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Large Area Telescope (LAT) Project's members awarded on behalf of the NASA Goddard Flight Center
:: 23 October, 2007
the Large Area Telescope (LAT) Project awarded certificates of appreciation to the 58 members of the LAT Environmental Test team, on behalf of the NASA Goddard Flight Center. Each team member received a personalized plaque in recognition of his or her "outstanding contribution and dedication to the successful development and testing of the GLAST Large Area Telescope," signed by Kevin Grady, the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Project Manager.
The 3000-kilogram LAT is the primary instrument for the GLAST mission, and will detect gamma rays with unprecedented sensitivity, offering exceptional insight into the nature of dark matter, stellar evolution, and black holes.
Between May and September of 2006, the LAT Environmental Test team subjected the instrument to an exhaustive barrage of tests, ensuring it will survive the extreme temperatures and vibrations it will encounter during launch and in space. The team completed the tests within three days of the planned date.
"This is a tremendous success, considering the complexity of the instrument and the thorough nature of the testing," said LAT Project Manager Ken Fouts. The team often supported testing and operations seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, both at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., and at SLAC. "I'm very proud to be associated with this group," Fouts continued.
Persis Drell, who was Director of Particle and Particle Astrophysics at SLAC during testing, declared, "this is very well-deserved recognition. The Environmental Test team is incredibly dedicated, and they've done beautiful work."
GLAST is an international collaboration led by NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy, and is scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center in early 2008.
Congratulations to the LAT team members recognized on Friday:
Rich Baun, Rich Bielawski, Elliott Bloom, Anders Borgland, Rick Bright, Kelly Burlingham, John Canfield, Eric Charles, Ric Claus, Mike DeKlotz, Warren Focke, Ken Fouts, Mark Freytag, Gary Godfrey, Jack Goodman, Brian Grist, Gunther Haller, Philip Hart, Phuc Hoang, Dick Horn, Mike Huffer, Dave Kiehl, Lowell Klaisner, Martin Kocian, Bryson Lee, Shannon Leone, Y.C. Liew, Jeffrey Ludvik, Sergio Maldanado, Leo Manger, Lester Miller, Mark Molini, Dave Nelson, Albert Nguyen, Debbie Nicholson, Tom Nieland, Jim Panetta, Amadeo Perazzo, Linda Price, Brett Pugh, JJ Russell, Lupe Salgado, Leonid Sapozhnikov, Owen Saxton, Eric Siskind, Mutsumi Sugizaki, Matt Swift, Hiro Tajima, Gregg Thayer, Jeff Tice, Selim Tuvi, Diana Viera, Larry Wai, Tony Waite, Jeff Wang, Patrick Young, Eliazar Ortiz, Jana Thayer, John Ku, Pat Hascall, Mark Campell and Joe Cullinan.
About Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope
The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, is a future space-based gamma-ray telescope, designed to explore the high-energy Universe. It will study astrophysical and cosmological phenomena such as active galactic nuclei, pulsars, other high-energy sources, and dark matter. GLAST is a joint venture of NASA, the United States Department of Energy, and government agencies in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Sweden.
The key scientific objectives of the GLAST mission are:
To understand the mechanisms of particle acceleration in active galactic nuclei (AGN), pulsars, and supernova remnants (SNR).
Resolve the gamma-ray sky: unidentified sources and diffuse emission.
Determine the high-energy behavior of gamma-ray bursts and transients.
Probe dark matter and early Universe.
About Goddard Space Flight Center
The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center. GSFC employs approximately 10,000 civil servants and contractors, and is located approximately 6.5 miles northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland.
GSFC has the largest combined organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to increasing knowledge of the Earth, the Solar System, and the Universe via observations from space in the United States. GSFC is a major U.S. laboratory for developing and operating unmanned scientific spacecraft. GSFC conducts scientific investigation, development and operation of space systems, and development of related technologies. Goddard scientists can develop and support a mission, and Goddard engineers and technicians can design and build the spacecraft for that mission.
Release link: http://www-glast.stanford.edu/
Tags: Large Area Telescope (LAT) , NASA Goddard Flight Center , plaque , GLAST , Kevin Grady , Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope , Naval Research Laboratory , Persis Drell. ,
