Unstung
Active member
As an early proponent of using Lunar Orbit Rendezvous to get Americans to the moon, John Houbolt helped fulfill Kennedy's vision. If it wasn't for Houbolt's continuous and unwavering support for the idea of Lunar Orbit Rendezvous over Direct Ascent and Earth Orbit Rendezvous, it is possible that Project Apollo may have never succeeded. Many people may recognize him for his representation in From the Earth to the Moon.
Red Orbit: "John C. Houbolt, Unsung Hero of the Apollo Program, Dies at Age 95"
collectSPACE: "John Houbolt, NASA engineer who fought for Apollo moon landing method, dies"
Red Orbit: "John C. Houbolt, Unsung Hero of the Apollo Program, Dies at Age 95"
collectSPACE: "John Houbolt, NASA engineer who fought for Apollo moon landing method, dies"
Were it not for John Houbolt, the United States might never have landed men on the moon.
The engineer, who died on Tuesday (April 15) at the age of 95, successfully sold the country's space program leaders on an alternate flight plan, Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR), which ultimately led to the six Apollo moon landings of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Houbolt's death was confirmed by a spokesman for NASA on Thursday.
Before Houbolt began championing LOR as the way to go to the moon, NASA's rocket scientists, including Wernher von Braun, envisioned lunar missions of a type now more often associated with early science fiction. In the original plan, a large rocket would fly directly from the Earth to the moon, landing on its tail and blasting off the lunar surface for a direct return to Earth.
[...]