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National Aeronautics andSpace Administration

Marshall Space Flight CenterHuntsville, Alabama 35812

NASA Facts

FS-2001-06-124-MSFC June 2001

As NASA’s lead center for space transportation systemsand development, and the center of excellence for spacepropulsion, the Marshall Space Flight Center in Hunts-ville, Ala., leads NASA’s mission to develop futuregenerations of safe, reliable and affordable spacetransportation systems. The Center also maintainsthe highest-standard propulsion systems for America’scurrent space fleet.

In addition, the Marshall Center leads NASA’s effortsin microgravity research—experiments conducted in

the low gravity inside orbiting spacecraft—as wellas in the development of space optics manufacturingtechnologies. The Center also provides breakthroughadvances in Earth and space science research, anddelivers practical applications of NASA space researchand technologies here on Earth.

Marshall Center scientists, engineers and supportteams are dedicated to helping America explore thecosmos, while making life better here on Earth.

Marshall Space Flight CenterExploring the Cosmos, Improving Life on Earth

The Space Launch Initiative, NASA’s comprehensive research and technology developmenteffort, is spearheaded by the Marshall Center.

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The Space Launch InitiativeThe Marshall Center is managing the Space Launch-Initiative, NASA’s comprehensive research and tech-nology development effort to dramatically increase thesafety, reliability and affordability of space transporta-tion systems. The Space Launch Initiative is the keyto opening the space frontier for commercialization,scientific discovery and economic expansion.

This initiative calls for a focused investment of $4.8billion through fiscal year 2006 to develop conceptsand technologies needed to develop a 2nd generationreusable launch vehicle. These leap-ahead technolo-gies include crew survival, advanced fuel tanks andairframe structures, long-life rocket engines andthermal protection systems. A 2nd generation vehicleis expected to be 10 times cheaper and 100 times saferthan today’s space launch systems. The ultimate goalof the initiative is to mature technologies that willenable a mid-decade decision regarding developmentof a versatile space transportation system that couldserve both government and commercial needs.

studied, developed and tested at Marshall’s PropulsionResearch Center, as well as at other NASA fieldcenters and partner institutions all over the nation.Innovative materials and processes technologiesare also under investigation, as NASA and its partnersseek ways to develop safer, stronger and moredurable engines, vehicles, structures and componentsto handle the immense power of these futuristicpropulsion systems.

The Marshall Center’s Space Transportation Directorateoversees NASA’s development of new, innovativepropulsion concepts such as the X–43B, an air-breathingrocket-propelled vehicle now being developed by NASAand its industry partners.

The Advanced Space Transportation Program atMarshall looks beyond 2nd generation systems, leadingthe way in developing technologies needed to fly a 3rdgeneration reusable launch vehicle by 2025, and a 4thgeneration vehicle by 2040. The 3rd generation vehicleis expected to make launches 1,000 times safer and100 times cheaper than today. The 4th generationvehicle is expected to improve safety and reduce costby yet another order of magnitude, making space travelvirtually indistinguishable from modern air travel—10,000 times safer and 1,000 times cheaper thantoday’s rockets.

To reach these goals requires revolutionary aerospacetechnologies—from magnetic, chemical andpropellantless propulsion systems to all-new energysources such as space solar power or antimatterpropulsion. These and other advances are now being

The Marshall Center leads development of the X–37 spaceplane, designed to travel at 25 times the speed of soundand fly in both orbital and suborbital environments.

The Marshall Center leads NASA’s government team indevelopment and testing of the X–37 space plane, whichis expected to make history as the first reusable dem-onstrator to fly in both orbital and reentry environments.

Designed to demonstrate dozens of advanced airframe,avionics and operations technologies that can supportvarious launch vehicle and spacecraft designs, the X–37will travel up to 25 times the speed of sound. One of itsprimary goals is to demonstrate advanced, durablethermal protection systems in an environment relevantto future reusable launch vehicles. Thermal systemsnow in use are fragile and expensive to maintain.

After deployment, the X–37 is designed to remain inorbit up to 21 days, performing a variety of experimentsbefore reentering the atmosphere and landing on aconventional runway.

Space Shuttle Propulsion

In 2001, the Marshall Center helped celebrate the 20thanniversary of the Space Shuttle, for which Marshallmanages all propulsion elements, including the MainEngine, External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters.From inside out, thousands of advances in technologyand enhanced designs have been incorporated in theShuttle since it first launched. A program of evolution-ary upgrades will continue to improve its safety and

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reliability. Planned safety upgrades include an AdvancedHealth Management System that will monitor theperformance of the Shuttle’s Main Engines; the useof “friction stir welding”—or friction-derived heat—tobond metal together on the External Tank; and ahelium-powered thrust vector control system for theSolid Rocket Boosters.

In 2001, a redesigned Shuttle Main Engine will fly ona Shuttle mission. The updated Block II engine includesa new high-pressure fuel turbopump, modified to elimi-nate welds using a casting process for the housing andan integral shaft/disk with thin wall blades and ceramicbearings. This modification makes the pump strongerand should increase the number of flights betweenrequired overhauls.

Additional upgrades to the Shuttle’s propulsion systemsare planned for completion by 2005.

Microgravity ResearchMarshall scientists and engineers routinely contributeto new processes and technology innovations in areasas diverse as manufacturing, communications andelectronics. Microgravity research conducted in Earthorbit furthers our understanding of critical biological,chemical and physical processes, opening doors tocommercial development of space.

experiment hardware similar to that found aboard theorbiting facility. The Marshall Center also is home toa NASA Telescience Center, where researchers canremotely command and monitor their experimentsaboard the Space Station.

International Space Station HardwareAs Space Station construction continues in orbit, theMarshall Center maintains a key role in hardware de-velopment and science operations for the orbitingresearch outpost. Marshall is overseeing developmentof Station Nodes 2 and 3—modules that serve as hubsfor distribution of water, electrical power and thermalcontrols for the Space Station—as well as the Station’sEnvironmental Control and Life Support System, awater recycling and oxygen generation system that willeliminate the need to continuously resupply air andwater to the Station.

Marshall also oversees development and operation ofthe Space Station’s Multipurpose Logistics Modules.The three pressurized modules—built by the ItalianSpace Agency and its industry partners and carriedaboard the Space Shuttle—will serve as “moving vans”to carry laboratory racks filled with equipment, experi-ments and supplies to and from the Station.

The Payload Operations Center at Marshall is NASA’sprimary Space Station science command post, coordi-nating all scientific experiments on the Station as wellas communications between researchers around theworld and their on-board experiments. The MarshallCenter also is responsible for coordinating and manag-ing all Station microgravity science and commercialresearch payloads.

Microgravity research conducted aboard the SpaceStation furthers our understanding of critical scientificprocesses, opening doors to commercial development ofspace via Marshall’s Space Product Development Program.

Team members staff the Payload Operations Center at theMarshall Center—NASA’s primary Space Station sciencecommand post.

Until recently, microgravity research was limited torelatively short-duration flights aboard a Space Shuttle.This changed with the addition of the Destiny Labora-tory Module to the International Space Station in 2001.One of numerous Space Station elements built andtested at the Marshall Center, Destiny allows for long-duration microgravity experiments and is the premierlaboratory for this research.

Before experiments reach the Station, scientistscan test their hardware at the Marshall Center’sMicrogravity Development Laboratory, which provides

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Space Optics ManufacturingWith more than 30 years of experience developingsophisticated optical systems for space exploration,the Marshall Center leads NASA’s space optics manu-facturing technology development, including opticsdesign, fabrication, testing and analysis.

Most recently, the Center designed and developed theworld’s most powerful X-ray telescope, the Chandra X-rayObservatory. Launched in 1999 under the direction ofMarshall lead researchers, Chandra is roughly a billiontimes more powerful than the first X-ray telescopes—enabling scientists to identify never-before-seen phe-nomena such as a flare from a brown dwarf star anda small galaxy being cannibalized by a larger one.

The Space Optics Manufacturing Technology Centerat Marshall is spearheading NASA’s development ofadvanced, ultra-lightweight optics materials, fabricationtechnologies, precise measurement standards andstate-of-the-art test facilities. This center currentlysupports NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center byleading optics technology development for the NextGeneration Space Telescope, the successor to theHubble Space Telescope. The center also is develop-ing ultra-lightweight optics for Chandra’s successor,the Constellation X-ray mission.

Launched in 1999, the Marshall-managed Chandra X-rayObservatory continues to deliver fascinating,unprecedented imagery from space, such as thisbreathtaking photo [inset] of a busy region of the MilkyWay galaxy some 20,000 light-years from Earth.

National Space Science and TechnologyCenter

The Marshall Center partners with Alabama universities,industry and other federal agencies in the NationalSpace Science and Technology Center. With corefacilities which opened in Huntsville in 2001, the centeris a collaborative effort that enables scientists, engi-neers and educators to share research and facilities.Marshall’s space science and technology expertiseanchors the new center, which focuses on cutting-edgeadvances in space science, materials science, biotech-nology, Earth sciences, propulsion, information technol-ogy, optics and other areas that support NASA’s mission.

In collaboration with researchers at Stanford Universityin Palo Alto, Calif., Marshall Center scientists aredeveloping a sophisticated experiment called GravityProbe B, designed to prove or disprove portions ofAlbert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Einsteinbelieved space and time are displaced by heavenlybodies such as planets, stars and moons, and theo-rized that the rotation of these bodies pulls space andtime—an effect called frame-dragging. The GravityProbe B mission is scheduled to launch in late 2002.

Award-winning ResearchThe Marshall Center’s aggressive reach for the stars isintended to do more than advance humanity’s explora-tion of the solar system and the universe beyond. Newtechnologies derived from space science and researchoffer a wealth of benefits here on Earth, helping indus-try create new medicines and medical procedures,manufacturing processes, and electronics and commu-nications breakthroughs that have already changed thelives of people all over the world.

Technologies brought about by America’s spaceprogram are available to private industry, universitiesand other government agencies through the MarshallCenter’s Technology Transfer Department. Thetechnology transfer program encourages a broaduse of Marshall-developed technologies and expertiseby American private enterprise, not only for newproduct development but also to find solutions totechnical problems.

National Aeronautics andSpace Administration

George C. Marshall Space Flight CenterMarshall Space Flight Center, Alabama 35812

For more information about theMarshall Center, visit:

http://www.msfc.nasa.gov/

Or write to us at:MSFC Public InquiriesGovernment and Community Relations OfficeCD50, Huntsville, AL 35812