Jun 7 2001
From The Space Library
After months of deliberation and years of planning, NASA gave the official approval for developing a spacecraft for the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission. The plan called for the MESSENGER to launch in March 2004 and to begin orbiting Mercury in April 2009. NASA selected Sean C. Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington as the “principal investigator and lead scientist” for the mission, choosing the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University to build and operate the MESSENGER spacecraft. Preparations for the new mission had begun 26 years after NASA’s last spacecraft had circled the Mercury in a 1975 flyby producing data for half of the planet. Moreover, some officials viewed the MESSENGER mission as the resumption of a long-stalled research endeavor. Solomon described the task ahead as “an opportunity to complete the detailed exploration of the inner solar system, on a planet where we’ve never even seen half the surface.” (NASA, “NASA Gives Official Nod to First Mercury Orbiter Mission,” news release 01-118, 7 June 2001.)
NASA named Nelson H. Keeler Director of its Independent Verification and Validation Facility (IVVF) in Fairmont, West Virginia, giving Keeler the responsibility for safeguarding the facility’s mission-critical software. Keeler also assumed the task of evaluating the cost-effectiveness of NASA’s technology and software. Before joining NASA, Keeler had served in the U.S. Coast Guard, amassing more than 6,000 flight hours in search-and-rescue and law-enforcement missions. During a stint at the U.S. Coast Guard’s Research and Development Center, he had won the Legion of Merit medal. Keeler had served in NASA’s Space Station Freedom program, in the NASA Office of Space Flight’s Advanced Launch Technology and Advanced Flight Systems programs, as well is in private industry, before becoming Director of the IVVF. (NASA, “NASA Names Nelson Keeler Independent Verification and Validation Facility Director,” news release 01-117, 7 June 2001.)
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