America’s gateway to the universe. Leading the world in preparing and launching missions to Earth and beyond.

January 22, 1999

John F. Kennedy Space Center

Vol. 38, No. 2

Spaceport NewsWhen collecting dust yields scientific results If your payload is collectingdust, you might consider it aninsult, but Stardust team is fired upabout their payload gathering dust.Indeed, it is their primary focus. NASA’s Stardust spacecraft,designed to fly through a comet’scoma, the cloud that surrounds thenucleus of a comet, is scheduledfor launch aboard a Boeing Delta IIrocket on Feb. 6 from CapeCanaveral Air Station’s LaunchPad 17A. Stardust will be the first U.S.mission dedicated solely to a cometand the first robotic return ofextraterrestrial material fromoutside the orbit of the Earth’smoon. The spacecraft’s primarygoal is to collect comet dust andvolatile samples during aplanned close encounter withcomet Wild 2 in January of 2004. Additionally, the Stardustspacecraft will also bring backsamples of interstellar dustincluding the recently discovereddust streaming into the solarsystem from the direction ofSagittarius. Comets are believed to containthe original building blocks of theplanets. Comets are small, fragile,

Dr. Peter Tsou ofthe Jet Propulsion Labgets a grip on aerogel.Dr. Tsou, an innovator in aerogeltechnology and maker of aerogel, servesas deputy investigator of the Stardust mission.

irregularly shaped bodiescomposed of a mixture of grainsand frozen gases. They have highly elliptical orbitsthat repeatedly bring them veryclose to the Sun and then swingthem deep into space, often beyond (See Stardust, Page 3)

the orbit of Pluto. Early in Earth’s history, cometsladen with water ice slammed intothe planet, maybe providing thesource of our oceans. When

“The way it is” with Walter Cronkite “Of all humankind’s achieve-ments in the twentieth century... theone event that will dominate thehistory books a half a millenniumfrom now will be our escape fromour earthly environment andlanding on the moon.” Former news correspondentWalter Cronkite penned thesewords in his book A Reporter’sLife, as he detailed his coveragethroughout the years of America’sspace program. He emerged fromretirement recently to providecoverage for CNN of formerSenator and astronaut John GlennJr.’s return to space on STS-95. (See Cronkite, Page 4)

Recently Bruce Buckingham,NASA news chief at KSC, had theopportunity to interview Cronkiteto learn more about his reflectionson NASA’s accomplishments andhis career.

Q. You were very visible in yourreports on America’s earliestspace endeavors. How does it feelto be a part of space history?A. Well, it’s rare that a corres-pondent gets a chance to be a partof history himself, and to me, it’ssomething of an honor that I hadWalter Cronkite assumed the anchor

position on the CBS Evening News in1962, stepping down 19 years later tobecome a special correspondent for CBS.

Outook for America’sspaceport for 1999

by KSC Director Roy Bridges

From my perspective, theKSC team had a magnificentyear in 1998 and we haveprospects for a very eventfuland exciting 1999. To kick things off in 1999,the Boeing, NASA and AirForce team launched the MarsLander on Jan. 3. It shouldarrive at the South Pole ofMars on the third of Decemberand begin to look for water. This is the first full year ofKSC’s new Expendable LaunchVehicle (ELV) Team, and itpromises to be one filled withsignificant activity. There are14 more ELV missions forNASA this year: five at CapeCanaveral Air Station, nine atVandenberg Air Force Base andone at Kwajalein. The team isworking with customers onplanning future missions aswell as running a competitionfor more medium- andintermediate-sized commerciallaunch vehicles for thesedownstream missions. We plan six Shuttle launchesthis year. Col. Eileen Collinsand her crew will launch theChandra X-ray Telescope inApril. There will be twologistics missions and twoconstruction missions for theInternational Space Station(ISS) from May throughDecember. In September, theShuttle Radar TopographyMission will digitally mapmost of the Earth. We have the full complementof ISS hardware for the 1999missions here in the SpaceStation Processing Facility(SSPF) in testing, as well asDestiny (the U.S. Laboratory)and Leonardo (the Multi-purpose Logistics Module orMPLM), both of which willlaunch in 2000. The KSC-ledMultiple Element Integrated

(See 1999, Page 4)

SPACEPORT NEWS January 22, 1999Page 2

Two workers watch attentively above the first stage of a Boeing Delta II rocket as it isguided to its vertical position on the tower at Launch Pad 17A, Cape Canaveral AirStation. The rocket will carry the Stardust spacecraft into space for a close encounterwith the comet Wild 2 in January 2004. Using a medium called aerogel, it will capturecomet particles flying off the nucleus of the comet and will collect interstellar dust foranalysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in a capsule to be jettisoned asStardust swings by Earth in January 2006. Stardust is scheduled for launch on Feb. 6.

Setting the stage for the launch of Stardust

A room with a view: Kennedy Space Center’s Engineering Support Room Kennedy Space Center’s newEngineering Support Room (ESR)in the Space Station ProcessingFacility is a room with a view.Specifically, the staff who workthere have the long-range vision tosupport its astronomical goals. KSC’s ESR is one of four roomsnationwide that lend support to theFlight Control Team at JohnsonSpace Center through its Mission

Evaluation Room. With the dawnof construction efforts and eventualfull-time habitation of the Inter-national Space Station (ISS),KSC’s ESR is staffed 24 hours aday every day of each ISS mission,and ESR engineers are availableon-call in between missions sinceISS hardware is now on orbit. “Due to the efforts of remarkablytalented individuals, the ESR was

activated in time to support STS-88on-orbit activities,” ESR ManagerJimmy Rogers recalled. “KSC hadabout three months to pull togetherthe resources necessary to establishan ESR. Computer networks andcommunication equipment wereinstalled early enough to allow forproper training prior to the mission,and during STS-88, the KSC ESRwas the only site to establish ameans of electronic reporting toHouston.” Kennedy Space Center’s ESRbegan operations during the STS-88 mission and will continue tosupport all station staging activitiesthrough final ISS assembly. “The complexity of the Inter-

Wireless communications: when less is more

national Space Station requiresmultiple engineering disciplines,”Rogers said. “KSC is in a uniqueposition to bring knowledge to theon-orbit process based on groundassembly and testing expertise.” That experience proved to beinvaluable for resolving two issuesduring the STS-88 mission. KSCESR Boeing Integration EngineerGary Wedekind recalls the details: “JSC ground controllers wantedto start warming up the spacecraftusing the interior lights and werenot able to turn on Unity interiorlights,” Wedekind noted. “This wasdue to the way in which it was

(See ESR, Page 6)

Working in the SSPF’s Engineering Support Room, Jimmy Rogers (left) and GaryWedekind review real-time temperature readings from Zarya and Unity on-orbit.

The Stardust spacecraft testconductor is the first NASAcustomer at Kennedy SpaceCenter to employ the use of theNASA-developed operationalwireless voice system. Developed by NASA andBoeing expendable launchvehicle (ELV) engineers atHangar AE at Cape CanaveralAir Station (CCAS), the systemwas recently adapted for use bypayload customers processingspacecraft at KSC. The wireless headset wasinitially developed to supportthe activities of the NASA ELVflight commentator, EricAnderson, to allow for improvedmobility during ELV launches. “We developed the system toallow the NASA flight commen-tator the freedom to cover thelength of the telemetry labunencumbered by a wire whilehe gathers data and reports onthe vehicle and payload statusduring launch,” said Martin

Lougheed, lead NASAcommunications engineer forELV missions. “Now, theStardust test conductor isusing our wireless voicesystem to conduct processingoperations with the StardustTeam.” The system consists of alightweight headset withmicrophone boom and a smallbelt pack. It replaced theformerly used standardheadset attached to a five-footcord. The system is the first ofits kind at KSC and CCASand works with the Easternand Western test range voicecommunication systems aswell as the KSC voicecommunications system. In addition to the NASAflight commentator, personnelin the NASA Pegasus LaunchSite Support Trailer atVandenberg Air Force Base inCalifornia are primary users ofthe system.

SPACEPORT NEWS Page 3January 22, 1999

Stardust ...(Continued from Page 1)

Stardust returns its pristine cometsamples in January 2006, scientistswill be able to examine for the firsttime the key ingredients of theoriginal recipe that created theplanets. The spacecraft will make threeloops around the sun. On thesecond loop, the trajectory of thespacecraft will intersect that ofcoment Wild 2. During theencounter, the spacecraft will sendback pictures of Wild 2, counts ofcomet particles striking thespacecraft and real-time analyses ofthe compositions of the particles. A unique substance calledaerogel is the medium that will beused to catch and preserve cometsamples. When Stardust swings byEarth seven years from now, thesamples encased in a re-entrycapsule will be jettisoned andparachute to a preselected site inthe Utah desert. The length of the Stardust mainbus is 5.5 feet, about the size of anaverage office desk. The spacecraftweighs 849 pounds. It is beingprocessed in KSC’s PayloadHazardous Servicing Facility.

In this strikingdemonstration of the

insulating properties ofaerogel, the matcheson top of the aerogel

are protected from theflame underneath.

This photo of comet P/Halley wastaken during the European Space

Agency’s Giotto mission. Comets areimportant because they may be the

oldest, most primitive bodies inthe solar system preserving

the earliest record of materialfrom the nebula that formed

the sun and the planets.

Catching comet dust is no easy feat. When the Stardustspacecraft flies past comet Wild 2, the impact velocity of theparticles captured will be up to nine times the speed of a bulletfired from a rifle. Although the captured particles will each be smaller than agrain of sand, high-speed capture could alter their shape andchemical composition or vaporize them entirely. To collect the particles without damaging them, Stardust willuse an extraordinary substance called aerogel — a silicon-basedsolid with a porous, sponge-like structure of which 99 percentof the volume is empty space. Aerogel has the lowest density of any known solid and is1,000 times less dense than glass, another silicon-based solid.Aerogel is also 39 times more insulating than the best fiberglassinsulation. A block of aerogel as large as a human being may weigh lessthan a pound, yet support the weight of a subcompact car (about1,000 pounds). When a particle hits the aerogel, it will bury itself in thematerial, creating a carrot-shaped track up to 200 times its ownlength as it slows down and comes to a stop, like an airplanesetting down on a runway and braking to reduce its speedgradually. Since aerogel is mostly transparent, scientists will use thesetracks to find the tiny particles. Aerogel also was used on the Mars Pathfinder rover.

Among the processing activitiescurrently underway are installationand testing of the solar arrays, finalinstallation and testing of somespacecraft instruments, followed byan overall spacecraft functionaltest. Following that testing, thespacecraft will be fueled and matedto the Star 37 solid propellant upperstage booster. At Complex 17, the Delta IIrocket is undergoing erection andprelaunch checkout by Boeing. Stardust is scheduled fortransport to Complex 17 on Jan. 28for hoisting aboard the Deltarocket on Pad A and mating to thesecond stage. After the spacecraftundergoes state-of-health checks,the fairing will be placed around itthree days later. Launch is currently targetedfor Feb. 6 at 4:08 p.m. EST. The20-day launch opportunity endsFeb. 25. Stardust is the fourthNASA Discovery missionfollowing Mars Pathfinder, NearEarth Asteroid Rendezvous andLunar Prospector. The goal of NASA’s DiscoveryProgram is to launch many smallermissions with shorter developmenttime that perform focused scienceat lower cost.

Capturing something with practically nothing

Page 4 SPACEPORT NEWS January 22, 1999

Walter Cronkite (center) chats with reporters at KSCApr. 26, 1994, with then Astronaut Story Musgrave.Cronkite interviewed Musgrave as part of a special

televised report on the space program.

this opportunity.

Q. In your opinion, what isNASA’s greatest single accom-plishment?A. I think the easy answer islanding man on the moon, but ofcourse everything that went beforeand has come since are accomplish-ments for NASA. The entirepackage of the space program itselfis the great accomplishment — thebusiness of originally getting maninto space and then getting him towork in space and then getting himto another orbiting body out there.All of these things were accom-plishments, but in the total, it is thepackage of what NASA’s accom-plished by exploring space that isthe major accomplishment.

Q. What would you suggestNASA’s next space explorationgoals be?A. I think NASA already has thatpretty well in mind, and that’s tosee what we can do with Mars —getting man to Mars and confirm-ing the exploration of the un-manned vehicles and furthering thatexploration. And then beyond that, as far asmanned space goes, it will be the

exploration of deep space.

Q. If given the chance, wouldyou accept an assignment to rideon the Shuttle?A. You bet! I’m dying to go. Ifsomebody would give me a shot atit, I’d be there in a minute.

Q. What were your thoughtswhen you saw John Glenn launchback in 1962 and how did youfeel when you saw his launch inOctober?A. In ‘62, we didn’t know whetherhe actually would survive thatflight or not ... We were hoping forthe best ... and our hearts wereriding there with Glenn and we

were ... obviously very muchconcerned. With the Shuttle, there wasn’tthat concern about the successof the flight itself. It was mostlya trip into nostalgia, but worth-while science without any doubtabout it.

Q. In the height of the space raceand our race to the moon, didyou ever expect that one dayNASA would partner with Russiain building a space station?A. No, I must say, that was thefarthest thought from any of ourminds. The rivalry was intense atthat time. It was indeed a race tothe moon. We won it handily and

Cronkite ...(Continued from Page 1)

1999 ...(Continued from Page 1)

Test (MEIT) is underway now toreduce the risk of anomalies onorbit. Soon, a second MPLM willarrive for testing, and ISS trusseswill go into assembly, checkout andtesting in the Operations andCheckout (O&C) Building. Yes, wedid fill up the SSPF! The key to Shuttle/ISS missionsin 1999 will be the launch of theRussian Service Module plannedfor mid-summer. Everyone will bewatching for that crucial event.When it arrives on orbit, we willneed to move prudently — butswiftly — to launch the fourmissions that end with the U.S.Laboratory on orbit in early 2000.Then we can get down to businesswith research on the ISS while wecontinue the construction jobs for afew more years. In addition to theISS, we have a lot of other exciting

development projects for 1999.There isn’t room to even list themall in this article. Let me mention afew to indicate the scope of KSC’sparticipation in NASA technology. Our Checkout and LaunchControl System Team will berolling out quite a few significantdeliveries to include the ShuttleData Center in March, the Atlassoftware for the HypergolicMaintenance Facility in June, aribbon-cutting for the OperationsControl Room-1 (OCR-1), pop-ulated with consoles, in Septemberand the Titan sofware for commandfunctions and systems software inDecember. Our Integrated Vehicle HealthManagement (IVHM) Team willfly their second experiment on theShuttle in May and begin work onthe Future-X IVHM project, whichthey won this year. We will make final deliveries onall the KSC support for the X-33

and X-34 programs before testflights begin in 1999. We will begin construction thisyear of a new laboratory facility forthe cryogenics testbed and hope towin final approval to construct theSpace Experiment Research andProcessing Facility (Hangar Lreplacement). Major rollouts and ribbon-cuttings planned for 1999 include:a newly renovated Visitor’sComplex, which should completethis $100 million (non-appropriatedfunds) improvement effort; anenlarged and renovated fitnesscenter in the O&C in March; a newsoftware tool for managing criticalskills for development projects,AdminStar, to allow employeeinterface with trainingadministration; a Mars environ-mental chamber; a newly refur-bished O&C vacuum chamber; anda reusable launch vehicle facility(Phase 1) on the Shuttle Landing

Facility tow-way. We will put significant effort intoour eight strategic focus areas that Iaddressed in Center DirectorCommunication #26 and expectthese to help us progress rapidlytoward our vision of becoming aSpaceport Technology Center. With your help in 1999, we canhave a better year than the greatyear that we had in 1998. Staying healthy, injury-free andmishap-free need to be the lastwords. We’ll be continuing ourefforts to move to a stronger safetyculture with additional training andfocus. In addition, we are investingJoint Base Operations and SupportContract (J-BOSC) savings toaccomplish safety- and health-related projects. We will be busy, but anyone cancall ‘time out’ to address safety.Let’s all remember: “Safety andHealth First!”

the Russians threw up their handsand had to give up, but no, that wewould be working together in thisfashion, hardly! It’s demonstrative, I think, ofwhat can be done with hands acrossthe sea, as it were, and now handsacross space in bringing formerlyunfriendly nations into an allianceto further science.

Q. As a reporter, you’ve coveredmany other topics other thanspace exploration. Does anythingcome to your mind that tweeksyour interest more than space?A. Certainly not in the sense of astory that one can predict andfollow. The developments of aprogram of this kind is a verydifferent kind of story. Here we’re following anexpected trail and followingthe success of that mission, andit is a vastly different kind ofstory therefore and a very happyone to be able to report.

Q. So this is probably one of yourfinest opportunities — to coverthe space program?A. I don’t think there’s any doubtof that. I think that any reporterwho’s lived through these years andhas had the opportunity to coverthis greatest of our scientific andtechnological achievements has tofeel lucky.

SPACEPORT NEWS Page 5January 22, 1999

The Joint Performance Manage-ment Office (JPMO) will hold anOpen House from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.on Tuesday, Jan. 26, on the secondfloor of Hangar I Annex. The JPMO is the new jointKennedy Space Center and 45thSpace Wing organization staffed byNASA and Air Force personnel tomanage the new Joint BaseOperations and Support Contract(J-BOSC). J-BOSC provides base supportservices at KSC, Cape CanaveralAir Station and Patrick Air ForceBase. The J-BOSC contract began onOct. 1, 1998, and consolidatesNASA’s Base Operations Contract,formerly held by EG&G Florida,

the Air Force Launch Base Supportcontract formerly held by JohnsonControl, Inc., and 16 othercontracts. All are welcome to stop by thenew office and learn more aboutthe J-BOSC contract and the JPMOoffice.

JPMO Open House to be held Jan. 26

Once again it’s time to markyour calendars and submit yourregistration to attend an exceptionalday of training designed to helpyou deal with the challenges ahead. “Expand Your Horizon — Investin the Future” is sponsored by theSpace Coast Chapter of FederallyEmployed Women (FEW) and willbe held on Wednesday, Feb. 10,with an encore presentation onThursday, Feb. 11. Both sessionswill be held at the Radisson Resortat the Port, in Cape Canaveral. Registration and a continentalbreakfast begin at 8 a.m., followedby a keynote address presented byShannon Bartell, deputy director ofSpace Station & Shuttle Payloads. The morning session will consistof four workshops:• Leadership Development — Dr.Marc A. SeSimone, Sr.• Managing Multiple Priorities —Dr. Joan DeSimone

FEW invite many to training• Problem Solving & ConflictResolution Approaches for Dealingwith Difficult People — Dr. BenFindley• Realizing Your Potential: Makingthe Most of You — Peggy Morrow After lunch, which is included aspart of your registration fee, thesame four morning workshops willbe repeated in an afternoon session. At the seminars, you will have anopportunity to meet new peoplefrom Brevard County and KSC toexpand your network. Complete registration packageshave been delivered to all trainingcoordinators. Contact your trainingcoordinator to assure your oppor-tunity to participate. Workshopselections will be honored in theorder received so get yourregistration in early! For further information, pleasecontact Clara Anderson at 639-3154.

Putting FIRST things Kennedy Space Center hasmade a commitment to hostthe 1999 southeast regionalcompetition of For Inspirationand Recognition of Scienceand Technology (FIRST). Theevent, which will take place atKSC Mar. 4 through 6, isexpected to bring more than3,000 to the space center. FIRST is a non-profitorganization that works tocombine the efforts of highschools, universities, govern-ment, businesses and privateindustry by forming teams toprovide students with a hands-on look at engineering andother professional careers. Twenty or more studentteams will be testing theirrobots on a playing field at theKSC Visitor Complex. Teamswill be provided with a kit ofmaterials and have six weeksto complete the challengingtask of designing, procuring,manufacturing, assemblingand testing a robot that willcompete in athletic-liketournaments at regional and

national levels. Most of theteams will havemajor corporatesponsors, such as NASA,whose executive staff will bepresent at the event, GeneralMotors, Chrysler, Xerox,Motorola, Johnson &Johnson and Baxter HealthCare. Vounteers will be neededfrom Mar. 3 through 6 inareas such as the pit and theplaying field. Escorts willalso be needed.. “We are excited aboutgiving our community anopportunity to share itsresources, knowledge andtalents with these youngpeople,” said Center DirectorRoy Bridges. “I encourageall NASA personnel, con-tractor personnel and thecentral Florida community tojoin together by providingyour support to sponsor thisevent and ensure its success.” If you wish to volunteer,call Pat Caroleo at 867-2622.

Reflecting on GOES

Loral workers at Astrotech in Titusville check trim tab deployment on the geostationaryoperational environmental satellite-L (GOES-L), the fourth of a new advanced series ofweather satellites for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).GOES-L was developed for NOAA by NASA and is scheduled for launch from CapeCanaveral Air Station aboard an Atlas II rocket in late March.

John F. Kennedy Space Center

Managing editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bruce BuckinghamEditor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Susan Maurer

Editorial support provided by Information Dynamics Inc. Writers Group.NASA at KSC is on the Internet at http://www.ksc.nasa.gov

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Spaceport News

Spaceport News is an official publication of the Kennedy Space Center andis published on alternate Fridays by the Public Affairs Office in the interest ofKSC civil service and contractor employees. Contributions are welcome and should be submitted two weeks beforepublication to the Media Services Branch, AB-F1. E-mail submissions can besent to Susan.Maurer-1@ksc.nasa.gov

SPACEPORT NEWS January 22, 1999Page 6

A drop of water clings to the chin of a horned grebe after surfacing from underwater inthe Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Grebes have a remarkable ability to controltheir specific gravity so that they can swim high in the water or almost submerged.Although grebes breed in freshwater marshes, each fall most of the American populationmove to the coast. Grebes are therefore thought of as saltwater birds. These grebesare rarely seen in flight; once on wintering grounds, they seldom fly, and they migratealmost entirely at night. This is the most common saltwater grebe in the East.

Migrating south for the winter is just ducky

Space Shuttle Update:The orbiter Columbia, destined for liftoff onSTS-93 in mid-April, is targeted for rolloverfrom Orbiter Processing Facility bay 3 to theVehicle Assembly Building no earlier thanFeb. 1. STS-93 will carry the Chandra X-rayObservatory (formerly AXAF), the mostsophisticated X-ray observatory ever built. At45 feet long, Chandra is the largest satellitethe Shuttle will have launched to date.Chandra will observe X-rays from clouds ofgas so vast that it takes light five millionyears to go from one side to the other, and thelight from some of the quasars to be observedby Chandra will have been traveling throughspace for 10 billion years.

ESR ...(Continued from Page 2)

closed out for launch. KSCrecommended to use the Shellheaters in place of the lights andthat the crew turn on the lightsduring entry by depressing theSRCA switch.” Also during the mission,Wedekind recalled, “When thecrew began securing the externalcables, KSC engineers observedfrom video downlink that theAPAS-to-APAS cables were notbeing tied down properly at theforward stovepipe support gusset,so they notified the JSC EVA team,which relayed the information tothe crew.” Both situations were successfullyresolved due to KSC involvement. Each ESR site has specificexperience upon which to call tohelp solve problems as they ariseduring and between missions.KSC’s experience is based onhands-on processing of flighthardware, ground testing, closeoutphoto documentation, the ProblemReporting and Corrective ActionSystem that documents anomalies,and other KSC-specific processingactivities. Staffing requirements in the ESRwill revolve around the specificneeds of each mission. At present,the room is staffed by a NASAmanager, a Boeing integration

engineer and by personnel skilledin the specific engineeringdisciplines required to supportparticular on-orbit activities. Theseinclude electrical, mechanical,thermal, communications andtracking, data handling, lifesupport, and other engineeringrequirements. During periods of ISS on-orbitconstruction, the ESR staff will beavailable to assess assemblyactivities, subsystem activationprocesses and anomaly trouble-shooting. They also can help withidentifying any trends that couldresult in degraded performance orsystem failures. Rogers praised the cooperativeefforts among government andcontractor staff, which includesNASA, Boeing and USA, in KSC’sEngineering Support Room. NASAand Boeing staff provide primaryengineering support, and USAprovides orbiter system experts forsupport to systems directly relatedto the orbiter that may be affectedby ISS activities. “Once we get in the ESR, thereis no delineation between whoworks for whom,” Rogers said.“We all consider ourselves KSCemployees, and that’s what’simportant.” Similar ESR rooms are operatingin California and Alabama. Additional ESR sites are plannedin the United States, Italy andJapan.

Putting forth a powerful image

Photographer John Sexton, a former assistant and consultant to world-renownedphotographer Ansel Adams, has made several visits to Kennedy Space Center to captureimages of the uniquely powerful equipment, hardware and facilities here. Sexton returnedto KSC the week of Jan. 13 to capture yet more photographs in the Space Station MainEngine Processing Facility and the Vehicle Assembly Building, among other facilities,to use in his upcoming book Places of Power. “I am interested in the sculptural beautythat can be found in these objects — a pure aesthetic,” Sexton said. “The design ofthese structures and interior spaces are not contrived to be visually engaging, butrather the function of the object dictates its form. Through my photographs, I hope totransport the view into these unusual and powerful spaces.” Places of Power isscheduled to be available in the fall of the year 2000.