Highways Into Space: A first-hand account of the beginnings of the human space program by Glynn S. Lunney Read Free Book Online

Branch
    This is the story of a relatively small group of young men, all very early in their careers, most of them brand new college graduates. Each in their own way had been preparing themselves for their adult future when they came to NASA and human space flight. Our astronauts were selected in a national competition from the best of all of our test pilots, and indeed they were. However, we ground operators (and all the other engineers at NASA) actually selected ourselves by showing up to participate in this grand adventure of going to the moon.
    If it takes motivation and attitude to be successful, these young men were already there, even on a project that could easily seem impossible. We knew almost nothing about space flight. We certainly didn’t know what it would take to land people on the moon and return them safely to Earth. But these young men came and they met the challenge. They had to invent it all – the control center, and all the tools of the trade such as orbital mechanics, propulsion and guidance systems, communications, the integration with crew members, the procedures that were necessary, and then the mission rules that we learned to live by.
    Some of these young men had to master a very new and complicated discipline that we called “flight dynamics.” And all of them had to prepare themselves to make decisions in the MCC on any and all of the matters relevant to their disciplines. As pioneers in the field, they faced decisions that had to be made in real time, without consultation or deferral, sometimes in seconds, and of the highest consequence. There was not much time to prepare.
    In March 1962, I was named section head, a first level supervisor with all of two of us. In the summer 1964, I became the chief of the newly formed Flight Dynamics Branch with a total of thirteen of us. By this time, we had finished Mercury and were preparing for Gemini and Apollo. We had seven men assigned to Gemini and needed at least nine – three trained operators on three different shifts by 1965. Plus, much more depth was still necessary to do the planning for the upcoming flights. Apollo had a mountain of work for the five assigned, with manned flights scheduled in 1967, less than three years away.
    This growth came by March of 1968 – the branch had twenty-nine men to begin the final sprint to the moon landings. They were tested and tempered by ten manned Gemini flights, four unmanned Apollo flights and uncounted simulation exercises. They were ready for Apollo.
    In reflecting on the branch, I am not sure how the interpersonal dynamics all came about but there was an extremely strong sense of unity, comradeship and mutual dependence, united by a powerful commitment to make the program a success. They were also competitive about earning the choice – and most difficult – assignments. This was a “Band of Brothers” in the best tradition of that honored term.
    Some of this magic was the sense of coming together to do something really big, something that had never been done before. Some of it was in the mutual reliance of all of these men on each other. This was especially true and even necessary in the operations environment in the MCC. They had to come to an answer, sometimes very quickly, and they had to earn the trust that gave their answer credibility, and the answer had to be correct. They gradually learned what it took to prove their choices to their office supervisors, to their fellow flight controllers, to the best test pilots, to the Flight Directors and, most of all, to themselves. It was a magic time to see these twenty-something boisterous males come to grips with their new responsibility and embrace it. The three flight dynamics operators even adopted a team identity for their three console positions and they called their unit “The Trench.” They were amazing and inspiring. I have always felt privileged to have served with them.
    The outstanding performance that these young men delivered will