posted 06-05-2012 10:22 AM               

About a year ago, their first book of memoirs came out with only a little fanfare, but the cS community did embrace it on Amazon and the reception was quite good. Since then, there has been much effort to fill in holes and tell more of the stories. I was lucky enough to participate in this process and my admiration for their determination to put a man on the moon back in the sixties has quadrupled, now that I see what it really took to get us there.

The third edition of their memoirs has increased in size to include an introductory page by astronaut Thomas Jones, chapters by Dutch von Ehrenfried, Bill Gravett, Steve Bales (and possibly Ed Pavelka according to a late breaking email).

A Compendium of Oral Histories of the Flight Dynamics Controllers, courtesy of the NASA Oral Histories Project is now available containing first hand accounts by Jay H. Greene, Neil B. Hutchinson, John S. Llewellyn, Granville E. Paules, Edward L. Pavelka, Phillip C. Shaffer, Charlie Parker and J. Gary Renick.

John Llewellyn's story is also presented as a stand alone volume as it relates his incredible experiences in the Korean War for which he received the Bronze Star, as well as his time at Langley and Mission Control from Mercury through Apollo. John was also instrumental in getting Apollo 13 back safely. Sadly, John passed away last month, but not before he saw his life story in print.

Pick up the DVD of the Trench's 40th Anniversary celebrating a job well done. This is a proud bunch. Glynn Lunney hand picked them in the sixties and assembled a brilliant team that made history throughout the decade.

posted 06-19-2012 05:08 PM               

The Bales chapter has a lot of info I didn't know, and he was very gracious to share it with us at the eleventh hour as we were going to press. These guys have had amazing careers, but we don't always realize how many years they put in at NASA.