Jun 26 2003
From The Space Library
NASA announced the appointment of James W. Kennedy as the new Director of NASA's KSC, effective 10 August, succeeding Roy D. Bridges Jr. On 13 June, NASA had appointed Bridges to lead NASA's LaRC. Kennedy had served as KSC's Deputy Director since November 2002 and, before that, he had served as Deputy Director of NASA's MSFC in Huntsville, Alabama. Kennedy had also served as Project Manager for the X-34 and DC-XA initiatives and had led KSC's OneNASA effort to coordinate teamwork across all field centers. He had managed MSFC's Space Shuttle Projects Resident Office at KSC in 1996, returning to MSFC later that year to manage the Solid Rocket Booster Project. In 1998 he had become Deputy Director of Science and Engineering and, one year later, Director of Engineering. In those positions, he had established and maintained a nationally recognized research and development capability in space research and technology. (NASA, “James W. Kennedy Named Director, NASA KSC,” news release 03-217, 26 June 2003, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2003/jun/HQ_03217_Kennedy_KSC.html (accessed 12 December 2008); Kelly Young, “Kennedy Takes Over KSC,” Florida Today (Brevard, FL), 27 June 2003.
The remotely operated Helios Prototype aircraft crashed into the Pacific Ocean during a test flight within the confines of the U.S. Navy Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) test range. Ground-based mission controllers had been flying the solar-electric, propeller-driven, proof-of concept flying wing remotely. The craft had been aloft west of Kauai, Hawaii, for about 29 minutes at approximately 8,000 feet (2,438 meters), when the accident occurred, destroying it. High-efficiency solar cells, spread across the upper surface of its 247-foot-long (75-meter-long) wing, supplied power to its electric motors and other systems during daylight; at night, an experimental fuel cell-based electrical system generated power. The prototype, designed to fly at altitudes up to 100,000 feet (30,480 meters) had set a world record for altitude of winged aircraft~96,863 feet (29,524 meters)~during a flight in August 2001. NASA had intended the craft to fly single-day atmospheric-science and imaging missions at high altitudes, as well as to perform multiday telecommunications-relay missions at lower altitudes of 50,000 to 65,000 feet (15,240 to 19,812 meters). The prototype was one of several in development that NASA had sponsored and funded under the Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology program. (NASA, “Helios Prototype Solar Aircraft Lost in Flight Mishap,” news release 03-219, 27 June 2003, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2003/jun/HQ_03219_Helios.html (accessed 12 December 2008); B. J. Reyes for Associated Press, “Record-Setting Solar Airplane Crashes,” 26 June 2003.
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