Hiroshi Shibata, Eleven Others Earn Top Aerospace Awards
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (9/16/99) -- Hiroshi Shibata, widely recognized within the imaging-satellite community for his knowledge of control-loop design, development, verification and operation, was presented with The Aerospace Corporation's highest award, the Trustees' Distinguished Achievement Award, in ceremonies Sept. 16 at the company's headquarters in El Segundo, Calif.
Shibata was recognized for demonstrating "extraordinary leadership" in returning a satellite deemed lost to full operability.
Also honored at the ceremony were four teams whose members received President's Achievement Awards, the company's second highest award for technical excellence.
Accepting these awards were Dr. Todd Beltracchi and Steven Hammes; Brian Lenertz and Dr. Kasemsan Siri; Yolanda Jacobs, David Kim and Dr. Masahiro Sayano; and Christopher Clark, Dr. Andrew Moulthrop, Michael Muha and Dr. Christopher Silva.
The award citations and summaries of achievements follow.
Hiroshi Shibata
"For extraordinary leadership in returning a failed national imaging satellite to full mission capability."
In 1998 a National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) imaging satellite suffered several electromechanical failures that were initially thought to be mission ending.
Hiroshi Shibata, a senior engineering specialist in the Electro-Mechanical Controls Department, proposed a complex, corrective workaround and helped convince the government program office that such a strategy was attainable, was cost efficient, and would return the satellite to full mission operations.
A team comprising personnel from the NRO, The Aerospace Corporation, the prime contractor and additional support contractors was immediately established to investigate and validate Shibata's proposed solution.
After a demanding and protracted effort the corrective team, relying heavily on Shibata's system knowledge, was able to restore the satellite to full operational status.
This system played a vital role in support of Operation Desert Fox and continues to collect imagery data to satisfy a multitude of high-priority customer intelligence requirements.
Shibata joined The Aerospace Corporation in 1967. In addition to the Trustees' award, Shibata received an Aerospace President's Achievement Award in 1987 and an Intelligence Meritorious Unit Citation from the director of Central Intelligence earlier this year. He also has been recognized on other occasions for his technical achievements.
Shibata attended USC, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering.
Todd Beltracchi and Steven Hammes
"For significantly advancing the state of the art in the use of nonimaging, space-based infrared sensor systems for real-time special event monitoring."
Dr. Todd Beltracchi and Steven Hammes of the Defense Support Program's (DSP) ALERT/SHIELD ground processing facility at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado, have developed a capability for real-time detection and observation of infrared events known as "Hotwalkers."
This capability has been called "the best in the world" by U.S. Space Command.
Their work expands previous capabilities by enabling DSP data to be processed to the limits of their sensor sensitivities and line-of-sight accuracies.
Software tools developed by Beltracchi and Hammes have been applied to significant Hotwalker events critical to national security.
Use of these tools has yielded previously unobserved phenomenology data for Hotwalker events, leading to an increased understanding of the physical processes involved.
Beltracchi, a project engineer in the Data Fusion/Space Warfare Directorate, has become a national authority in Hotwalker processing and is the technical contact for several external government
organizations.
Hammes, also a project engineer, is the onsite liaison between the DSP office and its ALERT/SHIELD facilities. He continues to develop Hotwalker tools and is active in planning SHIELD's future.
Beltracchi joined The Aerospace Corporation in 1988. He holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Clarkson University and graduate degrees in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Hammes has a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Concordia College and a master's in applied mathematics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Brian Lenertz and Kasemsan Siri
"For technical rigor and leadership in identifying and ensuring correction of a critical design flaw in the Milstar satellite power system."
While the first Milstar Block 2 satellite was nearing completion, Brian Lenertz and Dr. Kasemsan Siri found a fatal design error that would have resulted in the loss of the $800 million satellite had it gone undetected.
Lenertz and Siri made their discovery while performing an assessment of the redesigned Bus Regulator Unit (BRU). The unit, the "heart" of Milstar power regulation, had already passed subsystem acceptance testing but had exhibited earlier test anomalies.
Siri used a unique universal model he developed for simulating and analyzing complex power converter topology. He modeled the complex BRU electronic circuitry and embedded the model within an integrated Milstar power system simulation developed by Lenertz.
Laboring under a tight launch schedule, they determined that the solar-array output voltage oscillated unacceptably each time the satellite exited from eclipse. The solution required a simple hardware modification, which was subsequently applied to all four Milstar Block 2 satellites.
Lenertz is section head of the Power and Analog Simulation Center within the Electrical and Electronic Systems Department. He joined The Aerospace Corporation in 1984 and holds a B.S. in engineering from UCLA.
Siri, an engineering specialist in the Electronic Systems Division, came to Aerospace in 1996. He holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a B.S. in electrical engineering from Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok.
Yolanda Jacobs, David Kim and Masahiro Sayano
"For the development and application of the revolutionary COBRA special communications technology."
Yolanda Jacobs, David Kim and Dr. Masahiro Sayano, from the Special Communications office in the Electronic Programs Division, National Systems Group, were instrumental in developing the unique and revolutionary architecture and signal waveform of COBRA, the Collection of Broadcasts from Remote Assets.
COBRA has been proven in hostile zones and is the first and only global capability of its kind. The system exploits capabilities for conducting special communications, combat search and rescue, and "blue force" tracking missions. It has been proven in more than two dozen real-world, high-profile, life-and-death operations.
The team made crucial contributions to all facets of the COBRA program, including system design, development and operations. They proposed and developed the COBRA Test Center laboratory in El Segundo, which is chartered to ensure user and system compliance with the COBRA waveform standard.
Jacobs, senior project engineer and team lead, contributed leadership and a strong knowledge of systems engineering.
Project engineers Kim and Sayano applied their expertise in software development and in communications systems engineering respectively.
Jacobs joined The Aerospace Corporation in 1988. She holds a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Dallas and an M.S.E.E. in computer engineering from USC.
Kim came to Aerospace in 1984. He has a B.S. in geophysics and mathematics from UCLA.
Sayano joined Aerospace in 1992. He is a graduate of Caltech, where he earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering.
Christopher Clark, Andrew Moulthrop, Michael Muha and Christopher Silva
"For enabling advances in communications systems in support of critical National Reconnaissance Office assets."
Christopher Clark, Dr. Andrew Moulthrop, Michael Muha and Dr. Christopher Silva were instrumental in advancing communications technology for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) by designing and developing a hardware emulation of NRO space systems.
The team designed and developed a sophisticated and flexible laboratory system that is used collaboratively with contractors to evaluate the principal electronic components and subsystems that limit the performance of high-data-rate communications channels. A significant result of this effort has been the insertion of advanced technology into multiple programs.
The team's efforts have also resulted in patents, many publications and a cooperative working relationship with government and industry. They have advanced the state of the art for communication systems analysis, measurement, and development design for programs critical to national security.
Clark, Moulthrop, Muha and Silva are engineering specialists in the Electronic Systems Division of the Engineering and Technology Group.
Clark joined The Aerospace Corporation in 1992. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland.
Moulthrop has been with Aerospace since 1984. He earned a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of California at San Diego and a doctorate in physics from the University of California at Berkeley.
Muha came to Aerospace in 1982. He earned a bachelor's degree in physics from USC and a master's degree in applied physics from Caltech.
Silva joined Aerospace in 1989. He is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley, where he earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering.
