VII. SPACE 



In considering big science facilities, both space and antarctic 

 research (discussed in chapter XI) must be discussed carefully in 

 order to distinguish between the infrastructure required to support 

 the big science facilities and the big science facilities themselves. 

 In this report, the space shuttles, for example, are not included as 

 big science facilities because they are, in effect, trucks to take 

 things into orbit, even if those things are scientific experiments. 

 Nor are launch pads, tracking stations, and other infrastructure 

 included in this inventory (see section A). 



What are included here as big science facilities are satellites 

 which conduct physics and astronomical research, lunar and planetary 

 exploration, and Earth science. These are discussed in section B, 

 Sections C and D deal with European and Japanese space big science 

 programs, and Soviet space big science programs, respectively. 



A. NASA INFRASTRUCTURE AND SCIENCE 16/ 



Since 1959 when NASA began operating, a number of major infra- 

 structural programs have been funded. It is important to emphasize 

 for the purpose of this report that these programs are not science 

 programs per se, although they are necessary for the conduct of the 

 big science projects discussed below. For example, in 1959-1961, 

 major NASA efforts were directed toward the support of tracking 

 and data facilities needed for the Mercury Program. During this 

 period, both the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California 

 and the Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island, Virginia were 

 expanded to support adequately NASA's space science programs, and 

 the new Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland begun operations. 



From 1961-1968, the major NASA thrust was for the Apollo pro- 

 gram. Projects included establishing a full range of support fa- 

 cilities, that is, manufacturing facilities, propulsion test facil- 

 ities, development of the Saturn family of launch vehicles, land ac- 

 quisitions, launch complexes at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and 

 construction of another new NASA field center (Johnson Space Center, 

 Texas, which was completed in 1964). 



16/ Some information in this section was provided by the NASA 

 Facilities Engineering Division, Apr. 1985. 



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