Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 106 Part 1.djvu/477

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PUBLIC LAW 102-323—JULY 20, 1992 106 STAT. 445 Public Law 102-823 102d Congress Joint Resolution To commend the NASA Langley Research Center on the celebration of its 75th July 20, 1992 anniversary on July 17, 1992. [S.J. Res. 324] Whereas, in 1917, the first civihan aeronautical research laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was established in Hampton, Virginia; Whereas such laboratory, now called the NASA Langley Research Center (hereafter referred to in this Resolution as the "Center"), occupies 787 acres of government-owned land; Whereas the official groundbresiking ceremonies for the Center were held on July 17, 1917; Whereas the Center is the United States Government's oldest, most prolific and most honored aerospace laboratory; Whereas the Center supports the Nation by studying the basic problems of flight, selecting certain of those problems for investigation, and following up with practical solutions to such problems through long-term research and test progreims; Whereas the first United States manned space program, Project Mercury, began at the Center in 1958; Whereas the Center supports investigations and research in space technology and advanced space transportation systems, designs concepts for large space structures, and develops research hardware and conducts experiments in space; Whereas the Center makes major contributions to national atmospheric research such as developing satellite experiments, modeling the atmosphere and analyzing climate observations; Whereas from the beginning, people have been the most important resource of the Center with over 3,000 civil servants and over 2,200 contract personnel university researchers and United States Army helicopter research personnel currently working at NASA Langley; Whereas the Center is comprised of many facihties imique in the world of aerospace research, five of which have been designated as National Historic Landmarks by the Department of the Interior; and Whereas the Center is one of the leading aerospace research laboratories in the world and has consistently been a source of technology that has made aerospace a major factor in commerce and national defense: Now, therefore, be it