From the Editors
NASA celebrated its 50th anniversary September 24, 2008. The Aerospace Corporation will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2010. The two organizations have grown up together, and both were founded by acts of Congress. This issue of Crosslink examines the corporation's work in civil space programs, including Aerospace support to NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Conducting independent assessments—a hallmark of Aerospace work—has been and continues to be an integral part of this effort.
It is amazing how much has been achieved in space exploration in the short timeframe of 50 years. Yet today the United States is at a strategic turning point. The space shuttle will retire in 2010, and the United States will be left with no way to fly humans to space other than buying a ride aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft until 2015.
However, innovation and curiosity cannot be stopped, and there have been numerous efforts related to space exploration. Aerospace has served as an impartial advisor to many of these. The Hubble Space Telescope, for example, has been observing edges of the universe and returning stunning images for more than 18 years. Aerospace has assisted NASA in this effort since 1993. Spaceports, which may someday make space tourism possible, are being developed in various parts of the country. Aerospace serves as an advisor to a branch of the Federal Aviation Administration as these sites come to life.
Landsat satellites have been gathering and relaying imagery since 1972, and Aerospace has been a part of this development, today standing shoulder-to-shoulder with NASA and U.S. Geological Survey engineers at Goddard Space Flight Center. Aerospace has also worked closely with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association over the years as it develops and deploys weather and environmental satellites—critical information gatherers for spaceflight, while serving a variety of other needs to the government and general public.
The Constellation program, built around Ares rockets and Orion capsules, is designed to return astronauts to the moon and possibly explore near-Earth asteroids and eventually Mars. Aerospace is assisting NASA in this effort. The corporation has also become a significant partner to robotics efforts at JPL, including work developing the now-famous rovers that continue to explore Mars.
None of this would be possible without engineers and scientists studying what happens in space—the science of what exactly is out there, and how it affects spacecraft and their components. Aerospace has been conducting this research since its founding. Just as intriguing is the study of sounds from space. Aerospace scientists are today applying technology first developed to study these sounds to law enforcement techniques, assisting in crime solving by deciphering voices.
President Obama pledged as a candidate specific fixes and attention for the languishing U.S. space exploration program: an additional $2 billion to NASA's budget to narrow the gap between the space shuttle's retirement and the first flight of its successor, sending humans to the moon by 2020, and re-establishing a White House space council. What is discovered through NASA work is often highly applicable toward national security space. Aerospace will continue to support NASA as its efforts and realities take shape.
