The NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in Cleveland, Ohio, was founded in 1942 and initially named the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory. In 1947 it was renamed the Flight Propulsion Research Laboratory, and in 1948 the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory after George W. Lewis, head of NACA from 1919 to 1947. It became the NASA Lewis Research Center in 1958.
It was renamed the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field after astronaut and former Ohio senator John Glenn in 1999.
Photos used with permission from NASA and the Cleveland Memory Project
A camera onboard the Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft photographs astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. during his historic flight on February 20, 1962.An engineer and a technician check out an ion engine in the Electronic Propulsion Research Building at the Lewis Research Center (now NASA’s Glenn Research Center) in 1961.Astronaut John Glenn inspects artwork that will be painted on the outside of his Mercury spacecraft, which he nicknamed Friendship 7.Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. in his silver Mercury spacesuit during pre- flight training activities at Cape Canaveral.Astronaut John H. Glenn Jr., NASA flight surgeon William Douglas and equipment specialist Joseph W. Schmidt leave crew quarters prior to the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission.Astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr., in his Mercury flight suit.Cleveland’s Glenn Research Center began as the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NASA’s predecessor). The Altitude Wind Tunnel, built in 1944.Colonel E.R. Page, William F. Durand, Orville Wright, Addison M. Rothrock visit the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio, on dedication day, May 20, 1943.Dr. Earle B. Kay and a researcher at Lewis Research Center test a heart assist pump designed for St. Vincent Charity Hospital. 1967Guarded entrance to NASA’s Lewis Research Center in Cleveland.In this 1957 photo, engineers at the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory (now NASA’s Glenn Research Center) check a model of a supersonic aircraft.In this 1957 photograph, an unnamed NACA physicist studies alpha rays in a continuous cloud chamber. NACA, the National Advisory Council on Aeronautics, was NASA’s predecessor.In this image, engineers test the RL-10 engine in NASA Lewis (now Glenn) Research Center’s Propulsion Systems Laboratory.John H. Glenn, Jr. – NASA Project Mercury Astronaut. In April of 1959, John Glenn was selected as a member of the first group of astronauts, the Mercury Seven.Lewis Research Center’s sign at the entrance on Brookpark Road. 1962.Mercury astronaut John Glenn stays fit by running on the beach in Cape Canaveral, Florida.On April 9, 1959, NASA introduced its first astronaut class, the Mercury 7.On Feb. 20, 1962, astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr., became the first American to orbit Earth.On Feb. 20, 1962, Glenn piloted the Mercury-Atlas 6 Friendship 7 spacecraft on the first manned orbital mission of the United States.Preparations for dynamic stability tests of the Apollo Command Module and its launch escape system were observed by NASA engineer Bobby W. Sanders at Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio. 1964.Setup for Project Mercury capsule escape tower engine tests in the Altitude Wind Tunnel (AWT) at NASA Glenn Research Center (then NASA Lewis), 1960.Technicians are installing ion engine 1 in the High Vacuum Tank in the Electric Propulsion Research Building in this image from 1959.These ice formations on the propeller and fuselage surfaces of a test unit installed in the Icing Research Tunnel at the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory of the NACA.This analog computing machine-a very early version of the modern computer-was located in the Fuel Systems Building at the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Cleveland.Workers at the Propulsion Systems Laboratory at Lewis Research Center, now John H. Glenn Research Center, develop the Centaur upper stage rocket.
