How do you get two engineers who worked on the Space Shuttle to laugh? Ask them if someone who is six feet and six inches tall could fit in the shuttle’s crew module. I did just that and the response from Al Hoffman and Robert Kahl was more than just a chuckle. “You would need to be weightless, and you would be bending over an awful lot,” Hoffman said. Outside of the shuttle astronauts themselves, Hoffman and Kahl are among the most familiar with these space vehicles, which for three decades have symbolized the U.S. space program. Atlantis makes the final flight of the shuttle program this month with a scheduled launch on July 8. Nothing would make Hoffman and Kahl happier than if bad weather at the Kennedy Space Center forces a landing at Edwards Air Force Base at the end of the shuttle’s 12-day mission. The shuttle would return home to the desert community where it was built, tested and maintained. “People will look back at the space shuttle as one of the most incredible and amazing flying machines ever built,” said Kahl, program manager for shuttle support with the Boeing Co. at Site 1 in Palmdale. “At least I hope the historians write about it that way.” While not the first U.S. space program, such as Mercury, or one that put men on the moon, such as Apollo, the Atlantis shuttle program nonetheless proved to have practical importance during its 135 flights. Computer technology, biomedical research instruments and sensors, and fuel cell technology are a legacy of the shuttle, Hoffman said. Without the shuttle, there would not have been an International Space Station or Hubble Space Telescope, Kahl added. “If we did not have the orbiters to repair the Hubble, we would have lost the telescope,” Kahl said. In Southern California, the program also meant jobs, lots of jobs. At its peak, shuttle-related jobs in Palmdale totaled about 1,800 positions. Rocketdyne, the company that designed, manufactured and maintained the main engines, employed between 5,000 and 10,000 workers companywide, and the majority of those employees were located in Canoga Park, said Bob Biggs, a principal engineer with the company. Kahl was at Lockheed Martin in the mid-1970s when he followed some co-workers to the aerospace division of Rockwell International. He was told there would only be 18 months of work. But he stayed for 37 years. Hoffman joined Rockwell to work on the B-1 bomber, and then went to Rocketdyne to work on the main shuttle engines. He returned to Rockwell in 1989 to become a manufacturing manager during the building of the orbiter Endeavor. After a brief stay in Washington, D.C., Hoffman returned to the Antelope Valley where he is site manager for Boeing at Edwards and for the Dryden Flight Research Center. (Rockwell’s aerospace division, including Rocketydne, was acquired by Boeing in 1996. Boeing then sold Rocketdyne to United Technologies in 2005, and the company is now known as Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.) Biggs had worked on the engines for the Saturn V that took astronauts to the moon. In 1970, he was put on the team that developed the shuttle’s main engines. Looking back, the fact that Rocketdyne received the contract for the shuttle program meant “survival” for the Valley operations, Biggs said, as it began to shed workers connected to the Saturn V engines. “The only potential business in the future was from the shuttle main engine,” Biggs said. The lessons the engineering team on the Apollo project learned about designing heavy-lift engines carried over to the shuttle. The team built engines and turbo pumps that could operate under pressure never achieved before, Biggs said. Knowledge gained by working on the shuttle is applicable to future manned space programs. “The technology can be used for any landing, if we go back to the moon, or (start) putting a crew of people in a bigger orbit,” Biggs said. Six orbiters were built in Palmdale, but only five went into space. The first, Enterprise, was used for testing only. To get the spaceship to Edwards, it was taken by truck on city streets giving the public an up-close view, Kahl said. At various times, both Hoffman and Kahl gave tours of the orbiters to politicians, celebrities, news media, school groups and other members of the public. Hoffman said he could always tell the future engineers by the specific questions about the propulsion system. People didn’t realize the size of an orbiter until they stood alongside it, Kahl said. “The underside of the shuttle — where the heat transferred (during re-entry) — the tiles are scorched and gray,” Kahl said. Shuttle astronauts were also frequent visitors to Palmdale. They got to know the workers and became engaged in the building process, both men said. Hoffman befriended John Young, commander of the first shuttle flight and a veteran of the Gemini and Apollo programs. The crew module of the shuttle was “a suite” compared to the small space in the Apollo capsule, Hoffman recalled Young saying. “They became extended family,” Hoffman said, of the astronauts. “It kept the human face attached to the work everyone was doing.” The next generation of engineers will keep up the work started by Biggs, Hoffman and Kahl. A successor to the Space Shuttle requires political will and funding, Hoffman said. “We have other companies trying to make their mark in space travel,” Hoffman said. “Let’s hope someone is successful, and as a nation, we can get behind human space exploration.” Northrop Grumman offers scholarships Two area high school seniors received $10,000 scholarships from Northrop Grumman’s Navigation Systems Division in Woodland Hills as part of the company’s Engineering Scholars program. Ethan Pautz and Alexander Wang were chosen from their academic achievements and community involvement. Pautz, who attends Simi Valley High School, will study mechanical engineering at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. Wang, who attends El Camino Real High School, will study electrical engineering at the University of California, Irvine. “We commend these students for their exemplary academic achievements and commitment to their communities,” said Liz Iversen, sector vice president and general manager of the Navigation Systems Division. “Northrop Grumman is proud to support math and science education, and we look forward to all that these bright young students have to contribute to our industry in the future.” The scholarship funds are used for tuition, books, meals and lodging. The winners are chosen by Northrop Grumman employees. Staff Reporter Mark Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or by e-mail at [email protected]
End of an Era as Seen from Space Shuttle’s Birthplace
