John C. Houbolt - The Man Who Brought America to the Moon

On October 4, 1957, Russia launches the first artificial satellite in history - Sputnik. To many Americans this is a shocking event. Few days later Werner von Braun, America's leading rocket scientist, says in an interview: "We consider the control of space around the earth much like, shall we say, the great Maritime powers consider the control of the seas in the 16th through the 18th Century, and they say if we want to control this planet, we have to control the space around it". Dr. Werner von Braun is a German engineer who created the V-2 rocket for Hitler in World War II, he now works for the US Army. For years, von Braun has dreamed of exploring space. And many people think that he brought America to the Moon. But this is not true. Now I'm going to tell you what I've learned.

In the 1950s, a tiny group of engineers was already planning trips to the moon. They were called the Space Task Group - visionaries dreaming remarkable dreams that conceived and directed the nation's first human-in-space program. They were the people who had to analyze and decide how to go to the moon.

The most basic decision that should be made is about the flight. There are two possibilities. The first, Direct Ascent, uses a single rocket to send a spacecraft to the moon. It's the way people have always imagined going. But sending the spacecraft all that way will take an enormous rocket, larger than the Statue of Liberty - a monster called "NOVA." Werner von Braun suggests a different way - Earth Orbit Rendezvous (EOR). EOR uses two smaller rockets. One sends up the spacecraft. The other sends up the fuel. The astronauts rendezvous with the fuel tank, fill up their spacecraft, and head for the moon. Direct Ascent is simple, but needs a huge rocket. Earth Orbit Rendezvous uses smaller rockets, but it's more complicated. Picking the mode will be the most critical decision in the Apollo program, because it determines everything: the spacecraft, the rocket, the training, budget, and schedule. The wrong choice means losing to the Russians, and maybe not reaching the moon at all. The answer was one nobody expected. The engineer who lobbied for it was an outsider - he didn't belong to the Space Task Group and never worked for von Braun. Almost no one welcomed the idea, but he never gave up. The story of his struggle is largely unknown, but the plan he promoted got America to the moon. His name is Dr. John C. Houbolt.
In 1959, Houbolt says that both plans, Direct Ascent and Earth Orbit Rendezvous, will fail, because of the enormous rocket needed:
"It was a vehicle about the size of an Atlas. Down at the Cape, it takes 3000 men, a launch pad, and a launch facility to get an Atlas off the ground from the earth. They were going to land something the size of an Atlas on the moon, backwards, with no help whatsoever. I thought that was preposterous".

Houbolt suggests not taking the main spacecraft down to the moon at all. Instead, the astronauts will use a separate lander, later called Lunar Excursion Module (LEM). The Command Module (CM) will remain in orbit around the moon. After the explorations are complete, the astronauts on the moon will take off, ascend, rendezvous with the CM, dispense with the lander because it's done its job, and return to the Earth.

This is Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR). By using a separate smaller lander LOR saves fuel and weight. Houbolt promises LOR can get America to the moon with one rocket, and it won't have to be the huge NOVA. But the astronauts' safe return depends on rendezvous, something no one's ever done, even around the earth. Houbolt's plan requires that rendezvous work perfectly at the moon.

To almost everyone, that seems insane. There were expressions like "we don't even know how to rendezvous in earth orbit, yet now how are we going to do it around the moon", "this is the most ridiculous thing we've ever heard of", "the most unsafe thing".

Though he did not invent the idea alone, Houbolt has become its main advocate, making presentation after presentation. And by April, 1961, John Houbolt has been pushing LOR for two years and getting nowhere. And help comes from the most unexpected source – the Soviet Union. On April 12, 1961, the Russians put the first man in space - Yuri Gagarin. It's the worst defeat for America's space program. And it puts the pressure on the young president, John F. Kennedy who's just been elected. In his address to the Congress he says: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind or more important for the long range exploration of space."

America is headed for the moon. But NASA engineers can't really get started until they decide the approach plan - how to get to the moon. After two years of frustration, John Houbolt writes directly to NASA Associate Administrator Robert Seamans. And this is what Seamans says about this letter: "And that was a blistering letter. And I first thought, well I wish that guy would get off my back. I mean, maybe I should call his boss, director of the laboratory, and tell him that you're not really supposed to cut across six or seven layers of management that way, but I thought, he may be right."

Seamans orders a careful evaluation of LOR. It appears to be the best. In July, 1962, NASA announces America will use Lunar Orbit Rendezvous to reach the moon. And so it was done. On 20 July, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the LEM "Eagle" on the moon while Michael Collins was orbiting in the CM "Columbia". That evening John Houbolt is in Houston in Mission Control. When the LEM landed, everybody got up and clapped. "Von Brown was sitting in front of me, he turned to me, made an OK sign and said: "Thank you, John." That's the biggest compliment I've had in my life" says Houbolt.

At the end I want to make it clear. I don't underestimate von Braun's achievement of building the Saturn V rocket. But I think that LOR is more important for the six successful landings on the moon. But that's just my humble opinion.