Published Saturday, February 06, 2010

Newnan retirees helped w/Apollo program

The Newnan Times-Herald

Members of the Newnan Rotary Club were treated to an "Out of this world" program Friday as Newnan residents Sam Phillips and Ed Barnett spoke about the time they spent working for IBM on NASA's Saturn Project in Huntsville, Ala.

Phillips and Barnett both retired to Newnan and did not know the other was in town until they realized they were both members of the White Oak Golden K Kiwanis Club.

Both men served as engineers at the height of America's race for control of space against the Soviet Union. Their presentation included a video featuring James Lovell, who flew on the Apollo 8 mission and later served as the commander of the Apollo 13 flight, which ended in near disaster and was immortalized in a hit film.

In the video, Lovell describes the growing tension between the U.S. and Soviet Union as the two nations raced to reach the moon first and establish outer space supremacy.

The Soviets knew America was determined to land a man on the moon, and they were desperate to orbit cosmonauts around the moon prior to America's moon landing in order to dull the luster of any American feat that followed.

When word of the Soviet's intentions leaked, Apollo 8's original mission was changed from an Earth orbit mission to a flight that would send men around the moon for the first time.

Previous technical problems and a changed mission created uncertainties throughout NASA, according to Lovell, who says on the video: "Apollo 8 almost didn't happen. It had many bold, risky aspects, but that was a time we made bold moves."

Phillips and Barnett joined the Apollo program as part of the rocket development group working at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.

The two men worked on the giant rocket's instrumentation package, which controlled every aspect of the flight.

"There was a sense of urgency at the time," Phillips said, "but we were determined to succeed. We had an enlightened and talented team and we were all proud to be Americans. And we understood that being first in space had a lot to do with our national security."

Barnett described the massive Saturn rocket, which stood 363 feet tall, as high as a 36-story building. He told about many of the rocket's technical aspects and working parts. He also told the story of when NASA realized it would have to invent and build the world's largest track vehicles just to get the rockets from the assembly building to the launch pad.

The same two track vehicles built to move the Saturn rockets for the Apollo program are still used to transport space shuttles to the launch pad.

Barnett described the launch noise as "frightening" and described the beating the rockets took because of shaking during launch and early flight. He said the Saturn only survived because it was engineered so soundly by German scientists who helped develop America's space and rocket program after World War II.

"The Saturn was built like a battleship," Barnett said.

Barnett went over technical aspects of the Saturn rockets and discussed problems incurred on the Apollo 6 mission.

He said the Apollo 6 launch on April 4, 1968, received less press coverage than expected because it happened the same day Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. With no 24-hour news outlets to cover both events, the majority of coverage on April 5 focused on King's death.

The Apollo 6 unmanned mission was most notable for its problems, according to Barnett. Those problems included the loss of power to two engines. Normally, such a loss would have aborted the mission, but with increased pressure in the moon race, the mission was completed and a great deal learned that helped make the Apollo 8 moon-orbiting mission a success.

But even then, while American engineers like Barnett and Phillips were confident of their abilities, the construction, launch and flight of the huge rockets encompassed so many aspects, there were always questions.

A Rotarian asked Barnett, "If the president had called you and asked you to go on Apollo 8, would you have gone?"

Barnett smiled and said, "No."

Phillips said he would have flown, knowing how hard the crew had worked and prepared to get the flight ready.

NASA's Saturn rockets were intended to launch large payloads into Earth's orbit and beyond. The original group of Saturn rockets was developed by a group largely composed of German rocket scientists.

Saturn rockets were originally intended for military, but the Saturn IB and the Saturn V became the rockets of choice for the Apollo space program.

NASA's first space programs -- Mercury and Gemini -- put American astronauts into low-Earth orbit for the first time and paved the way for further space exploration.

The Apollo program was designed to fulfill President John F. Kennedy's May 1961 pledge to land a man on the moon within a decade.

Apollo 8 was the second manned Apollo mission. It was also the first manned mission to leave Earth's gravitational field, and the first to be affected by and escape from the gravitational effects of another celestial body -- the Moon. Apollo 8 was also the first manned voyage to travel to another celestial body.

Apollo 8's crew consisted of Mission Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders. The three were the first humans to see the far side of the Moon and the first to view Earth from beyond low-Earth orbit.

Apollo 8 launched on Dec. 8, 1968, and was orbiting the Moon three days later. The craft completed 10 full orbits in 20 hours.

During that time, the crew appeared in a Christmas TV broadcast that became the most watched TV program up to that time. The astronauts also read the first 10 verses of the Book of Genesis from the Old Testament.

On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 put the first men on the Moon. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed and walked on the Moon's surface during the mission. Astronaut Michael Collins remained aloft in the command module.

The Apollo program officially ended in 1975.