SSTC H.R. 6612

Nothing like a cryptic acronym for a blog post title, eh?

I won't keep anyone in suspense.  SSTC HR6612 stands for the Science, Space, & Technology Committee of our 112th United States Congress, who collectively passed House Resolution 6612, which re-names the NASA Hugh L. Dryden Flight Research Center to the NASA Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center.

When I first saw the story about this legislation on NBC in December of 2012, and shared with space-cadets brethren on Facebook, I had mixed feelings about the change, and observed similar reservations in others.

While no one would ever argue with humble Mr. Armstrong being honored for being the first human on another celestial body, it would be a shame to see the loss of Hugh Latimer Dryden, who (among other many eminent accomplishments) served as NASA Deputy Administrator from August 19, 1958 until his passing in December of 1965. He was also instrumental in convincing President John F. Kennedy that a clear plan to put humans on the surface of the Moon was the clearest way to "win" the Space Race.

The same bill, however, also re-designates the Western Aeronautical Test Range as the Hugh L. Dryden Aeronautical Test Range; thus, he would still retain an honor among the NASA centers.

The resolution was previously voted upon last year, then approved unanimously in the house as of February 25th. I speculated with some trepidation amongst my friends that Neil Armstrong himself would be the first person to disagree with this bill, and quite likely wouldn't care what was named after him, if anything.  Many agreed, but the fact of the matter is, his accomplishment belongs to the whole Earth at this point.

When I first read the bill and saw the sponsors (from California, Texas and Mississippi), I'd planned to examine their drafts (this is the third version of the bill) and comment on the process, but honestly, it's actually beginning to bother me that Congress wastes time on such things. The SSTC are charged with the nation's energy and resource concerns. Do we truly need to be re-naming things that already have names? Their web site gratifyingly announced recently that "Asteroid and Meteor are Stark Reminders of the Need to Invest in Space Science" and it would be great if they actually did that instead.

On the other hand, it's Neil. So, if this becomes official and the centers begin the name-changing process, despite our lukewarm reception of such redundant processes, the space community will still be all abuzz with the news. Watch this space. Just don't expect us to be too excited about it.

Dryden NASA Social

Tweetups turned into Socials, and Dryden Research Center's first official gathering was a rousing success! What a ride!

Dr. Hugh L. Dryden would probably have been amazed at the frenzy created by these events, given his reputation for calm countenance... hmm, I wonder if he would have joined us on Facebook?

OMG! Chicken in the Cockpit!

I got to sit in the cockpit of an FA-18 Super Hornet twin-engine carrier-based multi-role fighter aircraft! And I really just want everyone in the world to know it. Thank you.

We saw, either up close or in slides & videos, many retired and active aircraft, so I kept the link to the Dryden Historical Aircraft Photograph Collection handy throughout the day in order to identify everything. It's a bit surreal to visit a largely isolated place where millions of dollars worth of flying machines are just sitting around everywhere! And even more surreal is that, by the end of the day, you've gotten entirely too used to it.

Mojave desert in California

Edwards Air Force Base is just east of the middle of nowhere, but SO well worth the trip to see a place not many people are allowed to visit. There were speeches, there were songs, there were many hours of walking and tweeting and ... wow, there was even a flight-suit fashion show.

We were treated to SONIC BOOMS, and a test pilot named Jim Less (his aviator callsign is "Clue", LOL!) performed a fast, roaring flyby in an F/A-18 just for our waiting cameras!

Afterward, we roamed from hangar to hangar to see currently used aircraft, new designs in the making by General Atomics, Northrup Grumman, McDonnell Douglas, and Boeing, plus many historical artifacts back to the Apollo era.

Test Pilot Helmet!

We were allowed to sample flight food (tubes similar to those used on space missions), try on various helmets, board the CTV, mingle with research and test pilots, and of course meet many other aeronautics enthusiasts from all over the US!

After hours, we headed to the local test pilot hangout in Boron, CA for dinner and ... okay, singing & sombreros after a little tequila time ;)

Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV)

Click on any picture to go to the full gallery, or click this link to see the NASA Dryden album in my Pillownaut Picasa site, which also includes last year's trip to the Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale to see SOFIA!

NASA Tweetup #5

New Tweetup on Friday, May 4! Now called the NASA Social! Back in MY DAY they were called Tweetups, anyway. Just kidding, don't want to sound like a geezer 50 years before I should.

Anyway, it's ROAD TRIP time again, and this time I'll be headed to Monterey, where I'm excited to show Camilla the Apollo Moon Tree in Friendly Plaza, and then on to the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) on Edwards Air Force Base in California.


Seems pretty big on the ground, but if you check out all of Edwards AFB on Google Maps, you'll see it's only a very tiny portion of the base! And pretty far inside the boundaries, so you'll never trip over it.

Sadly, Dryden is one of the very view NASA sites that is not open to the public, partly due to the classified nature of some aeronautical research, and partly due to budget concerns on the base. One used to be able to reserve pre-arranged tours at Dryden with specific dates, but those small allowances were also cancelled as of December 2011.


So, if you are interested in the first "A" of the NASA acronym, follow me Friday on Blogspot, Twitter, Facebook and Picasa this week for all things Dryden! Most of the Tweetups I've been to thus far have been about Space, but the agency's Aeronautics research and manufacturing branches are also crucial to the whole!

I'm already on the road, now -- and eagerly anticipating Star Wars Day (anyone think that was a coincidence?) at Dryden, perhaps seeing experimental aircraft, perhaps getting to meet real live test pilots, and... would an Autonomous Airborne Refueling Demonstration be too much to ask?

A girl can dream.


Last summer, it was my honor and pleasure to visit the Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility to see SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. That was rather a short and sweet affair off the base. This time, however, the crowd of 75 social media (mongers? maulers?) ... okay, let's call us "enthusiasts", will be able to spend the entire day seeing the aircraft fleet!

All participants have been told we can photograph static aircraft, though no word yet on what we will see or be able to record in flight. Stay tuned for more updates! On twitter, you can also follow hashtags #DrydenSocial and #NASASocial, or follow the @NASADryden feed.

For my and Team Camilla's updates, you can follow @Pillownaut, @Camilla_SDO and @jotolluch!

NASA Dryden Tweetup

It's rare for me to post two photograph galleries in a row... but then it's also rare to visit two NASA centers in a row! I guess this could be considered Tweetup #4, since it merited a trip out into the Wild, Wild West... or perhaps simply Tweetup Three-And-A-Half, being that it piggy-backed onto the JPL media events.


The NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) is spread across the California desert, on Edwards Air Force Base (AFB). Along with 13 others, I went to Palmdale, home of the NASA Dryden Airborne Operation Facility (DAOF) to board SOFIA!

Not just your average jumbo jet! The Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy is a joint project between NASA and DLR, the German Aerospace Center… and if you didn't truly know how cool airborne astronomy can be, now is your chance to click and see.


Why would anyone put a 2.5 meter telescope onto a Boeing 747, you may ask? Well, SOFIA is optimized for observations at infrared wavelengths that cannot be accessed by any telescope on the ground or currently in space.

Unlike ground-based telescopes, SOFIA can rise to 45,000 feet during her missions, well above most of the water vapor in the atmosphere that restrict terrestrial capabilities of gathering crisp images in certain wavelength ranges. Also, unlike large telescopes in orbit, she can fly home after each trip for repairs, parts and regular maintenance.


THAT... is what a 17-ton, inertially-stabilized 2.5 meter telescope integrated into a pressure bulkhead looks like. That monstrous beauty consists of many parts: the GREAT spectrometer, the FORCAST (Faint Object InfraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope), the Fast Diagnostic Camera and the Focal Plane Imager, among others.

Yes, another day – another case of acronym overload!

For the entire picture set of the fuselage, science stations, telescope, spectrometer and scientists, see my Picasa Galleries And of course also visit the SOFIA galleries as well, to see what amazing images this special airborne observatory has already provided. Science just does not get any sexier than this!

SOFIA

The rock star of telescopes!!!

I love this. I have been following the SOFIA program for many moons on paper, and I think I have more glossy little PDFs on this than any other NASA task, save perhaps the Mars rovers.

Now I have two wonderful photos I love seeing side-by-side, from 2009 and 2011:

Me with model of SOFIA at NASA Ames Research Ctr in 2008

Me with the real SOFIA at NASA Dryden Aircraft Ops in 2011

SOFIA is the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, a modified Boeing 747 that will be NASA's and the DLR's premiere platform for airborne astronomy over her 20-year lifespan.

I can't wait to tell you all about it, and show you all my wonderful pictures from NASA Dryden when I get home! Must drive there first, however. On the road today!