Right Around the Corner
A Publication for the Baltimore/Washington Area
from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
October 2000

Goddard Selects Contractor Excellence Awardees

Goddard has selected three winners for the 2000 Goddard Contractor Excellence Award. The winners are: H&H Consolidated, Inc., Wallops Island, Va.; Swales Aerospace, Beltsville, Md.; and ManTech International Corp. - Aerospace Technology Applications Center, Lanham - Seabrook, Md.

"The Contractor Excellence Award provides us with an opportunity to recognize those contractors who make a substantial contribution to the mission of Goddard and who are committed to the philosophy of continuous improvement as evidenced by their business practices," said Michael Kelly, the chairman of the Goddard Space Flight Center Contractor Excellence Award evaluation committee.

The winners of this year's award were chosen because of their outstanding continuous improvement efforts and contributions to Goddard's mission. Goddard Center Director Al V. Diaz presented the Excellence Awards to the winning companies on October 11 at the 16th Annual Goddard Space Flight Center Goddard Contractors Association 200 Quality Symposium.


HETE-2 Spacecraft Successfully Launched

A new gamma ray burst mission, the High-Energy Transient Explorer (HETE-2), made its entrance into space October 9 at 1:38 a.m. EDT from the Kwajalein Missile Range in the Marshall Islands. HETE-2 was deployed by an L-1011 aircraft and carried into orbit by a Hybrid Pegasus expendable launch vehicle. The spacecraft separated from the Pegasus rocket approximately 12 minutes after launch.

"Gamma ray bursts are stupendous explosions. They are the most energetic events since the Big Bang, yet one occurs about once a day somewhere in the sky," said

Dr. George R. Ricker from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., HETE-2 principal investigator. The original HETE was lost due to a Pegasus launch failure on Nov. 4, 1996, but the scientific importance and continuing relevance of the mission provided the impetus for NASA, CESR, CNES, and Riken to fund its replacement.

For more information about the HETE-II science mission, go to: http://space.mit.edu/HETE 

NOAA Takes Over NOAA-16 Satellite

On September 29, NASA handed over operational responsibility of NOAA-16 (L) to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA will operate the satellite from the Satellite Operation Control Center located in Suitland, Md. However, NASA is still responsible for completing the on orbit verification activity, which lasts for another 35 days.

The new satellite will improve weather forecasting and monitor environmental events around the world soared into space on September 21 following a picture-perfect launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

"We're off to a good start," said Harry McCain, POES program manager at Goddard. "The spacecraft is now in orbit and all data indicate we have a healthy spacecraft."

For more information go to: http://poes.gsfc.nasa.gov/ or http://www.osd.noaa.gov/sats/poes.htm/ 

Director of Management Operations Takes New Assignment with Centennial of Flight Commission

One of the most experienced senior leaders at Goddard, Sherry Foster, has undertaken a new assignment for NASA. Ms.Foster has been appointed Executive Director of the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, created by the U.S. Congress to serve as a national and international source of information about activities to commemorate the centennial of the Wright Brothers' historic first flight on December 17, 1903.

"We will miss Sherry's talent and contributions to the Center and the sense of humor that she invariably displays in all her interactions." says Director A.V. Diaz. "I will personally miss her because I consider her a friend and a person I can always depend on for sound advice."

Ms. Alison McNally has been selected to succeed Ms. Foster as the Director of Management Operations. Ms. McNally's roots are at Goddard, where she started her federal career in 1981 as a Presidential Management Intern. Ms. McNally has served as Deputy Director of Code 200 since 1998.

Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition Program Receives Federal Award

Government Executive, along with the Council for Excellence in Government and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, have joined to recognize the people and programs leading this transformation with the Business Solutions in the Public Interest Awards, given this year for the first time.

Goddard’s Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition Program was recognized as an effective innovative contracting strategy, saving the agency up to $20 million per mission.

The Goddard based program was developed in 1996, when top management issued a challenge to reduce the lead time of awarding spacecraft contracts from an average of one year to 30 days. A new office, the Rapid Spacecraft Development Office (RSDO) was established to develop a new implementation plan and the results were beyond expectations. Not only did the office meet the 30-day goal for awarding contracts, it also sped up delivery time from four to seven years to 18 to 36 months. The results saved millions of dollars. For more information about RSDO and the award go to: http://www.govexec.com/top200/2000top/00tops1.htm/

Maryland Firms Win Contract to Support Earth Science Research at Goddard

General Sciences Corporation in Beltsville, Md., has been selected by Goddard for a contract to provide support to the Center's Ocean Color research programs and flight projects and the NASA Seasonal-to-Interannual Prediction Project. The 5-year contract has a potential value of $25.8 million dollars.

Two other Maryland firms are major subcontractors on the effort. They are Futuretech Corporation in Greenbelt and Science Systems and Applications, Inc., in Lanham.

These programs are central to the NASA Earth Science Enterprise and are key components of the GSFC Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes. Understanding and predicting seasonal-to-interannual climate variations is an essential goal within the overall NASA strategy for climate research.

Work under the Cost-Plus-Award-Fee, Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity type contract will be done at Goddard, NASA's Center of Excellence for scientific research. Goddard leads NASA's mission of Earth system science which seeks a better understanding of the global environment by exploring how the Earth's systems of air, land, water and life interact with each other.

SRS Information Services Selected for Mission Assurance Contract at Goddard

SRS Information Services of Newport Beach, Calif., has been selected for a contract to provide mission assurance services to Goddard. The five-year contract has an estimated value of $44.6 million. Honeywell Technology Solutions, Inc. of Columbia, Md., will serve as a major subcontractor to SRS. Under terms of the performance-based, cost-plus-award-fee contract, SRS will support the Center's Office of System Safety and Mission Assurance. The company will review the technical, flight and safety aspects of all of Goddard's flight projects.

Unpiloted Aircraft Earth Science Studies Chosen for Further Development

An atmospheric chemistry study led by Goddard scientist Dr. Paul Newman was one of 11 proposals chosen in response to a NASA Research Announcement issued last fall. Unpiloted vehicles, experimental in nature and capable of extremely long duration flights and high altitudes, will be the host to scientific payloads of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise - a program dedicated to understanding our global environment.

NASA is opening the door to a new generation of Earth Science research studies aboard these Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or "UAV's." These pilotless planes will carry the first in a series of Earth Science payloads to the high altitudes to gaze down upon our planet and help unravel the mysteries of nature.

A complete listing of the research announcement and selected proposals can be found at:

http://www.earth.nasa.gov/nra/archive/selection_results.html

Visible Earth - New Web Site

A new way of accessing and downloading images, animations and visualizations of the Earth is now available. Visible Earth is a growing, central index of Earth science-related images being produced by several NASA centers and projects including Terra and SeaWiFS. Images are categorized by location, satellite, and topic, and are also searchable using a full-text search engine. New images are uploaded daily and highlighted on the front page.

Visible Earth has been developed and is maintained by Kevin Ward of the Climate and Radiation Branch with infrastructure support and resources from the Scientific Visualization Studio and the Earth Science Computing Branch. Check out the website at:  http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/