Employees, Russian Delegation Participate in Technical Program
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (12/18/00) -- Representatives from The Aerospace Corporation were among members of the aerospace, defense and commercial communities participating in a technical program with a delegation of Russian Federation Ministry of Defense officials who visited Los Angeles recently.
The delegation visited Fort MacArthur Oct. 20-27 as part of the Bilateral Environmental Cooperation for Space Activities Program.
This was the second visit by a Russian delegation to the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) -- of which Fort MacArthur is a part -- under the bilateral agreement.
In their opening remarks, Dr. Rod Gibson, senior vice president of Systems Planning and Engineering at
Aerospace, and Col. Alexander Tyryshkin, Russian Federation head of Environmental Cooperation, Directorate of Chief of Ecological Safety of the Armed Forces, paid recognition to the mutual history of the space programs in the two countries.
The U.S. delegation was chaired by Les Bordelon, executive director of the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base.
The agenda for the visit included the technical selection of Russian Federation proposals on hydrazine treatment technologies with potential applications to U.S. Department of Defense installations.
In addition to Aerospace personnel, representatives from SMC, the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence, Headquarters Air Force Space Command, and government contractors participated in the discussions.
Dr. Valerie Lang, Aerospace senior project engineer, Office of the Corporate Chief Engineer, presented the status of hypergolic treatment at Vandenberg Air Force Base, including updates since the 1998 exchange.
The Russian Federation has been primarily concerned with contamination from unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine rocket fuel, while the United States is also interested in applications to monomethyl hydrazine and anhydrous hydrazine fuels.
Dr. William Ailor, director of Aerospace's Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies (CORDS), proposed a collaboration consisting of reentry breakup modeling and a reentry experiment.
He also described environmental and policy issues associated with orbital and reentering debris.
The Russian delegation invited Ailor to visit Moscow to follow up on his proposal when the US environmental team travels there for a reciprocal visit.
The Aerospace participants provide support to SMC's Environmental Management Branch. Branch Chief
John Edwards is responsible for originating and sustaining the bilateral program
