|
|
AIAA Commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Apollo lunar landing
 At the 45th Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit held in Denver, Colorado, 2-5 August 2009, a panel commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Apollo lunar landing, and featuring several NASA staffers who played key roles in the Apollo, Gemini and Mercury programs, was held. The panel recounted stories of their time spent in Mission Control and on various NASA projects. Those taking part in this momentous panel session included: - Gerry Griffin - Lead flight director in Mission Control for three lunar landings during the Apollo program, and was an integral part of the team that helped the astronauts of Apollo 13 safely return to Earth after their oxygen tank exploded on their journey to the moon.
- Glynn Lunney - An employee of NASA since its foundation in 1958, Lunney was a flight director during the Gemini and Apollo programs, and was on duty during historic events such as the Apollo 11 lunar ascent and the pivotal hours of the Apollo 13 crisis.
- Frank Van Rensselaer - Held various management positions with NASA during a 20-year period culminating at NASA headquarters where he was a charter member of Senior Executive Service, earning two of the three highest NASA awards.
- J.R. Thompson - Was the fifth Director of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center located in Huntsville, Alabama. He served as Director from September 29, 1986 to July 6, 1989. Thompson also served as NASA's deputy director from July 6, 1989 to November 8, 1991.
- Harrison "Jack" Schmitt - Played a key role in training Apollo crews to be geologic observers when they were in lunar orbit and competent geologic field workers when they were on the lunar surface. After each of the landing missions, he participated in the examination and evaluation of the returned lunar samples and helped the crews with the scientific aspects of their mission reports.
- Bob Sieck - Joined NASA at the Kennedy Space Center in 1964 as a Gemini Spacecraft Systems engineer. He served as an Apollo Spacecraft test team project engineer, Shuttle Orbiter test team project engineer, and in 1976 was named the Engineering Manager for the Shuttle Approach and Landing tests at Dryden Flight Research Facility in California.
- Arnold Aldrich - Held key NASA management positions in each human spaceflight program from Project Mercury to Space Station. He served as the Director of the Space Shuttle Program, leading program recovery following the Challenger accident, and as Associate Administrator from 1989-1994.
- Bob Dickman – Panel moderator, AIAA Executive Director
AIAA would like to thank Orbital Sciences Corporation for enabling AIAA to capture this historic panel for future generations.
FULL VIDEO
Note: AIAA does not have a streaming video server. Therefore, in order to view any of these videos, you must download the file to your computer by right clicking and selecting Save As, and then you may view it in Windows Media Player, or Quicktime.CHAPTERS
AIAA and Its Members Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Apollo
Forty years ago this summer, man journeyed to the moon and later walked on its surface. AIAA salutes the aerospace professionals who designed, built and tested the rockets and systems that made that historic journey, and the ones that followed it, possible.
As we honor the 40th anniversary of the Apollo Missions, AIAA would like to share some of the stories of our members who were inspired by the Apollo missions.
Dr. Mark Lewis
|
Sue Payton
|
John Blanton
|
Michael Hamel
|
Joseph Rouge
|
Merrie Sanchez
|
Cam Martin
|
Frank Lu
|
James Hermanson
|
|
