July 23, 2019
THE EARLY ASTRONAUTS
Fifty years ago last Saturday, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon. Seven years before that, he was driving across the Mojave Desert with his friend Elliot See Jr., lighting out from California toward NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. The two were part of a batch of astronauts dubbed the “Next Nine” — the successors to the famous Mercury Seven, NASA’s original space travelers, who included John Glenn and Alan Shepard. The Mercury Seven took the U.S. into orbit and helped the Next Nine push the envelope further. Armstrong and his friend See were the only civilians in the bunch. And while Armstrong would walk into the history books with the Apollo 11 flight, See’s life and career were cut tragically short in 1966, when he and a colleague were killed in a plane crash as they prepared to lead the Gemini IX mission.
Head in the clouds: See had engineering in his blood — his father spent 36 years with GE. The younger See joined the company in 1949, getting his first taste of aviation at facilities in Lynn, Massachusetts, as GE’s jet engine program was taking off. So was See’s love of flight: He obtained his pilot license and soon joined the Navy, returning to GE as a test pilot in 1956. By the time he applied to be an astronaut See had logged more than 3,700 hours of flying time, including 3,200 in jet aircraft, and was selected by NASA from among 253 applicants. He got the good news from Deke Slayton — another Mercury Seven astronaut. “Overwhelmed isn’t the right word,” See told a GE magazine shortly after learning he’d made the cut.
Learn more here about the remarkable career of Elliot See Jr.
GE’S MOON SHOT
In 1968, at age 46, Thomas O. Paine left his job as a GE executive to join NASA, working as a deputy administrator before being confirmed as leader of the space agency the following spring. It was an auspicious time not just for space travel but for the country, as Paine reflected later: “1968 was a year of recrimination and doubt, a time of anti-heroes rather than heroes,” he said in an interview. The country was mired in war in Vietnam, and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. had recently been killed. On Christmas Eve, three astronauts of NASA’s Apollo 8 flight orbited the moon for the first time, bringing home the iconic Earthrise photograph, which put into perspective the beauty and vulnerability of the planet. Paine’s agency wasn’t finished, though. Just a half a year later, in July 1969, astronauts would return to the moon — this time to walk on it.
Stepping into history: Paine managed NASA during the agency’s most daring and consequential period, leading the organization as it pulled off not just feats of exploration but the feats of management that made them possible. Some 400,000 people and 20,000 companies were involved in the moon shot; by contrast, 75,000 people were involved in building the Panama Canal (a project GE also had a hand in). The push included some 6,000 of Paine’s GE colleagues, who engineered silicone rubber for the moonwalkers’ boots and built an “atomic battery” to power lunar science experiments. Oh, and they also worked with the rockets: For instance, a huge GE team spent the 1960s at a NASA facility in Mississippi testing the engines, support systems and overall readiness of the Saturn V. Still the world’s most powerful rocket, it gave Armstrong and 23 others the boost they needed to escape the Earth’s gravity — and shoot for the moon.
Learn more here about the remarkable career of Thomas Paine, and GE’s many contributions to America’s voyage to the moon.
MILESTONES FLYING BY
Speaking of 50 years, that’s how long it’s been since the Experimental Aircraft Association found a home for its annual fly-in: In 1969, the airshow settled into permanent digs at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Now called EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, the event is a kind of Woodstock for pilots — and has skyrocketed in popularity. For the 50th anniversary, organizers expect more than 700,000 visitors and more than 10,000 planes, including vintage World War II-era aircraft. But it’s not just relics of the past that enthusiasts get a peek at: Two years ago at Oshkosh, Jeff Bezos brought his Blue Origin rocket. And this year, GE Aviation is showing off its Catalyst, the first designed-from-scratch turboprop engine in 30 years, featuring 3D-printed parts and a next-gen digital control system.
The future of flight: “In the 1970s, it was predominantly a show for people who were building their own airplanes,” said Brad Mottier, who’s witnessed the evolution of Oshkosh. Now the head of GE Aviation’s Business and General Aviation division, Mottier has been coming to the airshow for decades, first as a teen with his family. He’s celebrating a number of anniversaries this year: GE Aviation is turning 100, and one of America’s iconic jets — the Boeing 747 — is turning 50. Many jumbo jets today use GE’s CF6 engine, including Air Force One.
Read more here about the past and future of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh.
COOLEST THINGS ON EARTH ?
1. Small Is Bot-iful
Designed by researchers at Georgia Tech, a tiny 3D-printed robot, guided by vibration, is about the size of the world’s smallest ant — and could one day be as industrious as ants are, too, in fields from electronics to medicine.
2. Drones Across The Solar System
Uses for unmanned aerial vehicles keep multiplying on Earth, and now NASA is getting into the game: The space agency announced that it’s dropping a drone off on Titan, Saturn’s biggest moon, to investigate signs of life. Called Dragonfly, the craft is scheduled for delivery in 2034.
3. Fat Chance Against Cancer
At Northwestern University, scientists designed a “Trojan horse” technique to sneak anti-cancer drugs into tumors — by hiding them in fatty acids.
Read more about this week’s Coolest Things on Earth here.
— QUOTE OF THE DAY —
“It was indeed a feeling of participating in an enormously historical time, when life had taken the first step across the void of space to bring humans to another world.”
— Thomas O. Paine, former NASA administrator and GE executive
Quote: GE Reports. Image: The Monogram/Museum of Innovation and Science Schenectady.
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