October 2002: New Branch Associate in 553: Mark D Shappirio:
Dr. Mark Shappirio joined NASA with the Detector Development Branch/553, with strong ties to us in Interplanetary Physics. Mark comes to us from Los Alamos National Labs and the University of Virgina, where he worked on the development of the Cassini/CAPS investigation, the DS-1/PEPE investigation, and other space plasma instrumentation. He brings strong skills in the development of such instruments and will strengthen both our development efforts and future flight investigations.

September 2002: Best Paper at the 2002 Ionospheric Effect Symposium
In the words of coauthor Robert Benson: "Our paper took a different slant from the normal emphasis at these symposia, i.e., the effect of the ionosphere on application systems such as communications & navigation, in that we stressed the relevance of the experience gained from ionospheric research based on ionospheric topside sounders to scientific research in space plasmas other than the ionosphere. In particular, we showed how the ionospheric experience has helped me contribute to the interpretation of IMAGE/RPI data and how it led Vladimir (Osherovich) to propose a radical new interpretation of the X-ray spectra of the accretion disks around neutron stars and black holes. The latter was based on the application of the concept of the upper-hybrid relationship, commonly used in ionospheric topside-sounder work, to the interpretation of puzzling astrophysical spectra.

August 2002: Interplanetary Physics Branch begins move to building 21:
A substantial amount of space for the IPB became available in late July 2002, on the 200 floor of building 21, in space formerly occupied by code 900. Most of the civil servants are being moved in this first wave. With the extremely hot and humid weather, combined with a transition to new HVAC units for building 21, there have been some "drainage anomalies" involving both overhead HVAC units, and the sprinkler system. These are being corrected by the contractor. Space for the balance of the branch, including the branch head, plasma laboratory, and branch associates to be housed on the north side of the building, is currently held up by delays in completion of space into which the current occupants will be moving. It is hoped that the balance of the office moves will occur by late October 2002, and that the laboratory move will be complete by the end of 2002.

June 2002: Richard Fitzenreiter Retires:
Richard Fitzenreiter no sooner received his 40 year NASA service pin than he retired! Richard was clearly one of the first to work at the Goddard facility. A letter of appreciation from NASA headquarters to Dick reads, in part:

Dear Dr. Fitzenreiter:
"It is with sincere pleasure that I congratulate you for your 40 years of service to the Federal Government. This is a noteworthy anniversary, and you should take great pride in this accomplishment. You came to NASA from Indiana University as a masters degree physicist, and developed your research activities into a doctoral dissertation. Over the years since then, you have performed research on the plasmas of the ionosphere, the Earth's magnetosphere and the solar wind, making basic contributions to our understanding of heat flow and its effects on the solar wind. In recent years, you have provided science and software support of the VEIS electron spectrometer and solar wind strahl sensor of the Solar Wind Experiment on the Wind spacecraft. Your dedicated efforts, while serving in these various scientific roles since 1962, have contributed critically to the success of the International Sun Earth Explorer (ISEE) and the International Solar Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) programs of Goddard Space Flight Center."