engineering

Space Park

Space Park is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Space Park rather than just read about it. In short: Space Park is an aerospace engineering campus occupying over 100 acres in Redondo Beach, California, since 1961, expanding in 1968 to a nearly adjacent 90 acres in Manhattan Beach (15 of which were developed as public sports facilities between 1987 and 2001; 22 of which were sold in 1996 and became the MBS Media Campus). Founded as Space Technology Center by Space Technology Laboratories (STL), the site is now owned…

Key takeaways

Space Park belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Space Park to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Space Park from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Space Park is an aerospace engineering campus occupying over 100 acres in Redondo Beach, California, since 1961, expanding in 1968 to a nearly adjacent 90 acres in Manhattan Beach (15 of which were developed as public sports facilities between 1987 and 2001; 22 of which were sold in 1996 and became the MBS Media Campus). Founded as Space Technology Center by Space Technology Laboratories (STL), the site is now owned and operated by Northrop Grumman Corp. (NGC) since its 2002 acquisition of TRW Inc. This group of buildings became the first in the USA constructed solely for the entire process of designing, building, and testing spacecraft. The architects designed them so every engineer could have a desk with a window view of tree-scaped courtyards. During the 1960 groundbreaking ceremony, STL leaders joined in an ecumenical prayer for the space age: "We dedicate this building then to the protection of our land, to the discovery of our universe, but most of all to the spearheading of Peace on Earth and Good Will to Men."

Prominent buildings

This list includes buildings with prefixes to readily identify activities therein, shown in maps published for visitors:

D = Development: D1 E = Executive: E1 (originally Engineering), E2 (originally Administration) M = Manufacturing: M1, (M1A defunct), M1E (east annex), M2, M2N (north annex), M3, (M3B defunct), M4, M5, M6, M7, M8 O = Offices: O1, O2, O3, O4, (O5 defunct) R = Research: R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R7A (annex), (R8 defunct), R9, R10, R11, (R12 defunct) S = Services (badging, calibration, catering, financial, lock+key, merchandising, reprography, security) TF = Test Facility: TF1, TF2, (TF3 renamed to M8)

Names on the original building signs were hyphenated (e.g., "R-1" instead of "R1"); though some remain, most have been replaced by non-hyphenated ones. Bldg. E2 houses a 3,500 sq. ft. museum that is open to the public during business hours. The exhibit includes a scale model of the Spirit of St. Louis, an original Pioneer 1 satellite, and an Apollo mission engine. Shortly after acquiring TRW, NGC built the Space Technology Presentation Center north of E2 (shown on early maps as STPC or TPC), sometimes calling it Northrop Grumman Presentation Center before officially renaming it Aerospace Presentation Center (APC). As business needs have fluctuated, other buildings (mostly identified by numbers without letters from 50 to 924 on maps) have been acquired or leased near Space Park in Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, El Segundo, and Torrance.

Public milestones STL, TRW, and NGC have made technological achievements at their other locations; but this section only chronicles publicized activities at, or closely related to, Space Park. A significant amount of the work on the campus involves spy satellites that cannot be listed because of national security secrets, and sometimes the delivery of these systems from Space Park can require closure of public facilities.

1960s October 6, 1960 STL announced holding an option on land for a 10-building complex. 1960 STL purchased 110 acres from Santa Fe Railroad in Redondo Beach. December 7, 1960 Ground broken for first three buildings: R1 and R2 for research, and E for engineering (later renamed "E1" to distinguish it from an executive bldg. named "E2").

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Space Park

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Space Park claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Space Park before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Space Park ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Space Park

In research: Space Park appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Space Park in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Space Park is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1961 establishments in California, 20th century in Los Angeles, 21st century in Los Angeles, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Space Park outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Space Park in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Space Park means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Space Park out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Space Park in simple terms?

Why does Space Park matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Space Park?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Space Park.