From the President's Desk

The Aerospace Corporation has a vision "to be the world's leader in the application of space technology." To accomplish this vision we want to apply our technical knowledge and expertise to enable our customers to successfully exploit the full potential of space and space technology. The publication Crosslink is a way for our customers, the public, and employees to gain insight into the types of research and development efforts being conducted by the corporation in pursuit of our vision and our customers' needs.

Our premier issue of Crosslink looks at novel ways state-of-the-art space technology, traditionally used for military purposes, is being adapted to serve civil needs, and the contributions of our Aerospace scientists to these developments. The corporation, for example, is investigating using the Defense Support Program, a strategic surveillance system used for many years to observe signatures of ballistic missiles in flight, to detect natural disasters and environmental phenomena, such as fires and volcanic activity. Our scientists are also working on technology enhancement for the Global Positioning System, originally developed for military navigation and now serving positioning devices used in popular applications, such as airlines, automobiles, sporting goods, and cellular telephones. Detecting destructive single-event phenomena is crucial to protecting microelectronic devices used in spacecraft, but it is equally important in protecting pacemakers, commercial aircraft, and the abundant microelectronic devices used in the home and workplace. Aerospace is developing a new method for testing microelectronic devices for their vulnerability to such phenomena. Finally, the corporation has established a Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies to explore, and devise mitigating strategies for, the threats of space debris to orbiting spacecraft as well as to the Earth as debris falls from space. This will be a growing problem as more and more countries and companies exploit the potential of space for national and economic reasons.

Crosslink is also published on the Internet, at http://www.aero.org/publications/. We invite you to look at us in both media.

E.C. "Pete" Aldridge, Jr.
President and Chief Executive Officer
The Aerospace Corporation

Winter 1999/2000 Table of Contents