Just a reminder of tomorrow’s “Brown Bag” Talk

 

Regards,

Brian

 

 

 

NASA History Listserv Readers:

 

Please join us on Wednesday August 26, 2020, 12:00pm Eastern time for our History Brown Bag talk:

 

William Causey, “John Houbolt: The Unsung Hero of the Apollo Moon Landings”

 

Abstract: In May 1961, President John F. Kennedy addressed Congress and announced that the United States should attempt to land a man on the moon and return him safely to the earth

before the end of that decade. Although NASA had given some informal thought in its early years to a manned lunar flight, the young agency had no specific plans or federal funding to

develop a manned lunar program. But now, with Kennedy’s announcement, NASA spent the next fourteen months vigorously debating several options for a manned lunar flight. At first the

consensus was to send one large rocket, at the time called Nova, 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 involving launching several slightly smaller Saturn V rockets into earth orbit, where a lander would be assembled and fueled before sending the crew to the moon. But a small

group of engineers led by John C. Houbolt at NASA’s Langley Research Center came up with a third plan, one that Houbolt thought was safer, cheaper, more reliable, and faster to develop.

Houbolt and his colleagues called it “lunar orbit rendezvous,” or LOR. At first, the LOR idea was ignored, then criticized, and finally dismissed by many senior NASA managers.

Nevertheless, Houbolt persisted, risking his career in the face of overwhelming opposition. Eventually, NASA management agreed that Houbolt’s LOR concept was the only way to safely

land men on the moon in time to meet Kennedy’s deadline. Houbolt and the LOR story is as significant today as it was 60 years ago with NASA again considering new options for returning

humans to the moon.

 

William F. Causey has followed the space program since 1961, when he watched in his elementary school gymnasium as astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space.

Trained as a lawyer, where he has worked in private practice as well as serving in the U.S. Department of Justice and for the Office of Attorney General for the District of Columbia,

Causey also taught for 34 years as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. He has been a docent at the National Air and Space Museum for the last fifteen years.

His book on John Houbolt has received positive reviews, with the National Space Society saying, “this is an outstanding book and should be read by every space flight enthusiast.” Quest

Magazine said that “among the many books that have come out in recent months to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first human flights to the Moon, John Houbolt stands out for adding new

information to this story.”

 

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Regards, 

Brian