Right Around the Corner
A Publication for the Baltimore/Washington Area
from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
August 2001

NOAA-L, the latest in a series of polar operational environmental satellites (or POES) is scheduled to be launched in mid September from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. NOAA satellites collect global data on cloud cover; surface conditions such as ice, snow, and vegetation; atmospheric temperatures; and moisture, aerosol, and ozone distributions; and collect and relay information from fixed and moving data platforms. For more on this exciting launch go to the POES website at: http://poes.gsfc.nasa.gov

Congratulations to Goddard's QASAR Awardees

The Quality and Safety Achievement Recognition (QASAR) award is given to NASA, other government, and prime/subcontractor individuals for significant quality improvements to products or services for NASA, or safety initiatives within products, programs, processes, or management activities. NASA Headquarters and each of the Centers have local QASAR Award programs; annually, the Administrator chooses the "Best of the Best" in each award category for Agency recognition.

Recent Goddard QASAR recipients are:

Alda Simpson, Code 700, Awardee of 1st Quarter 2000
Phil Nessler, Code 205, Awardee of 1999 Annual
Henning Leidecker, Code 562, Awardee of 1999 Annual
Steve DePalo, Code 730 Awardee of 1998 Annual

Goddard Hosts NEW Teachers

The NASA Educator Workshop for teachers of grades 5-12 (NEW 5-12) was held at GSFC recently as 25 teachers from Indiana, Maryland, New York, Virginia, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Kentucky, Ohio, Florida and West Virginia spent the first week of their two-week session at Goddard learning about the Center's work in remote sensing science and technology.

During the summer, each NASA center will play host to a group of 25 teachers from across the country. The NEW 5-12 program models the integration of the national science standards in mathematics, science and technology. The focus for this year's GSFC group is remote sensing science and technologies.

The educators observed NASA's state-of -the-art research and development through direct interaction with NASA scientists, engineers, technicians and educational specialists. "We hope that through this intense two-week program, the teachers increased their knowledge of the science and technology involved in performing remote sensing and will apply this in their work with students," said Dr. Robert Gabrys, Education Officer in the Public Affairs Office at Goddard.

Goddard Astronomer Receives Science Writers Award

Dr. Sten Odenwald, education and public outreach manager for NASA's Imager for Magnetopause to Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) project at Goddard is this year's winner of the American Astronomical Society/Solar Physics Division's Science Writers Award. Odenwald received the award for his Washington Post article about solar storms, which appeared in the paper last fall.

"I am very excited about getting a peer award like this from the solar physics community, given that I am an astronomer who has spent the last 20 years writing about cosmology and other related issues," Odenwald said. "I hope I can continue to support the goals of the Sun-Earth Connection community for the foreseeable future. This is definitely an area of astronomy that the public needs to learn a lot more about."

For the past few years, Odenwald has worked closely with the IMAGE team scientists, helping them develop science material for teachers and students. Odenwald says much of this material is readily available on the IMAGE education web site at: http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry

Goddard to Procure Facilities Construction, Engineering and Technical Services

NASA has awarded a contract to Parsons Infrastructure Technology, Inc. of Pasadena, Calif. for facilities construction, engineering and technical services (FACETS). Parsons will provide these services for Goddard Space Flight Center and other federal agencies within a 50-mile radius.

The contract, awarded on a competitive basis, is a fixed price and fixed price indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) agreement with an award term provision. The initial period of performance is for three years, and the contractor has the potential of earning up to seven additional contract terms for a maximum of 10 years.

Potential ten-year total fixed price is $18,437,768, with an IDIQ maximum of $250,000,000.

Science Team Leaders Praise Landsat 7 Success

Dr. Sam Goward, Landsat Science Team Leader and Chairperson of the Department of Geography at Univer-sity of Maryland, acknowledged the success of the Landsat 7 mission in a recent letter to Goddard Project Scientist Dr. Darrel Williams and the Landsat Science Team.

"On behalf of the Landsat Science Team I would like to congratulate you and the diverse members of the Landsat Project with your exceptional accomplishments in the development and deployment of Landsat-7 mission," Goward wrote. "There is no question that the actual launch was also a remarkable success. However, for the Landsat Science Team the real accomplishments of this mission can only be appreciated after our experiences of examining the observations acquired by this exceptional observatory. For more information about Landsat 7 visit:
http://mtpe.gsfc.nasa.gov/landsat/default.htm

International Earth Science Conference Address Focuses on "Taking the Pulse of the Planet"

An international geoscience and remote sensing conference recently held in Honolulu, Hawaii, focused on examining how NASA technologies are helping to "take the pulse of the planet."

In a keynote address to the IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium symposium, NASA's Associate Administrator for Earth Science Dr. Ghassem R. Asrar discussed long range plans to use space based technology and data processing expertise to help improve weather, climate and natural hazard forecasts. By linking existing and future satellite measurements together, NASA plans to develop an orbiting "Sensor Web" to continuously gather information on the environment. These data will be needed to make significant improvements in environmental forecasts in the new millennium. For more information visit: http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/ghassem.txt

Solar Extreme Ultraviolet Research Telescope Launched Successfully from White Sands

A NASA sounding rocket launched the Solar Extreme Ultraviolet Research Telescope and Spectrograph (SERTS) on July 26 from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

The payload consists of an experiment, which is intended to study the Sun's outermost atmosphere, called the solar corona. It was designed and built by Goddard, under the guidance of Principal Investigator Dr. Joseph Davila and co-investigator Dr. Roger Thomas. The experiment contains a spectrometer, which will allow scientists to examine radiation in the Extreme Ultraviolet regime.

For more information on the SERTS mission go to: http://orpheus.nascom.nasa.gov/serts/wsmr_video.html

Goddard Contractors Excellence Award

Recently the Goddard Contractors Excellence Award Committee reviewed this year's applications from Goddard contractors for the Goddard Excellence Award for Contractors and chose seven of them for site visits. The visits will take place during the next two weeks. The winners will be among four categories, large and small business in hardware and service. The final winners will be presented their trophies on October 11, 2000 at the 16th Annual Goddard Quality Symposium. The Goddard Award winners advance as nominees for the NASA George M. Low Award.

Goddard's Flying Club Selects Air Academy Scholar

For the third consecutive year, the NASA Goddard Flying Club, with the help of Ed Stabler, a Science & Technology Department Head at Roosevelt High School, has selected an outstanding student to be awarded an all expenses paid Air Academy Scholarship to attend the Experimental Aircraft Association Aviation Advanced Leadership Camp in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

This year's winner is Justin Paulson. Paulson is a junior at Roosevelt High School where he is enrolled in Engineering Foundations and Aerospace Engineering classes in addition to his normal academic curriculum. His goals are to major in Aerospace Engineering in college, join the Air Force and attend flight school to become a fighter or test pilot. Paulson joins the ranks of two previous outstanding Roosevelt Scholarship winners, Jonathan Murrell and Derrick Baker.

Goddard Community Day - September 24

Goddard Space Flight Center and the Visitor Center are having an open house, and you and your family are invited. Community Day is Sunday, September 24 from 9am to 4pm. Join your friends and neighbors for a day of out-of-this-world fun, including tours, living in space demos, speakers and model rocket launches. Food and souvenirs will be available for purchase; admission and parking are free! For more information, call 301-286-8981 (voice), or 301-286-8103 (TDD).