George H. Ludwig

I was born in Sharon Center, Iowa, a tiny crossroads cluster 10 miles southwest of Iowa City. My life until the time of high school graduation was centered on the small Ludwig farm near Tiffin. At about age 11, flying and electronics began to consume much of my free time. During my high school years, many of the Tiffin residents came to depend upon me for repairing their ailing radios and household appliances.

Immediately upon graduating from our small high school in 1946, I volunteered for service as a private in the U. S. Air Force. Serving for a year as an enlisted man, then for a year learning to fly in aviation cadet school, I received my wings and second lieutenant bars in July 1948. During four and half more years as a multiengine pilot, a squadron electronics officer, and other assignments, I was exposed to an ever-broadening range of experiences and satisfied my lust for travel.

Rosalie F. Vickers traveled with her family from Tacoma, Washington, to Biloxi, Mississippi, to marry me in July 1950. At that time I was attending radar school. Dur­ing the next two-plus years we enjoyed a nomadic military life at posts in New Mexico, Idaho, and California. Our first daughter, Barbara Rose, was born in February 1952.

I had always strongly believed that I needed a university education. Several efforts to pursue that goal as an air force officer proved fruitless, so I felt compelled to leave the active military service. On 18 December 1952, Rosalie, our 10-month-old daughter, and I departed from my final duty station in Sacramento, California, with only a very general concept of what the future might hold. When we arrived back at my boyhood home in Iowa, I had no income-producing job and very little money. Our second child was on her way. Van Allen’s offer of a position in the Cosmic Ray Laboratory was a godsend.

This book chronicles my university years, progressing through our family’s arrival in Tiffin in mid-December 1952, the birth of our daughter Sharon Lee in 1953, the receipt of my B. A. degree in February 1956, the birth of our son George Vickers in 1958, the receipt of my M. S. degree in February 1959, the birth of our fourth child, Kathy Ann, in August 1960, and ending with receipt of my Ph. D. degree a few weeks later.

Along the way, I helped in designing and building eight of the earliest U. S. Earth satellite instruments and in the use of the four of them that reached orbit.

As my final graduation approached, I accepted a position with the then-forming Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Moving with my family to Silver Spring, Maryland, in Septem­ber, I formed and directed an instrument development section in Frank McDonald’s Fields and Particles Branch. From then until 1965 my work included development of a progression of satellite and space probe instruments, service as project scientist for a series of Orbit­ing Geophysical Observatories, and participation in the rapidly evolving scientific research program.

Subsequent positions included director of the Information Processing Division at Goddard and a move to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 1972 to set up and direct an Office of Systems Integration in the National Environmental Satellite Service. My work in NOAA included establishment of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite system and the TIROS-N polar orbiting system and, subsequently, direction of the operation of the two systems.

In 1980, Rosalie and I moved to Boulder, Colorado, andNOAA’s Environmental Research Laboratories (ERL). After a period as the ERL director, I returned for a short term at the

CHAPTER 2 • THE EARLY YEARS

headquarters of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), where I retired from government service in 1984.

Various consulting roles, work as a research associate at the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, and an assignment as a California Institute of Technology Visiting Senior Scientist at NASA Headquarters occupied my attention for the next seven years. In 1991, I retired from all further work in the space arena, and Ros and I made our retirement home near Winchester, Virginia.

My work in the Cosmic Ray Laboratory evolved rapidly over the three years of my undergraduate schooling. My earliest work included general laboratory work on a variety of test instruments. The first substantial task of note was to design and build a new type of marker pulse generator. At the same time, I helped Joseph (Joe) E. Kasper in building the differential analyzer (an early analog computer) that was the basis for his master’s degree.1 As time progressed, in addition to instrument development and construction, I oversaw more and more of the daily operation of the laboratory, including organizing and ordering supplies and supervising some of the student aides.

And I quickly edged into the fine art of building balloon and rockoon instruments. Figure 2.1 shows me with some of my early work.