Deceased--John C. Houbolt

John C. Houbolt
April 10th, 1919 to April 15th, 2014

"John C. Houbolt dies at 95; NASA engineer made moon landing possible"

Houbolt's efforts convinced the space agency to focus on landing a module carrying a crew from lunar orbit rather than a rocket from Earth.

April 21st, 2014

latimes.com

John C. Houbolt, an engineer whose contributions to the U.S. space program were vital to NASA's successful moon landing in 1969, has died. He was 95.

Houbolt died April 15 at a nursing home in Scarborough, Maine, of complications from Parkinson's disease, said his son-in-law, Tucker Withington of Plymouth, Mass.

As NASA describes on its website, while under pressure during the U.S.-Soviet space race, Houbolt was the catalyst in securing U.S. commitment to the science and engineering theory that eventually carried the Apollo crew to the moon and back safely.

His efforts in the early 1960s are largely credited with convincing NASA to focus on the launch of a module carrying a crew from lunar orbit, rather than a rocket from Earth or other method.

Houbolt argued that a lunar orbit rendezvous, or LOR, would not only be less mechanically and financially onerous than building a huge rocket to take man to the moon or launching a craft while orbiting the Earth, but LOR was the only option to meet President Kennedy's challenge to reach the moon before the end of the decade.

NASA describes "the bold step of skipping proper channels" that Houbolt took by pushing the issue in a private letter in 1961 to an incoming administrator.

"Do we want to go to the moon or not?" Houbolt asks. "Why is a much less grandiose scheme involving rendezvous ostracized or put on the defensive? I fully realize that contacting you in this manner is somewhat unorthodox, but the issues at stake are crucial enough to us all that an unusual course is warranted."

Houbolt started his career with NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, in Hampton, Va., in 1942. He left in 1963 to work for an aeronautical research and consulting firm in Princeton, N.J., then returned to NASA in 1976 as chief aeronautical scientist at Langley Field Center in Virginia. He retired in 1985 but continued private consulting work.

Born April 10, 1919, in Altoona, Iowa, Houbolt grew up in Joliet, Ill., and earned degrees in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received a doctorate from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich in 1957.

Walter Lantz's Woody Woodpecker demonstrates rocket science

Yes, Woody explains rocket science in the 1950 film Destination Moon.

Here is his clip [Woody's voice is by Gracie Stafford, Walter Lantz's wife]...

Trailer...

Von Braun sketches for sale

Some cool sketches by Wernher von Braun will be up for auction today.

"Von Braun Sketches to be Auctioned"

by

Clara Moskowitz

October 14th, 2008

Space.com

Sketches, diagrams, and letters from the pioneering rocket scientist Wernher von Braun will be auctioned off Wednesday.

German-born Von Braun is most famous in America for leading the project to design the rockets, including the Saturn V, that enabled America to land on the moon.

Bonhams auction agency in New York will auction 35 documents von Braun created for a series of articles called "Man Will Conquer Space Soon!" that ran in Collier's magazine between March 22, 1952 and April 30, 1954. Some of the plans and sketches, such as a diagram of a three-stage satellite vehicle, were created as source material for illustrations accompanying the article. The whole collection is estimated to value between $15,000 and $25,000.

"Reading von Braun's thoughts and speculations on the future of space travel and seeing his handwritten diagrams and sketches, some of which are surprisingly basic, is rather amazing and a clear testament to his spirit of exploration," said Bonhams spokesperson Staci Smith.

Despite his significant contributions to America's space program, von Braun's legacy is clouded by his association with Germany's Nazi Party during World War II. He led the team that developed Germany's V-2 rocket weapon, and was an honorary officer in Hitler's SS police force.

After the war, von Braun and members of his German rocket team immigrated to America, and von Braun became a U.S. citizen in 1955. He joined NASA and served as the first director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., helping to guide America's quest for the moon and inspire public support for the space program.