Norfolk, Va., NASA Officials Await Landing of Space Experiment

Aug. 27–HAMPTON, Va. — A team from NASA’s Langley Research Center will be watching closely when the first experiment in more than 30 years to bring back space samples is scheduled to touch down on an Air Force training range in Utah on Sept. 8.

The Genesis capsule has spent the last three years orbiting a point in space beyond the moon, collecting particles from the solar system.

Scientists hope the particles will help explain how the solar system was created and what makes up the sun.

Lockheed Martin Corp., which built the spacecraft for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, tapped Langley to design the capsule so it wouldn’t burn up while re-entering the earth’s atmosphere.

After extensive testing in Langley’s wind tunnel, the scientists recommended that the company use a different carbon material that could better withstand the heat, which will peak at 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Genesis capsule was a challenge to design, Langley scientists said, because it has several exposed bolt holes on its top from where it was attached to the spacecraft that carried it into space.

“Any roughness tends to make more heat around it” during re-entry, said Prasun Desai, assistant head of the vehicle analysis branch at Langley.

Langley also programmed the capsule’s re-entry sequence down to the second: when the capsule should separate from its spacecraft, when the parachutes should open and how fast the capsule should descend. Eight hours before the scheduled landing, Langley scientists will decide whether conditions are right to go ahead with it or to postpone it.

A helicopter flown by a Hollywood stunt pilot will hook the parachute and bring the 450-pound capsule down for a soft landing.

The $264 million project, which is being led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif., is the first to collect samples beyond the moon and return them to Earth. It also is the first spacecraft to collect samples from space since the final Apollo mission in 1972.

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