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

ten more engineers from the Lewis Research Center, who were already working on Mercury, joined the Space Task Group. I was one of those. Twelve more from Langley, including John Llewellyn, also transferred to STG.
    The number and high caliber of transfers from Langley caused some problems. It was becoming increasingly difficult to transfer people from the existing Centers to the new Space Task Group. And then, there was a major aerospace tragedy in Canada when the development of a new supersonic military airplane (CF-105) was canceled. This resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs in the AVRO Company and Canada. But it was like a gift from heaven for the STG.
    Eventually, by April of 1959, twenty-five experienced and very savvy AVRO engineers joined the U.S. manned space flight program. This was perfect timing to complement the mix of talents and experience levels of the STG workforce. We already had a world-class set of leaders in place and the importation of the AVRO engineers added a great deal of depth and capability to the growing organization. It also served to build out the management and supervisory structure that was then in place when STG began to hire a significant number of new college graduate engineers, especially in the early sixties after Apollo was started. And, most significant for me, it brought Tec Roberts, originally from Wales, who eventually became a strong influence in my early career.
    This was another interesting coincidence in timing because it was the same time that seven test pilots also joined STG and became known as the Mercury Seven. Their presence quickly became commonplace in the few buildings housing the fledgling Mercury team. There was a first-name-basis environment in STG. It was a heady time getting to know these new heroes and eventually traveling with some of them as the Atlas flight program began. As the group who would strap on these vehicles, it made the work more focused and personal for us.
    In the middle of all this, I experienced another permanent change of status in my life when Marilyn agreed to be my wife. We were married on April 30, 1960, and moved into an eight by forty-five mobile home in Poquoson where many of the Air Force refueling crews and fighter pilots also lived.
    Marilyn and I started our marriage with 360 square feet of living space, soon to be shared with our firstborn, Jenifer on February 1, 1961.
    During the months before my PCS and up until March 1962, I worked in the Mission Analysis Branch, of which John Mayer was the branch chief. John was a quiet spoken man, and very intense in getting the analysis and the numbers right. He taught us orbital mechanics in a formal course and in all of our daily interactions. It was the equivalent of a PhD in that subject, in all of its practical aspects, without overdoing the theory. John was a doer, a manager and a leader in the best tradition of NACA. He demanded the best from us and mentored us so that we would be able to deliver that best. In the late forties, he had also served at Muroc (later known as Edwards) in the X-1 days and he described his part in Chuck Yeager’s X-1 flight, which first broke the sound barrier. John delivered the final proof of that achievement when he processed the tracking data and confirmed the onboard measurements. John was a link from the X-1 to MA-6 in orbit.
     

     
    Mission Planning Team 1962
     
    As our work progressed from analytical studies to inventing how to monitor and protect the spacecraft during the launch phase and how to navigate on-orbit and to determine the precise time for the de-orbit maneuver, John was pushing the team through the theory stage and into the practical domain of assuring mission safety and success through all flight phases. One key step in this process was the decision to create a computer center with the appropriate software to provide the necessary flight information in real time. We determined the operational requirements and the software equations.