Highways Into Space: A first-hand account of the beginnings of the human space program (14 page)

For those who remained with NASA, Ken Russell and Steve Bales went on to Associate Director roles in the Mission Operations Directorate. Jay Greene became a Flight Director, a Shuttle Orbiter Project manager, and performed as Chief Engineer for the International Space Station (ISS) when his tough-minded judgment carried the ISS through a very difficult period; some would say he saved the ISS. Others in the group had the potential to be Flight Directors or project managers, but opportunities did not always show up at the right time for them. Competition in the JSC Mission Operations Directorate has only intensified over the subsequent decades, primarily because the work continues to challenge people to be the best they can be – and they respond as these pioneers did, creating an abundance of talent.

In the hot months of 1963, we moved into our first home in Friendswood on Royal Court. A christening was in order for Shawn and seemed appropriate for our new home also. A hamburger and hot dog cookout in the yard with plenty of cold beer seemed like the way to start the house on the right track. It was also a lesson in the local “critter” kingdom. I never heard of chiggers before, but they knew about us. Charley Parker, he of the zero-body-fat-body, sat in the yard amongst the sprigs of St. Augustine grass. It took a couple days for the chigger handiwork to show up. When it did, Charley gave us a peak at the dozens of red welts encircling his waist at the beltline and around the top of the sock line, very itchy. I never understood how this happened to a native born Texan and yet they did not bother our kids in the yard. Maybe the kids moved too fast, or maybe Charley was the bait for the whole herd of the hungry critters.

Grady Meyer was the Apollo section head. He was a very able engineer and augmented those skills with the experience of owning and operating his own airplane. When we got into the early unmanned Apollo, there was a capability to control the spacecraft attitude from the MCC with a hand controller and an eight-ball attitude reference display. Grady helped to make that capability operational but I still had real qualms over ever using it. Grady had an extra dose of confidence and it did not worry him. George Guthrie had a mission planning background also. George did not have the same aggressive attitude that most of the successful operators brought to the party. When guys questioned him about that, George allowed that he preferred to work in anonymity and not attract attention to himself. And he did a solid job on the early flights he worked.

Phil Shaffer was a welcome addition to our little band. Phil was the physically biggest of all of us and had a way of standing even taller and bigger when something was being debated or contested. He was called Jolly Red after the Green Giant ads for frozen vegetables. The red part was for the little bit of short hair left and for a very fair complexion, easily staying red in the Texas sun. Phil graduated from a university by the name of Panhandle A&M (a good school in Goodwell, Oklahoma) but a natural name for abuse. On occasion, I would kid Phil about his mail order degree in arithmetic. Phil had also worked at a Navy lab in Dahlgren, Virginia before joining us. He was a very quick study and would probably have excelled even without a degree. It was said that he belonged to the Mensa society for exceptional IQ individuals. And he assumed the role. He soon became the go-to guy in Grady’s Apollo section, not only mastering the intricacies for himself but also as a mentor for the younger guys.

Jerry Bostick went into the Army after graduating from Mississippi State and somehow swung an assignment to NASA. Jerry joined STG in 1962 after realizing that the Structures division at Langley was not for him. And a good choice it was – good for him and good for us. Jerry has a story about his hiring into STG. He was being interviewed by Chris Critzos, an aide to Kraft. When his degree in Civil engineering came up as a question, Chris Kraft was asked and he said, “Hire him. Hell, we may need to build roads on the moon someday.” When Kraft measured someone positively, the incidental of degree type did not matter. Jerry then started on a training path similar to my own. He worked for John Mayer and Carl Huss in the mission-planning unit. It was not long before Jerry was working the same retrofire analytics which started me on the path to become a flight dynamics officer. To make it official, he transferred to the FDB after GT-3 in April of 1965. When the yard parties at our home upscaled to oyster feasts, the Bosticks were the consistent champions with variations of an oyster Rockefeller creation, good enough to prevail over Hal Beck and his Jalapeno and Budweiser oyster dish.

We were really fortunate in our hiring results, since it is mostly a faith-based process for both parties. Ed Pavelka (“Fast Eddie”) came to us from the University of Texas and was an immediate winner. Ed was a man of many talents. Besides his engineering aptitude, this smiling young man was a real artist, proficient at painting and drawing. We have a small Picasso reproduction in our home, compliments of Ed. It always draws a second look when people see it for the first time. After 501, the first unmanned Saturn V in 1967, Ed gave me a large painting of that ship in flight, also still in our home.

Ed was always whipping out a drawing or sketch to commemorate various events. His most famous rendering is of Captain Refsmatt (a concept best explained by a guidance officer) who became the model for an ideal flight controller – pocket protector, slide rule, uniform, among other things. Ed had an ever-ready wit for all occasions both verbal and pictorial. He was not, however, one of the verbal brawlers, but always more soft spoken. His love of cars and their repair and/or restoration was legendary and manifested itself in the largest and busiest car workshop in the branch. He was a family camping man and paired up with Chuck Dieterich and family regularly. To my knowledge, Ed never played any musical instrument, but, given his many talents, I would not be surprised if Joyce found some original symphonies in his papers someday. That is the kind of guy Ed Pavelka was.

Speaking of Chuck Deiterich, he was a key addition to the Retro group. Chuck brought a background of hands-on experience with homemade rockets and the understanding and repair of electrical simulation equipment. He was also the only guy besides myself who hailed from Pennsylvania. He became the expert on how the entry guidance system worked and why it worked that way. He also belonged to the car-repair group who passed in and out of Ed’s workshop.

Dave Reed came along in the summer of 1964, graduating from the University of Wyoming that June. Dave was a weight lifter and looked the part. Cars seemed to run in this class of ‘64 arrivals. Dave had a classic Lincoln about 1950 vintage, which he kept and moved throughout all employment changes, although he didn’t drive it much. He had another passion that he picked up here in Texas. His friend, Clyde Hess, introduced him to sailing and Dave became quite adept at the tricks of sailboats. That came in handy because our first boat, the Crackerjack, arrived in the family about 1965.

Dave spent a lot of time with us on the waters of Galveston Bay. We lost a lot of sunglasses, buckets, beer and kids gear, but we only lost the outboard engine once. Dave was resting a hand on it when the up motion lifted the engine off of its attachment structure and into the Bay. We learned a lot the hard way. Dave remembered one instruction on how to hold course in case of a tiller failure by manipulating the sails and we got to try that one out for real when the tiller broke off. Dave walked right into Apollo under the tutelage of Phil who was busy with the CSM. So when Dave asked about his assignment, Phil gave him the task of figuring out how to use the lunar module throughout all of its mission phases. As a result of that assignment and eventual use on Apollo XI, Dave is still, forty years later, in periodic discussions with Neil Armstrong on various subjects. Four new Retros joined the team: Dave Massaro, Robert White, Jim I’Anson and Bill Gravett. Jim I’Anson brought another connection with American history. He was a B-17 pilot during World War II. Bill Gravett is still playing his music and also teaching, including a class with our grandson, Drake. Dave Massaro’s house in some isolated woods in Friendswood was also a gathering place for the Retros. Robert White was quiet spoken and therefore somewhat of a balance function with that gang.

The ranks of the Guidance officers increased by four, also. Gran Paules came to us from the Navy and looked like the central casting model for a young officer, tall, blond, smart and well spoken. Will Fenner always reminded me of my father, not in accent (Texan) but in how succinctly he expressed his thoughts: “I knew the dumb SOB would screw it up.” He brimmed with reliability. Gary Renick and Will Presley rounded out a solid, dependable complement to the Guido team.

The FIDOs had gotten ahead on staff and only drew two more during this period. Stu Davis and another UT graduate, Maurice Kennedy, joined the group. Both were solid contributors. Stu left the group early and I believe that Maurice was one of the longest serving FIDOs.

As the decade went on, more young men joined this team. Jerry Elliot, Bill Boone from Mississippi, Bill Stoval and Jerry Mill added their talents to the mix. Arrivals continued with transfers into the branch like Neil Hutchinson and Dutch von Ehrenfried. Dean Toups, Raymond Teague and Walt Wells joined at various times. Some stayed a while, some served a few years and moved on and the next wave began to appear and prepare for the later flights of Apollo. In the process of capturing these recollections, I feel disappointed in myself that I did not get to know everybody as well as I could or should have. This is my fault, not anyone else’s. I can only offer in explanation that the times were busy and my other job demanded a lot.

In December 1961, NASA announced its plan for the Gemini program. It was to test as many as practical of the required spacecraft capabilities needed for Apollo in low earth orbit and in a two man spacecraft. Specific objectives for this intermediate step included:

• Long duration flight beyond the time required for Apollo
  

• Rendezvous, docking and docked maneuvers
  

• EVA experience
  

• Methods of controlled reentry and landing
  

Based on Mercury experience, Gemini was designed to be controlled by the astronauts. The design also incorporated easy access to remove and replace many spacecraft subsystems, as painfully learned during Mercury. Besides the entry module, it also had an adapter module for propellant systems, new fuel cells and other equipment. The design also had ejection seats instead of an escape tower and a paraglider for landing point control (a feature later cancelled). Gemini was to be launched on a two-stage Titan rocket that had been developed for the Air Force as an ICBM launcher. The Gemini/Titan also had new features and systems to enhance crew safety, like a malfunction detection system and redundancy in guidance, hydraulics, and electrical systems. Finally, a modified Agena D was selected as the target vehicle for rendezvous and docking. The Agena was equipped with a docking system, on-orbit propulsion and a command link for the crew.

In the following five years, through 1966, the Gemini program flew two unmanned flights and then ten manned missions. In terms of the achievement of program objectives, the flight program was:

• A very effective follow-up to Mercury and was completed in five years.
  

• Highlighted by one mission of fourteen days, one of eight days, and five missions of three to four days with no apparent long-duration problems.
  

• A wealth of experience in rendezvous, docking and docked maneuvers, such as ten sequences of rendezvous through station keeping, seven dockings and about ten docked propulsion maneuvers.
  

• A substantial learning experience for how to do EVA. There were eleven hatch openings But we did not master the subject until Gemini 12, the last flight.
  

• A complete success in automatic reentry and landing, with various degrees of closed-loop control and all with very accurate control of the landing point.
  

• Successful in zero G experience, both in terms of weightless effects on humans, and crew performance of operational tasks.
  

The performance record of the major flight elements was mostly successful with some notable problems. The Atlas Agena vehicle failed on two launch attempts. Before the first Gemini 6 rendezvous and docking attempt on October 25, 1965, the loss of the target vehicle resulted in a change of plan to rendezvous with the manned, long duration Gemini 7 flight two months later. The second failure of the Atlas Agena was before the planned launch of Gemini 9 on May 17, 1966. The Agena target vehicle was replaced by a simpler Augmented Target Docking Adapter configuration on top of the Atlas and launched successfully on June 1, 1966. This backup target vehicle was begun after the earlier Agena failure in the fall of 1965. Tom Stafford who was a crewmember on both of these flights has good reason to believe that the Agena stage did not want to fly with him.

The Titan launch vehicle performed extremely well in its task of delivering the Gemini spacecraft to its planned conditions. As a measure of the Titan’s dependability, it was the second vehicle launched after the target vehicle lift-off. It had to launch within very tight launch window constraints, now established by the target vehicle on orbit. The Titan team consistently met its launch window lift-off ninety minutes later.