2008 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program
2008 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program
2008 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program
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management and support, aircraft operation<br />
and maintenance, data acquisition, software<br />
development, and data reduction, processing,<br />
quality screening and dissemination.<br />
The funding for the above mentioned<br />
functions was allocated from the OSSA<br />
science budget and provided for a level of<br />
contractor support at MSC for aircraft, sensor,<br />
and data reduction activities. MSC was an<br />
Office of Manned Space Flight (OMSF)<br />
center and provided the funding of the<br />
program civil service personnel utilized, but<br />
not funded by, OSSA. The program was quite<br />
successful, with funding in 1965 of $200,000<br />
supporting 11 missions, to $10,900,000 in<br />
1970 supporting 53 missions at 190 test<br />
sites. Staffing (CS and contractor) increased<br />
from 22 to 236 in 1970. By the phase out of<br />
the Aircraft <strong>Program</strong> at MSC/JSC, over 600<br />
medium and high altitude data acquisition<br />
missions were successfully flown.<br />
The dramatic increases in budget levels,<br />
missions, and data acquisition flights from<br />
the 1965 to 1970 period were due to<br />
added capabilities resulting from acquisition<br />
and modification of additional medium and<br />
high altitude aircraft, and increased principal<br />
investigator participation. This was due<br />
to both airborne and space investigations<br />
(i.e., Skylab/ERTS), major electronic sensor<br />
development and test programs to support<br />
crucial scientific requirements, such as<br />
band selection for the Earth Resources<br />
Technology Satellite (ERTS, later renamed<br />
LandSat) for which a major contribution<br />
was the MSC-developed 24 channel<br />
scanner, and development of multifrequency<br />
passive microwave sensor systems for use<br />
in agriculture, oceanography, and arctic<br />
investigations.<br />
The MSC organizations that were involved in<br />
the program included:<br />
• Earth Observations Aircraft <strong>Program</strong><br />
Office (overall program management).<br />
• Earth Observations Division (science<br />
disciplines).<br />
• Engineering and Development<br />
Directorate (sensor technology and<br />
operation and engineering support).<br />
• Flight Operations Directorate<br />
(development and implementation of<br />
electronic data processing programs).<br />
• Photo Technology Lab (photo processing).<br />
• Flight Crew Operations Directorate<br />
(aircraft operations).<br />
• Engineering Division (aircraft and support<br />
hardware design and fabrication).<br />
• Space Flight Meteorology Group (test site<br />
weather forecasting).<br />
The OSSA <strong>Program</strong> Manager at the<br />
inception of the program through 1970 was a<br />
gentleman by the name of John Koutsandreas<br />
(Kouts), the “Mad Greek”, with a drive and<br />
genius for budget augmentation, as well<br />
as program expansion, both domestic and<br />
international. He was a Marine in every<br />
sense of the word. John worked for Ted<br />
George, who in turn worked for Len Jaffe,<br />
who headed the OSSA Applications Division.<br />
Kouts was the father of the first budgets (and<br />
their dramatic increases in funding), which<br />
in the early days were buried, in another<br />
unrelated OSSA budget line item in a place<br />
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