A fair amount of the research and development for Gravity Probe-B was done at the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford Univeristy. I was a graduate student there from 1977-1984 (my own Ph.D. was unrelated). The basic research program for Gravity Probe-B ended the same year that I joined the Aero-Astro Department. However people were still doing Ph.D. work based upon Gravity Probe-B funding. Also there was a fair amount of Gravity Probe related hardware located in the Durand Building where the Aero Astro Dept. was and is located. During my time there, people were still pretty focused on the metrology issues surrounding the ultra round quartz balls that were used for the gravity experiments. Unfortunately many of professors originally involved with the project have since died or retired. Even prior to my graduating from Stanford in 1984, people were starting to suggest that Gravity Probe-B might never be launched because the physical phenomena to be investigated had already been studied by other means. I'm glad Gravity Probe-B was successfully launched. There must be hundreds of man years of graduate student effort tied up in that project. I hope something useful comes from it.

Gary