Jerry Moyer began his career at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) with Planning Research Corporation (PRC) developing performance specifications for experiment-to-Spacelab rack payload integration. At that time, KSC did not have a permanent facility for life sciences experiment processing. Said Moyer, “They used some of the older facilities, trailers, temporary facilities throughout KSC and Cape Canaveral. But they weren't adequate in size and the capabilities weren't there to process the number and types of experiments planned for Spacelab. They lacked adequate cleanliness, and they lacked laboratory capabilities that would be needed for preflight operations, inflight ground control experiments, and postflight processing.”
Moyer became lead project engineer for the Life Sciences Support Facility, also known as Hangar L, for which the design effort was already under way. “We had about two thousand engineers with PRC designing and building launch pads and the processing facilities,” said Moyer. “As Hangar L really came about, they needed someone who could interact with Ames Research Center (ARC) and understand their requirements, whether it was for an isotope-rated fume hood, a certain level of cleanliness for tissue culture, or animal care facilities. I had exposure to those kinds of things as a result of my academic background.”
Their design group was assigned with bringing the Hangar L budget under control. “Our requirements were at about $2.3 million,” said Moyer, “and our budget was about $1.6 million. We needed surgery areas for preflight bioimplantation and other surgical procedures, an X-ray facility, experiment processing laboratories, areas for animal care and housing, an area for experimental monitoring, and more.”
The Hangar L modification finished within budget. Shortly after completion, Moyer accepted a position with the Bionetics Corporation as manager for ground operations support. In this capacity he had a chance to see what the design team had done right as well as wrong. Said Moyer, “The labs were a little smaller than we would have liked, and the air conditioning system was undersized a bit, but a lot of that was driven by budget. All the equipment worked really well. It’s like when you build a house, often there are things you think of afterwards that could have been done a little bit differently.”
Since the facility’s first use in 1982, Hangar L has contributed to the successful performance of over 67 Space Shuttle missions and over 500 individual flight experiments. Hangar L has also provided support to unmanned space exploration, such as the Mars Pathfinder, and ground research efforts supporting the development of bioregenerative life support systems.
Moyer sees life sciences ground support at KSC changing in the era of the International Space Station (ISS). “Hangar L was designed to support Spacelab missions and middeck experiments. For the Station era, we need an expanded capability and expanded facility. Things are going to be a lot different, and they're going to affect the ground operations. We’re going to have 90-day flight increments and operations inflight on a continuous basis. It’s not going to be as straightforward as a Shuttle launch." Currently, KSC is working on a replacement for Hangar L. Said Moyer, “Right now we're assessing requirements and working with ARC, Marshall Space Flight Center, JSC [Johnson Space Center], and NASA Headquarters to determine what the additional needs may be for the ground support.” Even with the changes in experiment design for the ISS, Moyer feels that the ground activities performed during the preflight, inflight, and postflight mission phases will remain every bit as critical to experiment and mission success as the activities conducted during the space flight.