[ih] "Computers in Spaceflight: The NASA Experience"

[Adrian J. Hooke]

Joe:

Though mot directly related to Internet history, the NASA history office 
has interesting information at:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/computers/contents.html

To quote the Foreword: "NASA never asked for anything that could not be 
done with the current technology. But in response, the computer industry 
sometimes pushed itself just a little in a number of areas. Just a little 
better software development practices made onboard software safe, just a 
little better networking made the Launch Processing System more efficient, 
just a little better operating system made mission control easier, just a 
little better chip makes image processing faster. NASA did not push the 
state of the art, but nudged it enough times to make a difference."

Many of these developments led directly to our current work on the 
"InterPlaNetary Internet". Some of the old guys mentioned in Part II are 
still around here at JPL. If anyone has a question, I'd be happy to see if 
I can get a first-hand answer.

Best regards

Adrian J. Hooke
Manager, DARPA InterPlaNetary Internet (IPN) Project
Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
InterPlanetary Network and Information Systems Directorate
M/S 303-400, 4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, California 91109-8099, USA
+1.818.354.3063 or +1.818.354.0174 voice;
+1.818.393.3575 fax
http://www.ipnsig.org