Ames celebrates 65 years Ames celebrates 65 years (December 17, 2004)

Visitors can learn about local NASA history at open house

By Julie O'Shea

NASA Ames is turning 65 on Dec. 20, and space agency officials are planning a gala celebration the same day.

The event, which is open to the public, will be held at the Ames Exploration Center from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Janice Voss, a NASA astronaut who has been on five space missions, and science author Don Blair will make appearances.

The center will be decorated with displays, showing highlights of Ames through the years, and visitors can watch a new history video, detailing contributions Ames has made over the last 65 years.

"We've been working on this for many months," Ames spokesperson Victoria Steiner said, adding that this will be a fun event that kids will enjoy, too.

On Dec. 20, 1939, officials broke ground at Moffett Field, beginning a construction project that would eventually become the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or NACA. Twenty years later, NACA became part of NASA. The agency's Moffett Field facility was named after Joseph S. Ames, a NACA chairperson in the 1930s.

The contributions Ames has made over the years have been "enormous," said NASA Ames historian Jack Boyd, who has been at Ames for more than 50 years.

For example, scientists at the Mountain View space center helped change the way airplane wings are designed, Boyd said, explaining that Ames was the first to develop and test the "swept-back wing" in the center's wind tunnel. Instead of airplane wings sticking straight out, they are now built at an angle, allowing the aircraft to fly more efficiently, Boyd added.

Ames scientists were also responsible for building the first man-made craft ever to travel out of the solar system. In addition, local researchers helped develop protective shields for space shuttles.

And in October, Ames unveiled "the world's fastest supercomputer." Officials named it Columbia in memory of the crew killed when the space shuttle Columbia blew up in 2003.

E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com

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