GRC NEWS RELEASE 99-81 99-81 For Release: October 22, 1999 Sally V. Harrington NASA Glenn Research Center (BUS: 216-433-2037)

Public Invited to NASA Glenn's Plum Brook Open House and Tour

NASA Glenn Research Center's Plum Brook Station will host a public Open House and Tour on Saturday, October 30. The free, one-day event will showcase the contributions that Plum Brook Station is making to the future of flight and aerospace technology. Visitors will begin their tours with a welcome reception in the Plum Brook Station Engineering Building. Highlights will include hands-on educational activities for children, and a large exhibit of informational displays illustrating the world-class aerospace testing facilities and future projects including the decommissioning of the closed Reactor Facility. Plum Brook and Glenn representatives will be on hand to talk with visitors and answer questions throughout the day. Guests will then have the opportunity to board busses or drive their own vehicles to four active test sites which include: Space Power Facility - the world's largest thermal vacuum chamber for testing large equipment in a simulated space environment Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility - world's only facility that simulates the actual flight conditions of space on full-size rocket vehicles Hypersonic Tunnel Facility - the largest clean-air wind tunnel in the United States capable of performing tests up to seven times the speed of sound Cryogenic Propellant Test Facility - where cutting-edge technology for high-energy space propulsion systems of the future are tested "Thousands of people have attended Open Houses at Plum Brook Station in the past, and this one promises to be the best one yet," said Bob Kozar, Plum Brook Station general manager and long-time Sandusky resident. The event also features a drive-by tour of the closed Reactor Facility, which contains a 60-megawatt nuclear reactor and a 100-kilowatt mockup reactor that were used to study the effects of radiation on materials used in space flight from 1962 to 1973. Throughout the day, Glenn's Decommissioning Project Manager, Tim Polich, and other Glenn and Plum Brook staff will available in the Engineering Building to answer questions about future decommissioning plans at the site. "There's so much to see and experience here," said Glenn Center Director Donald J. Campbell. "We recently held an Open House for NASA's 40th Anniversary at NASA Glenn, and we expect the Open House at Plum Brook Station to be just as successful and exciting." Plum Brook Station is a satellite of NASA's Glenn Research Center situated on 6,400 acres of land near Sandusky, OH. Since 1958, Plum Brook has contributed to several important milestones in the aerospace program, including the Mars Pathfinder and the International Space Station. Plum Brook Station is located at 6100 Columbus Avenue in Sandusky, OH, off Route 250 between Route 2 and exit 118 of the Ohio Turnpike. For more detailed directions and further information, visit the Plum Brook Open House web site at http://pbsopenhouse.grc.nasa.gov, or call (216)433-8777 in the Cleveland area or (419)621-3371 in the Sandusky area. # # # 99-81 -end-