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Defense Contributions Help NASA's 50-Year Legacy
(September 30, 2008) | 
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Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, an Air
Force fighter pilot who was lunar module pilot
for NASA's Apollo 11, makes an historic moon
walk, July 20, 1969, with fellow astronaut Neil
Armstrong. NASA photo |
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WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2008 – As the
National
Aeronautics and Space Administration celebrates its 50th
anniversary this week, the Defense Department also can take
a bow for the key role it has played in lending technology
and expertise to NASA's space exploration and research
mission. NASA began
operations on Oct. 1, 1958, just a few days
short of the one-year anniversary of the Soviet
Union's successful Sputnik I launch. Concerned
about the race for technological superiority in
space, U.S. officials debated long and hard over
whether the space program should be placed under
military or civilian control, historical
documents show.
Ultimately, NASA was established as a new
civilian agency that borrowed heavily from the
Defense Department and other government
organizations as it built its own capabilities.
One doesn't have to look hard to see the deep
connection between |
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NASA and DoD, beginning with the astronaut program. In fact,
President Dwight D. Eisenhower almost assured that connection when he decreed
that all astronaut candidates be test pilots with college degrees. |
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All seven original astronauts – known as
“The Mercury 7” because they were chosen for Project
Mercury, the nation's first manned space flight program --
came from the military. Alan Shepard, Walter Schirra and
Scott Carpenter were Navy aviators; Virgil “Gus” Grissom,
Gordon Cooper and Donald “Deke” Slayton were Air Force
pilots; and John Glenn flew in the Marine Corps.
The long list of military members who became “firsts” at
NASA didn't stop there. Glenn, who flew 59 combat missions
during World War II and another 63 during the Korean War
before joining the Naval Air Test Center, made history at
NASA as the first American to orbit Earth on Feb. 20, 1962.
Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, got
his initial flight training at Naval Air Station Pensacola,
Fla., in 1949 and 1950, then went on to fly 78 missions over
Korea during the Korean War. His words as he stepped from
the Apollo 11 lunar module on July 20, 1969-- “That's one
small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” -- are an
indelible mark in NASA's history.
Armstrong's fellow Apollo 11 crewmembers had deep military
roots, too. Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, the second person to walk
on the moon, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at
West Point, N.Y., in 1951, before serving as an Air Force
fighter pilot during the Korean War.
Michael Collins, who orbited the moon as Armstrong and
Aldrin walked on its surface, also got his commission at
West Point before joining the Air Force and receiving flight
training at Columbus Air Force Base, Miss.
Thirty years later, Eileen Collins – no relation to the
Apollo 11 astronaut -- made NASA history in 1999 as the
first woman to command a space shuttle aboard the Columbia.
Collins, an Air Force colonel, graduated from Air Force
undergraduate pilot training in 1979. She was attending Air
Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.,
when NASA selected her for its astronaut program.
Military members have participated in NASA's great triumphs
as well as its deep tragedies, including the Challenger and
Columbia space shuttle disasters.
Four servicemembers were among the seven Challenger
crewmembers killed when a fuel tank exploded 73 seconds
after launch on Jan. 28, 1986. Michael J. Smith, the pilot,
was a Navy captain; Francis Richard “Dick” Scobee and
Ellison Onizuka were Air Force lieutenant colonels; and
Gregory Jarvis was an Air Force captain.
Again, five U.S. military officers, as well as an Israeli
officer, died when Columbia disintegrated over Texas as it
re-entered Earth's atmosphere on Feb. 1, 2003. That incident
killed Navy Cmdr. William C. McCool, the pilot; Air Force
Col. Rick D. Husband; Air Force Lt. Col. Michael P.
Anderson; Navy Capt. David M. Brown and Navy Capt. Laurel
Clark. Israeli Air Force Col. Ilan Ramon and Kalpana Chawla,
the only civilian on the mission, also died.
But the connection between the military and NASA goes far
beyond the astronaut program.
From its inception, NASA looked to the Defense Department
and other interagency, academic, industry and international
partners to build its capability, Roger D. Launius, curator
for the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space
Museum, noted in an article written for NASA's 50th
anniversary magazine.
The military had been looking to space and the development
of rocket technology and expertise since the closing days of
World War II, Air Force Space Command officials noted. NASA
was anxious to tap into this expertise, and quickly absorbed
several ongoing military efforts into its organization.
These included the space science group of the Naval Research
Laboratory in Maryland that would form the core of the new
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. NASA also
incorporated the Jet Propulsion Laboratory managed for the
Army by the California Institute of Technology, and the Army
Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville, Ala., where Wernher
von Baun's engineering team was developing large rockets.
Shortly after its formal organization, NASA took over
management of space exploration projects from other federal
agencies, including the Air Force.
“These activities relied fully on the expertise and
resources of the U.S. Air Force in seeing them to fruition,”
Launius wrote.
One of NASA's earliest borrowings from the military came in
the form of launch vehicles originally developed to deliver
nuclear weapons.
“Most of the launchers used by NASA during its formative
years originated as military ballistic missiles,” Launius
wrote. “It was, and remains, the fundamental technology
necessary for civil space exploration, and it came largely
from the military.”
Meanwhile, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency –
another organization Eisenhower created in response to the
Sputnik launch – has provided critical expertise that has
benefitted NASA throughout its 50-year history.
The Defense Department stood up DARPA to find and quickly
develop advanced technology for the military so the United
States would never again suffer a technological surprise by
another nation.
Initially, DARPA scientists and engineers concentrated on
the first surveillance satellites that ensured U.S.
presidents had accurate intelligence information on Russian
missile program activities, historical records show. But
DARPA advanced other space projects as well, developing the
Saturn V rocket that ultimately enabled the United States to
launch the Apollo missions to the moon.
As it observes its 50th anniversary, NASA can look back on
its many accomplishments that have brought mankind a better
understanding of the solar system and universe. As it
advanced this research, NASA, like the military services and
DARPA, has pushed the technological envelope in everything
from weather forecasting to navigation to global
communications.
Speaking last week at NASA's 50th anniversary gala, Neil
Armstong looked back on the agency's history and its future.
“The goal is far more than just going faster, higher and
further,” he said. “Our goal, indeed our responsibility, is
to develop new options for future generations -- options for
expanding human knowledge, exploration, human settlement and
resource development in the universe around us.” | |
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
Copyright 2008
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