Engineering topics

McCurdy, Howard E.

Publications and source records attributed to McCurdy, Howard E..

6 records

NASA NTRS2005

Low-Cost Innovation in Spaceflight: The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Shoemaker Mission

On a spring day in 1996, at their research center in the Maryland countryside, representatives from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) presented Administrator Daniel S. Goldin of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with a check for $3.6 million. 1 Two and a half years earlier, APL officials had agreed to develop a spacecraft capable of conducting an asteroid rendezvous and to do so for slightly more than $122 million. This was a remarkably low sum for a spacecraft due to conduct a planetaryclass mission. By contrast, the Mars Observer spacecraft launched in 1992 for an orbital rendezvous with the red planet had cost $479 million to develop, while the upcoming Cassini mission to Saturn required a spacecraft whose total cost was approaching $1.4 billion. In an Agency accustomed to cost overruns on major missions, the promise to build a planetary-class spacecraft for about $100 million seemed excessively optimistic.

McCurdy, Howard E.↗

NASA NTRS1992

The Decision to Send Humans Back to the Moon and on to Mars: Space Exploration Initiative History Project

This folder contains working papers collected to date on a NASA-sponsored history project to document the events leading up to the July 20, 1989 speech setting forth the objectives of the Space Exploration Initiative. Included are a chronology of events, briefing papers produced by the NASA Working Group laying out proposal, briefing charts used to present the proposal, a copy of the President's speech, and an essay summarizing the events that led up to the announcement. Additionally, two fo the interviews conducted as part of the project are enclosed.

McCurdy, Howard E.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Introduction: Back to The Moon and on to Mars

On July 20, 1989, President George Bush proposed that the United States undertake as the long range objective of its civil space program an initiative that would lead to the establishment of a permanent base on the moon and a human expedition to Mars. His speech, delivered from the steps of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., on the 20th anniversary of the first landing on the moon, gave official blessing to what had long been the unapproved purpose of the American civilian space.

McCurdy, Howard E.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Space Exploration Initiative: Chronology

This chronology gives an overview of the human space exploration initiative from 1956 through 1989. Details are given for the political milestones of the initiative, including information on presidential mandates and NASA Administrator appointments.

McCurdy, Howard E.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Transcript of Interview: Franklin D. Martin

This document is a transcript of an interview given by Howard E. McCurdy to Franklin D. Martin. Martin gives details on his background including information on his family, education, and career path, his thoughts on the human space exploration initiative and the mission to the Moon, his presentation to the Vice President about Civil Space Exploration: The Lunar Base, and President Kennedy's pronouncement of America's intent to go to the Moon and the effects of the speech.

McCurdy, Howard E.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Transcript of Interview: Mark K. Craig

This document is a transcript of an interview given by Howard E. McCurdy to Mark K. Craig. Craig gives details on his background including information on his family, education, and career path, his reaction to the news that America was planning to put a man on the Moon, why he thinks we should go to Mars, and the political speeches made at the time of early human space exploration planning.

McCurdy, Howard E.↗