NASA Goddard’s Beginnings in Project Vanguard

In the dawn of the Space Age, a group of scientists and engineers from the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) had their eye on a new frontier: the uncharted expanse of space. Project Vanguard, initiated in 1955, aimed to launch the first American satellite into Earth orbit as part of the International Geophysical Year (July 1957 to December 1958). Led by NRL, it envisioned a three-stage rocket design and emphasized scientific instrumentation over military application while showcasing American ingenuity. Despite its ambitious goals, Project Vanguard encountered difficulties. The first five Vanguard launch attempts suffered critical failures, earning it the nickname “Flopnik” in the press. The public, eager for American success in space following the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik 1, was disappointed in Vanguard’s performance. However, Vanguard’s legacy extends beyond its initial setbacks. On March 17, 1958, Vanguard TV-4, also known as Vanguard I, achieved orbit to become America’s second satellite and the world’s fourth artificial satellite in space. This success marked a major milestone and instilled renewed confidence in the project. Today, Vanguard I remains in space as the oldest satellite orbiting the Earth.

A few months after the launch of Vanguard I in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and on May 1, 1959, NASA Administrator Dr. T. Keith Glennan announced that the Beltsville Space Center would become Goddard Space Flight Center. The center would be under the overall guidance of Dr. Abe Silverstein, then Director of Space Flight Development at NASA Headquarters.

Recognizing the expertise and dedication of the NRL team, NASA transferred many employees from Project Vanguard to form the nucleus of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The migration of NRL scientists and engineers to Goddard wasn’t merely a paperwork shuffle, it was the transfer of their vital knowledge and experience.

Their impact was immediate. While initially tasked with completing Vanguard’s mission, the Goddard center quickly expanded its scope, encompassing Earth science, astrophysics, and space exploration. Early Goddard employees formed the core of several projects, including the Explorer series of satellites and the Television Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS) Program. They tackled the challenges of satellite communication, laying the groundwork for technologies that would be used for years.

Goddard’s dedication ceremony took place on March 16, 1961, but its employees were hard at work well before that day. According to one employee’s account, the Applied Mathematics Branch moved from an office in Anacostia to the Greenbelt site on May 9, 1960. Other employees from a Massachusetts Avenue office building in Washington, DC, arrived around the same time. Those early days at Goddard were not easy. Parking lots had not been paved and signs at the center directed employees to park their cars under a large grove of oak trees. Some buildings did not yet have running water and portable toilets were available outside.

In celebration of Vanguard II’s sixtieth anniversary in 2019, the Goddard Archives installed newly preserved flight spares of Vanguard II and Vanguard III. Vanguard II hangs in the atrium of Building 33 and Vanguard III hangs in the visitor’s center. The Goddard Archives also hosted an event to highlight Goddard’s roots in Project Vanguard. In attendance were NRL historian Angelina Callahan, who gave a short talk about NRL and Project Vanguard, and five employees who worked at Goddard when it was first established. The legacy of the early work at NASA Goddard endures, not just in its scientific achievements, but also in its inspiring work exploring the frontiers of our universe.

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Atmospheric Science Branch Chief Dr. Charles Gatebe

“I was born and raised in Kenya and come from a very humble background. I’m one of nine kids and the third born, meaning that I started responsibilities very early because we had to help our mother. Almost every two to three years, she had a baby, so you can imagine she was a very, very strong woman and powerful, too. When I think about that past, she is the person, and my father as well, who taught us that we can overcome any obstacle. It doesn’t matter what it is.

“I remember going to school without fees, and they would send me home. One time, when I was complaining about being sent home because of my lack of school fees, [my mother] could see I was affected by all this. She told me, ‘Those kids you see out there that look like they come from higher, well-off families came to this world the same way you came. So, you are no different than them. Don’t look at the material wealth and think you are less than them.’ 

“That’s the background that shaped me. It instilled a sense of believing in yourself. Anyone you see on the streets, their color or background doesn’t matter; we all come into this world the same way. You’re equipped with skills, so find your passion and go for it. 

“When I look at that background, it’s the one that has helped me come this far.”

– Dr. Charles Gatebe, Chief of Atmospheric Science Branch, NASA’s Ames Research Center

Image Credit: NASA / Brandon Torres
Interviewer: NASA / Tahira Allen

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Michelle Zajac

Solver Spotlight: Shobhana Gupta

Shobhana Gupta is a physician scientist and currently serves as the Open Innovation and Community Applications manager with Earth Science Division’s Applied Sciences Program at NASA Headquarters. Shobhana manages crowdsourcing activities including prize competitions to invite talents and experiences outside of the NASA community for the discovery and development of applications of Earth observations for decision-making. She is also a star solver, having provided a number of valuable ideas and solutions to her peers through NASA Spark. NASA Spark as an internal, agency-wide platform that provides NASA employees an unconventional and inventive way to share knowledge and advance projects. Check out what Shobhana has to say about open innovation and the NASA Spark community.

What is your role at NASA?

I serve as the Manager of NASA Earth Action’s Prizes and Challenges Program, where we use crowdsourcing mechanisms to invite talents and experiences outside of the NASA community to participate in the discovery and development of Earth observations-based applications for decision-making.  I also serve as the Associate Program Manager of NASA’s Equity and Environmental Justice Program, to support projects that apply NASA data for advancing awareness and challenges related to human health or environmental outcomes that are unique to, or disproportionately affect, underserved communities, including persons of color, low-income persons, Indigenous persons or members of Tribal nations. I completed my medical and graduate training at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (Department of Microbiology and Immunology) and a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine (Department of Neurology) before joining NASA in 2015 as an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow. I supported the Health and Air Quality Program to enhance decision-making about environmental health and infectious diseases, as well as managed NASA’s International Space Apps Challenge Program in 2017.

Why do you like participating on NASA Spark?

I truly believe that the best outcomes can be achieved if we are open and invite collaboration on not just the work we have done, but the work that we are doing. This includes sharing our current challenges and harnessing the knowledge and skills of people from different backgrounds, fields of expertise, and different experiences to find solutions. Instead of trying to find resources or solutions by myself or within my team, NASA Spark allows me to expand my network and benefit from ideas from colleagues across ALL of NASA – that’s incredible!

You’re a multi-time winner! What does that mean to you? Why do you keep coming back and sharing your ideas?

I love participating in NASA Spark campaigns because it is a great way to leverage the work we are doing or have completed for greater impact across NASA.  If we have created a resource that gives another team a head start in their work, it’s a win-win. Our team can show the value of our work, and the other team can save their time and resources.

How can other NASA employees best utilize NASA Spark?

NASA Spark can be the NASA “watercooler” for employees across all programs and centers in the agency.  We can post challenges we are stuck on, ideas we are trying to develop, or any other calls for input to our entire brilliant, skilled, multidisciplinary expert workforce – for free and for minimal effort! We should all sign up to learn about and contribute to new campaigns from our colleagues, including building on ideas that others have submitted. NASA Spark is a great platform to network across the agency – your coworkers are just collaborators waiting to happen!

What does innovation mean to you?

Innovation, to me, is doing something new while constantly moving towards doing better.  Whether it is applying existing tools and ideas in a novel way or developing completely new solutions – innovation should make our work easier and outcomes more impactful. Open innovation by sharing our work and challenges with people from unrelated fields and backgrounds, encouraging them to apply their perspectives to manipulate our questions and share solutions, can in turn empower us to achieve superior outcomes.

If you are a NASA employee and interested in learning more about NASA Spark, visit spark.nasa.gov.

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Sarah Douglas

Teams Add Iconic NASA ‘Worm’ Logo to Artemis II Rocket, Spacecraft

Art and science merge as teams add the NASA “worm” logo on the SLS (Space Launch System) solid rocket boosters and the Orion spacecraft’s crew module adapter at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the agency’s Artemis II mission.

The iconic logo was introduced in 1975 by the firm of Danne & Blackburn as a modern emblem for the agency. It emerged from a nearly 30-year retirement in 2020 for limited use on select missions and products.

NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems and prime contractor Jacobs began painting the red logotype onto the segments that form the Moon rocket’s two solid rocket boosters Jan. 22. To do so, crews used a laser projector to first mark off the location of the logo with tape, then applied two coats of paint and finished by adding several coats of clear primer. Each letter of the worm logo measures approximately 6 feet and 10 inches in height and altogether, stretches 25 feet from end to end, or a little less than the length of one of the rocket’s booster motor segments.

The location of the worm logo will be moderately different from where it was during Artemis I. While it will still be located on each of the rocket’s 17 story boosters, the modernist logo will be placed toward the front of the booster systems tunnel cover. The SLS boosters are the largest, most powerful solid propellant boosters ever flown and provide more than 75% of the thrust at launch.

Around the corner inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy, personnel adhered the worm logo and ESA (European Space Agency) insignia Jan. 28 on the spacecraft’s crew module adapter. The adapter houses electronic equipment for communications, power, and control, and includes an umbilical connector that bridges the electrical, data, and fluid systems between the main modules.

In October 2023, technicians joined the crew and service modules together. The crew module will house the four astronauts as they journey around the Moon and back to Earth on an approximately 10-day journey. The spacecraft’s service module, provided by ESA, will supply the vehicle with electricity, propulsion, thermal control, air, and water in space.

NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, and first international partner astronaut on the Moon through Artemis. SLS and the Orion spacecraft are central to NASA’s deep space exploration plans, along with advanced spacesuits and rovers, the Gateway space station planned for orbit around the Moon, and commercial human landing systems.

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Elyna N. Niles-Carnes

Hubble Views a Massive Star Forming

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is teeming with color and activity. It features a relatively close star-forming region known as IRAS 16562-3959, which lies within the Milky Way about 5,900 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius.

Observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 make up this image. Its detailed nuance of color is the result of four separate filters. These thin slivers of highly specialized material can slide in front of the instrument’s light sensors, allowing very specific wavelengths of light to pass through with each observation. This is useful because certain wavelengths of light can tell us about the region’s composition, temperature, and density.

At the center of the image, IRAS 16562-3959 likely hosts a massive star – about 30 times the mass of our Sun – that is still in the process of forming. The shadowy clouds appear dark because there is so much light-obscuring dust blocking the near-infrared wavelengths of light Hubble observed. However, near-infrared light does leak out mainly on two sides – upper left and lower right – where a powerful jet from the massive protostar cleared away the dust. Multi-wavelength images like this incredible Hubble scene help us gain a better understanding of how the most massive, brightest stars in our galaxy form.

Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)

Media Contact:

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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