970 was going to be the only launch system for all military, civil and commercial payloads. 161 00:10:26,970 --> 00:10:31,590 This is somewhat of a forgotten fact, but at one time the cry went out from the advocates 162 00:10:31,590 --> 00:10:37,440 that said by having a reusable spacecraft that can launch 25, 30 times a year from both 163 00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:41,360 coasts, so that is times two, we can do great things. 164 00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:45,750 And certainly, coming from the folks that gave us Apollo, this did not seem that farfetched. 165 00:10:45,750 --> 00:10:51,820 The idea of launching a spacecraft like an airliner, as we know, did not happen in our 166 00:10:51,820 --> 00:10:52,070 generation. 167 00:10:51,950 --> 00:10:56,710 I think in your generation, if you can make that happen, that would be extremely wonderful. 168 00:10:56,710 --> 00:11:03,070 But at one time there was going to be a phase out, a shutdown of all the launch vehicles. 169 00:11:03,070 --> 00:11:08,060 All the launch vehicle folks were told fly out what you have, close up business, break 170 00:11:08,060 --> 00:11:12,480 up your tool and dies, send your people home, we are going to go with Shuttle. 171 00:11:12,480 --> 00:11:18,190 And to do that there was extensive redesign of payloads to fit the payload bay, the width, 172 00:11:18,190 --> 00:11:21,570 the length, to fit the safety requirements. 173 00:11:21,570 --> 00:11:22,590 All these things changed. 174 00:11:22,590 --> 00:11:27,980 So, it was not just a matter of just taking your existing payloads for these guys and 175 00:11:27,980 --> 00:11:31,440 dropping them into the shuttle payload bay. 176 00:11:31,440 --> 00:11:33,310 It was a huge engineering effort. 177 00:11:33,310 --> 00:11:36,860 And we thought at one time this is the way it is going to be forever. 178 00:11:36,860 --> 00:11:42,150 The things that are unique about this is, first of all, liftoff and flight loads are 179 00:11:42,150 --> 00:11:47,440 much different because of not only the main events, everything from the SRBs, the staging, 180 00:11:47,440 --> 00:11:52,040 but also being able to survive safely, things like slap down on landing if you had to come 181 00:11:52,040 --> 00:11:55,440 back home with a payload. 182 00:11:55,440 --> 00:11:59,750 Many of the heavy payloads require, as you know, upper stages. 183 00:11:59,750 --> 00:12:04,500 The PAMs are the small payload assist module, small [UNINTELLIGIBLE] upper stages. 184 00:12:04,500 --> 00:12:09,240 The IUSs, as you probably heard, are much, much more elaborate solid fuel devices. 185 00:12:09,240 --> 00:12:14,500 The Shuttle Center, Cryo Center was going to be a cryogenic upper stage that was going 186 00:12:14,500 --> 00:12:17,430 to take our biggest payloads up to GEO. 187 00:12:17,430 --> 00:12:22,840 That never got through the safety process but they worked it hard. 188 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:27,160 The safety requirements, to make sure that the crew was not endangered at any time by 189 00:12:27,160 --> 00:12:32,340 anything, either accidental or inadvertent or a mishap, were huge. 190 00:12:32,340 --> 00:12:36,570 That is a whole separate discussion in itself, which I will be glad to have with you, but 191 00:12:36,570 --> 00:12:42,800 basically everything was looked at in terms of being dual fault tolerant so that in no 192 00:12:42,800 --> 00:12:49,660 case could any two events link up to cause hazard to the crew, even including accommodation 193 00:12:49,660 --> 00:12:52,110 of hardware and software errors. 194 00:12:52,110 --> 00:12:59,110 This was huge and caused, in many cases, extensive retests and redesign of payload systems. 195 00:13:00,020 --> 00:13:03,170 National Space Policy, back in the '70s and '80s. 196 00:13:03,170 --> 00:13:08,840 First of all, in '78 there was "strong endorsement for the Space Shuttle to be the prime mover 197 00:13:08,840 --> 00:13:11,010 for national security and civil missions". 198 00:13:11,010 --> 00:13:13,730 What is missing from this lineup here? 199 00:13:13,730 --> 00:13:14,630 Commercial. 200 00:13:14,630 --> 00:13:19,360 There were very few, almost no commercial missions at the time. 201 00:13:19,360 --> 00:13:20,470 Civil means NASA. 202 00:13:20,470 --> 00:13:26,500 The launch business of that time was dominated by the government, NASA and the DoD. 203 00:13:26,500 --> 00:13:29,850 1982 the position was strengthened. 204 00:13:29,850 --> 00:13:34,890 And, by the way, I suggest if you haven't already to look up these documents. 205 00:13:34,890 --> 00:13:38,500 National Space Policy is voiced in these documents. 206 00:13:38,500 --> 00:13:40,320 It is extremely powerful. 207 00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:41,750 It is the basis for programs. 208 00:13:41,750 --> 00:13:43,170 It is the basis for legislation. 209 00:13:43,170 --> 00:13:45,020 It is the basis for budgets. 210 00:13:45,020 --> 00:13:46,520 It is huge. 211 00:13:46,520 --> 00:13:52,060 Every word in these documents is worked over at great length by all the competing stakeholders, 212 00:13:52,060 --> 00:13:53,910 and it is big. 213 00:13:53,910 --> 00:13:59,990 But in '82, SCS was going to be the primary launch for national security in civil missions. 214 00:13:59,990 --> 00:14:05,390 What that really meant was anybody else with a rocket was told you're in the wrong list, 215 00:14:05,390 --> 00:14:07,080 don't come back. 216 00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:08,910 Then we had Challenger. 217 00:14:08,910 --> 00:14:12,980 And in 1988 there was now a directive. 218 00:14:12,980 --> 00:14:18,570 A 1988 PD that said we shall have a mix between man and unmanned launch systems. 219 00:14:18,570 --> 00:14:21,570 This is in contradiction to this I'm sure as you notice. 220 00:14:21,570 --> 00:14:28,570 An NSPD4 in 1981 now gave us the words "assured access to space." Code words. 221 00:14:29,860 --> 00:14:36,260 Anybody here care to tell me what that really means in plain English, anybody? 222 00:14:36,260 --> 00:14:36,650 Yes. 223 00:14:36,650 --> 00:14:41,720 Even if the Space Shuttle won't fly they want to have some alternatives. 224 00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:42,500 That's right. 225 00:14:42,500 --> 00:14:47,610 It says don't put all your eggs in one basket. 226 00:14:47,610 --> 00:14:51,080 Have two ways to get to space for your heavy payloads. 227 00:14:51,080 --> 00:14:54,360 This is authorization for what we now know as the EELV. 228 00:14:54,360 --> 00:15:01,360 But also at the time shortly after Challenger, Pete Aldridge who was Secretary of the Air 229 00:15:02,820 --> 00:15:08,180 Force at the time, now an executive of the Aerospace Corporation, previously the director 230 00:15:08,180 --> 00:15:14,420 of the NRO, prior to Challenger in the '84, '85 time period started getting a little bit 231 00:15:14,420 --> 00:15:18,860 antsy about access to space because of all the delays in the Shuttle Launch Manifest. 232 00:15:18,860 --> 00:15:25,240 And so he authorized, on his own authority, a start-up of the Titan fleet again. 233 00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:31,710 This led to huge problems with NASA because what they saw that as, correctly, was a loss 234 00:15:31,710 --> 00:15:35,210 of support for the Space Shuttle Program. 235 00:15:35,210 --> 00:15:36,130 But he did that. 236 00:15:36,130 --> 00:15:42,990 And when the Challenger disaster occurred in '86, the Air Force was about 18 to 24 months 237 00:15:42,990 --> 00:15:44,110 ahead of where they would have been. 238 00:15:44,110 --> 00:15:45,020 Here is Dr. 239 00:15:45,020 --> 00:15:45,320 Siemens. 240 00:15:45,320 --> 00:15:45,930 Hi, Bob? 241 00:15:45,930 --> 00:15:46,540 Hi, Pete. 242 00:15:46,540 --> 00:15:48,360 You want to sit over here? 243 00:15:48,360 --> 00:15:50,779 I would like to have you meet Dr. 244 00:15:50,779 --> 00:15:51,390 Bob Siemens. 245 00:15:51,390 --> 00:15:55,380 And he will be here for the Q&A afterwards. 246 00:15:55,380 --> 00:16:02,180 Bob, I'm just going over some of the National Space Policy. 247 00:16:02,180 --> 00:16:04,940 Write-ups that kind of led to where we are today. 248 00:16:04,940 --> 00:16:07,730 This was NSC37. 249 00:16:07,730 --> 00:16:11,380 This was NSC42, the primary launch. 250 00:16:11,380 --> 00:16:14,850 This was the post-Challenger mix between the manned and unmanned systems. 251 00:16:14,850 --> 00:16:21,850 And then this was the assured access to space presidential declaration. 252 00:16:23,330 --> 00:16:28,860 From a user perspective, the security requirements to fly on Shuttle were huge. 253 00:16:28,860 --> 00:16:33,880 What was required to be protected was any information on the mission type and details. 254 00:16:33,880 --> 00:16:38,649 LEO, GEO, HEO, you name it, that could not leak out. 255 00:16:38,649 --> 00:16:43,800 Any information on the spacecraft, who made it, where it was supposed to go, of course 256 00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:47,210 what the payload did had to be protected. 257 00:16:47,210 --> 00:16:51,060 Also protected was the Program Office and the prime contractors because often you can 258 00:16:51,060 --> 00:16:53,339 tell from that who does what. 259 00:16:53,339 --> 00:16:57,820 And during operations the deployment time location and the final payload orbit had to 260 00:16:57,820 --> 00:16:58,960 be protected. 261 00:16:58,960 --> 00:16:59,510 This is huge. 262 00:16:59,510 --> 00:17:04,398 As you know, thousands of people participate in getting a mission together for the Shuttle. 263 00:17:04,398 --> 00:17:08,630 It starts with a mission planning template that is roughly two to three years prior to 264 00:17:08,630 --> 00:17:09,029 flight. 265 00:17:09,029 --> 00:17:13,959 It goes all the way through preparation of the flight plans, the mission rules, the launch 266 00:17:13,959 --> 00:17:19,550 constraint documents, the processing, and finally the on orbit ops. 267 00:17:19,550 --> 00:17:20,959 All that had to be protected. 268 00:17:20,959 --> 00:17:22,740 And that was big. 269 00:17:22,740 --> 00:17:25,709 It was a huge and expensive philosophy. 270 00:17:25,709 --> 00:17:30,380 It was called the Control Mode Security System. 271 00:17:30,380 --> 00:17:33,190 It took a lot of effort from all parts and was almost airtight. 272 00:17:33,190 --> 00:17:34,200 Yes, a question. 273 00:17:34,200 --> 00:17:37,570 Was this for every shuttle mission or just DoD payloads? 274 00:17:37,570 --> 00:17:40,640 No, this is for what I call the intelligence community DoD missions. 275 00:17:40,640 --> 00:17:47,640 If you go back and look on the Shuttle Manifest, and I am not going to do it for you but you 276 00:17:48,770 --> 00:17:54,350 can do it if you want, you will see a number of missions where they will say DoD mission 277 00:17:54,350 --> 00:18:01,120 payload type, not unknown, but not available, NA. 278 00:18:01,120 --> 00:18:07,470 Also, the DoD/Air Force missions were all military astronauts. 279 00:18:07,470 --> 00:18:12,679 That is felt to be a safe thing to do. 280 00:18:12,679 --> 00:18:18,160 For implementation of encrypted voice data and commanding links starting, really, with 281 00:18:18,160 --> 00:18:22,720 the testing at the launch sites but also going through the flight ops. 282 00:18:22,720 --> 00:18:27,890 I mention all these things having been involved in the safety certifications. 283 00:18:27,890 --> 00:18:30,290 I will say that was long and arduous. 284 00:18:30,290 --> 00:18:36,730 The safety review process has to be extremely, extremely thorough starting early on. 285 00:18:36,730 --> 00:18:41,540 It is not just a whitewash of what the hardware is that comes with the pad. 286 00:18:41,540 --> 00:18:48,330 In many cases, it changed the design of the spacecraft, the design of its deployment systems 287 00:18:48,330 --> 00:18:51,600 and things like that. 288 00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:56,410 To protect classified information there also had to be need-to-know access to program details. 289 00:18:56,410 --> 00:19:02,090 This was a major, major set of impacts to the Space Shuttle system and payload mission. 290 00:19:02,090 --> 00:19:05,910 All these areas, which I can talk to you about at great length afterwards. 291 00:19:05,910 --> 00:19:12,480 I will say, thought, that when I do get back to JSC or when I talk to my NASA friends, 292 00:19:12,480 --> 00:19:15,200 they all say they were proud to have been on those missions. 293 00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:19,480 They were all hooked together on missions of great national importance. 294 00:19:19,480 --> 00:19:23,910 To the best of my knowledge, security has held tight over all those years, despite all 295 00:19:23,910 --> 00:19:26,260 the people who were cleared of the programs. 296 00:19:26,260 --> 00:19:29,240 And the programs were extremely successful as a result. 297 00:19:29,240 --> 00:19:29,700 Yes. 298 00:19:29,700 --> 00:19:31,270 You said all military crews. 299 00:19:31,270 --> 00:19:36,309 Does that mean active military or people who have been transitioned to the regular astronaut 300 00:19:36,309 --> 00:19:36,600 corp. 301 00:19:36,600 --> 00:19:37,450 from the military? 302 00:19:37,450 --> 00:19:42,970 These are military folks who transitioned to the astronaut corp., yes. 303 00:19:42,970 --> 00:19:47,000 There were also impacts of the Air Force Satellite Communication Networks. 304 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:51,890 As you know, these are the worldwide set of tracking stations that were going to be replaced 305 00:19:51,890 --> 00:19:52,809 by TDRS. 306 00:19:52,809 --> 00:19:53,960 That is an interesting story. 307 00:19:53,960 --> 00:19:58,010 The selling point for TDRS was they would shut down the AFSCNs which were getting old 308 00:19:58,010 --> 00:19:58,960 and were very labor intensive. 309 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:01,740 Well, we still have them both today. 310 00:20:01,740 --> 00:20:06,970 Worldwide network scattered around the world, but to provide secure Shuttle communication 311 00:20:06,970 --> 00:20:12,170 there had to be extensive upgrades because working with the Shuttle with a complicated 312 00:20:12,170 --> 00:20:17,470 payload in orbit, getting it initialized, tested and deployed was something new for 313 00:20:17,470 --> 00:20:18,340 the SCN. 314 00:20:18,340 --> 00:20:24,650 The SCN ordinarily just did space-to-ground data transfers through orbiting satellites, 315 00:20:24,650 --> 00:20:30,580 so to be working with a human crew and human system, to have all the contingencies in place 316 00:20:30,580 --> 00:20:31,740 was big. 317 00:20:31,740 --> 00:20:36,330 The SCNs were involved in the all the prelaunch testing and commanding, health and status 318 00:20:36,330 --> 00:20:39,910 checks, as well as all the deployment and post-deployment payload communications. 319 00:20:39,910 --> 00:20:44,670 I wish I could show you the contingencies, all the workarounds, the plan As, the plans 320 00:20:44,670 --> 00:20:47,040 Bs required for a complicated mission. 321 00:20:47,040 --> 00:20:47,790 It is immense. 322 00:20:47,790 --> 00:20:49,880 It takes a long time to do it right. 323 00:20:49,880 --> 00:20:54,980 The point is that when you're ready to fly, you should be ready for all know contingencies, 324 00:20:54,980 --> 00:20:59,910 even up to loss of communication, failure of critical computer systems and that sort 325 00:20:59,910 --> 00:21:00,160 of thing. 326 00:21:00,120 --> 00:21:06,160 You never want to fly and have to scratch your head and say what should we do next? 327 00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:08,870 Pre first flight issue was an STS1. 328 00:21:08,870 --> 00:21:13,620 Another MIT professor, Gene Covert who is also here and someone you should really talk 329 00:21:13,620 --> 00:21:18,179 to at some point in time, was part of our panel that reviewed Space Shuttle main engine 330 00:21:18,179 --> 00:21:20,350 quality testing. 331 00:21:20,350 --> 00:21:23,880 And they were the folks that really came to grips with this new and emerging issue called 332 00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:24,760 turbine micro-cracks. 333 00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:31,760 The turbine blades in the SSME were found to be developing very small cycle dependent 334 00:21:33,140 --> 00:21:33,970 micro-cracks. 335 00:21:33,970 --> 00:21:36,690 The question came up what is the ultimate failure mode? 336 00:21:36,690 --> 00:21:39,820 How many cycles can they stand? 337 00:21:39,820 --> 00:21:41,370 How good are they good for? 338 00:21:41,370 --> 00:21:45,840 The original intent, as you know, was to be able to re-fly the SSMEs with zero maintenance 339 00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:47,940 between flights many times. 340 00:21:47,940 --> 00:21:49,299 That hasn't happened. 341 00:21:49,299 --> 00:21:54,030 But even the question of would it be good even for one mission was a big, big question. 342 00:21:54,030 --> 00:22:00,110 And Gene, who is an extremely thorough manager and engineer, a lot of common sense, a lot 343 00:22:00,110 --> 00:22:01,980 of smarts, worked that very, very hard. 344 00:22:01,980 --> 00:22:05,220 There were also issues, of course, about thermal tile loss. 345 00:22:05,220 --> 00:22:07,820 There were questions about whether those would fall off. 346 00:22:07,820 --> 00:22:08,530 This is not ice now. 347 00:22:08,530 --> 00:22:09,520 This is thermal tiles. 348 00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:16,520 And, at the same time, there were huge costs growing in the development of the IUS, the 349 00:22:17,080 --> 00:22:20,420 Shuttle Centaur upper stage and also Vandenberg facilities. 350 00:22:20,420 --> 00:22:23,929 Everything was either late and/or over cost. 351 00:22:23,929 --> 00:22:27,500 Many folks thought that the IUS would never fly because the development problems were 352 00:22:27,500 --> 00:22:28,880 so huge. 353 00:22:28,880 --> 00:22:33,270 The fact that it has flown as many times as it has, on a variety of launch platforms, 354 00:22:33,270 --> 00:22:37,360 is truly amazing from my sight. 355 00:22:37,360 --> 00:22:43,390 And we also saw, prior to first flight, several delays, two and a half years is about right. 356 00:22:43,390 --> 00:22:45,179 And then more delays ensued. 357 00:22:45,179 --> 00:22:51,950 And so, from a user perspective, all these delays really added up to lost opportunities, 358 00:22:51,950 --> 00:22:57,040 extensive cost growth and things like that, really a heartbreaking story. 359 00:22:57,040 --> 00:23:01,340 This is a picture of a Defense Satellite Program, DSP. 360 00:23:01,340 --> 00:23:05,070 A machine lifting out of the shuttle bay. 361 00:23:05,070 --> 00:23:05,790 I think you have seen this. 362 00:23:05,790 --> 00:23:11,250 This is the IUS turntable that rotates the vehicle up and pushes it out with springs. 363 00:23:11,250 --> 00:23:16,929 This is a two-stage solid misconfiguration that takes the beast out to geosynch. 364 00:23:16,929 --> 00:23:22,390 Post-Challenger, the space policy was changed. 365 00:23:22,390 --> 00:23:27,100 The Shuttle was not to be used anymore for lifting all satellites but only for mission 366 00:23:27,100 --> 00:23:28,590 where human presence was required. 367 00:23:28,590 --> 00:23:30,470 But there was a problem. 368 00:23:30,470 --> 00:23:36,820 Because of the backup of missions, the SCS had to fly out the existing DoD payloads. 369 00:23:36,820 --> 00:23:39,890 We looked very hard at converting them back to the Titans. 370 00:23:39,890 --> 00:23:43,679 Since we were taking steps to shut down the Titan line, the Titans weren't ready at that 371 00:23:43,679 --> 00:23:45,210 time. 372 00:23:45,210 --> 00:23:52,210 But what we saw afterwards was increased use of, a restart, really, of these efforts, modernizations. 373 00:23:52,750 --> 00:23:57,230 And that was interesting because there was always the chance the Shuttle could come back 374 00:23:57,230 --> 00:24:00,660 and launch, hopefully, 15, 20 times a year. 375 00:24:00,660 --> 00:24:03,490 And we hoped it would happen but it never did. 376 00:24:03,490 --> 00:24:08,460 Steven Dorfman from Hughes was here as a visiting professor several years ago. 377 00:24:08,460 --> 00:24:13,000 He was extremely bitter about the fact that, from a satellite manufacturing point of view, 378 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:17,990 he had to eat the cost to switch back to extendables from Shuttle. 379 00:24:17,990 --> 00:24:22,390 First he was told by National Space Policy, "Thou shalt fly on Space Shuttle." Then he 380 00:24:22,390 --> 00:24:27,950 was told, "You are now bared from flying that Space Shuttle." A huge lost to him. 381 00:24:27,950 --> 00:24:29,530 And I think Hughes is still contesting it. 382 00:24:29,530 --> 00:24:32,169 I don't think it will ever win that in court. 383 00:24:32,169 --> 00:24:37,919 And kind of most importantly, from a Central California point of view, the Vandenberg shuttle 384 00:24:37,919 --> 00:24:40,679 facilities were shut down completely. 385 00:24:40,679 --> 00:24:47,530 My DoD SCS mission involvement personally was I worked on the very first DoD sponsored 386 00:24:47,530 --> 00:24:48,880 mission STS4. 387 00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:55,880 It was Columbia launched in late June of '84 flown by Ken Mattingly and Hank Hartsfield. 388 00:24:57,100 --> 00:24:59,910 This was a pathfinder for the DoD. 389 00:24:59,910 --> 00:25:06,790 It was a test not only of the security procedures but also the ability to do launch operations, 390 00:25:06,790 --> 00:25:09,130 orbital operations in a classified way. 391 00:25:09,130 --> 00:25:10,419 It came out truly successfully. 392 00:25:10,419 --> 00:25:11,980 We learned a lot. 393 00:25:11,980 --> 00:25:14,309 It was not easy. 394 00:25:14,309 --> 00:25:19,080 Getting any complicated mission to fly on the Shuttle is a very, very difficult process. 395 00:25:19,080 --> 00:25:23,440 To do it under the cloak of security makes it even harder. 396 00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:28,320 I was a primary DoD launch integrator, the interface between the Program Office and the 397 00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:31,360 Air Force, for two primary missions. 398 00:25:31,360 --> 00:25:32,820 I shadowed three others. 399 00:25:32,820 --> 00:25:36,600 I was also member of the NASA DoD Safety Review Team. 400 00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:37,780 This was interesting. 401 00:25:37,780 --> 00:25:44,780 The Safety Review Team or SRT was a very small, streamlined, fast-moving team that basically 402 00:25:45,370 --> 00:25:47,900 reviewed and bought off on the payload. 403 00:25:47,900 --> 00:25:54,059 As opposed to having the figurative casts of thousands, we had a cast of just a very 404 00:25:54,059 --> 00:25:57,679 small number of people both from the DoD and the NASA side. 405 00:25:57,679 --> 00:26:01,940 And we moved as quickly as we could to get these missions approved and bought off. 406 00:26:01,940 --> 00:26:08,630 And, lastly, in the mid '90s, I was a program manager for the DoD space test program. 407 00:26:08,630 --> 00:26:11,320 STP is in existence today. 408 00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:15,990 Their charter is to be the sponsor for space experiments with military relevant. 409 00:26:15,990 --> 00:26:20,840 They flew, among other things, the first atomic clocks that led to GPS as we know it today. 410 00:26:20,840 --> 00:26:26,830 They continue to fly numerous secondary and piggyback missions not just on Shuttle but 411 00:26:26,830 --> 00:26:31,290 also on Ariens, Russian vehicles, Korean vehicles, Indian vehicles. 412 00:26:31,290 --> 00:26:33,520 When I was the manager of the program it was great. 413 00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:38,210 It was like you were running a big used car lot and you were offering rides to everybody. 414 00:26:38,210 --> 00:26:39,140 It was terrific. 415 00:26:39,140 --> 00:26:45,190 The emphasis here is to use excess launch capacity to fly space experiments that you 416 00:26:45,190 --> 00:26:47,480 would screen every year. 417 00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:53,230 And then, on rare occasions, you would build a dedicated satellite and launch vehicle about 418 00:26:53,230 --> 00:26:57,650 every four years to launch the bigger satellites. 419 00:26:57,650 --> 00:27:04,309 My summary is that the DoD had requirements that really went back to the first years, 420 00:27:04,309 --> 00:27:06,510 the first days of the Shuttle Program. 421 00:27:06,510 --> 00:27:11,580 They were extremely demanding and dramatically affected the architecture of the Space Shuttle 422 00:27:11,580 --> 00:27:12,150 system. 423 00:27:12,150 --> 00:27:17,650 The heartbreak, of course, as we know, is that we never were able to achieve the launch 424 00:27:17,650 --> 00:27:20,760 rates and the low recurring costs that were promised. 425 00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:26,520 That really when we realized it was slipping away, those were truly sad days. 426 00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:33,320 I don't think anyone ever anticipated the one-time expenses and effort required to redesign 427 00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:34,380 payloads. 428 00:27:34,380 --> 00:27:38,280 Not just for mechanical form-fit function but also for safety. 429 00:27:38,280 --> 00:27:45,280 No one realized the extensive work required to certify the payloads for manned operations. 430 00:27:45,490 --> 00:27:51,210 The mission integration at the Cape was very complicated, and security, as you can tell, 431 00:27:51,210 --> 00:27:52,480 permeated everything. 432 00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:59,480 And, lastly, the sad thing is that MOL and SCS at Vandenberg all suffered from the curse 433 00:28:00,260 --> 00:28:06,240 of Slick-6, which was that both programs were cancelled despite millions of dollars put 434 00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:10,830 into refurbishing the facilities. 435 00:28:10,830 --> 00:28:13,650 I have here a list of references. 436 00:28:13,650 --> 00:28:16,500 Heppenheimer's book "Development of the Space Shuttle" I found was quite good. 437 00:28:16,500 --> 00:28:18,669 It talks a lot about the programmatics of the Space Shuttle. 438 00:28:18,669 --> 00:28:21,100 I hope you've had a chance to read it. 439 00:28:21,100 --> 00:28:23,410 I took some information from here. 440 00:28:23,410 --> 00:28:26,510 The Federation of America Scientists, the FAS site is interesting. 441 00:28:26,510 --> 00:28:29,110 I think it is still current on the Space Shuttle. 442 00:28:29,110 --> 00:28:34,350 And there are these books here which I point you to give you a little bit more insight 443 00:28:34,350 --> 00:28:40,030 into the missions, the roles of the intelligence community doing things such as flying and 444 00:28:40,030 --> 00:28:41,530 operating satellites in space. 445 00:28:41,530 --> 00:28:47,750 If there are any questions, I will be glad to take them now and then I will show a short 446 00:28:47,750 --> 00:28:48,600 ten-minute video. 447 00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:51,160 How am I doing on time? 448 00:28:51,160 --> 00:28:52,440 I'm moving fast. 449 00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:53,289 Yes, question. 450 00:28:53,289 --> 00:28:56,280 How many times was the [UNINTELLIGIBLE PHRASE]? 451 00:28:56,280 --> 00:28:59,690 Was it even used to launch the Shuttle? 452 00:28:59,690 --> 00:29:03,640 Slick-6 never saw anything launched out of there until they launched a Lockheed low-cost 453 00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:08,539 machine called the Athena in about 1996. 454 00:29:08,539 --> 00:29:13,539 Presently, the Delta 4, remember the big machine that flew out of the Cape about nine months 455 00:29:13,539 --> 00:29:18,820 ago, is stacked there at Slick-6 ready to go with an operational payload. 456 00:29:18,820 --> 00:29:23,760 They are having big concerns, though, about fuselage so their launch date, which was going 457 00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:27,010 to be last week, has been rolled off to the right several months. 458 00:29:27,010 --> 00:29:32,150 They had a problem on the first flight of basically fuel cavitatation. 459 00:29:32,150 --> 00:29:34,380 And they are not happy with it yet. 460 00:29:34,380 --> 00:29:35,429 It is ready to go. 461 00:29:35,429 --> 00:29:41,690 When the Delta 4 launches out of Slick-6, it will be the first large payload system 462 00:29:41,690 --> 00:29:44,990 to go out of there for the first time. 463 00:29:44,990 --> 00:29:45,240 Question. Yes. I don't know if it is really fair, but in hindsight, was it worth it for the military 464 00:29:55,210 --> 00:29:56,990 to get onboard with the Shuttle from the military's perspective? 465 00:29:56,990 --> 00:29:59,799 Well, if the promises had been kept it certainly would have been worthwhile. 466 00:29:59,799 --> 00:30:04,620 With the way things have turned out, was it worth it? 467 00:30:04,620 --> 00:30:06,820 We were kind of driven into it. 468 00:30:06,820 --> 00:30:10,990 Can you say was it worth it from a cost point of view, from a schedule point of view? 469 00:30:10,990 --> 00:30:11,890 The answer is no. 470 00:30:11,890 --> 00:30:18,890 I think from the perspective of having people do extremely difficult tasks under very pressing 471 00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:27,559 circumstances, it showed us what NASA and the Air Force could do, although at a great 472 00:30:27,559 --> 00:30:28,100 cost. 473 00:30:28,100 --> 00:30:34,169 It was certainly one of the more, I will say, exciting times. 474 00:30:34,169 --> 00:30:37,190 It was one of the more exciting times for NASA. 475 00:30:37,190 --> 00:30:38,190 Questions? 476 00:30:38,190 --> 00:30:39,190 Yes. 477 00:30:39,190 --> 00:30:45,960 When you talked about safety certifying these payloads, was it mainly an issue of the fuel 478 00:30:45,960 --> 00:30:47,390 supplies for the payloads? 479 00:30:47,390 --> 00:30:50,510 Well, I will just give you one example. 480 00:30:50,510 --> 00:30:56,270 To get a payload into the bay and withstand launch loads, you have to have very large 481 00:30:56,270 --> 00:31:01,870 structural members, steel rods, for example, that had to take all of the launch loads and 482 00:31:01,870 --> 00:31:06,330 not have the satellite break away inside the payload bay in the worst case either during 483 00:31:06,330 --> 00:31:09,909 liftoff or in the worst case on landing. 484 00:31:09,909 --> 00:31:15,710 You could have as many as 18 to 24 steel bolts that all had to be fractured simultaneously 485 00:31:15,710 --> 00:31:19,630 within seconds by pyrotechnics to get them out. 486 00:31:19,630 --> 00:31:24,270 You had to prove by analysis and by test that you could have these simultaneous events for 487 00:31:24,270 --> 00:31:26,030 which you could not have any redundancy. 488 00:31:26,030 --> 00:31:27,720 You just couldn't do it. 489 00:31:27,720 --> 00:31:30,070 These were must-work devices. 490 00:31:30,070 --> 00:31:35,659 As probably Professor Hoffman has told you, on every Shuttle launch there is a large number 491 00:31:35,659 --> 00:31:39,260 of must-work category-one issues and items. 492 00:31:39,260 --> 00:31:44,350 Like the bolts that free the external tank from the vehicle, if those don't work you've 493 00:31:44,350 --> 00:31:46,049 got a big problem. 494 00:31:46,049 --> 00:31:50,090 From a safety certification point of view on the Shuttle, we had to make sure that in 495 00:31:50,090 --> 00:31:57,090 no case could the payloads pose any hazard to the crew under any circumstances, including 496 00:31:57,220 --> 00:32:03,409 the ones that are the most farfetched such as landing overseas in Spain or Morocco. 497 00:32:03,409 --> 00:32:09,289 But the things we were worried about was having a payload hung up during deployment so the 498 00:32:09,289 --> 00:32:16,070 Shuttle couldn't return or a payload damaging the Shuttle at any time and causing obviously 499 00:32:16,070 --> 00:32:18,419 big problems there and things like that. 500 00:32:18,419 --> 00:32:22,640 Plus things such as propulsion systems accidentally activating. 501 00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:26,990 Liquid solids, it didn't matter, all extremely hazardous. 502 00:32:26,990 --> 00:32:31,470 And we found out a lot, because it is one thing to design a payload for launching an 503 00:32:31,470 --> 00:32:31,770 expendable. 504 00:32:31,770 --> 00:32:34,429 There are certain things that you can or should not do. 505 00:32:34,429 --> 00:32:38,890 But when you go to a Shuttle context, we have a lot of commanding going into the vehicle. 506 00:32:38,890 --> 00:32:45,890 Pre-flight, during assent and ops, it becomes a much more tough a problem. 507 00:32:46,120 --> 00:32:48,230 For example, I will just give one example. 508 00:32:48,230 --> 00:32:52,980 If you have a very complicated payload which consists of a spacecraft bus, all the housekeeping 509 00:32:52,980 --> 00:32:58,460 and the payload front-end which may have all kinds of hazards associated with it like antenna 510 00:32:58,460 --> 00:33:04,049 booms that come out on command, how do you verify final configuration before you liftoff? 511 00:33:04,049 --> 00:33:10,230 How do you know every system is in the state that you think it is? 512 00:33:10,230 --> 00:33:10,940 How do you verify that? 513 00:33:10,940 --> 00:33:12,990 That is very hard. 514 00:33:12,990 --> 00:33:16,490 Because you can go in there with test equipment, but test equipment has subtleties all its 515 00:33:16,490 --> 00:33:16,990 own. 516 00:33:16,990 --> 00:33:17,480 OK. 517 00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:17,980 Questions? 518 00:33:17,980 --> 00:33:24,980 Do you think it would be possible to do the one orbit and return to base type mission? 519 00:33:27,900 --> 00:33:31,240 It sounds very difficult to do. 520 00:33:31,240 --> 00:33:33,490 It is not that hard. 521 00:33:33,490 --> 00:33:37,280 First orbit deploys were not easy but they were done. 522 00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:41,669 Coming back, I think the big problem is that it really forces the timelines. 523 00:33:41,669 --> 00:33:47,360 Because, as you know, to do a de-orbit burn and return to earth, it requires quite a bit 524 00:33:47,360 --> 00:33:52,549 of mission planning, real-time updates to verify you're on the right track, plus making 525 00:33:52,549 --> 00:33:55,360 sure that you have everything right so when you do the de-boost you're going to be within 526 00:33:55,360 --> 00:33:56,030 your corridors. 527 00:33:56,030 --> 00:34:01,539 To the best of my knowledge, NASA has never done a first orbit return. 528 00:34:01,539 --> 00:34:02,750 And I don't think they would want to. 529 00:34:02,750 --> 00:34:07,809 It's very stressing because in 90 minutes you have to not only get the spacecraft out, 530 00:34:07,809 --> 00:34:12,989 but then the vehicle re-safed and buttoned up and planned out to land back either at 531 00:34:12,989 --> 00:34:16,049 the primary or an alternate landing site. 532 00:34:16,049 --> 00:34:19,139 That's a lot of work to do in 90 minutes. 533 00:34:19,139 --> 00:34:20,518 Any other questions? 534 00:34:20,518 --> 00:34:20,978 Yes. 535 00:34:20,978 --> 00:34:27,978 Is there any way to give a ballpark figure of how many DoD payloads can be put in space 536 00:34:29,478 --> 00:34:30,339 by the Shuttle? 537 00:34:30,339 --> 00:34:30,719 Ten or hundreds? 538 00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:31,379 Oh, not, it's not hundreds. 539 00:34:31,379 --> 00:34:35,498 The NASA Manifest is published. 540 00:34:35,498 --> 00:34:39,849 From what they call a regular Air Force site, they launched a whole series of communication 541 00:34:39,849 --> 00:34:42,168 satellites, DSCS, DSP. 542 00:34:42,168 --> 00:34:48,339 In fact, the very last DSP satellites are still Shuttle compatible and could be launched 543 00:34:48,339 --> 00:34:49,779 if there was a problem with the Titans. 544 00:34:49,779 --> 00:34:53,569 They are up there in storage in Southern California. 545 00:34:53,569 --> 00:34:57,349 And then there are a fairly large number of what are called Intelligence Community Missions 546 00:34:57,349 --> 00:34:58,869 that are flown. 547 00:34:58,869 --> 00:35:04,690 And all the manifest will say is that these were just DoD missions. 548 00:35:04,690 --> 00:35:06,170 Let's see. 549 00:35:06,170 --> 00:35:13,170 What I would like to do is ask Tom to shut off the videotape and I will give you a little 550 00:35:13,630 --> 00:35:17,200 introduction to my video which I hope will run. 551 00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:23,529 We are ready to start her, folks. 552 00:35:23,529 --> 00:35:29,410 Bob Siemens is really a very pivotal person, not only in the Space Shuttle story, but also 553 00:35:29,410 --> 00:35:33,009 in the Apollo Program, which he can probably talk to you at a separate time. 554 00:35:33,009 --> 00:35:36,150 But I think he will like to spend ten or fifteen minutes talking about his role in the Space 555 00:35:36,150 --> 00:35:37,680 Shuttle story. 556 00:35:37,680 --> 00:35:38,660 OK. 557 00:35:38,660 --> 00:35:40,180 Here we go. 558 00:35:40,180 --> 00:35:44,410 I'm just wondering where to go to get comfortable. 559 00:35:44,410 --> 00:35:48,359 Can we turn that off? 560 00:35:48,359 --> 00:35:49,940 We cannot. 561 00:35:49,940 --> 00:35:51,519 All right. 562 00:35:51,519 --> 00:35:54,989 I would just like to get comfortable here. 563 00:35:54,989 --> 00:36:01,989 You know, as Pete said -- First of all, I thought that was a great summary of actually 564 00:36:03,930 --> 00:36:09,979 a very difficult subject to discuss. 565 00:36:09,979 --> 00:36:16,249 Let me just take you back, first of all, to the early '60s. 566 00:36:16,249 --> 00:36:23,249 I know that is going awful far back, but that was when I joined NASA as a general manager. 567 00:36:23,690 --> 00:36:29,940 And, before we knew it, we had gone from a billion dollar a year operation with the Mercury 568 00:36:29,940 --> 00:36:36,940 Program to a situation where we were given the assignment of putting men on the moon. 569 00:36:37,099 --> 00:36:44,099 And that was a gigantic shift in our responsibility. 570 00:36:44,119 --> 00:36:51,119 And in all of the planning and the discussions and so on, and we did work very closely with 571 00:36:54,759 --> 00:37:01,690 the Department of Defense, the Department of Defense had all kinds of assets that were 572 00:37:01,690 --> 00:37:04,880 going to be required in the Space Program. 573 00:37:04,880 --> 00:37:07,819 The Navy, for example, to pick up the astronauts. 574 00:37:07,819 --> 00:37:14,819 One example, a major example most people never heard of, was we had to construct very large 575 00:37:16,339 --> 00:37:17,460 facilities. 576 00:37:17,460 --> 00:37:23,289 The most famous and obvious is the Vertical Assembly Building and the large facility down 577 00:37:23,289 --> 00:37:24,420 at the Cape. 578 00:37:24,420 --> 00:37:29,569 You just saw the Shuttle taking off from that facility. 579 00:37:29,569 --> 00:37:35,769 And, in operating down there at the Cape, there already was Cape Canaveral. 580 00:37:35,769 --> 00:37:40,849 And there was not room for what we were going to do to fit on Cape Canaveral. 581 00:37:40,849 --> 00:37:46,190 We looked at seven different world sites and finally decided to camp on Merritt Island 582 00:37:46,190 --> 00:37:53,190 which is just across the river from Cape Canaveral because, again, the Department of Defense 583 00:37:54,430 --> 00:37:58,710 had all kinds of facilities down there with a tracking range and so on. 584 00:37:58,710 --> 00:38:03,219 But the biggest support that we got was in the building of those facilities. 585 00:38:03,219 --> 00:38:10,219 There was absolutely no confidence in NASA to build the largest structure in the world, 586 00:38:12,729 --> 00:38:18,410 the VAB, or many other facilities for assembly and for tests and so on. 587 00:38:18,410 --> 00:38:22,680 The Corp of Engineers was a major part of the operation. 588 00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:29,680 I am bringing this out because we had to figure out how far we were going to go with our launch 589 00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:35,219 vehicles on a shared basis. 590 00:38:35,219 --> 00:38:42,219 This is before anybody thought of a manned shuttle that would carry stuff up and stick 591 00:38:43,390 --> 00:38:45,869 it into orbit. 592 00:38:45,869 --> 00:38:52,869 But we put together a planning organization that actually operated for over a year's time. 593 00:38:55,380 --> 00:39:02,380 A fellow named Golivan for NASA, a fellow named Cavanaugh for the Department of Defense 594 00:39:02,519 --> 00:39:04,869 put this together. 595 00:39:04,869 --> 00:39:09,130 One of the big emphases was the use of the Titan. 596 00:39:09,130 --> 00:39:15,809 The Titan was coming along to the point where we thought that the earliest version would 597 00:39:15,809 --> 00:39:19,589 be suitable for the Mercury Program. 598 00:39:19,589 --> 00:39:26,589 And, at that time, in 1961, we were thinking that Mercury only weighed 3,000 pounds. 599 00:39:29,190 --> 00:39:30,249 You could put one man in it. 600 00:39:30,249 --> 00:39:32,279 You couldn't do much with it. 601 00:39:32,279 --> 00:39:38,599 But if we could, in effect, just enlarge it and have a more powerful vehicle, an Atlas, 602 00:39:38,599 --> 00:39:45,599 namely the Titan, we could really have a vehicle that would have some capability to run through 603 00:39:47,739 --> 00:39:52,789 a lot of the orbital operation and so on that we're going to ultimately be required for 604 00:39:52,789 --> 00:39:54,630 going to the moon. 605 00:39:54,630 --> 00:40:01,630 And out of that came the planning for the Titan III, the Titan IV and vehicles that 606 00:40:04,339 --> 00:40:11,339 proved right off the bat, and over time, they still are very important to our defense capability. 607 00:40:13,749 --> 00:40:17,339 Well, I don't think that is quite true. 608 00:40:17,339 --> 00:40:23,969 I don't think we are using any of those assets today within NASA. 609 00:40:23,969 --> 00:40:30,969 And if you then go forward in time, in 1968, I have been down there in NASA for 7.5 years. 610 00:40:35,349 --> 00:40:37,329 I planned to go down for two. 611 00:40:37,329 --> 00:40:38,190 I came back. 612 00:40:38,190 --> 00:40:45,190 MIT was nice enough to invite me back, and I came back right here as a Hunsaker professor. 613 00:40:45,799 --> 00:40:52,799 To my very great amazement, I got a call one day from somebody I had never met, a man named 614 00:40:54,930 --> 00:40:56,209 Mel Laird. 615 00:40:56,209 --> 00:41:03,209 I just barely knew that he had been designated by Nixon to be the next Secretary of Defense. 616 00:41:05,009 --> 00:41:07,999 He said are you going to be down here in Washington the next day or two? 617 00:41:07,999 --> 00:41:13,880 As a matter of fact, I was because I was going to go down the next day to get on a plan and 618 00:41:13,880 --> 00:41:20,880 fly down and see the launch of Apollo 8 which was going to fly around the moon. 619 00:41:21,900 --> 00:41:23,700 And he said come on for lunch. 620 00:41:23,700 --> 00:41:29,119 That is when he asked if I would be the willing to be the Secretary of the Air Force. 621 00:41:29,119 --> 00:41:31,079 I told him that was absolutely impossible. 622 00:41:31,079 --> 00:41:33,410 We just moved our family back here. 623 00:41:33,410 --> 00:41:36,539 My wife is in the hospital, which she was. 624 00:41:36,539 --> 00:41:38,239 But he was very persistent. 625 00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:45,239 And after about ten days I agreed to go back down in the government, but that is a long 626 00:41:45,529 --> 00:41:50,569 story you don't want to hear the details of getting my wife well and getting a house and 627 00:41:50,569 --> 00:41:53,160 all that stuff. 628 00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:57,569 One thing that I inherited right off the bat was the Manned Orbital Laboratory. 629 00:41:57,569 --> 00:42:04,569 And, even then, it was clearly in some jeopardy. 630 00:42:05,200 --> 00:42:10,529 When programs start getting a ceiling built in where they say we're going to keep it going 631 00:42:10,529 --> 00:42:16,549 but it is going to be kept going at a level of, and I forget what the level was for MOL, 632 00:42:16,549 --> 00:42:22,890 something like $500 million or something like that. 633 00:42:22,890 --> 00:42:28,609 Because any large program over time there is always opposition to it and there is more 634 00:42:28,609 --> 00:42:34,069 time for it to be shot down and ultimately eliminated. 635 00:42:34,069 --> 00:42:41,069 I realize that it was in deep trouble when I was over in the Bureau of the Budget talking 636 00:42:42,109 --> 00:42:48,420 to a junior member of the Bureau of the Budget and he said I hope you realize that the Shuttle 637 00:42:48,420 --> 00:42:55,420 is in deep trouble from a standpoint of support here in the White House. 638 00:42:55,559 --> 00:43:02,299 And so I went back to Mel Laird and said, look, one thing I want to do is to have one 639 00:43:02,299 --> 00:43:09,299 shot with the President to be sure he fully understands what the capability of the MOL 640 00:43:09,440 --> 00:43:10,269 will be. 641 00:43:10,269 --> 00:43:14,749 It was far along. 642 00:43:14,749 --> 00:43:21,749 Lots of expense had gone into it, including major facility construction out of Vandenberg. 643 00:43:26,079 --> 00:43:27,079 I had my day in court. 644 00:43:27,079 --> 00:43:28,890 It was a sunny afternoon. 645 00:43:28,890 --> 00:43:34,190 I got General Stewart, who was very involved in the MOL, to join me and Mel Laird. 646 00:43:34,190 --> 00:43:34,890 And we went over there. 647 00:43:34,890 --> 00:43:40,420 It was just Kissinger and the President. 648 00:43:40,420 --> 00:43:46,390 And I had a few simple-minded charts that showed what we were going to do from a resolution 649 00:43:46,390 --> 00:43:53,390 standpoint if we kept going with the MOL and what that would mean in terms of understanding 650 00:43:54,509 --> 00:44:01,509 more clearly what was going on in a given situation. 651 00:44:02,239 --> 00:44:03,700 I had my half-hour in court. 652 00:44:03,700 --> 00:44:08,029 I could see a band outside getting ready to play so I knew that the President was about 653 00:44:08,029 --> 00:44:12,469 to be rushed out for some kind of a ceremony. 654 00:44:12,469 --> 00:44:13,650 That was a Saturday. 655 00:44:13,650 --> 00:44:15,450 Monday morning I got a call from Kissinger. 656 00:44:15,450 --> 00:44:21,729 And he said Bob, and I cannot really imitate his German accent, that was a very, very fine 657 00:44:21,729 --> 00:44:22,849 presentation. 658 00:44:22,849 --> 00:44:28,959 And a day later I found out that MOL was cancelled. 659 00:44:28,959 --> 00:44:31,359 That was with President Nixon. 660 00:44:31,359 --> 00:44:32,339 He sat there the whole time. 661 00:44:32,339 --> 00:44:37,529 He had a yellow foolscap and took prodigious notes of everything I was saying, which was 662 00:44:37,529 --> 00:44:43,059 sort of nerve-racking, the President of the United States bothering with what I am saying. 663 00:44:43,059 --> 00:44:50,059 Anyway, that was sort of where I came from, from the MOL. 664 00:44:52,140 --> 00:44:59,140 The next step along the way was after Apollo, what was going to happen in space? 665 00:44:59,680 --> 00:45:06,440 There were to be eight launches of the Apollo Lunar Program. 666 00:45:06,440 --> 00:45:11,019 Nixon cut that back to two sort of arbitrarily. 667 00:45:11,019 --> 00:45:15,140 And there were no plans for using those assets. 668 00:45:15,140 --> 00:45:19,869 Jim Webb was my boss in NASA. 669 00:45:19,869 --> 00:45:22,930 And I used to see him. 670 00:45:22,930 --> 00:45:25,739 He was very, very ill the latter part of his life. 671 00:45:25,739 --> 00:45:29,849 And I would drop by. 672 00:45:29,849 --> 00:45:36,749 And he would ask me strange questions like what do you plan to do with your life before 673 00:45:36,749 --> 00:45:39,479 you kick the bucket kind of questions like that. 674 00:45:39,479 --> 00:45:41,869 And he said I haven't got long to live. 675 00:45:41,869 --> 00:45:44,589 And I would say you're doing fine, Jim. 676 00:45:44,589 --> 00:45:49,950 And I am just going to work along and see what I can do to help out here and there. 677 00:45:49,950 --> 00:45:56,950 Anyway, his big thrust was we felt we were building a major capability for the country 678 00:45:57,380 --> 00:46:01,390 and now it is all being washed away. 679 00:46:01,390 --> 00:46:08,390 And what is going to replace it? 680 00:46:11,029 --> 00:46:15,609 The Shuttle came up as an option. 681 00:46:15,609 --> 00:46:22,609 Actually, to say on the surface, it makes an awful lot of sense to recover something. 682 00:46:23,569 --> 00:46:30,569 We could easily visualize a transportation system for the country where every time a 683 00:46:35,599 --> 00:46:40,489 747 went across the country with a payload everybody jumped out and then you threw it 684 00:46:40,489 --> 00:46:41,509 in the ocean. 685 00:46:41,509 --> 00:46:43,809 It didn't seem to make much sense. 686 00:46:43,809 --> 00:46:48,209 You just knew it had to be more efficient to reuse something. 687 00:46:48,209 --> 00:46:52,279 Although, with Gemini, we had looked into that possibility. 688 00:46:52,279 --> 00:46:56,650 We were recovering the Gemini's, why didn't we use them again? 689 00:46:56,650 --> 00:47:03,650 And we found that we are going to have to put probably 75% of the original cost into 690 00:47:04,109 --> 00:47:06,440 reactivating the Gemini's. 691 00:47:06,440 --> 00:47:11,680 So, actually, I had a hunch that it wasn't going to be quite as simple as landing an 692 00:47:11,680 --> 00:47:18,459 airplane and then taking off again. 693 00:47:18,459 --> 00:47:22,430 The Air Force was going to be one of the prime users of the Shuttle. 694 00:47:22,430 --> 00:47:29,430 And the question was how large did the bomb bay -- Not the bomb bay. 695 00:47:29,839 --> 00:47:36,839 [LAUGHTER] How large did the experimental bay have to be for the missions that were 696 00:47:36,949 --> 00:47:38,599 going to be carried out? 697 00:47:38,599 --> 00:47:44,359 There was no thought, let me just quickly say, of putting armament aboard the Shuttle. 698 00:47:44,359 --> 00:47:47,999 I misspoke. 699 00:47:47,999 --> 00:47:54,999 And then one of the questions was how rapidly did you have to recover it if something happened 700 00:47:57,289 --> 00:48:04,130 and you wanted to bring something back in a hurry? 701 00:48:04,130 --> 00:48:11,130 And to bring it back you had to make up a co-planer change, and that was going to take 702 00:48:12,749 --> 00:48:18,009 a certain amount of energy, to put it mildly. 703 00:48:18,009 --> 00:48:21,219 Anyway, those are many of the issues. 704 00:48:21,219 --> 00:48:27,759 And I think, as I remember it, my friends in NASA thought the Air Force was being pretty 705 00:48:27,759 --> 00:48:31,180 tough on them. 706 00:48:31,180 --> 00:48:37,400 But if we were going to accept the use of a vehicle, in all seriousness, as you've just 707 00:48:37,400 --> 00:48:44,400 heard, it had to have ability to carry out the missions. 708 00:48:45,380 --> 00:48:48,319 And so that was sort of the next step along the way. 709 00:48:48,319 --> 00:48:55,319 And then, after I got through in the government, I ended up some years later out at Aerospace 710 00:48:57,509 --> 00:49:00,640 and ended up as the chairman of the corporation. 711 00:49:00,640 --> 00:49:05,829 And they worked closely with that element in the Air Force that was so much involved 712 00:49:05,829 --> 00:49:11,930 in these type programs that you've just been hearing about. 713 00:49:11,930 --> 00:49:18,930 And we were beginning to go into shock, at least those in the nucleus who were sort of running 714 00:49:27,949 --> 00:49:29,489 the aerospace. 715 00:49:29,489 --> 00:49:32,739 [UNINTELLIGIBLE] and myself. 716 00:49:32,739 --> 00:49:37,920 More and more it appeared that we were going to not be allowed to put anything in space 717 00:49:37,920 --> 00:49:40,579 except through the Shuttle. 718 00:49:40,579 --> 00:49:41,999 And that seemed to be imminently wrong. 719 00:49:41,999 --> 00:49:46,019 To think that you're going to have to risk the life of astronauts every time you wanted 720 00:49:46,019 --> 00:49:49,150 to put any kind of a satellite in orbit. 721 00:49:49,150 --> 00:49:56,150 From the standpoint of a paperclip individual who is looking at cost, to just have the one 722 00:49:58,729 --> 00:50:05,729 vehicle and use it and use it and use it and thereby supposedly cutting the cost, had a 723 00:50:06,529 --> 00:50:09,499 lot of charm. 724 00:50:09,499 --> 00:50:16,499 And it reached the point where he and I decided we had to try to do something about it. 725 00:50:20,349 --> 00:50:26,479 And we made an appointment with the then Secretary of the Air Force and said you've just going 726 00:50:26,479 --> 00:50:33,479 to be stashing away Titan somewhere so that if we run into trouble with the Shuttle we 727 00:50:34,109 --> 00:50:41,109 are going to be able to move over and put these very important payloads into orbit. 728 00:50:43,039 --> 00:50:47,829 And then they had the Challenger accident. 729 00:50:47,829 --> 00:50:54,829 At that point this, I think, major fallacy in policy was changed back where it should 730 00:50:57,479 --> 00:50:59,479 have been. 731 00:50:59,479 --> 00:51:02,719 You just shouldn't rely on a single vehicle. 732 00:51:02,719 --> 00:51:05,359 And that is my introduction. 733 00:51:05,359 --> 00:51:06,119 Yes. 734 00:51:06,119 --> 00:51:11,969 You wanted reusability, but some people also didn't want to risk the lives of astronauts. 735 00:51:11,969 --> 00:51:17,180 Why not make a reusable unmanned vehicle? 736 00:51:17,180 --> 00:51:23,130 That's a very good question. 737 00:51:23,130 --> 00:51:25,019 Why couldn't we do it? 738 00:51:25,019 --> 00:51:31,559 That might be a good design challenge for you guys here in this class to investigate 739 00:51:31,559 --> 00:51:34,359 that possibility. 740 00:51:34,359 --> 00:51:36,949 Unmanned. 741 00:51:36,949 --> 00:51:43,949 We've gone partway in that direction by, say, recovering the Shuttle casings, obviously 742 00:51:48,759 --> 00:51:50,589 the Shuttle itself. 743 00:51:50,589 --> 00:51:57,589 But, trying to recover at least elements of the unmanned launch vehicles, I'm not prepared 744 00:52:02,670 --> 00:52:04,670 to really give you a definitive answer on that. 745 00:52:04,670 --> 00:52:07,579 That's a good question and we will talk about it later. 746 00:52:07,579 --> 00:52:07,849 Yes. 747 00:52:07,849 --> 00:52:14,849 Before the Shuttle concept was finalized and military requirements were finalized for the 748 00:52:24,599 --> 00:52:31,599 Shuttle, the military had been launching their satellites and their missions using Titan's 749 00:52:31,739 --> 00:52:33,390 and Atlas's, correct? 750 00:52:33,390 --> 00:52:39,539 So why this requirement of the Shuttle having to be able to bring back a satellite using 751 00:52:39,539 --> 00:52:44,959 really a military satellite when that wasn't being done or required beforehand? 752 00:52:44,959 --> 00:52:47,259 Like why was that created? 753 00:52:47,259 --> 00:52:50,009 What was so special about it? 754 00:52:50,009 --> 00:52:57,009 We worked very hard on proposals to bring back satellites that were out of fuel or needed 755 00:52:58,009 --> 00:53:02,509 refurbishment, but when I was referring to landing with the Shuttle with payloads in 756 00:53:02,509 --> 00:53:04,279 the bay that is for a failed mission. 757 00:53:04,279 --> 00:53:06,869 And for some reason the payload could not get ejected. 758 00:53:06,869 --> 00:53:11,819 You still had to be able to land back what was now a very heavy spacecraft and glide 759 00:53:11,819 --> 00:53:13,459 on it and land safely. 760 00:53:13,459 --> 00:53:16,660 That turns out to be a really hard thing to do, especially if you're carrying solids and 761 00:53:16,660 --> 00:53:22,959 liquids onboard that were close to being ready to ignite, so to speak. 762 00:53:22,959 --> 00:53:25,009 But there is talk of retrieving satellites. 763 00:53:25,009 --> 00:53:30,749 And, as you know, NASA did bring back some small satellites, the Palapa one from Hughes. 764 00:53:30,749 --> 00:53:33,799 And also did a lot of very innovative repairs in space. 765 00:53:33,799 --> 00:53:37,920 But when we looked at it from a customer point of view, it turns out there is a lot that 766 00:53:37,920 --> 00:53:40,630 wears out in satellites, not just using a propellant. 767 00:53:40,630 --> 00:53:47,630 But the processors degrade due to radiation, solar panels degrade just due to micro dust 768 00:53:47,819 --> 00:53:48,989 and things like that. 769 00:53:48,989 --> 00:53:54,640 And so bringing back a satellite for reuse was never felt, at the time we looked at it, 770 00:53:54,640 --> 00:53:56,219 to be a worthwhile thing to do. 771 00:53:56,219 --> 00:54:01,160 And that ties in directly with what I was saying about recovering a Gemini. 772 00:54:01,160 --> 00:54:07,880 And, of course, on top of that with a Gemini is the fact you are landing them in the water 773 00:54:07,880 --> 00:54:12,140 so they got a good dousing of salt. 774 00:54:12,140 --> 00:54:19,140 And so the degradation of the Gemini's were such that we just didn't think it made any 775 00:54:22,289 --> 00:54:25,779 sense to try to refurbish them. 776 00:54:25,779 --> 00:54:26,880 Yes. 777 00:54:26,880 --> 00:54:33,880 The military was only really looking to capture and service in space, then release, not necessarily 778 00:54:34,359 --> 00:54:36,359 capture and bring back? 779 00:54:36,359 --> 00:54:39,699 They never seriously went after the capture and refurbish and release. 780 00:54:39,699 --> 00:54:43,839 They really went after launch and deployment. 781 00:54:43,839 --> 00:54:48,880 But I would say that in that theme the most successful story actually of refurbishment 782 00:54:48,880 --> 00:54:50,699 is the Hubble Space Telescope. 783 00:54:50,699 --> 00:54:52,299 And not for the reasons that you think of. 784 00:54:52,299 --> 00:54:55,719 When you think about stories of the Hubble Space Telescope you hear about Jeff Hoffman 785 00:54:55,719 --> 00:54:59,199 going up there and changing processors and fixing the optics. 786 00:54:59,199 --> 00:55:05,239 Also on those missions they replaced solar panels that were causing huge problems due 787 00:55:05,239 --> 00:55:09,650 to thermal warpage and shrinkage and what they call oil canning due to thermal stresses. 788 00:55:09,650 --> 00:55:16,160 And so the replacement of those solar panels, which turned out to be not very good as initially 789 00:55:16,160 --> 00:55:20,559 designed, is one of the really true success stories of man in space. 790 00:55:20,559 --> 00:55:26,729 And there is actually a very nice video which maybe you have seen of the lady astronaut 791 00:55:26,729 --> 00:55:33,599 who did the replacement of the solar panels on Hubble pushing out and releasing the solar 792 00:55:33,599 --> 00:55:35,150 panels. 793 00:55:35,150 --> 00:55:39,329 Things fly away in the sunshine looking like giant butterfly wings reflecting all the colors 794 00:55:39,329 --> 00:55:40,880 and then finally fall into the atmosphere. 795 00:55:40,880 --> 00:55:44,119 It is almost poetic, I tell you. 796 00:55:44,119 --> 00:55:45,239 It's amazing. 797 00:55:45,239 --> 00:55:52,239 On the Hubble, one of the considerations right from the beginning was that it should be a 798 00:55:54,900 --> 00:55:57,199 serviceable satellite. 799 00:55:57,199 --> 00:56:03,809 It was designed so that you could get inside of it relatively easily and so on. 800 00:56:03,809 --> 00:56:09,939 Frankly, I don't know of any other satellite that was really designed quite that way. 801 00:56:09,939 --> 00:56:11,930 Maybe I'm wrong. 802 00:56:11,930 --> 00:56:14,589 I believe you're right. 803 00:56:14,589 --> 00:56:15,249 Yes. 804 00:56:15,249 --> 00:56:20,249 On the solar panel, it wasn't designed to replace the panel. 805 00:56:20,249 --> 00:56:27,249 But you can go back to SkyLab, which was the next to last launching of the Apollo. 806 00:56:29,859 --> 00:56:35,640 On that one, I guess, we decided to take what was the third stage of a Saturn and just gut 807 00:56:35,640 --> 00:56:42,640 it, not have any propulsion in it and fit it out to be a spacecraft, namely a space 808 00:56:43,910 --> 00:56:45,099 station. 809 00:56:45,099 --> 00:56:51,019 And, when they got up there, the solar panels got fouled up. 810 00:56:51,019 --> 00:56:57,749 And one of the real tricks when the astronauts first got to it because it was not launched 811 00:56:57,749 --> 00:57:04,749 manned was to unravel some wires that got caught on it so actually the panels could 812 00:57:05,150 --> 00:57:10,329 spread out and it could start to operate again. 813 00:57:10,329 --> 00:57:17,029 Colonial Siemens, I don't know if either of you would know, but what are the duties involved 814 00:57:17,029 --> 00:57:23,069 in like the heavy payload aspect of the new CEV project? 815 00:57:23,069 --> 00:57:26,900 Delta 4 going out of Vandenberg was carrying classified payload. 816 00:57:26,900 --> 00:57:29,079 It's not a dummy either. 817 00:57:29,079 --> 00:57:30,400 It is real. 818 00:57:30,400 --> 00:57:35,219 They have standing requirements for these types of things. 819 00:57:35,219 --> 00:57:37,069 The national needs go on. 820 00:57:37,069 --> 00:57:40,739 The international stage, as we know, is filled with new actors and new threats. 821 00:57:40,739 --> 00:57:46,130 We have what is called unsymmetrical warfare, things that are hard to counter by conventional 822 00:57:46,130 --> 00:57:47,359 means. 823 00:57:47,359 --> 00:57:51,209 Back in the '70s and '80s we had symmetrical warfare, submarines versus submarines, missiles 824 00:57:51,209 --> 00:57:51,969 versus missiles. 825 00:57:51,969 --> 00:57:54,660 Now, as we know, it is much harder, much tougher, but the needs are still there. 826 00:57:54,660 --> 00:57:59,969 But is the collaboration between NASA and the military still pretty active? 827 00:57:59,969 --> 00:58:01,439 It is not in terms of payloads. 828 00:58:01,439 --> 00:58:07,059 It is there in exchange of technologies, things like development of more efficient sensors, 829 00:58:07,059 --> 00:58:08,569 processors, that sort of thing. 830 00:58:08,569 --> 00:58:12,660 It is everybody's benefit, for example, to have more powerful, faster, rad-hard space 831 00:58:12,660 --> 00:58:13,269 processors. 832 00:58:13,269 --> 00:58:17,579 Everybody wins in that type of situation. 833 00:58:17,579 --> 00:58:19,739 Back to your question on reusability. 834 00:58:19,739 --> 00:58:24,349 You will notice that one of the real strong pluses or the calling cards of the Space Shuttle 835 00:58:24,349 --> 00:58:28,199 Program was the fact that it was a reusable launch vehicle. 836 00:58:28,199 --> 00:58:33,279 In this current environment of the CEVs and new launch vehicles, what do you hear today 837 00:58:33,279 --> 00:58:34,999 about reusable launch vehicles? 838 00:58:34,999 --> 00:58:35,559 Nothing. 839 00:58:35,559 --> 00:58:42,099 Isn't it amazing how things have changed just in a matter of 25 years? 840 00:58:42,099 --> 00:58:46,759 One thing I just sort of forgot to mention with regard to the Manned Orbital Laboratory. 841 00:58:46,759 --> 00:58:53,759 It was thought, at that time, that by having men there and their ability to inspect a fairly 842 00:58:56,180 --> 00:59:03,170 wide swath that they would have time in flying over that swath to do some searching. 843 00:59:03,170 --> 00:59:10,170 And could do a better job of detecting possible items of tremendous interest from a military 844 00:59:13,029 --> 00:59:15,729 standpoint than trying to do it all automatically. 845 00:59:15,729 --> 00:59:22,729 And, of course, what finally washed out that argument was the ability to have satellites 846 00:59:25,079 --> 00:59:30,529 that had almost instantaneous transmission of information back home. 847 00:59:30,529 --> 00:59:37,529 What was the design for the MOL for crew transportation? 848 00:59:38,079 --> 00:59:45,079 They were going to take off on a Titan, they were going to aboard a Gemini, and they were 849 00:59:46,189 --> 00:59:53,189 going to have a laboratory of sorts which would have the necessary reconnaissance and 850 00:59:55,289 --> 00:59:56,180 other equipment aboard. 851 00:59:56,180 --> 01:00:03,180 So it was similar to SkyLab in that you had a non-reusable capsule as the crew transfer? 852 01:00:04,410 --> 01:00:09,359 It had a Gemini type return vehicle, but it was definitely going to be very small and 853 01:00:09,359 --> 01:00:10,369 cramped compared to Shuttle. 854 01:00:10,369 --> 01:00:15,969 There was no thought of having another Gemini come up and make use of it. 855 01:00:15,969 --> 01:00:16,719 Yes. 856 01:00:16,719 --> 01:00:23,719 Why did Gemini, Apollo and Mercury all land on water, because that is very expensive, 857 01:00:29,959 --> 01:00:31,089 and the Russians landed on land? 858 01:00:31,089 --> 01:00:31,339 Well, very simple. If you take a look at where the launch sites were for the Soviets, if they aborted they 859 01:00:36,799 --> 01:00:43,119 had to have the capability of coming down on land, any kind of abort mission. 860 01:00:43,119 --> 01:00:50,119 Similarly, operating out of the Cape Canaveral area, if you abort, you have to come down 861 01:00:50,699 --> 01:00:51,849 on the water. 862 01:00:51,849 --> 01:00:56,369 The question was then was it worthwhile to have the capability of doing both? 863 01:00:56,369 --> 01:00:58,019 Well, that just added weight. 864 01:00:58,019 --> 01:01:01,559 And so we stuck with the water and they stuck with the land. 865 01:01:01,559 --> 01:01:08,559 Do any of the new defense payloads require human intervention in their deployment or 866 01:01:13,829 --> 01:01:15,199 are they all completely [OVERLAPPING VOICES]? 867 01:01:15,199 --> 01:01:18,739 They are all Titan IV EELV compatible. 868 01:01:18,739 --> 01:01:20,180 Anything else? 869 01:01:20,180 --> 01:01:24,479 I think we wore everybody out. 870 01:01:24,479 --> 01:01:30,199 Well, you know, Bob and I will stick around, but we're not going to hold you down here 871 01:01:30,199 --> 01:01:31,839 if there are no questions. 872 01:01:31,839 --> 01:01:33,779 I guess we will call the class. 873 01:01:33,779 --> 01:01:36,499 And we will stick around if anybody wants to ask any more detailed questions or have 874 01:01:36,499 --> 01:01:36,900 follow-ups. 875 01:01:36,900 --> 01:01:39,150 My phone number and email is up there. 876 01:01:39,150 --> 01:01:42,549 I will be glad to talk to any of you one-on-one about any of this. 877 01:01:42,549 --> 01:01:45,979 There is quite a lot more detail we can provide, either Bob or myself. 878 01:01:45,979 --> 01:01:50,819 And, if I have to, I will write Bob a note asking for further information. 879 01:01:50,819 --> 01:01:51,579 OK? 880 01:01:51,579 --> 01:01:53,400 Well, thanks a lot. 881 01:01:53,400 --> 01:01:53,690 [APPLAUSE]