Apollo and America's Moon Landing Program - Oral Histories of Managers, Engineers, and Workers (Set 4, Part 1) - Including Richard Kohrs, Eugene Kranz, Seymour Liebergot, and Robert Mccall

Apollo and America's Moon Landing Program - Oral Histories of Managers, Engineers, and Workers (Set 4, Part 1) - Including Richard Kohrs, Eugene Kranz, Seymour Liebergot, and Robert Mccall
Author: Johnson Space Center (JSC)
Publisher:
Total Pages: 374
Release: 2018-05-19
Genre:
ISBN: 9781982945183

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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!Part 1 Contents include: Chapter 1: William R. Kelly * Chapter 2: Jack Kinzler * Chapter 3: Jack Knight * Chapter 4: Richard H. Kohrs * Chapter 5: Eugene F. Kranz * Chapter 6: Paul A. Lachance * Chapter 7: Dorothy B. Lee * Chapter 8: Seymour Liebergot * Chapter 9: Joseph P. Loftus * Chapter 10: James E. Mager * Chapter 11: Humboldt C. Mandell, Jr. * Chapter 12: Robert T. McCallPart 2 Contents include: Chapter 13: Grady E. McCright * Chapter 14: Thomas U. McElmurry * Chapter 15: James C. McLane, Jr. * Chapter 16: John E. McLeaish * Chapter 17: Joseph E. Mechelay * Chapter 18: Raymond F. Melton * Chapter 19: Owen G. Morris * Chapter 20: Thomas L. Moser * Chapter 21: Dale D. Myers * Chapter 22: Richard W. Nygren * Chapter 23: John W. O'Neill * Chapter 24: Catherine T. OsgoodThe 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.

Apollo and America's Moon Landing Program - Oral Histories of Managers, Engineers, and Workers (Set 4, Part 2) - Including John Mcleish, Joseph Mechelay, Dale Myers, and John O'Neill

Apollo and America's Moon Landing Program - Oral Histories of Managers, Engineers, and Workers (Set 4, Part 2) - Including John Mcleish, Joseph Mechelay, Dale Myers, and John O'Neill
Author: Johnson Space Center (JSC)
Publisher:
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2018-05-19
Genre:
ISBN: 9781982945237

Download Apollo and America's Moon Landing Program - Oral Histories of Managers, Engineers, and Workers (Set 4, Part 2) - Including John Mcleish, Joseph Mechelay, Dale Myers, and John O'Neill Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

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!Part 1 Contents include: Chapter 1: William R. Kelly * Chapter 2: Jack Kinzler * Chapter 3: Jack Knight * Chapter 4: Richard H. Kohrs * Chapter 5: Eugene F. Kranz * Chapter 6: Paul A. Lachance * Chapter 7: Dorothy B. Lee * Chapter 8: Seymour Liebergot * Chapter 9: Joseph P. Loftus * Chapter 10: James E. Mager * Chapter 11: Humboldt C. Mandell, Jr. * Chapter 12: Robert T. McCallPart 2 Contents include: Chapter 13: Grady E. McCright * Chapter 14: Thomas U. McElmurry * Chapter 15: James C. McLane, Jr. * Chapter 16: John E. McLeaish * Chapter 17: Joseph E. Mechelay * Chapter 18: Raymond F. Melton * Chapter 19: Owen G. Morris * Chapter 20: Thomas L. Moser * Chapter 21: Dale D. Myers * Chapter 22: Richard W. Nygren * Chapter 23: John W. O'Neill * Chapter 24: Catherine T. OsgoodThe 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.

Tough and Competent

Tough and Competent
Author: Eugene F. Kranz
Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2023-08-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1662933320

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“It was as tough a test as could be conceived and put to flight control . . . if there was any weakness, the team would have crumbled. The teams dealt with IT!! There is no way that you could have a team stand up the way we did. We knew we had IT. It was all built in as we had been working on IT! for years.”— Arnold Aldrich (Apollo 13) Tough and Competent documents the leadership and teamwork principles which emerged from an organization of novice, part-time engineers in NASA Mercury Control. By July 1969, when faced with the stress of the Apollo 11 mission to land Americans on the moon, they had matured into a group of hardened individuals empowered to make the split-second decisions to land with only seventeen seconds of fuel remaining. What had changed? Team chemistry, IT!, is the unifying soul of operations that emerged from the leadership, working, and social environment to achieve organizational excellence. Mission Control could address quickly the risks and complexity of spaceflight operations. The intangible element, IT!, elevates performance to where the impossible becomes commonplace. IT! was born in a bare-bones warehouse floor work environment, where learning by doing developed the materials for flight. Controllers spanned diverse backgrounds: Philco tech reps, farm boys, Native Americans, and junior college grads who became self-made engineers. A free exchange of knowledge developed expertise among colleagues. Everyone brought unique viewpoints and skills which coalesced into IT! In relaying his long tenure at NASA, Kranz narrates the development of IT! and how it began with a watershed moment. When he addressed a stunned team after the tragic loss of Apollo 1, Kranz delivered his “Kranz Dictum” that "Tough" and "Competent" were the new tenants of Mission Control. “Tough means we are forever accountable for what we do or what we fail to do. We will never again compromise our responsibilities. . . . Competent means we will never take anything for granted.” Moving innovation forward was never simple. From Gemini to Apollo launches, the Skylab program, and the stunning loss of the Challenger crew, Kranz was the face of NASA leadership. His views on lessons learned through decades of Mission Control are valuable for any innovation-based organization.

The Ultimate Engineer

The Ultimate Engineer
Author: Richard Jurek
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2019-12-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0803299559

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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.

Apollo and America's Moon Landing Program

Apollo and America's Moon Landing Program
Author: World Spaceflight News
Publisher:
Total Pages: 140
Release: 2018-04-16
Genre:
ISBN: 9781980851578

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This official NASA document provides the complete transcription of the historic Apollo 12 post-flight debriefing given by astronauts Pete Conrad, Al Bean, and Dick Gordon. Every aspect of the incredible adventure of the second moon landing, which landed next to the Surveyor 3 spacecraft, is discussed - from moonwalking to personal hygiene issues, launch through landing. This is an invaluable addition to the ebook library of anyone interested in the Apollo moon landings. Surprising facts, comments, and anecdotes are included in this debriefing. Did you know, for example, that Conrad was so hungry on the moon, he ate some of Al Bean's food? Or that Conrad briefly feared that Bean was critically injured during the splashdown: "We really hit flatter than a pancake, and it was a tremendous impact, much greater than anything I'd experienced in Gemini. The 16-mm camera, which was on the bracket - and we may have been remiss in this and I'm not sure, but it wasn't in the checklist - whistled off and clanked Al on the head to the tune of six stitches. It cold-cocked him, which is why we were in stable II. Although he doesn't realize it, he was out to lunch for about 5 seconds. Dick was hollering for him to punch in the breakers, and in the meantime, I'd seen this thing whistle off out of the corner of my eye and he was blankly staring at the instrument panel. I was convinced he was dead over there in the right seat, but he wasn't, and finally got the breakers in." Contents: Suiting and Ingress * Status Checks and Countdown * Powered Flight * Earth Orbit and Systems Checkout * TLI Through S-IVB Closeout * Translunar Coast * LOI Through Lunar Module Activation * Lunar Module Checkout Through Separation * DPI Through Touchdown * Lunar Surface * CSM Circumlunar Operations * Liftoff, Rendezvous, And Docking * Lunar Module Jettison Through TEI * Transearth Coast * Entry * Landing and Recovery * Geology and Experiments * Command Module Systems Operations * Lunar Module Systems Operations * Miscellaneous Systems, Flight Equipment, And GFE * Visual Sightings * Premission Planning * Mission Control * Training * Medical and Food * Miscellaneous The primary mission objectives of the second crewed lunar landing included an extensive series of lunar exploration tasks by the lunar module, or LM, crew, as well as the deployment of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package, or ALSEP, which was to be left on the moon's surface to gather seismic, scientific and engineering data throughout a long period of time. Other Apollo 12 objectives included a selenological inspection; surveys and samplings in landing areas; development of techniques for precision-landing capabilities; further evaluations of the human capability to work in the lunar environment for a prolonged period of time; deployment and retrieval of other scientific experiments; and photography of candidate exploration sites for future missions. The astronauts also were to retrieve portions of the Surveyor III spacecraft, which had soft-landed on the moon April 20, 1967, a short distance from the selected landing site of Apollo 12. The flight plan for Apollo 12 was similar to that of Apollo 11, except Apollo 12 was to fly a higher inclination to the lunar equator and leave the free-return trajectory after the second translunar midcourse correction. This first non-free-return trajectory on an Apollo mission was designed to allow a daylight launch and a translunar injection above the Pacific Ocean. It also allowed a stretch of the translunar coast to gain the desired landing site lighting at the time of LM descent, conserved fuel and permitted the Goldstone, Calif., tracking antenna to monitor the LM descent and landing.

Apollo - America's Moon Landing Program

Apollo - America's Moon Landing Program
Author: World Spaceflight News
Publisher:
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2017-04-25
Genre:
ISBN: 9781521151600

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This official NASA document provides the complete transcription of the historic Apollo 11 post-flight debriefing given by astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins on July 31, 1969. Every aspect of the incredible adventure is discussed - from moonwalking to personal hygiene issues, launch through landing. This is an invaluable addition to the ebook library of anyone interested in the Apollo moon landings. Contents: Suiting and Ingress * Status Checks and Countdown * Powered Flight * Earth Orbit and Systems Checkout * TLI through S-IVB Closeout * Translunar Coast * LOI through Lunar Module Activation * Lunar Module Checkout through Separation * DOI through Touchdown * Lunar Surface * CSM Circumlunar Operations * Lift-Off, Rendezvous and Docking * Lunar Module Jettison through TEI * Transearth Coast * Entry * Landing and Recovery * Geology and Experiments * Command Module Systems Operations * Lunar Module Systems Operations * Miscellaneous Systems, Flight Equipment and GFE * Visual Sightings * Premission Planning * Mission Control * Training * Human Factors * Miscellaneous * Concluding Comments At 10:56 P.M. EDT, Sunday, July 20. Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, spacecraft commander of Apollo 11, set foot on the moon. His descent from the lowest rung of the ladder which was attached to a leg of the lower stage of the Lunar Module (LM), to the footpad, and then to the surface of earth's only natural satellite constituted the climax of a national effort that began in 1961. It was an effort that involved, at its peak, more than 300,000 people in industry, the universities and in government. As he took his epochal step, Armstrong commented "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for Mankind." Sharing this electric moment with Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, the LM pilot, were an estimated half-billion TV watchers in most of the earth's nations. As the astronaut descended the ladder, he pulled a "D" ring that deployed a black and white television camera which was focused to record the event. Framed by parts of the LM's under-carriage, Armstrong's heavily-booted left foot descended across millions of TV tubes until his boot sole made contact.

John Houbolt

John Houbolt
Author: William F. Causey
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020
Genre: Aerospace engineers
ISBN: 9781557539465

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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.