"Amiable Strangers"
Three distinct personalities, one goal: reach the moon.
- By Michael Klesius
- AirSpaceMag.com, May 21, 2009
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NASA
The picture of confidence on the eve of their lunar mission, Armstrong and Aldrin relax over dinner in the crew quarters at the Kennedy Space Center, July 15, 1969. A few days before launch, as chronicled in Armstrong’s biography First Man, Chris Kraft, director of flight operations, asked the mission commander, “What can we do? Is there anything we’ve missed?” “No, Chris, we’re ready,” Armstrong replied. “It’s all done except the countdown.” “He was right,” Kraft said. “If there was anything undone, none of us could say what it was….We had come to this last point, and for a moment I felt my legs shake.”
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Comments (1)
While the astronauts were deserving heros of the Apollo project your series needs a section on one person in particular, George M. Low. It was he who met the challange of the disastrous fire that killed three astronauts and brought together the science and engineering that made the capsule workable.
George was originally brought from the Cleveland NASA lab to the Office of Manned Space Flight by Abe Silverstine. After the fire he was transferred to Houston to take over the design of the capsule. Without him the Moon landing may never have happened. After the landing and the instigation of the Space lab project he was made Deputy Administrator of NASA. His life story would be worth an article.
Posted by Robert E. Blue on June 24,2009 | 12:16 PM