2008 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

The Founding and Early History of the NASA
Earth Observations Aircraft Program at the
Manned Spacecraft Center
The founding of the Earth Observations
Aircraft remote sensing program in NASA
occurred at the Manned Space Center
(MSC)(now Johnson Space Center) in
November of 1964 with two visionaries
with technical and engineering backgrounds,
Leo Childs and Harold Toy. Harold obtained
a Convair 240 (CV 240) aircraft, and Leo
acquired some surplus Department of
Defense (DOD) photographic and scanning
sensor systems. The pair approached NASA
Headquarters with a plan for an airborne
remote sensing system program. The CV 240
was a much traveled two engine (reciprocating)
aircraft MSC utilized as a platform to test
radars for the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM)
lunar landing. When the flight test program
was completed and prior to the time the
aircraft was to be declared surplus, these
two fellows seized upon the opportunity and
promoted its use for aircraft remote sensing
for earth observations. This was quite visionary
for the time when one realizes it is now a vital
global program, although they undoubtedly did
not have that far-reaching a vision at the time.
They also were also aware there was a keen
interest within the Office of Space Science and
Applications (OSSA) in obtaining this capability.
Now the desire, opportunity, and people all
came together in an enthusiastic manner to
make it happen.
The first aircraft, the CV 240, was gradually
modified to accommodate six Earthlooking
sensor systems. The growing
sensor complement included the 13.3 GHz
scatterometer, metric and multiband
cameras, UV imager (AAS7), thermal
scanner (RS 7), infrared thermometer
(PRT5), and ancillary data systems. The
cameras and scanning systems were of
DOD surplus origin. The scanners for the
most part were not calibrated systems. The
CV 240 remained in service through August
of 1969, at which time it was replaced
by a Lockheed C-130. In December of
1965, in response to growing investigative
and data requirements, a Lockheed P-3A
was acquired on loan from the Navy, and
became operational early in 1967. These
two aircraft, along with the CV 240 (until
1969), were used to acquire data from
low and intermediate altitudes early in the
program. In late FY1969 (fiscal years were
then from July through June), an agreement
with the Air Force permitted flight time
aboard an Air Weather Service (RB) WB-
57F aircraft for the high altitude phase of
the program, which became operational in
July 1969.
The primary responsibility for the aircraft
program rested with the Office of Space
Science and Applications (OSSA) at NASA
headquarters. The role of the MSC was
essentially implementation and operations
and that of OSSA scientific requirements,
investigator selection, contracts and funding,
reporting, and oversight of the program
with selected academic institutions, other
government organizations, and the aircraft
program at MSC. Other activities at MSC
included sensor and ground data systems
definition and development, principal
investigator coordination and management,
sensor operation and maintenance, mission
122