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Posted by: BYEMAN Dec 18 2022, 06:12 PM

A little background on me. I have been in the spaceflight business for almost 40 years. Mostly from a payload point of view. Started with 5 years in LA at what could be called the Air Force Shuttle Program office. Saw drastic change in my career with the Challenger accident. Spent the next 2 1/2 years working on space launch capability recovery (was involved with studies that lead to Delta II, Atlas II and increase Titan IV production). Went to the Cape and worked the DOD missions on the shuttle and Titan IV payloads. Additional duty was supporting DOD secondary payloads like middeck lockers, GAS cans and Hitchhikers (I know I am dating myself). Decided to get out of the Air Force during the post Cold War/Desert Storm draw down in 1992. I wanted to stay in the Cape area and parlayed my experience on middecks payload to a job the Spacehab program. Had a good run with them but towards 2000, I became anxious with every shuttle launch since my job depended on it (which unfortunately became true). Decided to move on and got a job with the NASA Launch Services Program (LSP), first as an integration engineer and later as a Launch Site Integration Manager.

My mission tally is as such:
NASA Integration Engineer: Whole missions - ICESat, MER A&B and MRO. Partial - STSS Demo and MSL through LV GSE and mission unique build. Backup - JASON/TIMED, CONTOUR & MAP. Support - PNH. OSP and CxP studies and early X-37 integration.

Launch Site Integration Manager: STSS Demo, Juno, DSCOVR, OA-6, Solar Orbiter, Mars 2020, Psyche. Partial - MMS. Backup - Kepler, GRAIL, SDO, RBSP, OA-4 & 7, GOES-R, S & T, EFT-1. Supported ops for TDRS-K, L & J, MAVEN, OSIRIS-REX, Jason-3, PSP, Lucy, JPSS-2, SWOT. Working HALO/PPE and Europa Clipper planning. Provided propellant and support to JWST.

What does it have to do with Unmanned Spaceflight?
Much of my jobs have been dealing with launch site facilities for spacecraft, specifically unmanned. In a hallway of the MOSB, there is a picture of every NASA mission that has gone through the PHSF. In hangar AE, there is a tally board listing all the missions supported by LSP predecessors. This got me working on a mission vs facility list. Finding data on early missions has its challenges. I use my elevated access to NTRS and DTIC to provide data. Also, volunteering at the Air Force Space and Missile Museum has provided access to its archives. Additionally, I had been working with archivists at JPL and Langley.

Where is this leading?

My research has revealed a unrecognized facility with a huge significance in spaceflight history. Launch Complex 5/6 Spin Test Facility. It is subject of two articles I wrote for the Quest Magazine. I can't share the articles directly since they are copyrighted, I will provide a summary in a later thread. Also, my research has uncovered hundreds of photos of Ranger, Mariner, Lunar Orbiter and early Explorer/Pioneers, unseen by the public. I will be posting some of these on another thread.

Posted by: vikingmars Feb 20 2023, 06:47 AM

QUOTE (BYEMAN @ Dec 18 2022, 07:12 PM)