Mar 4 1999
From The Space Library
The Federal Laboratory Consortium appointed Donald J. Campbell, Director of Glenn Research Center (GRC), as the 1998 Laboratory Director of the Year for Technology Transfer. The Consortium honored Campbell, NASA's first African American center director, for his "exemplary contributions to the overall enhancement of technology transfer for economic development." Industries had created at least 20 new products from GRC-developed technologies in the previous five years. Campbell had also led the Center in establishing the Lewis Incubator for Technology, to help entrepreneurs and start-up companies commercialize NASA-developed technologies, as well as the Garrett Morgan Commercialization Initiative, to help small businesses in Ohio and the Great Lakes region use NASA technologies to become more competitive.
NASA launched its Wide-Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE) aboard the three-stage Pegasus-XL rocket. Orbital Sciences Corporation's L-1011 jet carried the rocket to an altitude of 40,000 feet (12,200 meters) before releasing it. Shortly after WIRE's release into orbit, it encountered difficulties maintaining its stability, and NASA immediately began to investigate the malfunction. The satellite's scientific instrument was a "cryogenically cooled telescope designed to shed light on the history of star formation in the universe," as part of NASA's Origins program. The 12.5-inch-aperture (31.8-centimeter-aperture) telescope aboard WIRE had no moving parts and was enclosed in a cooling system to keep its mirrors below -436°F (-260°C), to prevent its own heat emission from overwhelming the light it would detect from space.
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