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   NEWS/EVENTS OF NOTE AT AUBURN UNIVERSITY -- July 2-8, 1995
            Auburn University - University Relations
                         (334) 844-9999
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6/30/95                        Janet McCoy (mccoyjl@mail.auburn.edu)

NASA BOOK BY NOTED AU HISTORIAN NOMINATED FOR PULITZER PRIZE
     AUBURN -- A book about one of NASA's most significant space
centers -- written by Auburn University historian James Hansen --
has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize -- the first time a NASA
book has garnered such distinction.
     The book, "Spaceflight Revolution: NASA Langley Research
Center From Sputnik to Apollo" was nominated by NASA, which
published the book.
     Hansen, Alumni Professor of History and chair of the
Department of History at AU, specializes in the history of
technology and the impact of technology on society. He has spent
several summers at the Virginia research facility as its historian
completing research for the book.
     Roger Launias, aerospace historian for the NASA History Office
in Washington D.C., calls Hansen's book "one of the most
significant historical studies to emerge in recent years analyzing
the dramatic changes taking place within NASA as a result of the
success in space of the Soviet Union and the response of the United
States. 
     "Focusing on Langley Research Center at Hampton, Virginia,
during the late 1950s and 1960s, Hansen assesses the transformation
of a government research laboratory during a pivotal era," Launian
says.  "Langley, established as the original laboratory of the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1917, had
long been involved in cutting-edge aeronautical research and
development. The flight of Sputnik I in 1957, however, prompted
important changes in the center's focus and method of operation. It
became part of NASA in 1958 and its leaders shifted the workload
from almost exclusively center-unique aeronautical research to
efforts that involved other research facilities and dealt much more
fully with the challenges of spaceflight. 
     "It is must reading for anyone seeking to understand the
development of aerospace activities in the United States."
     Hansen's book is one of a series of histories underway within
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration History Office
dealing with the development of NASA institutional structure. It
joins volumes that have appeared on other NASA centers.
     "Jim Hansen has given NASA Langley an invaluable and lively
look into the people and events of our past," says Lynn Heimerl,
NASA project manager for the book.
     The new book by Hansen is the completion of a two-book series
on the Virginia-based research facility.
     Donald Hearth, Langley's director from 1975-1985, said in
Hansen's first book, "Engineer in Charge," about the research
center: ""The importance of a history... is to better understand
the character of an organization and what it will mean to the
future ... Langley has only just begun to be called upon by the
aerospace community for the things only Langley can provide. NASA
has called upon James R. Hansen for an accurate rejuvenation of
Langley's living memory." 
 # # # june95:AU-nasabook
     CONTACT: Hansen, 334/844-4360 (hansejr@mail.auburn.edu)