NASA Academy at Goddard Space Flight Center


June 28, 1998
This summer, 23 students interested in Earth science, space science, and space technology were selected from across the US for the ten-week NASA Academy program at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).

The RAs got off to a fast start as the first day of the program began with an orientation session held at the National Air and Space Museum followed by a tour of Washington D.C. The tour ended at the home of Dr. Gerald Soffen, Director and Founder of the NASA Academy, where the group held its first meeting to discuss the plans for the next ten weeks of the summer. During the course of the first week the RAs were orientated to Goddard and their individual research projects, and introduced to Mr. Al Diaz (GSFC Center Director), Dr. Julius Dash (National Space Grant Director), and Dr. Pat Dash (Executive Director of the National Space Society). The first week was rounded out with a tour at Orbital Sciences Corporation, home of the Pegasus Launch Vehicle, an astronomy and geology field trip to western Pennsylvania, and team building.

Throughout the course of the summer the RAs will meet with officials from NASA Headquarters (HQ) such as the Administrator, Mr. Dan Goldin, the Deputy Administrator, General John Daily, and several of the Associate Administrators. They will also meet with both the upper management at Goddard including several of the directorate heads as well as numerous outstanding scientists and engineers currently working on center. In addition, the RAs will meet with representatives from Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and the X-Prize, as well as professors currently teaching classes at prestigious universities in aerospace related fields.

Trips to other NASA field centers provide the RAs with first hand knowledge of the wide variety of projects and activities in work at five separate NASA facilities by the end of the summer. This year the RAs will visit the Langley Research Center (LaRC), Wallops Flight Facility (WFF), Kennedy Space Center (KSC), and the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). The Langley Research Center, located in Hampton, Virginia, is the Agency's focal point for wind tunnels and test facilities, and as such devotes 70% of its effort towards working to improve today's aircraft and to developing concepts for future aircraft. From the Kennedy Space Center located at Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida the RAs will witness the launch of an unmanned Delta II. In addition, they will tour facilities such as the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF), and the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). The Goddard Institute for Space Studies located on Manhattan Island in New York City and the Wallops Flight Facility located on Chincoteague Island in Virginia are both part of the GSFC and as such are under the same upper management structure as Goddard. The RAs will visit each facility tour, and meet the individuals that make each of these facilities function. In addition, the NASA Academy from the Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) visits and intermixes with the Goddard Academy to provide the RAs from both centers with some of the insights that they have obtained from their respective centers.

The academy experience would not be complete without the formation and execution of a team project. This summer the GSFC Academy is producing a feasibility study to construct and launch an inexpensive lunar probe. As such they are identifying and overcoming the technical, legal, and political problems associated with performing such a task.

Adina Alpert
University of Pennsylvania
April Barnes
Auburn University Geology
Deon Brown
University of Virginia
Kevin Callahan
Johns Hopkins University
James Chase
University of Minnesota
John Feighery, Jr.
University of Texas at El Paso
Joseph Hirman
University of Connecticut
James Jackson
University of Kentucky
Alexander Koerger
University of Washington
Sara Kralewski
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Jennifer LaRocque
Saint Michael's College
Jamie Lennon
Rutgers University
Noel Maldonado
University of Puerto Rico
Melinda McKinney
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Jennifer Mindock
University of Florida
Andrea Rogers
College of Charleston
Sean Sandborgh
Montana State University, Bozeman
Travis Sparks
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Richard Sturmfels
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Andrew Taylor
Fort Lewis College
Stephanie Thomas
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Tracee Walker
Lincoln University
Matthew Weatherly
West Virginia University

Staff: Gerald Soffen, Director, Steve Sanders, Ian Ruiz (GSFC'97), George Hunyadi (MSFC'96)

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