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The fascinating oral histories of two dozen Apollo lunar program pioneers provide new insights into this extraordinary effort, with vital observations about an era of space history that changed the world. The interviews divulge new information and some long-held secrets; they are sometimes emotional, sometimes analytical, with revealing anecdotes, stories of supervisors and colleagues, hardware, spacecraft, rockets, triumphs and tragedies. Even serious space enthusiasts will find numerous "aha, I didn't know that" comments!Contents include: Chapter 1: Aaron Cohen * Chapter 2: Jeanne L. Crews * Chapter 3: Joseph W. Cuzzupoli * Chapter 4: Hubert P. Davis * Chapter 5: John E. DeFife * Chapter 6: Charles F. Deiterich * Chapter 7: Charles J. Donlan * Chapter 8: Charles L. Dumis * Chapter 9: William B. Easter * Chapter 10: Eugene G. Edmonds * Chapter 11: R. Bryan Erb * Chapter 12: David D. Ewart * Chapter 13: Charles H. Feltz * Chapter 14: Edward I. Fendell * Chapter 15: Dennis E. Fielder * Chapter 16: Mike Fox * Chapter 17: George C. Franklin * Chapter 18: M. P. "Pete" Frank III * Chapter 19: Walter S. Fruland * Chapter 20: Jack Funk * Chapter 21: Don Fuqua * Chapter 22: Hector Garcia, Jr. * Chapter 23: John R. Garman * Chapter 24: Joseph G. Gavin, Jr. (Director, Lunar Module Program).The oral histories are the transcripts from audio-recorded, personal interviews with many who pioneered outer space and the Moon, and with those who continue the excitement of space exploration. To preserve the integrity of the audio record, the texts are presented with limited revisions and thus reflect the candid conversational style of the oral history format. Brackets and ellipses indicate where the text has been annotated or edited for clarity. The date of each interview is noted.Established in 1996, the goal of the NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project (JSC OHP) is to capture history from the individuals who first provided the country and the world with an avenue to space and the moon. Participants include managers, engineers, technicians, doctors, astronauts, and other employees of NASA and aerospace contractors who served in key roles during the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and Shuttle programs.These oral histories ensure that the words of these pioneers live on to tell future generations about the excitement and lessons of space exploration. Oral history interviews began in the summer of 1997, and since that time more than 675 individuals have participated in the NASA Oral History projects.
From the late 1950s to 1976 the U.S. manned spaceflight program advanced as it did largely due to the extraordinary efforts of Austrian immigrant George M. Low. Described as the “ultimate engineer” during his career at NASA, Low was a visionary architect and leader from the agency’s inception in 1958 to his retirement in 1976. As chief of manned spaceflight at NASA, Low was instrumental in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. Low’s pioneering work paved the way for President Kennedy’s decision to make a lunar landing NASA’s primary goal in the 1960s. After the tragic 1967 Apollo 1 fire that took the lives of three astronauts and almost crippled the program, Low took charge of the redesign of the Apollo spacecraft, and he helped lead the program from disaster and toward the moon. In 1968 Low made the bold decision to go for lunar orbit on Apollo 8 before the lunar module was ready for flight and after only one Earth orbit test flight of the command and service modules. Under Low there were five manned missions, including Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing. Low’s clandestine negotiations with the Soviet Union resulted in a historic joint mission in 1975 that was the precursor to the Shuttle-Mir and International Space Station programs. At the end of his NASA career, Low was one of the leading figures in the development of the space shuttle in the early 1970s, and he was instrumental in NASA’s transition into a post-Apollo world. Afterward, he embarked on a distinguished career in higher education as a transformational president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, his alma mater. Chronicling Low’s escape from Nazi-occupied Austria to his helping land a man on the moon, The Ultimate Engineer sheds new light on one of the most fascinating and complex personalities of the golden age of U.S. manned space travel.
Neil Armstrong needs no introduction. He is a genuine American hero whose pathfinding aerospace endeavors extended well beyond his command of the epic Apollo 11 lunar landing mission in 1969. Few appreciate that he was involved in not one, but two life-or-death piloting situations prior to the moon landing that necessitated lightning-fast reactions: the stuck spacecraft thruster on the Gemini VIII earth orbital flight, and the sudden failure of a lunar landing test vehicle during Apollo training. In both cases, Neil's swift action saved his life (and in the case of the Gemini flight, his co-pilot David Scott). In doing so, he also saved both the Gemini and Apollo programs from serious setbacks that might have jeopardized the American space program. Then, flying the Apollo 11 lunar module on that historic day, his calm professionalism once again was critical to mission success, as he flew the lander over a boulder-filled crater to a safe landing on the surface of the moon. Not merely a bystander during historic events, Armstrong's skill and determination were directly responsible for the triumphs for which he is associated. Perhaps fellow moonwalker Gene Cernan said it best about Armstrong's post-Apollo legacy: "I don't think any one of us who would have had that opportunity [to be the first man on the moon] could have handled it with as great and as honorable dignity as Neil Armstrong has handled the responsibility of being the first human being to step foot on the surface of the moon." With extensive and informative excerpts gathered from over fifty official technical and historical publications, this unique compilation provides unprecedented insight into the life and work of Armstrong, from his early test pilot work on the X-15 rocket plane, to the Gemini manned orbital capsule program, and finally the Apollo 11 lunar landing. It includes comprehensive biographies, compelling histories, and many illuminating tales and amusing anecdotes told by NASA associates - astronauts, managers, and engineers - who worked with him during those challenging times. Armstrong's own oral history and other interviews from the NASA archives recount little-known facts. There is extensive discussion of the controversy about NASA's decision to have Armstrong, rather than Aldrin, make the first lunar footprints. This compilation contains 113 sections in seven parts, and reproduces over 150 photographs. Did you know, for example: Armstrong played a key role in the development of fly-by-wire electronic computer digital controls used by modern aircraft, and now incorporated in average automobiles. * Armstrong was an enthusiastic recreational glider pilot * He enjoyed playing pranks during pre-flight mission simulations at the Manned Spacecraft Center. * And much more! Contents: PART ONE - LIFE AND CAREER OF NEIL ARMSTRONG: THE BASICS * PART TWO - THE EARLY YEARS: TEST PILOTING AND THE X-15 * PART THREE - NASA ASTRONAUT AND COMMANDER OF GEMINI VIII * PART FOUR - PREPARING FOR APOLLO - THE LUNAR LANDING RESEARCH VEHICLE * PART FIVE - THE APOLLO ERA: APOLLO 11 LUNAR LANDING * PART SIX - COMMEMORATIONS OF THE APOLLO 11 MISSION * PART SEVEN - NEIL ARMSTRONG: AN AMAZING AND WONDROUS CAREER IN PICTURES
The story of the man who almost single-handedly founded and built up NASA.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy issued a challenge: the United States would land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth before the end of the decade. It seemed like an impossible task and one that the Russians--who had launched the first satellite and put the first man into Earth orbit--would surely perform before us. The ingenuity, passion, and sacrifice of thousands of ordinary men and women, from all walks of life, enabled the space program to meet this extraordinary goal. In all, six crews would land on the moon before Congress withdrew financial backing for the program. This is the story of those men and women who worked behind the scenes, without fanfare or recognition, to make these missions a success. Thirty years later, they still speak of Apollo with pride, sometimes even awe. After Apollo moonwalker John Young told journalist Billy Watkins in a 1999 interview that "nobody knows anything about the people who helped make those flights so successful," Watkins made it his mission to identify the unsung heroes and learn their stories. His subjects include: BLJulian Scheer (NASA publicist): Argued for and won the inclusion of a television camera on Apollo 11, enabling Armstrong's walk on the moon to be broadcast and recorded for posterity. BLSonny Morea, lead designer of the Lunar Rover. BLHugh Brown, one of the few African Americans who worked on the Apollo program, helped monitor for Russian submarines trying to jam NASA communication during launches, and later went on to become head of the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta. BLJoAnn Morgan, launch control: One of the few women involved in the space program, Morgan was designated the "lightning specialist." Her knowledge was crucial when the Apollo 12 spacecraft was struck by lightning only seconds after liftoff, nearly causing an abort. She was one of the few specialists allowed in the "firing room" during liftoff. BLJoan Roosa, widow of Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa, talks about the sacrifices of the families and their devotion to "The Program." BLJoe Schmitt, veteran suit technician was responsible for making sure the suits were leak-proof and hooked up correctly--knowing any mistake would mean instant death in space. BLJoseph Laitin, who came up with the idea for the Apollo 8 astronauts to read the first ten verses of Genesis during their Christmas Eve television broadcast from the moon. BLClancy Hatelberg, the Navy diver, who plucked the first humans to walk on the moon from the Pacific Ocean after the Apollo 11 landing.
In May 1961, President Kennedy announced that the United States would attempt to land a man on the moon and return him safely to the earth before the end of that decade. Yet NASA did not have a specific plan for how to accomplish that goal. Over the next fourteen months, NASA vigorously debated several options. At first the consensus was to send one big rocket with several astronauts to the moon, land and explore, and then take off and return the astronauts to earth in the same vehicle. Another idea involved launching several smaller Saturn V rockets into the earth orbit, where a lander would be assembled and fueled before sending the crew to the moon. But it was a small group of engineers led by John C. Houbolt who came up with the plan that propelled human beings to the moon and back-not only safely, but faster, cheaper, and more reliably. Houbolt and his colleagues called it "lunar orbit rendezvous," or "LOR." At first the LOR idea was ignored, then it was criticized, and then finally dismissed by many senior NASA officials. Nevertheless, the group, under Houbolt's leadership, continued to press the LOR idea, arguing that it was the only way to get men to the moon and back by President Kennedy's deadline. Houbolt persisted, risking his career in the face of overwhelming opposition. This is the story of how John Houbolt convinced NASA to adopt the plan that made history.
Cold Beans Out of a Can is the story of one man's unconventional path to becoming an engineer and department head on the Apollo moon project. From his childhood in rural Massachusetts, where, as a teenager, he trained as an aircraft mechanic and pilot, to his role heading up fifty design engineers working on the life-support backpack that would accompany astronauts to the moon, Smith's story is a glimpse into the myriad details and heroic effort that went into America's success in winning the race to the moon fifty years ago. In a style both folksy and informative, Smith describes how he started working on and flying airplanes at age fifteen, attending aircraft mechanics school while pumping gas at night and subsisting primarily on beans out of a can. After graduation, Smith worked as an FAA-licensed aircraft mechanic, performing major structural repairs, engine overhauls, and airworthiness inspections, at one point sawing a glider in half and welding it back together. Later, he went on to college, where he studied aeronautical engineering, landing a job at a high-tech startup specializing in jet-engine thrust, before finally going to work on the Apollo program at Hamilton Standard, a NASA subcontractor. Along the way, Smith had plenty of adventures, both in the air and on the ground, culminating in the controlled chaos of the Apollo program, where his division succeeded in producing a life-support system that astronaut Rusty Schweickart would test for the first time in space and that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin would use just four months later, when Apollo 11 set down on the moon.
An Apollo Technicians Journey Through American History David L. Cisco looked at the lunar module, with its paper-thin walls and countless switches and dials, and had a moment of doubt. Could this thing really take people to the moon? In 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin answered that question. But the astronauts had help; an unsung, 400,000-member workforce made the Apollo programand Americas race to the final frontiera reality. As a thirteen-year-old junkyard forklift operator, Cisco never dreamt of being a part of American history. With the chaos of the 1960s swirling around him, this biracial young man decided to give up life in New York for a future as an Apollo technician in Houston. Moving into the corporate world, Cisco hired some of the first female and African-American airline pilots in the United States. He and his wife later launched a successful travel agency. Along the way, he was elected to public office and worked tirelessly for charity and his community, earning the kid from the junkyard a trip to the White House.