Apollo: The Race to the Moon (73 page)

The work of spacecraft operations at the Cape got brutally short treatment. How could one write about Apollo without talking about people like George Page, Paul Donnelly, Ted Sasseen, John Williams, or Ernie Reyes? We left them out nonetheless, and can only hope that someone else mines that rich lode of material. The omission that caused us the greatest personal regret involves the inspectors at the Cape. Joe Bobik, chief inspector for the spacecraft, was one of the first people we met during the research. His stories, which so intrigued us that we eventually compiled long accounts not only from him but from many of his inspectors, are reduced to a few sentences.

The historical framework for the account in this book—technical information, dates, times, the weather, job titles, and the like—comes from the published archive of material about the space program. Five books in particular became dog-eared with use: for the early days of manned space flight, This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury, by Loyd S. Swenson, Jr., James M. Grimwood, and Charles C. Alexander (Washington, D.C.: NASA, 1966); for Apollo through the first moon landing, Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft, by Courtney G. Brooks, James M. Grimwood, and Loyd S. Swenson, Jr. (Washington, D.C.: NASA, 1979); for the development of the Saturn V, Stages to Saturn, by Roger E. Bilstein (Washington, D.C.: NASA, 1980); for the construction and operation of Kennedy Space Center, Moonport: A History of Apollo Launch Facilities and Operations, by Charles D. Benson and William Barnaby Faherty (Washington, D.C.: NASA, 1978); and as our treasured encyclopedic source, The History of Manned Space Flight, by David Baker (New York: Crown Publishers, 1982).

Valuable as these have been, however, they contain little about the personal stories we have tried to recount. The autobiographies of the astronauts were useful—Michael Collins’s Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s Journey (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1974) is a classic of its kind. Not surprisingly, however, they have focused on the training of astronauts and their activities during the flights. Neither do the official histories, which tend to focus on administrative decision-making, say much about people like Caldwell Johnson, Scott Simpkinson, Bill Tindall, and Don Arabian. Only a few published accounts have featured anyone except the astronauts or top NASA managers. From among the handful that have, we gratefully acknowledge our use of the Pellegrino and Stoff book on Grumman and the fine account of Apollo 13 by Henry S. F. Cooper, Jr., 13: The Flight That Failed (New York: Dial Press, 1973).

The great bulk of the narrative in Apollo, therefore, was developed through interviews. The NASA history offices in Washington and Houston contain hundreds of such interviews, compiled in the course of preparing the official histories, plus a scattering of interviews conducted by independent outsiders who were kind enough to send copies to NASA.

Another invaluable source of information was Robert Sherrod’s archive. In 1968, Sherrod, war correspondent for Time and Life magazines from World War II through Vietnam, began research for a major history of the Apollo Program. In the process, he gained access to the major figures of the program while the program was ongoing. His collection of interviews and a voluminous file of index cards are kept at the NASA history offices in Washington. He gave us full access to them and to his handwritten notebooks with their day-by-day chronicle of events.

Even this vast collection of interviews, valuable as they were, only occasionally contained the relaxed, unofficial recountings of what it was like to be part of the Apollo Program that we sought. Further, they tended to omit people who were not senior executives. To obtain material about Apollo not yet available elsewhere, we conducted interviews with 157 people over a period of more than three years. In three instances, people we approached declined to be interviewed; otherwise, everyone we approached cooperated—in most cases, with an openness and generosity beyond any reasonable expectation.

This raises a question of detachment, for it will be obvious to readers of Apollo that we found most of the Apollo people to be both admirable and likable. Having acknowledged that, however, we should also say that we have not suppressed skullduggery. Finishing the book, we are reminded of what public affairs officer Dick Young told us on our first visit to the Cape. “I used to have a lot of fun at NASA’s expense back in my newspaper days,” he said. “When I took a job with NASA, I thought, ‘Well, they’ve been hiding these things from me all these years, and I’m going to get out and find out what they are.’ Hey, I’m still looking.”

That we found this to be true of the Apollo Program seems to surprise some people. But what, after all, should one expect? A small group of men were told in 1961 to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. They worked indefatigably for eight years, recruiting thousands of fellow workers along the way. They surmounted obstacles, overcame setbacks, and achieved their goal. Should we be surprised that the people who were able to do this tend to have been talented rather than incompetent, honest rather than venal, cooperative rather than selfish?

Within the framework of our objective, these were the ground rules:

For the stories we did choose to tell, we strove to present competing viewpoints. In one case, the account of President Kennedy’s decision to make the lunar commitment, we unambiguously portrayed a President who was not an advocate of manned space flight and who made the decision to go to the moon only reluctantly. We should state explicitly that we were unable to find any counterbalancing evidence. Kennedy became interested in manned space flight, but only (as far as we could determine) after he was led to his decision by Gagarin’s flight and the Bay of Pigs.

Statements of historical and technical fact are as pristine as we could make them. Errors doubtless remain—there is simply too much on too many topics to hope otherwise—but we have tried to check everything against both the archival record and the knowledge of the people involved. Events that could easily have been perceived differently by different people we report through the eyes of specific observers. When we describe an event without assigning an observer to it, then it may be assumed that we have multiple accounts saying the same thing. We present a few stories that were reported to us as fact, but which we suspect have been embellished over the years. Variations of the phrase “so the story is told” indicate our reservations.

All of our interviews were tape-recorded, and all comments within quotation marks are taken verbatim from transcriptions of them. Reports of conversations have been more difficult to handle. Conversations cannot be remembered exactly even a day later, let alone twenty-plus years later. Any dialogue within quotation marks is as reported by a person who either said the words or heard them said. We have attempted to make the context indicate which. The conversations over the loops in the Control Center were transcribed directly from tape recordings preserved at Houston and in the National Archives.

The core of the book came from interviews by one or both of the authors with the following people:

For the story of Langley and the early years of the Space Task Group: Chris Critzos, Constance Critzos, Charles Donlan, Maxime Faget, Robert Gilruth, Paul Havenstein, Jack Heberlig, John Houbolt, Carl Huss, Caldwell Johnson, Jack Kinzler, Richard Koos, Eugene Kranz, Glynn Lunney, Charles Mathews, Henry Pearson, William Hewitt Phillips, Paul Purser, H. Kurt Strass, and Walter Williams. For the Space Task Group from the point of view of the “Canadians”: John Hodge, Owen Maynard, Tecwyn Roberts, and Rodney Rose (of whom only Maynard was actually Canadian).

For the story of headquarters in Washington: John Disher, George Mueller, Samuel Phillips, Robert Seamans, Joseph Shea, Hugh Sidey, Abe Silverstein, James Webb, Jerome Wiesner, DeMarquis Wyatt.

For the story of Marshall: Joseph Bethay, Walter Haeussermann, Karl Heimburg, Fletcher Kurtz, Thomas (Jack) Lee, Alexander McCool, George McDonough, James Mizell, George Smith, William Sneed, Walter Wiesman, and Robert Wolf. Details about the trials of the F-1 engine came from Leland Belew, Paul Castenholz, Saverio (Sonny) Morea, and Jerry Thomson.

For the story of launch vehicle operations and ground support equipment at the Cape: Donald Buchanan, Forrest Burns, Jewel (Jay) Campbell, Ray Clark, Graydon Corn, Edward Fannin, Terry Greenfield, John Humphrey, Walter Kapryan, Albert Martin, Rocco Petrone, Andrew Pickett, Isom (Ike) Rigell, Glover Robinson, Orval (Buddy) Sparkman, and Chester Wasileski.

For spacecraft operations at the Cape: Samuel Beddingfield, Joseph Bobik, Clarence (Skip) Chauvin, Martin Cioffoletti, Charles Clary, Paul Donnelly, Larry Lettow, Bryce Lowry, Thomas O’Malley, George Page, G. Merritt Preston, Raul (Ernie) Reyes, George (Ted) Sasseen, John Tribe, Charles Welly, Donald Whiting, Gary Woods, and Edward Zirnfus.

For the story of flight operations and mission planning in Houston: many of the same people who told us about Langley, plus John Aaron, George Abbey, Arnold Aldrich, Steven Bales, Michelle Brekke, Jerry Bostick, Clifford Charlesworth, Henry (Pete) Clements, Michael Collins, John Cox, Charles Deiterich, Lyn Dunseith, Robert Farquhar, Edward Fendell, John Garman, Jay Greene, Gerald Griffin, Claiborne Hicks, Robert Holkan, Richard Hoover, Seymour Liebergot, Edward Lineberry, Charles Llewellyn, John Llewellyn, Rodney Loe, Jack Lousma, John Mayer, Harold Miller, Granville Paules, Edward Pavelka, Donald Puddy, David Reed, Emil Schiesser, Carl Shelley, Howard (Bill) Tindall, Manfred (Dutch) von Ehrenfried, and Kenneth Young.

For the story of the development and operation of the spacecraft: others already listed, plus Donald Arabian, Aaron Cohen, James Cooper, Robert Fricke, Billie Gibson, George Jeffs, Sidney Jones, Kenneth Kleinknecht, Richard Kohrs, Thomas Markley, Joseph Mechelay, Owen Morris, Fulton Plauche, Scott Simpkinson, and Judith Wyatt.

For the story of science during the Apollo missions: Isadore Adler, Michael Duke, Bevan French, Wilmot (Bill) Hess, David McKay, William Phinney, Barbara Trombka Blaustein, Jacob Trombka, and John Wood.

For other aspects of M.S.C.: James Elms, Emily Ertle, Mary R. Low, Warren North, Jack Riley, Jack Sleith, John Stonesifer, Terrance White, and Raymond Zedeker.

For the story of M.I. T. and the guidance system: others already listed, plus John Miller, Norman Sears, and George Silver.

In addition to the interviews conducted by the authors, the following interviews have been used for direct and indirect quotations in the text:

Interviews conducted by NASA historians: John Leland Atwood, 7/16/70; Richard Battin, 4/29/66; William Bergen, 6/21/71; John Bird, 6/20/66; John

H. Boynton, 4/27/70; Clinton Brown, 4/23/69; Kurt Debus, 5/18/64; Paul Dembling, 8/2/73; John Disher, 1/27/67; Charles Donlan, 6/20/66; Stanley Faber, 4/22/70; Maxime Faget, 12/15/69 and 8/20/73; Charles Frick, 6/26/68; Robert Gilruth, 8/24/73; John Healey, 7/16/70; Bastian Hello, 12/20/68; John Houbolt, 12/5/66; George Jeffs, 1/26/70; Caldwell Johnson, Jr., 12/9/66; Walter Kapryan, 5/25/67; Alan Kehlet, 1/26/70; Christopher Kraft, Jr., 8/20/73; Eugene Kranz, 4/28/67; Thomas Markley, 1/17/68; Owen Maynard, 1/9/70; Riley McCafferty, 11/15/69 and 1/28/71; George E. Mueller, 10/4/66 and 6/27/67; Dale Myers, 5/12/69; Warren North, 5/1/70; John Paup, 6/7/66; Rocco Petrone, 5/19/70, 5/21/70, 9/17/70, and 5/25/72; Samuel Phillips, 7/22/70 and 9/25/70; William Rector III, 1/27/70; Rodney Rose, 5/6/70; Robert Seamans, Jr., 5/8/68, 5/20/68, and 6/3/68; Joseph Shea, 5/6/70 and 1/12/72; Joseph Thibodeaux, 8/23/73; Wernher von Braun, 11/30/71; Walter Williams, 1/27/70.

Interviews conducted by Robert Sherrod: George Abbey, 6/29/74 and 7/26/72; Neil Armstrong, 9/23/71; John Leland Atwood, 6/24/69; Charles Berry, 12/15/69; Ben Cate, 7/18/72; Walt Cunningham, 3/4/71; John Disher, 9/24/70 and 4/15/71; James Elms, 12/4/69 and 10/24/73; Llewellyn Evans, 6/11/69 and 10/5/70; Robert Gilruth, 3/12/71 and 11/14/72; Gerald Griffin, 3/8/74 and 4/11/74; Paul Haney, 1/6/70, 1/7/70, and 6/17/71; Thomas Kelly, 12/13/72; Christopher Kraft, Jr., 7/23/72 and 7/27/72; James Lovell, 6/28/74; George Low, 11/7/69, 12/30/69, 1/17/70,2/14/70, 7/14/70, 8/12/70, 6/21/72, 6/28/72, 7/5/72, 9/7/72, 1/16/74, and 2/12/74; Charles Mathews, 2/17/70; George Mueller, 11/19/69, 4/21/71, 8/19/71, and 3/20/73; Dale Myers, 3/31/70; Thomas Paine, 1/23/69, 5/13/69, 10/13/69, 8/14/70, and 10/7/71; Rocco Petrone, 9/25/70, 7/30/71,7/29/74, 9/26/74, and 10/8/74; Samuel Phillips, 7/2/71; Robert Piland, 12/3/71 and 1/7/72; Eberhard Rees, 2/6/71; Robert Seamans, Jr., 6/24/69; Joseph Shea, 5/6/71, 5/16/71, and 3/10/73; Sigurd Sjoberg, 7/28/72; Wernher von Braun, 11/19/69 and 8/25/70; James Webb, 8/2/68, 11/15/68, 6/8/69, 6/16/69, 9/17/69, and 4/28/71; Walter Williams, 6/29/68 and 2/10/71.

Other interviews: George Low, for the John F. Kennedy Oral History, 5/1/64; James Webb, by John Logsdon, 12/15/67; Harrison Storms, by the British Broadcasting Company, 5/14/79.

Notes

These notes identify the sources for direct quotations and descriptions of events obtained from published sources, memoranda, letters, or other written material. All other quotations and descriptions of events were drawn from the interviews listed in “Apollo as History.”

Quotes from front-page news stories: Washington Post, 25 May 1961: “Mississippi Jails 27 Riders,” “No Troops Asked, Says Johnson,” and “President to Address Congress,” by Chalmers M. Roberts.

“I believe that this nation should commit itself …”: John F. Kennedy, quoted in John M. Logsdon, The Decision to Go to the Moon: Project Apollo and the National Interest (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976), p. 128.

Robert Gilruth being aghast: Robert R. Gilruth, “Experts Were Stunned by Scope of Mission,” New York Times, Moon Special Supplement, 17 July 1969; and Robert Gilruth, NASA interview, 21 March 1968, quoted in Courtney G. Brooks, James M. Grimwood, and Loyd S. Swenson, Jr., Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft (Washington, D.C.: NASA, 1979), p. 31.

1. “That famous Space Task Group is akin to the Mayflower”

Chapter title: Authors’ interview with Clifford Charlesworth.