Electronics Research Inc. history

The history of electronics began to evolve separately from that of electricity late in the 19th century with the identification of the electron by the English physicist Sir Joseph John Thomson and the measurement of its electric charge by the American physicist Robert A. Millikan in 1909.

Kelley was not new to NASA. He came to the agency in 1960 from the Navy Bureau of Weapons, where he was project manager of a major Navy missile system.

The creation of the Electronics Research Center originated in the November 1, 1961, reorganization of NASA Headquarters, which President Kennedy’s May 1961mandate to land an astronaut on the Moon by the end of the decade had sparked.

James E. Webb to George P. Miller, Chairman, Committee on Science and Astronautics, House of Representatives, March 21, 1963, file 4884, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, Washington, DC.

By the time NASA presented the study results to Congress on January 31, 1964, the country had a new president.

Albert J. Kelley, biographical data, February 23, 1965, file 1167, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, Washington, DC.

It launched in 1969 as NASA’s experimental ATS-E satellite.

17. “R&D Conversion: Former NASA Lab Now Working on Transportation,” Science, Volume 171 (January 22, 1971): 268-269.