EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 16

F l igh t d ynamic s trajectory. Bostick’s team was composed of several MOCR positions, including those with detailed responsibilities in retrofire (RETRO) and guidance (GUIDO) as well as the flight dynamics officer (FIDO). Bostick’s path to NASA began without a preconceived target toward aviation or astronautics. A civil engineering degree provided the foundation for structures, and while contemplating a career with Boeing, Bostick ended up going to Langley Air Force Base (Hampton, Va.), where he sensed an opportunity to “do more practical stuff.” Langley was a hotbed of aeronautics development during NASA’s ascension, but Bostick’s first research projects lacked the air of application. “I was working on a project for an erectable antenna structure, but when I asked what would happen if nobody ever called about my work I was told simply, ‘We’ll assign you another proj16 EE Times | Apollo | July 20, 2009 ect.’ ” Given his predilection for working “on known problems,” it was then that Bostick realized that he “really didn’t like research.” Life can turn on small events, and a position at NASA came by way of a casual tag-along with a friend to a Space Task Group recruiting effort at Langley. Christopher Kraft—one of the “big guns” of NASA’s burgeoning space program and ultimately Houston’s director of flight operations— was there, and after some backand-forth, Bostick recalls, Kraft said to an underling, “ ‘Hell, hire him [Bostick]; we might need somebody to survey the moon.’ ” Bostick was off to NASA, where he was assigned to mission planning. From that point on, the endpoint of his work was quite targeted. After moving to the newly formed Mission Control in a former cow pasture southeast of Houston, Bostick worked on the Mercury and Gemini programs and eventually settled on the flight dynamics discipline. It was in the later phases of Gemini that NASA, MOCR and the astronauts all began to refine the art of rendezvous and orbital mechanics. Flight Dynamics had the critical role of getting two orbiting craft brought into proximity to accomplish a hookup. While there were occasional problems with the actual docking hardware, NASA achieved the critical step of demonstrating that rendezvous could be done. Bostick believes that “these efforts are where we developed our first real lead over the Russians.” The essential steps to the moon were progressing nicely. While it may seem in retrospect that all forward movement in the art of space flight was carefully orchestrated, Bostick reveals that improvisation and bootstrapping were a reality: “We started with a minimum of technology and had to sort of make it up

EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009

Apollo - July 20, 2009
Contents
Applying the Lessons of Apollo
Why Did We Go to the Moon?
In the Trenches: Profiles of the Engineers Who Made Apollo Go
Apollo Perspectives: Video Interview with Filmmaker David Sington
Virtual Teardown: Apollo Spacesuit
Virtual Teardown: The ‘Genesis’ Rock
Apollo Chip Teardown: Unit Logic Device
Ted Sorensen on Apollo
Soviet Space Firsts
Apollo Reader Forum
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - Apollo - July 20, 2009
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - Contents
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - Applying the Lessons of Apollo
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 4
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - Why Did We Go to the Moon?
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 6
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 7
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 8
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - In the Trenches: Profiles of the Engineers Who Made Apollo Go
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 10
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 11
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 12
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 13
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 14
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 15
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 16
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 17
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 18
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 19
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 20
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 21
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 22
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - Apollo Perspectives: Video Interview with Filmmaker David Sington
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 24
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - Virtual Teardown: Apollo Spacesuit
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 26
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 27
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 28
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - Virtual Teardown: The ‘Genesis’ Rock
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 30
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 31
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - Apollo Chip Teardown: Unit Logic Device
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 33
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 34
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 35
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - Ted Sorensen on Apollo
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 37
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 38
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - Soviet Space Firsts
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 40
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 41
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - Apollo Reader Forum
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 43
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 44
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 45
EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 46
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/cmp/eetimes_apollo_20090720
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com