Capitol College Groundbreaking To Include Space Operations Institute

In another effort to inspire the next generation, members of the Goddard community will join Capitol College for a groundbreaking ceremony on Oct. 29 beginning at 3 p.m.

The groundbreaking of the multimillion-dollar William G. McGowan Academic Center will house the NASA Space Operations Institute (SOI). Through a partnership with Goddard, the SOI was created at Capitol College in 2002 to develop a pipeline of personnel for NASA with the expertise to support NASA space operations.

The ceremony will also highlight the 20th anniversary of its Laurel campus, a site that has gone "From NASCAR to NASA."

Representatives from Goddard will display scale models of NASA hardware to include the Hubble Space Telescope and a Mars exploration rover. To represent NASCAR, a racecar owned by Hermie Sadler of Virginia will also be on display.

The racecar represents the history of the campus, which was once the site of the NASCAR-sanctioned Beltsville Speedway. Capitol College purchased the land in 1981 and opened the doors to its new campus in 1983. With today's NASCAR vehicles equipped with insulation first developed by NASA, there is a direct technology transfer between NASCAR and NASA.

When completed, the McGowan Academic Center will house a mission control room for SOI. As part of this initiative, the SOI has assumed control of four satellites and provided laboratory facilities for students. To date, NASA has approved the transfer of four satellites to the SOI: TOMS/EP, UARS, ERBS and TRMM. All are operated in partnership with Honeywell Technology Solutions, Inc.

Through SOI, students will be mentored for a career in space industry with hands-on experience in controlling and tracking NASA satellites. The McGowan Center will also house multimedia classrooms with wireless technology.

"The Space Operations Institute affords students the opportunity to gain experience in the real-time operation of NASA earth science satellites," said G. William Troxler, president of Capitol College. The scientific data regarding ozone, the radiation budget, or the Earth, and the chemistry of the Earth's upper atmosphere flow from these satellites to researchers all over the world.

A reception in the student center will be held immediately following the ground breaking.