John Houbolt
NASA moon landing engineer John C. Houbolt dies at 95, AP
“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. 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 a space craft while orbiting the planet.”
John Houbolt, Wikipedia
One of the greats of the US civil space program lost to us. I do not believe it is an exaggeration to say that NASA would not have landed a man on the moon before 1970 without his determination and vision (and the guts to face down even Werner von Braun).
No dispute that Houbalt’s early and unshakable belief in LOR was crucial to the outcome, however von Braun said in later interviews that when it came to deciding which method best supported Kennedy’s goal of landing on the Moon by the end of the decade, that it was not correct to characterize him as being against LOR during those discussions.
Certainly Wernher von Braun advocated EOR in the 1950’s when he presented his vision of human space exploration. However he said that in 1961 neither he nor Bob Gilruth were sure which way to go and they agreed to split the study, Houston would study LOR and Marshall would study EOR, and when both had completed their studies they would compare notes. After the studies were complete, von Braun surprised many at Marshall by endorsing LOR.
Von Braun says the reason that Houbolt’s original proposal was met with a lot of skepticism (especially by Max Faget) is because Houbolt’s proposed LM had a gross weight of 10,000 lbs which no one believed was possible (note – the Apollo 11 LM wound up being over 30,000 lbs). Among other things Houbolt’s LM would have been unpressurized and lacked the sophisticated guidance system that LM ultimately landed on the Moon with. Prior to the study the concern was that when a realistic LM weight was factored in that LOR would no longer be attractive.
However von Braun says when the studies were completed that even with a realistic weight for LM, that LOR looked “awfully good” and he agreed that was the best method, and both he and Gilruth made that recommendation to James Webb.
None of this takes anything away from John Houbolt who championed LOR and made sure that it was always in the running. In the later interviews von Braun referred to Houbolt as a “very capable and dedicated man”
Perhaps the LOR study was eventually located at Houston, but not in 1961. Houbolt was at Langley. Construction of JSC in Houston begin in 1962 and it opened in September 1963.
The interview was in 1970 and in looking back von Braun seems to have been speaking more colloquially than geographically. In 1961 it was decided that Gilruth’s Space Task Group would become the Manned Spacecraft Center and be located in Houston. They remained in Virginia initially but in 1962 they moved into temporary leased office locations in Houston while the permanent facilities were still being built on the land donated by Rice.
Even by June 7, 1962 von Braun was already distinguishing Gilruth’s MSC and Langley as being separate centers when he made his speech in Huntsville explaining his recommendation for LOR :
“We understand that the Manned Spacecraft Center was also quite skeptical at first when John Houbolt of Langley advanced the proposal of the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous Mode, and that it took them quite a while to substantiate the feasibility of the method and finally endorse it.”
“Against this background it can, therefore, be concluded that the issue of “invented here” versus “not invented here” does not apply to either the Manned Spacecraft Center or the Marshall Space Flight Center; that both centers have actually embraced a scheme suggested by a third source.”
One of the greats from the Apollo era. Exemplified the finest attributes of an engineer. Give him a prominent crater on the Moon!
I am not sure how long we will remember Mr. Houbolt’s crucial contribution to the success of our first lunar landings — or to the future landings we make on other planets such as Mars or the asteroids — but it is clear that, in this instance, one man did make a huge difference in the destiny of the US space program and perhaps the destiny of the human race.
I’m not so sure that we’ll forget Houbolt anytime soon. Considering that we like to repeat the way we’ve done things before (safety in familiarity), I bet we’ll do LOR every time we (or anyone else) goes to the moon. That also goes for Mars, and any other surface we set foot on. When orbital mechanics is a subject taught in every undergraduate astro program in every university (it’s not in very university yet) there’ll be a paragraph on Houbolt and Apollo.
It’ll be one of those common anecdotes, like Hohmann being a civil engineer that worked on sewer systems.
Jeff
He was convinced that LOR was the way to get to the moon before JFK’s deadline. He put his neck on the block and managed to convince von Braun. Houbolt was right and was one of the key people who made it all possible.
The classic, “Apollo: The Race to the Moon” presents a vivid account of Houbolt’s struggle to get LOR taken seriously. What I find interesting is something that can be easily overlooked – the young NASA allowed a vigorous debate on the “mode’ problem. If many were skeptical at first of LOR, Houbolt was given his due and was listened to.
I don’t think we will forget John Houbolt. There were a lot of people like Houbolt; we know some of their names from the earlier programs: Max Faget, Caldwell Johnson, Robert F. “Bob” Thompson….The people who defined and designed the programs.
Based on the current NASA hierarchy and the last 25 years someone might think that Space Station started once assembly began in 1998 or that Shuttle missions began after lift off. But the missions, the programs, the design and definition started years and decades earlier. It isn’t today nor was it then all about mission operations or flight operations.
That was the mistake that characterized Constellation and doomed the NASA human space program-putting operations people in charge of something they’d never had anything to do with, the mission definition and vehicle design.
While most people remember John for his contributions to the space program, they don’t realize that the majority of his career was devoted to studying aerodynamic loads on aircraft. I had the pleasure of working with him on this in the ’90s, and came away with respect for him not only as a great scientist, but as a truly nice fellow.