The BATCAVE: Clementine Mission Control
Donald M. Horan Chief Scientist, NRL
Clementine Program
AlliedSignal
Technical Services Corporation (ATSC) maintained offices on King Street in Alexandria,
VA, for NRL's Low-power
Atmospheric Compensation Experiment (LACE) Program. By 1989 the King Street spaces
were too small, and ATSC was directed to find larger accommodations that could continue
to provide office space and also be used as a control center for the LACE satellite.
Real estate agents identified a building at Wythe and N. Fayette Streets as a good
possibility. The building had been used by the Virginia National Guard, but had been
vacant for several months. On our tour of the building, we entered an open bay area
whose high ceiling had exposed steel trusses. The room was dimly lit. Large cobwebs
hung from the steel trusses and the overhead lighting fixtures. The floor and the
flat surfaces were covered with a significant accumulation of dust. One of the group
(several people claim this honor) exclaimed, "This looks like a real bat cave,"
and the name stuck. There was no evidence of bats at this time. After extensive cleaning
and remodeling, the Fayette Street facility came into use for the LACE
Program. The name "BATCAVE" was displayed on cover sheets for the facsimile
machine. Reportedly, ATSC higher headquarters
said that "BATCAVE" could not be used in this manner because it was not
a meaningful acronym. In rebuttal, the words Bendix Alexandria Technical Center for
Aerospace Vehicle Experiments (BATCAVE) were quickly assembled to justify the acroynm
and the BATCAVE name attained some degree of legitimacy. The BATCAVE was used as
a mission planning, spacecraft control, and data processing center for the LACE satellite.
Several months after the launch of LACE in February 1990, a real bat was discovered
flying in the building one night. The few occupants of the building panicked and
chased the bat with brooms, breaking a window in the process. Unfortunately, the
BATCAVE's only bat did not survive the encounter. |
