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Spinoff story
Computerized Engineering
A real-world story of NASA technology finding a life beyond the mission.
About this technology
Overview
In 1966, MacNeal-Schwendler Corporation (MSC) was awarded a contract by NASA to develop a general purpose structural analysis program dubbed NASTRAN (NASA structural analysis). The first operational version was delivered in 1969. In 1982, MSC procured the rights to market their subsequent version of NASTRAN to industry as a problem solver for application ranging from acoustics to heat transfer. Known today as MSC/NASTRAN, the program has thousands of users worldwide. NASTRAN is also distributed through COSMIC.