May 16 2003
From The Space Library
NASA's ARC in Mountain View, California, closed three wind tunnels until the end of FY 2003 because of budget cuts, fewer defense contracts, and the increased use of computer simulations. NASA reported that, unless it received major contracts from the DOD or from the private sector within a year from October 2003, ARC would close the wind tunnels permanently. Two of the wind tunnels, the largest and second-largest wind tunnels in the world, had operated for nearly six decades, testing dozens of aircraft and spacecraft, including Korean War-era fighter planes, helicopters, and the Space Shuttle. The largest wind tunnel, known as “80 by 120” in reference to its height and width, was the only wind tunnel in the world that could accommodate full-size aircraft. With the closure of the three tunnels, ARC dismissed 23 contractors and reassigned 23 employees, changes that would save ARC US$12 million per year in operational costs. (Joshua L. Kwan, “NASA/Ames Center Shuts Wind Tunnels,” San Jose Mercury News (CA), 19 May 2003.
NASA announced the selection of 15 organizations from industry, government, and academia to carry out 22 propulsion-technology research proposals in five areas of the In-Space Propulsion Program: aerocapture, advanced chemical propulsion, solar-electric propulsion, space-based tether propulsion, and solar-sail technologies. The goal of the program, under the management of the Office of Space Sciences at NASA Headquarters, was to make exploration of deep space more practical, affordable, and productive. (NASA, “NASA Selects In-Space Propulsion Innovations for Research,” contract release C03-q, 16 May 2003, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2003/may/HQ_news_c03Q.html (accessed 20 November 2008).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
