The space telescope team of the month in June 1984. Sam Palasciano is in the center with jacket and red tie. The names of some of the team are identified in the next two photos.
See the next photo for the names.
Names of the space telescope team.
Many of them also worked on the Hexagon program. Both great successes and a tribute to Perkin-Elmer.
In going through my old documents and souvenirs I found this old Service Recognition Dinner Reception Program that I attended with my wife Pat on October 3, 1991 at the Ethan Allen Inn, Danbury, CT. Unfortunately some of them are no longer with us but they were all wonderful colleagues that I worked with and many of us became good friends. I hope you have as many good special memories of them as I do. They were all talented members of the fantastic team that worked on and contributed to the success of the Hexagon Reconnaissance Satellites that helped keep the peace in the world for 15 years between 1971 and 1986. Many also worked on other high performance projects such as the Hubble Space Telescope, and some worked on important and successful classified programs. I have been and still am proud to have worked with them.
It has been so many years since we had PDR’s, CDR’s and other reviews. The hardest ones were the internal ones that we had to do for Perkin-Elmer’s own upper management including Arnie Wallace who really made you sweat. These were followed by the real ones for our customers and their consultants. Some of their questions were tough and some were inane such as “when do you expect to get your connectors delivered.” I remember Marty Yellin starting his presentation with a questions for John Love, a customer consultant “Any questions so far John?” Here is a photo and an identification chart of one of the last Program Review in the mid eighties.
Program Review
Attendees
I received this video from Cargill Hall, Emeritus Chief Historian of the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office). It shows the amazing flight performance it can do. Not related to Hexagon but interesting.
seen online at
An F-35 demo team pilot was caught on video showing off some awesome new moves
The Hexagon spy satellite looked at the earth with extraordinary photographic resolution. So did the Hubble Space Telescope looking at the stars and both were designed and built by Perkin-Elmer. Here are some photos relevant to the Hubble.
The Hubble primary mirror being installed
Mirror polisher
Mirror coating fixture
Guys working on the Hubble
Hubble in the high bay
Primary mirror blank
Secondary mirro truss
Some optical shop guys
Outstanding team of the month
Other optical shop guys. Bud Rigby bottom left
Metrology mount
Primary mirror aperture test
Courtesy of Jon Aspinwall and his computer skills, he made up this nutty photo. I had nothing to do with it. Thanks Jon, you are also a Hexagon nut.
