
What Made Apollo a Success? (1971) [pdf] - hownottowrite
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19720005243.pdf
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swozey
Funny timing on this, I just came across my grandfather's letter from the
Apollo program astronauts thanking him for his testing prowess and awarding
him the "silver snoopy" for professional excellence.

My other grandfather was the first shuttle launch director, the shoes we
fill..

Might interest some.

[https://lensdump.com/i/W1GAd0](https://lensdump.com/i/W1GAd0)

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sizzzzlerz
What did your grandfather do and which astronauts signed the letter?

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swozey
It's signed by Ronald Evans of Apollo 17. Both of my grandfathers and a lot of
my family worked for nasa for decades, though. We're all space coasters. A few
pilots. My grandmother was a typist there for instance.

He was some sort of rocket propulsion engineer back then, I'm not sure what
the actual title would have been. I asked him to write some memoirs a long
time ago but I don't bug him about it. He doesn't seem to think it's very
interesting. Guess that happens when it's your day job.

~~~
EvanAnderson
I certainly wouldn't ask you to bug him, but you might mention to him that
there are lots of people who would find anything he has to say about his
involvement with Apollo (and the space program in general) fascinating. His
stories are important and interesting, even if he doesn't think they are. I
wish I had a pointer to somebody who is collecting this history before it's
lost. (I wish I had the time and financial freedom to be doing that!)

~~~
japhyr
You might be interested in a book called Moondust. The author realized in the
early 2000s that at some point soon all of the astronauts who walked on the
moon would be gone. He set out to interview each of them about their
experiences at the time, and since visiting the moon.

It's a mix of space history and personal reflections on the perspective they
got, that none of us will likely have.

[https://www.amazon.com/Moondust-Search-Men-Fell-Earth-
dp-000...](https://www.amazon.com/Moondust-Search-Men-Fell-Earth-
dp-0007155425/dp/0007155425/)

~~~
frosted-flakes
A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin (1998)[0] is also a great read. The author
explains in the forward that that was also part of his motivation to write the
book. I have the 23 hour audiobook, which is also quite well narrated.

[0]
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/896458.A_Man_on_the_Moon](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/896458.A_Man_on_the_Moon)

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charliepark
This looks really interesting. "A series of eight articles … from the March
1970 issue of Astronautics & Aeronautics."

Quickly summarizing the table of contents and some of the internal content,
these seem to be the main takeaways:

• Create design principles that stress simplicity.

• Test exhaustively.

• Develop mission rules, procedures, and plans for potential issues ahead of
time; iterate as new information comes in.

• Execute rigorous post-mortems.

• Prioritize flexible yet disciplined management.

It's notable that this was published before Apollo 13. It'd be interesting to
see what changes Kranz et al. would make to these articles after that.

~~~
usermac
I've heard or read of this before, the first bullet, and can't help but to
compare this to what has happened with the 737 Max 8 current issue.

From the PDF comes: "Apollo gains a measure of simplicity from features simple
both in design and operation, complex in design but simple to operate, or
simple by being passive in function. The concept of simple design and simple
operation is best illustrated by the Apollo rocket-propulsion systems (fig.
2-2)."

~~~
sizzzzlerz
For a machine as complex as the Saturn 5 rocket, it is truly a credit to the
builders that it never suffered a major failure in any of the manned missions.
Same for the LM rocket which returned the astronauts to the command module.
Both had to absolutely work and both did.

As John Glenn quipped "It's a very sobering feeling to be up in space and
realize one's safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a
government contract."

~~~
delibes
Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee :(

I do get your point, and it's amazing it worked as well as it did. Space is
tough, and things are likely to go wrong, just as they still do with civil
aviation.

~~~
arethuza
Silly nitpick: Apollo 1 was a Saturn 1B not a Saturn 5.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1)

~~~
sizzzzlerz
It also wasn't a "mission". They were performing in a test. And, in any case,
the fire wasn't a fault of the rocket; it was a fire in capsule.

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tra3
Brady Heywood Forensic Engineering Podcast [0], has an amazing series on
Apollo 13 [1]. It's 6 episodes, mostly narrated by Brady Heywood, with some
audio recording from Houston as well as the Apollo astronauts. It's riveting.

[0]: [http://bradyheywood.libsyn.com](http://bradyheywood.libsyn.com)

[1]:
[http://bradyheywood.libsyn.com/episode-21-apollo-13-p1-head-...](http://bradyheywood.libsyn.com/episode-21-apollo-13-p1-head-
for-the-hills)

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bspammer
The very first sentence is confusing to me:

> On July 20, 1969, man first set foot on another planet.

Has the definition of planet changed over time?

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Someone
[https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/planet](https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/planet):

 _”1.2 Astrology historical

A celestial body distinguished from the fixed stars by having an apparent
motion of its own (including the moon and sun), especially with reference to
its supposed influence on people and events.

‘the planets are presently influencing you in a positive way’”_

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_planet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_planet):

 _”In classical antiquity, the seven classical planets are the seven non-fixed
astronomical objects in the sky visible to the naked eye: Mars, Jupiter,
Venus, Saturn, Mercury, the Sun, and the Moon. The word planet comes from two
related Greek words, πλάνης planēs (whence πλάνητες ἀστέρες planētes asteres
"wandering stars, planets") and πλανήτης planētēs, both with the original
meaning of "wanderer", expressing the fact that these objects move across the
celestial sphere relative to the fixed stars.”_

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hguant
>the main point is that a single man can fully understand this interface and
can cope with all the effects of a change on __either side of the interface__

(emphasis mine)

This is a really great and subtle point, and something that takes a lot of
rigour to turn into reality.

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wespiser_2018
From the article: "If the design has been verified and if a thorough test
program has been completed it should not be necessary to make any changes. Of
course, this idealized situation does not exist in any program like Apollo
where design, test, and flight often overlap and must be carried out at the
same time." Wow, these remind me of the Joint Strike Fighter program, where
design/test/production all overlapped (concurrency) and cost overruns where a
huge issue. No doubt, we spared very little expense in the Apollo program,
cutting only the last two missions!

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shmooth
Had to be Agile dev with CI/CD

