Author Description

This volume is the fourth in a series of reference works intended to present a statistical summary of the activity of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration from its inception. Volume IV, NASA Resources 1969-1978, is an update of the initial volume in the series, NASA Resources 1958-1968. The present volume treats briefly, as did its predecessor, NASA's history, organization, management, financing, personnel, and procurement matters during the second decade of its existence. Its primary objective is to provide the reader with comprehensive statistical data to illustrate the status of NASA in the decade after the first man set foot on the Moon. Volume IV is organized in the same way as the first volume. Each chapter of the present volume deals with the same subject matter as the first one. There are some differences, however. Whereas the first volume provided statistical data not only for the individual installations but also for each installation's component facilities as well, this volume combines statistical data of the component facilities with the data of the parent installation. There are two reasons for this. First, many of the component facilities were consolidated with their parent installation between 1969 and 1978. Second, increasingly during this decade NASA offices themselves tended to consolidate all statistical data on the particular installation. The statistical tables in this volume contain some gaps simply because the prerequisite data were not available. Finally, until 1976 the fiscal year began in July and ended at the end of June. Starting October 1976, it began in October and ended at the end of September. Whenever information was available, data were provided for the so-called "transition quarter" (TQ) to cover the period July 1, 1976, to September 30, 1976. Otherwise, the transitional quarter is combined with 1976.