EETimes - Apollo - July 20, 2009 - 18

F l igh t d ynamic s Spacecraft fell into the desired orbits; radio contact was lost and regained, all according to predictions. “Orbital mechanics works. God works. He brought the moon in exactly the right spot at the right time,” Bostick recalled in his interview with Butler. Apollo 11 was, of course, memorable; but Bostick views the achievement as the somewhat preordained outcome that many in MOCR had held for the mission. Given all the stepwise preparation, success and confidence boosts of the last several flights, actually getting to the lunar surface seemed to be in the cards. At least, it felt that way until NASA got to the mission itself—at which point, Bostick said, it hit them that they’d achieved the key milestone for the whole program. Flight Dynamics and the whole of MOCR operations achieved a new level of acuity with the lunar landing 18 EE Times | Apollo | July 20, 2009 of Apollo 12. Unlike Apollo 11, which had a more improvised touchdown— replete with arcane but hastily resolved alarms and low fuel— Apollo 12 achieved a pinpoint landing next to the unmanned Surveyor craft that had been left on the lunar surface earlier. Of course, Apollo 13 brought new challenges throughout Houston and Flight Dynamics. Partway to the moon, a whole new trajectory approach was needed to get the crew home with a crippled craft, and a balance in speed of return and energy use was paramount. Here again, the MOCR team came through. Confidence and competence, calm and creativity—all let the group find a way out of a jam. In an interesting sidebar, the film project that turned Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell’s book “Lost Moon” into a blockbuster movie tapped Bostick as a consultant, and Bostick’s son worked for director Ron Howard’s company. Bostick recalls commenting during early planning of the 1995 film, “We laid out all of our options, and failure was not one of them.” The comment became the famous line “Failure is not an option” in the movie; that line is also the title of Gene Kranz’ 2000 book on Mission Control. Bostick worked on the Skylab project after Apollo but was uninspired by its relative monotony. He moved to NASA’s Washington headquarters for a number of years, then returned to Houston to work on shuttle operations for the next decade. His final position at NASA was director of mission support. After NASA, Bostick moved into private-sector space work, where he “came to realize that all of the management fashions weren’t really any different from doing the right thing—which we were doing [at NASA] all along.”p Apollo 8 provided new tests for Flight Dynamics

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
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