Glenn Research Center

History

The installation was established in 1942 as part of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and was later incorporated into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as a laboratory for aircraft engine research.

It was first named the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory after funding was approved in June 1940. It was renamed the Flight Propulsion Research Laboratory in 1947, the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory (LFPL) in 1948 (after George W. Lewis, the head of NACA from 1919 to 1947), and the NASA Lewis Research Center in 1958.

On March 1, 1999, the center was officially renamed the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, in honor of John Glenn, who was a fighter pilot, astronaut (the first American to orbit the Earth) and a politician.

As early as 1951, researchers at the LFPL were studying the combustion processes in liquid rocket engines.

Facilities

Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility

The 6400 acre NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at the Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility or just Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility, formerly the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Plum Brook Station or just Plum Brook Station, in southern Erie County, Ohio, near Sandusky, is also part of Glenn (). It is located about 50 mi from the main campus. It specializes in very large scale tests that would be hazardous on the main campus.

As of 2025, the station consists of five major facilities:

• Space Environments Complex
• In-Space Propulsion Facility
• Combined Effects Chamber
• Hypersonic Tunnel Facility
• NASA Electric Aircraft Testbed

The Plum Brook Reactor was decontaminated and decommissioned under a 2008 cost-plus-fee contract valued at more than $33.5 million.

In 2019 the U.S. senators from Ohio, Rob Portman and Sherrod Brown, proposed to rename Plum Brook Station after Neil Armstrong. The legislation was signed into law on December 30, 2020, and Plum Brook Station was renamed the Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility.

B-2 Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility

Spacecraft Propulsion Facility Main article: Space Power Facility

The B-2 Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility is the world's only facility capable of testing full-scale, upper-stage launch vehicles and rocket engines under simulated high-altitude conditions. The Space Power Facility houses the world's largest space environment vacuum chamber.

Icing Research Tunnel

The icing Research Tunnel is a wind tunnel capable of simulating atmospheric icing condition to test the effect of ice accretion on aircraft wings and body as well as to test anti-icing systems for aircraft.

Zero Gravity Research Facility

Main article: Zero Gravity Research Facility

The Zero Gravity Research Facility is a vertical vacuum chamber used for dropping experiment payloads for testing in microgravity. It enables the investigation of the behavior of components, systems, liquids, gases, and combustion when dropped in vacuum.

The facility consists of a concrete-lined shaft, 28 ft in diameter, that extends 510 ft below ground level. An aluminum vacuum chamber, 20 ft in diameter and 470 ft high, is contained within the concrete shaft. The pressure in this vacuum chamber is reduced to 13.3 newtons per square meter (1.3atm) before use.

The facility also includes a smaller drop tower with a free fall time of 2.2 seconds and a much lower cost per drop. It is used for the Dropping in a Microgravity Environment (DIME) and What if No Gravity (WING) educational programs.

The facility was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985. It has been the world's largest microgravity facility since the 2003 closing of the Japan Microgravity Centre.

Developments

Aeronautics science and technology

NASA Glenn does research and technology development on jet engines, producing designs that reduce energy consumption, pollution, and noise. The chevrons it developed for noise reduction appear on many commercial jet engines today, including those used on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Space science and technology

The Glenn Research Center, along with companies it has hired, are credited with the following:

• The liquid hydrogen rocket engine, which Wernher von Braun called the critical technology that allowed the Apollo Moon landings.
• The Centaur upper-stage rocket
• The gridded ion thruster, a high-efficiency engine for spaceflight. A Glenn-derived ion engine was used on the NASA probe Deep Space 1.
• The Electrical Power System for Space Station Freedom. A slightly modified version is used on the International Space Station.
• The Universal Stage Adapter for the planned Block 1B iteration of the Space Launch System (SLS).

Contributions

NASA Glenn's core competencies are:

• Air-breathing propulsion
• Communications technology and development
• Space propulsion and cryogenic fluids management
• Power, energy storage, and conversion
• Materials and structures for extreme environments

Education

The Glenn Research Center is home to the Lewis' Educational and Research Collaborative Internship Program (LERCIP). It provides internships for high school and college students and high school teachers. The high school program is an eight-week internship for sophomores and juniors with interests in science, technology, engineering, math, or professional administration. The college level consists of a 10-week internship and is open to college students at all levels. Only residents of the Cleveland area are eligible for high school LERCIP, but college LERCIP is open to students nationwide. Interns work closely with their NASA mentors and are involved in the daily activities of the center. They are expected to be available to work 40 hours a week for the duration of the internship. The LERCIP Teacher program is a 10-week internship for educators in STEM fields.

Other

The Dropping In Microgravity Environment is an annual contest held yearly by the center. Teams of high school students write proposals for experiments to be performed in the Drop Tower. The winners travel to the center, perform their experiments, and submit a research report to NASA.

Future

After 2004, NASA had been shifting its focus towards space exploration as mandated by the Vision for Space Exploration. Because of this, it was perceived by some that regional NASA centers like Glenn, which focus on research and technology, were becoming more and more marginalized in terms of resources and relevance. However, on May 13, 2006, it was announced that NASA Glenn Research Center had secured management of the Crew Exploration Vehicle's service module, which promised to generate billions of dollars and hundreds of jobs for the center. This work secured the center's future in the near term, and signalled a shift in priority for the center from aeronautical research to space exploration, aligning itself closer with NASA's new mission.

Another change of direction created uncertainty in 2010, however, when President Obama and Congress declared the end of the Vision for Space Exploration and sought to chart a new course for human space flight and NASA. However, the 2015 budget for NASA made substantial increases to projects in which the Research Center participates, such as aeronautics research, planetary science and space technology, and some of that funding was expected to flow down to the center.

Center directors

These people served as the director of the Glenn Research Center:

NASA Glenn Visitor Center

In September 2009, the Glenn Research Center closed its Visitor Center and sent many of its displays to the Great Lakes Science Center. The move was intended to reduce the public-relations budget; provide easier access to the general public, especially the under-served community; and bring the NASA Glenn facility more public exposure by putting the displays at the much more visited science center in Cleveland. Compared to the 60,000 visitors per year at its former site, the new Glenn Visitor Center section of the Great Lakes Science Center drew 330,000 visitors in its first year.

The NASA Glenn Research Center offers public tours of its research facilities on the first Saturday of each month. Reservations must be made in advance.

References

References

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