Inside NASA

Inside NASA PDF Author: Howard E. McCurdy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Get Book Here

Book Description
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration began its space flight program in October of 1958 by launching the 84-pound Pioneer I space probe. Scarcely a decade later, in July of 1969, NASA amazed the world by landing the first humans on the Moon. In the two decades that followed, however, the agency appeared to lose both its vigor and its creativity. Inside NASA explores how an agency praised for its planetary probes and expeditions to the Moon became noted for the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger and a series of other malfunctions. Using archival evidence as well as in-depth interviews with space agency officials, Howard McCurdy investigates the relationship between the performance of the U.S. space program and NASA's organizational culture. He begins by identifying the beliefs, norms, and practices that guided NASA's early successes. Originally, the agency was dominated by the strong technical culture rooted in the research-and-development organizations from which NASA was formed. To launch the expeditions to the Moon, McCurdy explains, this technical culture was linked to an organizational structure borrowed from the Air Force Ballistic Missile Program. Over time, however, changes imposed to accomplish the lunar expedition - as well as the normal aging process and increased bureaucracy in the government as a whole-altered NASA's original culture and eroded its technical strength. McCurdy observes that NASA's early success depended on a number of related characteristics: extensive testing, in-house technical capability, hands-on experience, exceptional people, stoic acceptance of risk and failure, and a frontier mentality. He concludes that, given the conditions ofmodern government, the performance of high-technology agencies like NASA inherently tends to decline. Inside NASA offers a revealing study of both organizational culture and bureaucratic aging.

Inside NASA

Inside NASA PDF Author: Howard E. McCurdy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Get Book Here

Book Description
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration began its space flight program in October of 1958 by launching the 84-pound Pioneer I space probe. Scarcely a decade later, in July of 1969, NASA amazed the world by landing the first humans on the Moon. In the two decades that followed, however, the agency appeared to lose both its vigor and its creativity. Inside NASA explores how an agency praised for its planetary probes and expeditions to the Moon became noted for the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger and a series of other malfunctions. Using archival evidence as well as in-depth interviews with space agency officials, Howard McCurdy investigates the relationship between the performance of the U.S. space program and NASA's organizational culture. He begins by identifying the beliefs, norms, and practices that guided NASA's early successes. Originally, the agency was dominated by the strong technical culture rooted in the research-and-development organizations from which NASA was formed. To launch the expeditions to the Moon, McCurdy explains, this technical culture was linked to an organizational structure borrowed from the Air Force Ballistic Missile Program. Over time, however, changes imposed to accomplish the lunar expedition - as well as the normal aging process and increased bureaucracy in the government as a whole-altered NASA's original culture and eroded its technical strength. McCurdy observes that NASA's early success depended on a number of related characteristics: extensive testing, in-house technical capability, hands-on experience, exceptional people, stoic acceptance of risk and failure, and a frontier mentality. He concludes that, given the conditions ofmodern government, the performance of high-technology agencies like NASA inherently tends to decline. Inside NASA offers a revealing study of both organizational culture and bureaucratic aging.

Science Advice to NASA

Science Advice to NASA PDF Author: Joseph K. Alexander
Publisher: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Office of Communications NASA History Division
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book documents highlights of NASA's interactions with outside scientific advisors over the agency's full lifetime and draws lessons from that history for research managers, decision makers, and scientists.The book is divided into three parts--the first two being focused on history and the third on synthesis and analysis. Part 1 briefly examines early forerunner activities at NACA and in the decade leading up to NASA's formation, and it then considers NASA's use of outside advice during its first three decades. Part 2 picks up the story in 1988 and follows it up to 2016. Part 3 examines a sampling of case studies, discusses recurring characteristics of notably successful advisory activities, and provides a glimpse at what past experience might imply for the future of scientific advice at NASA. The last two chapters provide big-picture summaries of themes that have emerged from earlier discussions.

Coming Home

Coming Home PDF Author: Roger D. Launius
Publisher: Government Printing Office
ISBN: 9780160910647
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 346

Get Book Here

Book Description
NOTE; NO FURTHER DISCOUNT ON THIS PRINT PRODUCT-- OVERSTOCK SALE -- Signficantly reduced list price The technologies for the reentry and recovery from space might change over time, but the challenge remains one of the most important and vexing in the rigorous efforts to bring spacecraft and their crews and cargo home successfully. Returning to Earth after a flight into space is a fundamental challenge, and contributions from the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate in aerodynamics, thermal protection, guidance and control, stability, propulsion, and landing systems have proven critical to the success of the human space flight and other space programs. Without this base of fundamental and applied research, the capability to fly into space would not exist. Other related products: NASA Historical Data Book, V. 7: NASA Launch Systems, Space Transportation/Human Spaceflight, and Space Science can be found here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/033-000-01309-4 Revolutionary Atmosphere: The Story of the Altitude Wind Tunnel and the Space Power Chambers can be found here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/033-000-01342-6 Spinoff: Innovative Partnerships Program 2009 can be found here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/033-000-01331-1 Spinoff 2010: NASA Technologies Benefit Society can be found here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/033-000-01343-4 Spinoff 2015: Technology Transfer Program can be found here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/033-000-01372-8 Aerospace, Astronomy & Space Exploration resources collection can be found here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/science-technology/aerospace-astronomy... Other products produced by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) can be found here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/agency/550"

The NASA Archives

The NASA Archives PDF Author: Piers Bizony
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Astronautics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
On October 1, 1958, the world's first civilian space agency opened for business as an emergency response to the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik a year earlier. Within a decade, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, universally known as NASA, had evolved from modest research teams experimenting with small converted rockets into one of the greatest technological and managerial enterprises ever known, capable of sending men to the moon aboard gigantic rockets and of dispatching robot explorers to Venus, Mars, and worlds far beyond. In spite of occasional, tragic setbacks in NASA's history, the Apollo lunar landing project remains a byword for American ingenuity; the winged space shuttles spearheaded the International Space Station and a dazzling array of astronomical satellites and robotic landers, and Earth observation programs have transformed our understanding of the cosmos and our home world's fragile place within it. Throughout NASA's 60-year history, images have played a central role. Who today is not familiar with the Hubble Space Telescope's mesmerizing views of the universe or the pin-sharp panoramas of Mars from NASA's surface rovers? And who could forget the photographs of the first men walking on the Moon?

Ames Research Center

Ames Research Center PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Aeronautics
Languages : en
Pages : 4

Get Book Here

Book Description


Modern Engineering for Design of Liquid-Propellant Rocket Engines

Modern Engineering for Design of Liquid-Propellant Rocket Engines PDF Author: Dieter K. Huzel
Publisher: AIAA
ISBN: 9781600864001
Category : Liquid propellant rocket engines
Languages : en
Pages : 452

Get Book Here

Book Description


Why Mars

Why Mars PDF Author: W. Henry Lambright
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421412802
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 334

Get Book Here

Book Description
Traces NASA’s torturous journey to Mars from the fly-bys of the 1960s to landing rovers and seeking life today. Mars has captured the human imagination for decades. Since NASA’s establishment in 1958, the space agency has looked to Mars as a compelling prize, the one place, beyond the Moon, where robotic and human exploration could converge. Remarkably successful with its roaming multi-billion-dollar robot, Curiosity, NASA’s Mars program represents one of the agency’s greatest achievements. Why Mars analyzes the history of the robotic Mars exploration program from its origins to today. W. Henry Lambright examines the politics and policies behind NASA's multi-decade quest, illuminating the roles of key individuals and institutions along with their triumphs and defeats. Lambright outlines the ebbs and flows of policy evolution, focusing on critical points of change and factors that spurred strategic reorientation. He explains Mars exploration as a striking example of “big science” and describes the ways a powerful advocacy coalition—composed of NASA decision makers, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Mars academic science community, and many others—has influenced governmental decisions on Mars exploration, making it, at times, a national priority. The quest for Mars stretches over many years and involves billions of dollars. What does it take to mount and give coherence to a multi-mission, big science program? How do advocates and decision makers maintain goals and adapt their programs in the face of opposition and budgetary stringency? Where do they succeed in their strategies? Where do they fall short? Lambright’s insightful book suggests that from Mars exploration we can learn lessons that apply to other large-scale national endeavors in science and technology.

Faster, Better, Cheaper

Faster, Better, Cheaper PDF Author: Howard E. McCurdy
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801867200
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 202

Get Book Here

Book Description
McCurdy examines NASA's recent efforts to save money while improving mission frequency and performance.".

What Is NASA?

What Is NASA? PDF Author: Sarah Fabiny
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1524786047
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 129

Get Book Here

Book Description
Find out all about NASA in this out-of-this-world addition to the What Was? series. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, better known as NASA, began in 1958. With its creation, the United States hoped to ensure it won the space race against the Soviet Union. Author Sarah Fabiny describes the origins of NASA, the launching of the Apollo program that landed the first human on the moon, and the many missions and discoveries that have taken place since then. NASA has a rich history and still plays an important role in uncovering the mysteries of the universe. Readers are sure to get sucked into this book.

Abandoned in Place

Abandoned in Place PDF Author: Roland Miller
Publisher: UNM Press
ISBN: 0826356265
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 175

Get Book Here

Book Description
Stenciled on many of the deactivated facilities at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the evocative phrase “abandoned in place” indicates the structures that have been deserted. Some structures, too solid for any known method of demolition, stand empty and unused in the wake of the early period of US space exploration. Now Roland Miller’s color photographs document the NASA, Air Force, and Army facilities across the nation that once played a crucial role in the space race. Rapidly succumbing to the elements and demolition, most of the blockhouses, launch towers, tunnels, test stands, and control rooms featured in Abandoned in Place are located at secure military or NASA facilities with little or no public access. Some have been repurposed, but over half of the facilities photographed no longer exist. The haunting images collected here impart artistic insight while preserving an important period in history.