NASA Goddard Innovator Honored - charlestonchronicle.net
In honor of his many inventions and patents developed in a 34-year career at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, George E. Alcorn, a pioneering African-American physicist and engineer, was inducted into the National... Alcorn was honored in the Flight and Exploration category for leading a four-person team that developed the first X-ray imaging spectrometer (essentially a device that allows scientists to identify elements using X-rays) via aluminum... Alcorn’s work in private industry began in the 1960s. He worked as a research engineer performing orbital mechanics and trajectory analysis for the Titan 1, Nova and Saturn IV rockets for the Space Division of North American Rockwell. He also worked in the aerospace division of Philco-Ford, a division of the Ford Motor Company, which developed satellite-tracking systems for NASA’s manned space program. He began working at NASA Goddard in 1978, when there were very few African-American scientists or engineers affiliated with the agency. As the deputy project manager of advanced development, he led teams that developed technologies for the space station Freedom, a project that eventually evolved into the International Space Station. Source: www.charlestonchronicle.net
