Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771
ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM
Monday, November 7, 2005 / 3:30 PM, Building 8 Auditorium
Bruce McCandless
"Apollo 11 Lunar EVA: From the Capcom Perspective"
ABSTRACT -- On July 20, 1969, millions of people around the world watched as two U.S. astronauts became the first human beings to step foot on the moon. That success was the result of a decade of technology development, planning, and analysis for an effort that would be as risky as any previously attempted by humankind. Numerous books by the astronauts and others involved in that triumph have recorded this historical event from their perspectives. This lecture will present a different perspective of that first moonwalk; that of the capsule communicator (capcom), the voice from mission control that had sole responsibility for communicating directly to the astronauts. Retired astronaut Bruce McCandless, who served as the capcom for that event, will share his memories of the concerns, politics, operations, and exhilaration of that historical moment.
SPEAKER -- Mr. McCandless was one of the 19 astronauts selected by NASA in April 1966. He was a member of the astronaut support crew for the Apollo 14 mission and was backup pilot for the first manned Skylab mission. A veteran of two space flights, McCandless has logged over 312 hours in space, including 4 hours of MMU flight time. He flew as a mission specialist on STS-41B in 1984 and STS-31 in 1990. He has also been responsible for crew inputs to the development of hardware and procedures for the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), the Hubble Space Telescope, the Solar Maximum Repair Mission, and the Space Station Program.
Mr. McCandless received a bachelor of science degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1958 where he graduated second in a class of 899. He went on to be a naval aviator and from December 1960 to February 1964, he saw duty aboard the USS FORRESTAL and the USS ENTERPRISE including the latter's participation in the Cuban blockade. He gained flying proficiency in numerous aircraft and logged more than 5,200 hours flying time -- 5,000 hours in jet aircraft. Mr. McCandless continued his education and received a master of science degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1965, and a masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Houston at Clear Lake in 1987. He retired from NASA and is currently working for the Lockheed Martin Corporation where he recently supported the HST robotic mission design activities.