Music
I'm Bill Hubscher and I'm
Lori Meggs. Welcome to Focus
On Marshall we're right outside
the the gates of Redstone
Arsenal on an a very exciting
day and a very special
ceremony. Kind of a birthday
party of sorts. That's right the
George C Marshall Space
Flight Center turns 50... and
we are here to mark the
occasion with the unveiling of
an historic marker to celebrate
this important milestone.
That's right, and we are
also going to get to talk to
some of the great folks that
have contributed to America's
space program. We've had
a chance to catch up with
some of my colleagues and
sit down with a few as well.
Let's get right to it. I'm
here with Marshall Center
Director Robert Lightfoot
and today is all about the
work of generations, tell us
what that means to the team
here. well we are celebrating
our 50th anniversary we've
got an historical marker we
are going to dedicate today to
recognize the Marshall Space
Flight Center's contribution
to the State of Alabama
and the Nation... so it is
kind of cool and as you know
our 50th annniversary has
been all about the work of
generations. Everything we get
to do here builds off the
first folks that got us
started on this path fifty
years ago. Personally what's it
like for you to be the Center
Director of the Marshall
Center? well it's exciting
it's a great opportunity to
lead a cool bunch of folks
that really love what they
do and have a great passion
for exploration; and just
being on top of that group
is pretty humbling frankly
because they are so dad gum
smart and good at what they do.
But just trying to lead at
this time is an interesting
time, with everything going
on and the changes, it's fun
we are having a good time
with it. I'm glad you said
all those nice things about
me, thank you Robert for all
your time today. Sound
effect. Well the dignitaries
certainly have come out.
Charles Scales has joined us and
he's the Associate Deputy
Administrator for the Agency,
and Mr. Scales thansk for
coming down from Washington DC
for this one. Happy to be
here, always good to come
back here to the Tennessee
Valley. So you spent half of
Marshall's 50 years here at
Marshall. Tell us a little
bit about how you got started
here? Well I started out here
as a cooperative education
student out here in January
1973,this beautiful Center
was only 12 years old at that
point so I started as a co-op
from A&M in the office of
telecommunications. What
other departments did you end
up spending some time in?
Oh gosh a lot, I started in
telecommunications and I
worked in program control in the
facilities office and
resources management and the
informations systems office,
plans and analysis and Center
Operations directorate, and
I was the equal opportunity
officer here for about 4
1/2 years. So a lot of time
in building 4200. Correct a
lot of time in building 4200
and I enjoyed every day of
it. so considering that you
got your start with the agecy
here at Marshall what does
this anniversary mean to you?
Oh it is a great opportunity,
when I started to work here
we were getting prepared
for the Apollo Soyuz Mission
which was our first link
up with what was then the
former Soviet Union which
was a major milestone in
international relations and we
were also making preparations
for the Skylab mission
and also making great plans
for the start of the shuttle
program. So it was an
exciting time to be here. It is
exciting to have you here
and we appreciate you coming
down. happy to do it.
Sound Effect
Alex thank you for
inviting us into your home
today we ahve a lot of ground to
cover since you started
working at Redstone Arsenal in
1954. Let's start there,
tell us what it was like? Well
you have to look at the
community, Huntsville was very
small, probably didn't have
50,000 people. The Germans
had just come in 1950
from Ft. Bliss Texas,and of
course Restone Arsenal had
started, the Germans started
looking at a Redstone Missile
for the Army. We all worked
for the Army in those days.
We worked on the Explorer
satellite,in fact I was
inpropulsion in those days and
I sized the tanks and there
was a lot of activity going
on for the Explorer. Secretary
of Defense decided the
Navy would be putting up the
first satellite, Sputnik had
come along, we could put
ours up first, that's in the
history books, you can find
that. But we were told to put
ours in the wharehouse, in
the meantime the Navy tries
twice, couldn't do it...
launch explosion sound ... von
Braun says we can do it,
so they told us to go ahead
and do it, and we did.
Explorer 1 launch sound. So the
next thing we started
looking at was the Redstone
modified was a sub-orbital
flight,which was Alan shepard's
flight... launch sound...
he flew, it was May 5th 1961,
sub-orbital, he just went
up and down. But he was a our
first person in space. so
we felt like we were getting
there but we hadn't gone in
orbit yet but later on was John
Glenn's flight. How did
you transition to the Saturn
Program, you had worked
on the Redstone rocket, how
difficult was that at the
time? Some of the technical
work, the challenges were so
tremendous, we had to cluster
engines. Von Braun had this
idea of putting things together.
We were able to take the
tanks, Redstone tanks were
70 inches in diameter, the
liquid oxygen tanks were 105
inches. We clustterd those
and clustered the engines, the
nightmare was, it was a
plumbers nightmare you had all
these lines getting propellant
out of the tanks to these
engines. Had to deal with
that, you had cross-talk, you
had to continue the pressurization
of the tanks. When you
go during ascent you had
to go, the propellants are
coming out, you had to keep
pressure in there... sucking
sound ... you didn't want
the tanks to be sucked in
because of atmospheric pressure.
But all this was a precusor
and helped us to understand
how to cluster engines, how
to get the propellants, how
you do the pressurization
and propellants and dealing
with those on Saturn V because
now we were going to 1 &
1/2 million pounds of thrust
per engine. So we had to
deal with 5 engines, 7 & 1/2
million pounds of thrust, I
mean it was a nightmare. Number
one with the engines, getting
the engines up. We blew
up pumps I'm telling you
what, we wrecked test stands,
lots and lots of that so
after that, reconcilling those
problems, we have a big
meeting here at Marshall, and
I was fortunate to participate
in that meeting. Dr. von
Braun and his boss, our
corporate presidents were here
and George Lewis suggested
we fly manned around the
moon OK? Concern again was
technological race with the
Russians. And thought we
could do it. So they go to the
moon and everything was OK,
all the systems worked good, and
were watching that
baited-breath and everything, but
they are getting ready to
go around the moon and Frank
Borman has the Bible, and he
was going to read about the
creation account in the book
of Genesis... and God said,
"Let there be light, and
there was light, and God saw
the light and that it was
good" ... and the classic is
when they go around the
moon and ther looking back at
Earth and there is a picture
of the earth. And you've seen
it, I've seen it most
people have seen it and I get
goose bumps thinking about
it even now as we talk. When
we have launched like all
the Apollo vehicles, the whole
thing, everything goes into
the water. We lose it. So
the meantime smart guy
says hey why don't we design
something like an airplane
and at least bring some of it
back? Save the money re-use
it. So we started looking at
the Shuttle. And latter on
in 1970 I went on to the task
team for two years getting
the configuration that we
fly today. What is Marshall?
Well first Marshall is to me
an organization, it it a
living organization, I just hope
that we can get something
to continue the engineering.
We've always had excellent
leadership see, starting
with von Braun. Then his
team that he had brought over
with him. So no question,
when you think about government
organizations, NASA is
number 1, nothing compares to
NASA! Alex thank you so much,
this has been so interesting,
and we really appreciate
you time! Thanks for having
us. thank you Lori, I've
enjoyed it. Sound Effect. The
Marshall Space Flight Center
is known as a propulsion
Center but it has also made
many contributions in science.
We're here to talk with a
man who has spent 30 years
here in science, Dr. Don
Frazier. Thanks very much for
taking the time to talk to
us today. Thank you. Let's
start when you were a small
boy growing up in Detroit,
how did you discover that
you wanted to be involved in
science? If I saw a picture
of someone from NASA I had
upmost respect for that person
because that was one of the
people like John Glenn and
others like him depended on
and I said this has got to
be a first rate organization.
And so I wanted to be a part
of it. One of the things
I think that we have
contributed here from NASA is the
ability to grow really
good crystals. Some of these
crystals are important in some
things like infrared detectors
for example. You know you
want a certain degree of
perfection. I mentioned earlier
a possibility of non-linear
optics as a futuristic
way of doing computing for
example. We have demonstrated
that in the past. Protein
cystal growth, that was a
biggie back in the microgravity
days. If you can grow a
perfect crystal protein you can
do x-ray difraction on that
perfect crystal and do some
pharmacudical type... how
does aspirin work for example?
And so that was a biggie,
protein crystal growth, that
was a big deal during the
microgravity days. There
was a lot of accomplishment
with Dr Lucas down at UAB did
quite a bit of work in that
area not just the production
of certain types of aerogels
for example in microgravity
or zeolites, people have
used it for filtration of
atmosphere, I'm talking
about microgravity related
things. but there are other things
that are non-microgravity
related with NASA. Of course
from the propulsion standpoint
that have been very
instrumental in development. NASA
is not just this side,
there is also the telescopes,
there is the optics, there's
Chandra you know there is our
ability to look out at the
edge of the universe, near
the edge of the universe back
in time near the creation.
We've done so many things
it is difficult to compare
what is more important than
others. We are getting more
into earth sciences, where
we are looking at moving
detectors on platforms, moving
platforms. Determining melting
of ice, how fast that rate
is. This has a lot to do
with our current focus on
climate control and climate
conditions and that sort of
things. All of these things
are probably not comparable at
all to each other but all are
extremely important. If
not to our existence then
certainly to our knowledge of
the universe that we live in.
Optical computing, quantum
computing all these sort of
things that NASA has, is
playing a role in helping to
develop. Flexible electronics,
the fact that we will be
able to print circuits and
photovoltaics on paper, and
very light, low mass, you
know NASA is very intersted in
low mass high efficiency
devices. You know we can print
a way of collecting energy
from the sun and storing it
and printing the storage medium
and printing light emitting
diodes on a piece of paper,
which is what we are working
on now, the stuff I'm
working on right now, that's
going to have huge impact
on my own personal view and
the nation. Dr. Frazier,
thanks very much for your time.
Well I thank you for taking
the time with me. This has
been nice to talk about and
its not just work anymore
it is fun.
Sound effect.
Bonnie it was so gracious for
you to have us in your home
today. Can you tell us all
what it was like, first of
all working at Redstone and
then what the first meeting
was like? Well he was so
friendly and cordial,I felt
like I had known him. He was
a ...laughs... a very nice
man. You really became his
right hand lady right? Well
a lot of people called me
that, he called me the lady
I worked for. What was your
role? What was my role? Well
secretary, flunky, whatever.
There was so many things
to do and he was a very busy
man of course and was in
conferences all day. I would
have by the time he would
come from the meeting I'd have
his briefcase packed with
reading material then we would
go through the stack on his
desk. I had it prioritized
and he always took his
briefcase home with him and the
next morning when he came in
he would turn it upside down
on my desk and say "I did
my homework." He was kind of
the absent minded professor.
He would leave his umbrellas.
He usually carried his
pillow with him on every trip
because he said he couldn't
sleep without his pillow.
He'd leave it at the hotels,
I'd have to find somebody
on travel in Washinton or
wherever he had been and go get
his pillow and bring it when
they come back to Marshall.
So he decides to switch
you from the Army or to move
everyone form the Army to
NASA and President Eisenhower
comes to Marshall. Tell me
about that, you got to escort
him right? Yes I did, they
had an outdoor stage and I
got to escort President
Eisenhower to the stage. Dr. von
Braun escorted Mrs. Marshall
and that's when he named
us officially the George C
Marshall Space FLight Center,
which now it just goes by
Marshall Space Flight Center,
but it was in honor of the
late General George C Marshall.
So what did he say to you
once his rocket made it to the
moon? Well he went from the
Cape to Houston to mission
Control of course, to watch
the mission and to stay
through the lunar landing.
So I didn't see him or talk
to him during that period
until he got back to the
office. He came in with a
great big grin on his face and
said "Mission Accomplished"
and went straight to his desk
then. Back to work? Back to
work, because his desk was
full... covered. Bonnie it
was so sweet for you to come
let us see you today. We are
so appreciative. My pleasure.
Sound effect. Cameras
clicking then applause. Lori it
was really exciting to meet
so many people that have
been so instrumental to the
success of the Center. Very
humbling and inspiring, a
great group of people and a
great day here at Marshall.
Join us next time as we focus
on Marshall.
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then ... music.
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