August Witt, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, principal investigator for the research program designed to lead to the identification and control of gravitational effects which adversely impact, through their interference with the growth process, the achievement of critical application specific properties in opto-electronic materials.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Billy Witt, a midbody shop mechanic with United Space Alliance, checks a part used for installation of a Reinforced Carbon Carbon (RCC) panel to the leading edge of the wing of an orbiter. Above him is an RCC panel just installed on Atlantis. The gray carbon composite RCC panels have sufficient strength to withstand the aerodynamic forces experienced during launch and reentry, which can reach as high as 800 pounds per square foot. The operating range of RCC is from minus 250º F to about 3,000º F, the temperature produced by friction with the atmosphere during reentry.

Stu Witt, founder of the Mojave Air and Spaceport and former Chairman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, asks a questions of the Department of Commerce's James Uthmeier during the first meeting of the National Space Council Users' Advisory Group, Tuesday, June 19, 2018 at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The Users' Advisory Group will advise and inform the National Space Council on a broad range of aerospace topics, including the impacts of U.S. and international laws and regulations, national security space priorities, scientific and human space exploration priorities, and ways to bolster support. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Users' Advisory Group members, from left, Dennis Muilenburg, CEO of the Boeing Company; Eileen Collins, former NASA astronaut; Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 astronaut; Stu Witt, founder of the Mojave Air and Spaceport and former Chairman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation; are seen during the first meeting of the National Space Council Users' Advisory Group, Tuesday, June 19, 2018 at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The Users' Advisory Group will advise and inform the National Space Council on a broad range of aerospace topics, including the impacts of U.S. and international laws and regulations, national security space priorities, scientific and human space exploration priorities, and ways to bolster support. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - - In the Space Station Processing Facility, Gaschen Geissen and Elton Witt, with Lockheed Martin, monitor the Payload Test and Checkout System for the Human Research Facility (HRF) Rack -2 payload. The HRF-2 is scheduled to fly on Return to Flight Space Shuttle mission STS-114. The HRF-2 will deliver additional biomedical instrumentation and research capability to the International Space Station. HRF Rack 1 contains an ultrasound unit and gas analyzer system and has been operational in the U.S. Lab since May 2001. HRF-2 will also be installed in the U. S. Lab and will provide structural, power, thermal, command and data handling, and communication and tracking interfaces between the HRF biomedical instrumentation and the U. S. Lab.

In the blockhouse at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Pad 14, Sonny Witt, director of Operations for the 45th Mission Support Group at the Cape speaks to Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana along with cast and crew members of the upcoming motion picture "Hidden Figures." Pad 14 was the location of the launch of John Glenn and three other astronauts who flew orbital missions during Project Mercury. The movie is based on the book of the same title, by Margot Lee Shetterly. It chronicles the lives of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, three African-American women who worked for NASA as human "computers.” Their mathematical calculations were crucial to the success of Project Mercury missions including Glenn’s orbital flight aboard Friendship 7 in 1962. The film is due in theaters in January 2017.