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Dwayne A. Day | |
|---|---|
| Born | Dwayne Allen Day |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Spacehistorian, policy analyst |
Dwayne Allen Day is an Americanspacehistorian and policy analyst and served as an investigator for theColumbia Accident Investigation Board.
Day is a senior program officer for the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board of theNational Research Council/National Academy of Sciences, where he has served as a study director on studies concerningNASA's aeronautics flight research capabilities, the planetary exploration program, the size of the astronaut corps, the threat of asteroids striking Earth, NASA workforce skills, radiation hazards to astronauts on long duration spaceflights,U.S. Air Force astrodynamics standards, and other projects. He previously served as a program officer on theSpace Studies Board. He has also written extensively on the history of Americansatellite reconnaissance.
He received a doctorate degree in political science fromThe George Washington University[1] where he specialized in space policy and management of the national security bureaucracy. His dissertation, "Mission Control," concerned how PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower created specialized bureaucracies to manage theICBM,U-2 spyplane, andCorona spy satellite programs, thereby bypassing the cumbersome Air Force bureaucracy. From 2002 to 2003 he worked as theCongressional Budget Office Historian, where he wrote an unpublished history of the organization. In 2000, while under contract to the U.S. Air Force, he wrote a book on theU.S. Air Force Chief Scientist's Office. The book,Lightning Rod, detailed the creation, evolution, and influence of the senior scientific adviser to the uniformed leadership of the Air Force (the Air Staff).[2]
Day has written many articles in space magazines includingSpaceflight,Quest,Novosti Kosmonavtiki and other publications such asSpace News. He is an associate editor of the German spaceflight magazineRaumfahrt Concret. Day published the bookEye in the sky about theCORONAspy satellite program, and was investigator for theColumbia Accident Investigation Board, where he focused on the policy, budgetary, managerial and institutional causes of theColumbia accident.[1]
Day is regarded as one of a handful of experts on the history of the U.S. military space program, particularly Americanintelligence satellites.[citation needed] Among his contributions in this area is the first publication of a photograph of a satellite launched during a classified Space Shuttle launch, the first discussion of the evolution of the early American electronic intelligence satellite programs during the 1960s, and the first detailed discussion of the Satellite Data System communications relay satellites used by theNational Reconnaissance Office. He has also written extensively on the intelligence analysis of theSoviet space program during theCold War, such as the Soviet effort to place a man on the Moon in competition with Apollo.[3]
Day is also known as the originator of the "Von Braun Paradigm" theory. The theory is thatAmerican space policy has for decades followed a pattern largely established by von Braun ina series of articles published in the 1950s inCollier's magazine. The simplified theory is that American space leaders have sought to develop space capabilities in a series of steps: develop a space shuttle to construct and service a space station which is then used to establish a lunar base, ultimately leading to a human mission to Mars. The theory has been discussed in books and papers by space historiansHoward McCurdy,Roger Launius, andMichael Neufeld.[4]
Currently, he is a program officer at the Space Studies Board of theNational Research Council in Washington, D.C. In that capacity, he has served as a study director for several studies for NASA. These studies include "Space Radiation Hazards and the Vision for Space Exploration," "Building a Better NASA Workforce: Meeting the Workforce Needs for the National Vision for Space Exploration," "Grading NASA's Solar System Exploration Program: A Midterm Report," "Opening New Frontiers in Space: Choices for the Next New Frontiers Announcement of Opportunity," and "Science Opportunities Provided by NASA's Constellation System." He was recently the study director of a study to assess detection and mitigation strategies fornear-Earth object hazards which produced the report "Defending Planet Earth: Near-Earth-Object Survey and Hazard Mitigation Strategies," and co-study director of an analysis of radioisotope power systems for robotic spacecraft. He is currently assistant study director of the planetary science decadal survey. He is also currently study director of a study on the future of NASA's spaceflight crew office, and a study of NASA's flight research projects, both for the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board.[2]
Day is a regular contributor toThe Space Review, writing on subjects such as theBlackstar spaceplane, and theChinese space programme. He also quoted a 1974 memo from the CIA Director complaining about Skylab photography ofArea 51:
In November 2007, Day published an article containing the photograph that theSkylab 4 astronauts took of Groom Lake, the first time this photo appeared in a public document.
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