NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field is a
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
center within the cities of
Brook Park and
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
between
Cleveland Hopkins International Airport
Cleveland Hopkins International Airport is an international airport in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is the primary airport serving Greater Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, the largest and busiest airport in the state, and the 43rd busiest a ...
and the Rocky River Reservation of
Cleveland Metroparks
Cleveland Metroparks is an extensive system of nature preserves in Greater Cleveland, Ohio. Eighteen reservations, which largely encircle the city of Cleveland, follow along the shore of Lake Erie and the rivers and creeks that flow through the ...
, with a subsidiary facility in
Sandusky, Ohio
Sandusky ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Erie County, Ohio, Erie County, Ohio, United States. Situated along the shores of Lake Erie in the northern part of the state, Sandusky is located roughly midway between Toledo, Ohio, Toledo ( wes ...
. Its acting director is James A. Kenyon. Glenn Research Center is one of ten major
NASA facilities
There are NASA facilities across the United States and around the world. NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC provides overall guidance and political leadership to the agency. There are 10 NASA field centers, which provide leadership for and exec ...
, whose primary mission is to develop science and technology for use in aeronautics and space. , it employed about 1,650 civil servants and 1,850 support contractors on or near its site.
In 2010, the formerly on-site NASA Visitors Center moved to the
Great Lakes Science Center
The Great Lakes Science Center is a museum and educational facility in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States.
Many of the exhibits document the features of the natural environment in the Great Lakes region of the United States. The facility inc ...
in the
North Coast Harbor
North Coast Harbor is a district in downtown Cleveland, Ohio on the shore of Lake Erie. The district serves as the home of the Great Lakes Science Center, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, FirstEnergy Stadium, the Steamship William G. M ...
area of
downtown Cleveland
Downtown Cleveland is the central business district of Cleveland, Ohio. The economic and symbolic center of the city and the Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH Combined Statistical Area, it is Cleveland's oldest district, with its Public Square laid out b ...
.
History
![Interior View of Drafting Room in ERB - GPN-2000-001447](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Interior_View_of_Drafting_Room_in_ERB_-_GPN-2000-001447.jpg)
The installation was established in 1942 as part of the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a United States federal agency founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved and its assets ...
(NACA) and was later incorporated into the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding th ...
as a laboratory for aircraft engine research.
It was first named the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory after funding was approved in June 1940. It was renamed the Flight Propulsion Research Laboratory in 1947, the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory (LFPL) in 1948 (after
George W. Lewis
George William Lewis (March 10, 1882 – July 12, 1948) was the Director of Aeronautical Research at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) until he retired in 1947. He taught at Swarthmore College from 1910 to 1917.
Biograph ...
, the head of NACA from 1919 to 1947), and the NASA Lewis Research Center in 1958.
On March 1, 1999, the center was officially renamed the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, in honor of
John Glenn
John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space, and the first American to orbit the Earth, circling ...
, who was a fighter pilot, astronaut (the first American to orbit the Earth) and a politician.
As early as 1951, researchers at the LFPL were studying the combustion processes in
liquid rocket
A liquid-propellant rocket or liquid rocket utilizes a rocket engine that uses liquid propellants. Liquids are desirable because they have a reasonably high density and high specific impulse (''I''sp). This allows the volume of the propellant ta ...
engines.
Facilities
Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility
![GRC PBS B-2 Facility Aerial View](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/GRC_PBS_B-2_Facility_Aerial_View.jpg)
The NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at the Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility or just Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility, formerly the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Plum Brook Station or just Plum Brook Station, in southern
Erie County, Ohio
Erie County is a county located in the northern portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 75,622. Its county seat is Sandusky. The county is named for the Erie tribe, whose name was their word for "wildcat". ...
, near
Sandusky, is also part of Glenn ().
It is located about from the main campus. It specializes in very large scale tests that would be hazardous on the main campus.
the station consisted of five major facilities:
* B-2 Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility
* Combined Effects Chamber: never used and unusable
* Cryogenic Components Laboratory: slated for demolition
* Hypersonic Test Facility
* Space Power Facility
The
Plum Brook Reactor
The Plum Brook Reactor was a NASA 60 megawatt water-cooled and moderated research nuclear reactor, located in Sandusky, Ohio, 50 mi west of the NASA Glenn Research Center (at that time the NASA Lewis Research Center) in Cleveland, of which i ...
was decontaminated and decommissioned under a 2008 cost-plus-fee contract valued at more than $33.5 million.
In 2019 the U.S. senators from Ohio,
Rob Portman
Robert Jones Portman (born December 19, 1955) is an American attorney and politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from Ohio since 2011. A member of the Republican Party ...
and
Sherrod Brown
Sherrod Campbell Brown (; born November 9, 1952) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Ohio, a seat which he has held since 2007. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the U.S. representative for Ohio's ...
, proposed to rename Plum Brook Station after
Neil Armstrong
Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor.
...
. The legislation was signed into law on December 30, 2020, and Plum Brook Station was renamed the Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility.
B-2 Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility
The B-2 Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility is the world's only facility capable of testing full-scale, upper-stage launch vehicles and rocket engines under simulated high-altitude conditions. The Space Power Facility houses the world's largest space environment vacuum chamber.
Icing Research Tunnel
The icing Research Tunnel is a
wind tunnel
Wind tunnels are large tubes with air blowing through them which are used to replicate the interaction between air and an object flying through the air or moving along the ground. Researchers use wind tunnels to learn more about how an aircraft ...
capable of simulating atmospheric icing condition to test the effect of ice accretion on aircraft wings and body as well as to test anti-icing systems for aircraft.
Zero Gravity Research Facility
The Zero Gravity Research Facility is a vertical
vacuum chamber
A vacuum chamber is a rigid enclosure from which air and other gases are removed by a vacuum pump. This results in a low-pressure environment within the chamber, commonly referred to as a vacuum. A vacuum environment allows researchers to condu ...
used for dropping experiment payloads for testing in
microgravity
The term micro-g environment (also μg, often referred to by the term microgravity) is more or less synonymous with the terms ''weightlessness'' and ''zero-g'', but emphasising that g-forces are never exactly zero—just very small (on the I ...
. It was designated a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1985. The facility uses vertical drop tests in a vacuum chamber to investigate the behavior of components, systems, liquids, gases, and combustion in such circumstances.
The facility consists of a concrete-lined shaft, in diameter, that extends below ground level. An aluminum vacuum chamber, in diameter and high, is contained within the concrete shaft. The pressure in this vacuum chamber is reduced to 13.3
newtons
The newton (symbol: N) is the unit of force in the International System of Units (SI). It is defined as 1 kgâ‹…m/s, the force which gives a mass of 1 kilogram an acceleration of 1 metre per second per second. It is named after Isaac Newton in r ...
per square meter (1.3atm) before use.
After the closing of the
Japan Microgravity Centre Japan Microgravity Centre (JAMIC) is a site for microgravity experiments at a 710-metre-deep abandoned coal mine at Kamisunagawa, Hokkaido
is a town located in Sorachi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan.
As of September 2016, the town has an est ...
(JAMIC), the NASA Zero-G facility is the largest microgravity facility in the world.
Another, smaller drop tower remains in use with a free fall time of 2.2 seconds. The smaller tower has a significantly reduced cost per drop and the
Dropping In Microgravity Environment (DIME) educational program is conducted there.
Significant developments
Aeronautics science and technology
NASA Glenn does significant research and technology development on jet engines, producing designs that reduce energy consumption, pollution, and noise. The chevrons it invented for noise reduction appear on many commercial jet engines today, including the
Boeing 787 Dreamliner
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is an American wide-body jet airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
After dropping its unconventional Sonic Cruiser project, Boeing announced the conventional 7E7 on January 29, 2003, ...
.
Space science and technology
The Glenn Research Center, along with its partners in industry, are credited with the following:
* The
liquid hydrogen
Liquid hydrogen (LH2 or LH2) is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecular H2 form.
To exist as a liquid, H2 must be cooled below its critical point of 33 K. However, for it to be in a fully li ...
rocket engine, which
Wernher von Braun
Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...
credited as being the critical technology leading to the
Apollo Moon landings
* The
Centaur (rocket stage), Centaur upper stage rocket
* The gridded
ion thruster
An ion thruster, ion drive, or ion engine is a form of electric propulsion used for spacecraft propulsion. It creates thrust by accelerating ions using electricity.
An ion thruster ionizes a neutral gas by extracting some electrons out of a ...
, which is a high-efficiency engine for spaceflight.
A Glenn-derived ion engine was used on the successful NASA probe ''
Deep Space 1
''Deep Space 1'' (DS1) was a NASA technology demonstration spacecraft which flew by an asteroid and a comet. It was part of the New Millennium Program, dedicated to testing advanced technologies.
Launched on 24 October 1998, the ''Deep Space 1 ...
''.
* The Electrical Power System for
Space Station Freedom
Space Station ''Freedom'' was a NASA project to construct a permanently crewed Earth-orbiting space station in the 1980s. Although approved by then-president Ronald Reagan and announced in the 1984 State of the Union address, ''Freedom'' wa ...
, which, except for minor modifications, is used on the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...
.
Significant contributions
List of core competencies
NASA Glenn's core competencies are:
* Air-breathing propulsion
* Communications technology and development
* Space propulsion and cryogenic fluids management
* Power, energy storage, and conversion
* Materials and structures for extreme environments
Education
The Glenn Research Center is home to the Lewis' Educational and Research Collaborative Internship Program (LERCIP). It provides internships for high school and college students and high school teachers. The high school program is an eight-week internship for sophomores and juniors with interests in science, technology, engineering, math, or professional administration. The college level consists of a 10-week internship and is open to college students at all levels. Only residents of the Cleveland area are eligible for high school LERCIP, but college LERCIP is open to students nationwide. Interns work closely with their NASA mentors and are involved in the daily activities of the center. They are expected to be available to work 40 hours a week for the duration of the internship. The LERCIP Teacher program is a 10-week internship for educators in STEM fields.
Other
The
Dropping In Microgravity Environment is an annual contest held yearly by the center. Teams of high school students write proposals for experiments to be performed in the Drop Tower. The winners travel to the center, perform their experiments, and submit a research report to NASA.
Future of Glenn
After 2004, NASA had been shifting its focus towards space exploration as mandated by the
Vision for Space Exploration
Vision, Visions, or The Vision may refer to:
Perception Optical perception
* Visual perception, the sense of sight
* Visual system, the physical mechanism of eyesight
* Computer vision, a field dealing with how computers can be made to gain und ...
. Because of this, it was perceived by some that regional NASA centers like Glenn, which focus on research and technology, were becoming more and more marginalized in terms of resources and relevance. However, on May 13, 2006, it was announced that NASA Glenn Research Center had secured management of the
Crew Exploration Vehicle
The Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) was a component of the U.S. NASA Vision for Space Exploration plan. A competition was held to design a spacecraft that could carry humans to the
destinations envisioned by the plan. The winning design was the ...
's service module, which promised to generate billions of dollars and hundreds of jobs for the center. This work secured the center's future in the near term, and signalled a shift in priority for the center from aeronautical research to space exploration, aligning itself closer with NASA's new mission.
Another change of direction created uncertainty in 2010, however, when
President Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
and
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
declared the end of the Vision for Space Exploration and sought to chart a new course for human space flight and NASA. However, the 2015 budget for NASA made substantial increases to projects in which the Research Center participates, such as aeronautics research, planetary science and space technology, and some of that funding was expected to flow down to the center.
NASA Glenn Visitor Center
![Skylab 3 Apollo Command Module](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Skylab_3_Apollo_Command_Module.JPG)
The Visitor Center closed in September 2009 with many displays shifted to the
Great Lakes Science Center
The Great Lakes Science Center is a museum and educational facility in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States.
Many of the exhibits document the features of the natural environment in the Great Lakes region of the United States. The facility inc ...
, and new ones created there. This move was done to reduce the public relations budget and to provide easier access to the general public, especially the under-served community. It was hoped that putting the displays at the much more visited science center will bring the NASA Glenn facility more public exposure. In fact, this proved true: compared to the 60,000 visitors per year at its former site, the Glenn Visitor Center enjoyed 330,000 visitors in the first year at the Great Lakes Science Center. The new display area at the science center is referred to as the Glenn Visitor Center.
The NASA Glenn Research Center also offers public tours of its research facilities on the first Saturday of each month. Reservations must be made in advance.
See also
* ''
Journey Through the Solar System''
References
External links
NASA.gov: official Glenn Research Center website€”The whole book, including photos and diagrams in on-line format.
*
Historic American Engineering Record
Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...
documentation, filed under Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, OH:
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{{Authority control
1942 establishments in Ohio
Aerospace research institutes
Aviation research institutes
Economy of Cleveland
Geography of Cleveland
Historic American Engineering Record in Ohio
NASA facilities
Organizations based in Cleveland
Research institutes in Ohio
Science and technology in Ohio
Space technology research institutes
NASA research centers
Neil Armstrong