Left page: Goddard News Vol., No. 4 July 12, 1971 'In House' Effort Readies OAO-C A concentrated "in house" effort is underway here with government and contractor teams to prepare the OAO-C spacecraft for launch in 1972. OAO-C, the last and heaviest of the Orbiting Astronomical Observatories, is the third OAO spacecraft to be integrated and tested at Goddard. Earlier spacecraft were OAO A-2 that was tested here by a Goddard crew, and OAO-B that was tested here by the Grumman Aerospace Corporation (GAC) crew. OAO A-2 was placed into orbit on December 7, 1968, and has been operating satisfactorily for over 30 months. The only operating satellite in the OAO series, it is one of Goddard's most successful spacecraft. Under the direction of OAO Project Manager Joseph Purcell and Project Scientist Dr. James Kupperian, OAO A-2 made possible many scientific breakthroughs including: The discovery of a huge hydrogen cloud a million miles in diameter around the comet Tago-Sato-Kosaka; the discovery that the hottest stars in the universe are even hotter than suspected; and evidence that normal galaxies are unexpectedly bright in the ultraviolet. OAO-B did not achieve orbit in November of 1970 when the shroud of the Atlas/Centaur launch vehicle failed to open properly. Subsequently the Goddard/Grumman team began work on the OAO-C spacecraft that had been at the Center since April of 1970. OAO-C, weighing in at around 4900 pounds, will carry two experiments which are also undergoing testing at Goddard. A large telescope designed by Princeton University will operate in the ultraviolet region of the spectrum. A set of smaller telescopes designed by the University College of London will gather stellar data in the x-ray region. (See Pages 6 and 7) Photo at left: OAO-C. The prototype Princeton Experiment Package is installed in the OAO-C spacecraft in the clean room of Building 7. Middle page: Page Six Goddard News--July 12, 1971 From Page 1 ... OAO-C Buildup Currently the OAO buildup efforts are being concentrated on the Early Thermal Vacuum Test (ETV). The spacecraft's 48 bays, forward and aft ends, and the sun baffles will be covered with heated kin for this test. Over 600 thermocouples are installed. Each bay has its own thermal design, and the thermal insulation for each bay as well as the instrumentation assembly on each of the equipment heat sinks requires a major buildup effort. The early Thermal Vacuum Test is used primarily to qualify the spacecraft thermal design, but will also be used to check all equipment including the prototype experiments. Following ETV, the flight experiments will be installed and integrated. Any spacecraft changes will be incorporated and the spacecraft will undergo functional testing and final bay closeout in preparation for the acceptance test program. The acceptance tests consist of a shorter thermal vacuum test, a fine guidance test to demonstrate the 0.1 arc second pointing accuracy, and an "all up" vibration test with balance booms, solar arrays, and sun baffles installed. If all goes well, OAO-C will be shipped to Florida for eventual launch aboard an Atlas/Centaur from Cape Kennedy in the first half of 1972. The OAO program features not only the largest and heaviest Goddard spacecraft, but also the biggest "in house" effort. The total number of Goddard, university, Grumman and other contractor personnel supporting the program in Building 7 alone comes to about 173 people. Key men responsible for the spacecraft integration and test effort are: Robert Schlechter, OAO Integration and Test Manager; Gerald Hempfling, Assistant ITT Manager; Robert Weaver, Engineering Staff Supervisor; Philip Tischler, Field Operations and Test Manager for Grumman and Earl Light, Grumman Field Base Manager. Project Experiment Systems Engineers for the PEP and UCL in-house programs are Richard White and Martin Eiband. They are assisted by Joseph Stecher, T&E Experiment Support Manager. Don Hortenbach of Princeton University and Dr. Peter Sanford of University College of London are the. university representatives at Goddard. Photo bottom left: REPRESENTATIVES OF THE various organizations contributing to the Princeton Experiment Package (PEP) program in Building 7 are shown here. The test console, two of which have been built by T&E, will facilitate greatly the operation of the experiment in both the ground test program and orbital operations. Front row: D. Belluche, of Sylvania; D. Hershfeld, D. York, D. Horenbach, of Princeton University (P.U.); R. Schleifer, Perkin Elmer; and J. Drake, P.U. In back are: P. Gross, R. White, R. Morgan and L. Medico, Perkin Elmer. Photos at right from top: KEY OAO PERSONNEL review spacecraft buildup. Progress must be good! From left are: T. Stinis, GAC Subsystem Eng. Supr., R. Schlechter, GSFC I&T Manager; J. Purcell, Project Manager; E. Light, GAC Field Base Manager; R. Weaver, GSFC I&T Eng. Staff Supr.; and T. O'Meara, GAC Tech. Assistant to OAO Field Manager. G. Hempfling, Asst. I&T Manager is not shown. GRUMMAN Test and Mission Support Personnel responsible for the XDS 930 Ground Station are from left Charles G. Cavey, Jr., Sebastian Parisi, John A. Aymar, Alfio Nicotra, Harvey A. Rabinowitz, Jay C. Petersen, Patricia A. Lozinski, Pat H. Sullivan, Richard J. Pasquini, Joseph B. Germain, Heinz Albert, Ronald L. Johns and William Wilde. OAO is our most complex and largest spacecraft and requires a commensurate engineering team. Goddard and Grumman personnel involved in the integration and test of spacecraft C are shown grouped on the floor of Building 7 to show the dimensions of this effort. Shown are (first row, front) J. Low, J. Danner, L. Martin, J. Stivaletti, E. Toretta, D. Bishop, W. Anderson, G. Daelemans, J. Ritchie, R. Weaver and D. Margolies. Second row: T. Cook, R. Fiscum, C. Shult, T. Stinis, D. Wink, J. Piccone, and J. Gilbert. Other key Goddard and Grumman Engineering personnel involved in the program and not shown are: J. Sargent, Observatory Systems Manager; Bill White, Experiment Manager; Jerry Kull, Stabilization & Control Branch; John Fairbanks, Power Systems Design Branch; Charles Hoffman, Flight Data Storage Branch; Stan Ollendorf, Thermophysics Branch; and Bill Meyer, Observatory Support Manager. Third row: C. Jackson, R. Karcher, L. Laurita, P. Tischler, R. Schlechter, F. Figler, T. Blixt. Fourth row (rear) M. Falk, M. Clark, P. Drapala, J. Nevala, B. Rudow, L. Beasley, S. O'Hara, C. Christensen, R. Sava, W. Tittley, L. Olshan, J. Medler, D. Matos, and K. Bauman. Right page: Photo, top left: F. FIGLER (right) and J. Conlon of Grumman test a spacecraft circuit with a break out box. Photos at right from top: GODDARD AND GRUMMAN Engineers check out the On Board Processor (OBP), a ground programmed computer which will be flown on OAO-C. Shown are R. Sava, J. Piccone, G. Daelesman, L. Kearney, J. Kull, W. Stewart and T. Taylor. GODDARD AND GRUMMAN Quality Engineers and Inspectors assigned to the OAO program in Building 7 are (from left, front) M. Wypler, J. McCormack, N. Giovannetti, J. Schwarze, and A. Martines. In back are: A. Bellisimo, N. Sawchuck, W. Kappus, M. Falk, T. Gunshinan, J. Rothenburg and J. Kearney. THE TEST AND EVALUATION DIVISION plays a large tole in the OAO experiment qualification and acceptance test program. One of their contributions is the University College of London (UCL) experiment test console (hardware and software provided by T &E). Shown here are (from left, front) J. Ives, F. Hawkins, both of UCL; and T. O'Neill. In back are: J. Muller, M. Boniface of UCL, M. Falk, J. Stecher and R. Burda. Missing is Martin Eiband, GSFC Project Experiment Coordinator, who was roughing it in England. OAO SUPERVISORS, Quality Engineers and Technicians enjoying a brief respite from the restrictive operating environment of the clean room. From left are: J. Baumann, J. Conlon, H. Shultis, C. Moubray, W. Taylor, S. Meade, W. Hoffman, T. Diaz, T. Long, L. Despang, E. Mountain, and F. Kuk1man. Second row (rear): P. Francis, S. Rechardt, G. Croft, C. Bayle, L. Featherstone, R. Bournschein, R. Demme, W. Kappus, M. Wypler, M. Oark, A. Englehart, V. Farinola, C. Diekman and M. Maurico.