By Alex Constantine
The leap from TRW in Redondo Beach to Cleveland's NASA Glenn
Research Center wasn't easy for Dan Goldin.
"I came out of the black (budget) world,''
he explained in 1999. "I never dealt with the public like I
did (at NASA). Whenever I had meetings, it was in private
rooms, in special buildings.'
'1 But he came out of the "black" closet (and closed the door
rather firmly behind). NASA's website notes that Goldin began
his career in Cleveland back in 1962, and worked on electric
propulsion systems for "human interplanetary travel" back
when the facility was known as the Lewis Center.2
TRW tested its high-powered electronic propulsion system at
Edwards Air Force Base on March 15, 1999.
An Air Force release explained that the experimental drive
"was based on high-powered electric propulsion provided by a
26 kilowatt ammonia fueled arcjet."
This was was "an effort by the Air Force Research
Laboratory’s Propulsion Directorate to demonstrate its
use in space, and evaluate performance and interactions with
other experiments and spacecraft systems.
The prime contractor for the experiment was TRW.
"They incorporated the electric propulsion expertise of their
subcontractor, Primex Aerospace Company of Redmond WA.
The experimental propulsion system is part of the payload of
a DoD space test program scientific satellite called Advanced
Research and Global Observation Satellite, or ARGOS, built by
Boeing."3
ARGOS weighed three tons.
It was billed as the most advanced "R&D satellite" ever
launched by the US Air Force.
It ran ion propulsion, space dust and high-temperature
semiconductor experiments, was outfitted with ionospheric
instruments and the Naval Research Lab’s hard x-ray
detectors for binary star timing observations. Loaded for
bear.
It was, however, a long-delayed project -
ARGOS finally made it into orbit on the ELEVENTH LAUNCH
ATTEMPT.4
And the Buck Rogers arcjet propulsion system wasn't used for
interplanetary travel.
It wasn't even really intended primarily for scientific
research and development, as advertised.
"ARGOS," SpaceWarn Bulletin, published by NASA's National
Space Science Data Center, stated flatly, "is an American
military spacecraft."5
There is a trove of state secrets tucked away in Dan Goldin's
hippocampus and that's where they stay,
as the Jewish Journal's Mark Arnold found in a 2001
interview:
JJ. "What about Israel. Have you been involved there?"
DG: "I’ve been very engaged with the development of the
technology program in Israel.
I feel very good about the relationships I’ve made
there.
I’ve met with all the leaders at one time or another:
Sharon, Barak, Netanyahu, Ezer Weizman.
I had relationships with Israel before I went to NASA and
strengthened them there."
JJ: "You helped with their space program and their astronaut program, didn’t you?"
DG: "I’d rather not talk about that...."
He gave the world Orwellian advancements:
"NASA develops 'mind-reading' system"
"A computer program which can read silently spoken words
by analysing nerve signals in our mouths and throats, has
been developed by NASA ..."6
The organization's research manager Herb Schlickenmaier
explained to the press that the mind-reading machines weren't
ready for widespread use.
He just want Northwest Airlines to test them. "There are baby
steps for us to walk through before we can make any
pronouncements," he said.7
Thus it is that the phrases "biometric access" and "neural
control" have entered the Homeland Security section of the
American lexicon.8
Scientists behind the black curtain, in their own "private
rooms" and "special buildings,"
were busy with the "alternative" bio-engineering experiments
that enthralled Goldin.
And, mysteriously, scientists involved in classified NASA projects around the world were dropping like flies...
There was a collective sigh of relief when Goldin left the
space agency.
Todd Halvorson, Cape Canaveral Bureau Chief for Florida
Today, wrote in November 2001, "NASA Administrator Daniel
Goldin has dominated the U.S. civil space program for nearly
a decade,
ruling the nation's space agency with an iron fist." He was
"a figure both revered and reviled within U.S. aerospace
circles....
"For Goldin, life after NASA will start with the non-profit Council on Competitiveness, a think tank created in 1986 to foster technological innovation and workforce development while benchmarking the performance of the U.S. economy against those of other nations."9
Dan Goldin didn't exactly put his best foot forward handling
his own share of the economy, however. The Associated Press
reported in 2000 that NASA "made a $590 million bookkeeping
error in its 1999 financial report and a congressman is
demanding an explanation from the agency.
'I'm deeply disappointed that the agency that could send a
man to the moon now can't even balance its books to the
nearest half-billion,' Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr.,
chairman of the House Science Committee, said in a statement
Thursday.... The error was overlooked by both NASA's
financial office and the Arthur Andersen independent
accounting firm."
Sensenbrenner said, "significant management problems continue to bedevil NASA."10
[TO BE CONTINUED] ----------- NOTES
1) Brett Davis, "NASA chief is credited with reviving Cold War agency," Newhouse News Service, November 14, 1999. http://www.fas.org/news/usa/1999/11/991114-goldin.htm
2) "Daniel Saul Goldin," NASA Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, April 1, 1992 - November 17, 2001 http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/bios/biosthen.html
3) US Air Force press release, "NEW SPACE PROPULSION SYSTEM FIRED," March 17, 1999 http://www.pr.afrl.af.mil/press/articles/arcjet1st.html
4) ARGOS (Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite), http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/A/ARGOS.html
5) SPACEWARN Bulletin Number 544, March 1, 1999. http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacewarn/spx544.html
6) Maggie McKee, "NASA develops 'mind-reading' system," NewScientist.com, March 22, 2004. http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4795
7) http://www.bvalphaserver.com/article-print-3915.html
Also see:
http://www.wren-network.net/events/bios/hschlickenmaier.htm:
Schlickenmaier is the director of programs and policy
integration for NASA's Headquarters Office of Aerospace
Technology.
"He is responsible for establishing program policy for the
Aerospace Technology Enterprise consisting of program
formulation, program coordination and integration, as well as
assessing the progress of programs against plans across the
Aerospace Technology Enterprise.
He is also responsible for establishing policy and standards
with the Aeronautics Technology, Innovative Technology
Transfer Partnerships, Mission and Science Measurement, and
Space Launch Initiative Themes and their associated
programs.
In 1996, Mr. Schlickenmaier was selected to serve on the
White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security, and
was responsible for aviation safety and advanced air traffic
technology activities on the Commission staff."
8) William J. Lawson, Ph.D., Ruby Ann M. Lawson,
”Biometrics ID Issued to 4 Million Military,”
Washington Post Online, October 29, 2001.
http://www.icdri.org/biometrics/let_me_in.htm
9) Todd Halvorson, "Dan Goldin Faces Life After NASA,"
Florida Today, November 16, 2001.
10) Anon., "Oops! Congressman Says NASA Made $590
Million Bookkeeping Error," AP, July 6, 2000.
http://nucnews.net/nucnews/2000nn/0007nn/000706nn.htm