Finding Aid for the James E. McCoy Papers, 1965-2004 (#2015-0003)

Dr. James Ernest McCoy (who went by "Jim") was born on May 4, 1941, to Amy and Ernest McCoy. McCoy went on to attend college at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. He would go to work at the new NASA Manned Spacecraft Center campus in Houston, Texas, in 1963. McCoy worked on his PhD in Astrophysics at Rice University while also working at NASA. In his 43 years working at NASA, he worked on virtually every project: Gemini; Apollo, with experiments on Apollo 15 and Apollo 17; the Shuttle program; Space Station; and Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR), the ion propulsion rocket. Dr. McCoy’s work contributes to the understanding of the Earth’s ionosphere and the Moon’s exosphere. He was an expert in moon dust. In 1971 Dr. McCoy was part of a team investigating the Earth’s electrometric field, the Moon’s movement through plasma, and the Moon’s interaction with plasma. Dr. McCoy in part sought to explain streamers, thin streaks of light rising from the lunar surface observed by Apollo astronauts during sunrise. Dr. McCoy also contributed to the field of electrodynamic tethers, innovative ways to provide power and thrust for spacecraft that were both cheaper and more efficient than current contemporary systems. The tethers are thin insulted wires, varying in length, with a plasma motor generator at the ends. McCoy also worked extensively with the European Space Agency on the Tethered Satellite program and flew his Plasma Motor Generator on the Delta 221 launch. In total, McCoy spent 43 years working for NASA. James McCoy died on November 28, 2014. The documents were produced during Dr. James McCoy’s endeavors as a physicists at NASA during his 43-year career at NASA and Johnson Space Center between 1965 and 2004. The bulk of the materials date from 1980 to 1993. The collection contains variety of media including: notes, slides, reports, pictures, negatives, blueprints, notebooks, and journal articles.