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Dave Drachlis
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
July 7, 2003
(256/544-0034)

RELEASE: 03-102

NASA propulsion guru Robert Sackheim reflects on past, looks to future

Part 2 of 3

Rescuing NASA's voice in the sky
TRW and NASA were fortunate as well, especially in April 1983 during
STS-6, the first flight of Space Shuttle Challenger. Its primary
payload, Tracking and Data Relay Satellite 1, or TDRS-1, was a unique
new asset, a high-powered communications satellite intended to permit
easier communication between NASA and its orbiting hardware,
including the Shuttle itself. Its successful deployment would nix the
Agency's reliance on multiple, low-orbit communication satellites and
relay stations around the world.

But when TDRS-1 was deployed, a motor failed during its climb to
geosynchronous orbit, sending the $100 million craft into a fearsome
spin-180 revolutions per second and 9,000 miles short of its mark.

Sackheim spent the next 45 days of his life figuring out how to first
get the satellite to stop spinning, and then to proceed to its
correct position in geosynchronous orbit-22,500 miles up. "It was
quite a challenge," he says, "getting a signal to the satellite to
override its sequence and gain control, then stopping the spin
without draining the thermal batteries or causing the thrusters to
overheat." He and his team worked around the clock, even after others
suggested they give up the satellite for lost. 

They solved the problem, and guided TDRS-1 into its proper orbit.
"Twenty years later, that satellite is still working," Sackheim says
proudly. 

Sackheim later served TRW as propulsion manager for the Orbital
Maneuvering Vehicle project, begun in 1986 and intended to yield a
short-range "space tugboat" that would ferry payloads to and from the
Space Shuttle and orbiting satellites. His last role at TRW-from 1993
to 1999-was manager of the propulsion systems center in TRW's Space
and Technology Division, where he was responsible for design,
development and testing of high energy chemical lasers, materials
technologies, and combustion and fluid system products.

Inspiring the next generation of explorers
During those years, Sackheim also created and taught a
professional-level propulsion engineering course on spacecraft design
and propulsion for UCLA's respected aerospace engineering program.

"I enjoy teaching," he says. "One of the best ways to learn something
is to teach. And I'm delighted that UCLA is still offering that class
today." Taught by one of Sackheim's former students, as a matter of
fact-a legacy that offers him the same deep sense of accomplishment
he gets from his own individual achievements in the field.

"When you get to a certain age, what else is there?" he says. "When I
think of all the things that were done for me by my own mentors and
teachers over the years, all the people who guided and coached me, I
have to give something back.

"Teaching, passing on knowledge, is an immensely rewarding way to do
that," he adds.

Joining the NASA team
Most engineers would have been content to retire after 35 years with
the same company and so many academic and industry achievements under
his belt. But in 1999, a former colleague at TRW named Art
Stephenson, who had just been tapped to assume the directorship of
the Marshall Space Flight Center, approached Sackheim about coming to
work for him in "Rocket City"-Huntsville, Ala., home to the nation's
original rocket research think tank and still a key leader in NASA's
space propulsion R&D. 

Sackheim took him up on the offer. He and his wife of 40 years,
Babette, moved from California to Huntsville, where Sackheim joined
the Marshall Center as assistant director and chief engineer for
space propulsion. 

The chief draw, even 35 years after his initial romance with rocket
propulsion, was the work.

"It was the chance to have an impact on things I felt were important
to the country and to the space program," he says. "A chance to try
to regain the momentum we had in the 1960s, to restore that
excitement to the culture. Yeah, there are days when I beat my head
against the wall. But I haven't given up. I can't."

Sharing NASA's spaceflight mission
Today, Sackheim still balances practical research and his NASA duties
with teaching and writing about his chosen occupation.

"People are leaving the profession," he says, "and we're not doing
enough to replace them, to stimulate science and technology training
at the student level. We've got to rekindle young people's interest.
We've got to be inspirational." He continues the effort
himself-holding forth on the subject of aerospace propulsion each
semester at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He is also
co-authoring a new book on designing launch vehicles and space
transportation systems, which he expects to see published in 2004. 

 - Continued -

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