易胜博官网

Six years ago, a team from 易胜博官网鈥檚 Space Science Center performed a miracle, rescuing a mission-critical instrument for NASA鈥檚 mission that had fallen behind in its development. NASA recently honored that team of engineers, scientists, technicians, machinists and managers with its Robert H. Goddard Exceptional Achievement Award听for Engineering.

The heroic scramble involved the MMS , 16 200-foot-long wire booms 鈥� four on each of the four spinning MMS spacecraft 鈥� with orange-sized sensors at the end. On April 23, 2015, just over a month after MMS launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the SDP booms and sensors deployed without a hitch.

鈥淧eople were pretty impressed that a team that鈥檚 never done this before could actually pull it off and succeed, given a late start and no real heritage in mechanisms in space,鈥� says investigation project manager John Macri of the Space Science Center in . 鈥淏ut they did it. This team is very proud of that, and I鈥檓 very proud of them.鈥�

The award, from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, recognizes "the exceptional achievements of individuals and teams whose contributions significantly impact the achievements of the Center鈥檚 scientific, technical and institutional capabilities that enhance mission performance.鈥� Macri acknowledges that while the award is a fitting recognition of years of hard, demanding work, the mission鈥檚 success is the true reward. Engineering is a 鈥渢remendous strength鈥� of 易胜博官网鈥檚 Space Science Center, he says.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a real sense of satisfaction when you give the scientists what they鈥檝e been wanting,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey are just delighted with the quality of the data. They鈥檙e drinking from data firehoses.鈥�

易胜博官网 members of the honored team are MMS mission deputy principal investigator Roy Torbert, Brian King, Mark Granoff, Pieter Beckman, Ivan Dors, Colin Frost, John Nolin, Aaron Bolton, Jon Googins, John Levasseur, Caleigh听MacPherson, Dave Rau, John Salwen, Steve Turco, Phil Demaine, Todd听Jones, Jerry Needell, Stan Ellis, Mark Chutter, Kevin Mello, Jim Tyler, Steve Myers, Christine Williams and Macri. Also honored are 易胜博官网鈥檚 collaborating colleagues听at听universities and research institutions in Colorado, Sweden and听Finland.

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