John Cornelius Houbolt (April 10, 1919 – April 15, 2014) was an
aerospace engineer
Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...
credited with leading the team behind the
lunar orbit rendezvous
Lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) is a process for landing humans on the Moon and returning them to Earth. It was utilized for the Apollo program missions in the 1960s and 1970s. In a LOR mission, a main spacecraft and a smaller lunar lander travel to ...
(LOR) mission mode, a concept that was used to successfully land humans on the Moon and return them to Earth. This flight path was chosen for the
Apollo program in July 1962. The critical decision to use LOR was viewed as vital to ensuring that man reached the Moon by the end of the decade as proposed by President
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
. In the process, LOR saved time and billions of dollars by efficiently using the rocket and spacecraft technologies.
Life
Houbolt was born in Altoona, Iowa in 1919.
He spent part of his childhood in
Joliet, Illinois
Joliet ( ) is a city in Will County, Illinois, Will and Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the cit ...
, where he attended
Joliet Central High School
Joliet Central High School is a public secondary school located in Joliet, Illinois. Central is part of Joliet Township High Schools, along with Joliet West and Joliet East (now defunct). Before the opening of Joliet East and West, the school wa ...
and
Joliet Junior College
Joliet Junior College (JJC) is a public community college in Joliet, Illinois. Founded in 1901, it was the first public community college founded in the United States.
In Spring 2014, the college enrolled 16,375 students. Every year, 48,000 stu ...
. He attended the
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...
, earning a
B.S.
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...
in 1940 and an
M.S.
A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...
degree in 1942, both in Civil Engineering. He later received a
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...
degree in Technical Sciences in 1957 from
ETH Zurich
(colloquially)
, former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule
, image = ETHZ.JPG
, image_size =
, established =
, type = Public
, budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021)
, rector = Günther Dissertori
, president = Joël Mesot
, ac ...
. Houbolt began his career at the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a United States federal agency founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved and its assets ...
in 1942, and stayed on at
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
after it succeeded NACA. From 1963 to 1976, he worked for a consulting firm,
Aeronautics Research Associates
Aeronautics is the science or art involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of air flight–capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere. The British Royal Aeronautical Society identifie ...
, then returned to NASA until retirement in 1985.
Houbolt was an engineer at the
Langley Research Center
The Langley Research Center (LaRC or NASA Langley), located in Hampton, Virginia, United States of America, is the oldest of NASA's field centers. It directly borders Langley Air Force Base and the Back River on the Chesapeake Bay. LaRC has fo ...
in Hampton, Virginia, and he was one of the most vocal of a minority of engineers who supported LOR in a campaign that lasted from 1960 to 1962. Once this mode was chosen in 1962, many other aspects of the mission were significantly based on this fundamental design decision. He was a guest at
Mission control for the
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, an ...
lunar landing.
He was awarded the
NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal
The NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (abbreviated ESAM) was established by NASA on September 15, 1961, when the original ESM was divided into three separate awards. Under the current guidelines, the ESAM is awarded for unusually sign ...
in 1963.
He was a member of the
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy ...
.
He was awarded an honorary doctorate, awarded on May 15, 2005, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
and his papers were deposited in the
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...
Archives.
In 2009, the
Illinois House of Representatives
The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the current constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 re ...
adopted HR 540 in his honor.
[Bill Status of HR540](_blank)
/ref> He is additionally commemorated in the city of Joliet: The street fronting Joliet Junior College, which he attended, was renamed Houbolt Road; a mural in Joliet Union Station
Joliet Union Station was a train station in Joliet, Illinois that served Amtrak long-distance and Metra commuter trains. It was replaced by the new Joliet Transportation Center in 2018, a train station that was constructed adjacent to the Union ...
includes a Lunar Module
The Apollo Lunar Module (LM ), originally designated the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the lunar lander spacecraft that was flown between lunar orbit and the Moon's surface during the United States' Apollo program. It was the first crewed ...
, in reference to his work for NASA; and a wing of the Joliet Area Historical Museum became a permanent exhibit to celebrate his achievements.[The Soaring Achievements of John C. Houbolt](_blank)
/ref>
He lived in Williamsburg, Virginia
Williamsburg is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 15,425. Located on the Virginia Peninsula ...
. In later years he lived in Scarborough, Maine
Scarborough is a New England town, town in Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County on the southern coast of the U.S. state of Maine. The town is a coastal resort area. Located about south of Portland, Maine, Portland, Scarborough is part of t ...
. He died at a nursing home there in 2014 of Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...
.
In the 1998 HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
miniseries ''From the Earth to the Moon
''From the Earth to the Moon: A Direct Route in 97 Hours, 20 Minutes'' (french: De la Terre à la Lune, trajet direct en 97 heures 20 minutes) is an 1865 novel by Jules Verne. It tells the story of the Baltimore Gun Club, a post-American Civil W ...
'', Houbolt was played by Reed Birney
Reed Birney (born September 11, 1954) is an American actor. Birney is known for his performances on stage and screen often acting on and off Broadway. Birney gained acclaim in 2016 for his role in '' The Humans'' winning the Tony Award for Best F ...
.
Lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR)
Although the basics of the lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) concept had been expressed as early as 1916 by Yuri Kondratyuk
Yuri Vasilyevich Kondratyuk (russian: Юрий Васильевич Кондратюк; ukr, Юрій Васильович Кондратюк; 21 June 1897 – February 1942), real name Aleksandr Ignatyevich Shargei (russian: Алекса́нд ...
and 1923 by German rocket pioneer Hermann Oberth
Hermann Julius Oberth (; 25 June 1894 – 28 December 1989) was an Austro-Hungarian-born German physicist and engineer. He is considered one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics, along with Robert Esnault-Pelterie, Konstantin Ts ...
, NASA would provide the first practical application of the concept. Some engineers were concerned about the risks of space rendezvous
A space rendezvous () is a set of orbital maneuvers during which two spacecraft, one of which is often a space station, arrive at the same orbit and approach to a very close distance (e.g. within visual contact). Rendezvous requires a precise ma ...
, especially in lunar orbit, where there would be no fallback options in case of a major mishap.
After Houbolt presented the LOR concept to a series of dismissive high-level panels, he ignored the chain of command
A command hierarchy is a group of people who carry out orders based on others' authority within the group. It can be viewed as part of a power structure, in which it is usually seen as the most vulnerable and also the most powerful part.
Milit ...
and complained in a long letter dated November 15, 1961, to Associate Administrator of NASA Robert Seamans
Robert Channing Seamans Jr. (October 30, 1918 – June 28, 2008) was an MIT professor who served as NASA Deputy Administrator and 9th United States Secretary of the Air Force.
Birth and education
He was born in Salem, Massachusetts, to Pauline ...
that his proposal had been derided as "a scheme that has a 50 percent chance of getting a man to the moon and a 1 percent of getting him back." Indeed, at one of the earliest NASA panels on December 14, 1960, Houbolt was attacked in the presence of both Seamans and Wernher von Braun by fellow engineer Max Faget
Maxime Allen "Max" Faget (pronounced ''fah-ZHAY''; August 26, 1921 – October 9, 2004) was a Belizean-born American mechanical engineer. Faget was the designer of the Mercury spacecraft, and contributed to the later Gemini and Apollo spac ...
, who announced, "His figures lie. He doesn't know what he's talking about." However, the detailed letter to Seamans, together with studies of the difficulties posed by the need for a massive rocket in a direct ascent
Direct ascent is a method of landing a spacecraft on the Moon or another planetary surface directly, without first assembling the vehicle in Earth orbit, or carrying a separate landing vehicle into orbit around the target body. It was proposed as ...
and the problems associated with landing a large craft on the lunar surface following an Earth orbit rendezvous, led Seamans and von Braun to support LOR in 1962.
While some aspects of Houbolt's initial estimates were off (such as a 10,000 pound Apollo Lunar Module
The Apollo Lunar Module (LM ), originally designated the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the lunar lander spacecraft that was flown between lunar orbit and the Moon's surface during the United States' Apollo program. It was the first crewed ...
which was ultimately 32,399 lb (14,696 kg)), his LOR package proved to be feasible with a single Saturn V
Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, with multistage rocket, three stages, and powered with liquid-propellant r ...
rocket whereas other modes would have required two or more such rocket launches or a rocket much heavier than the Saturn V to lift enough mass into space to complete the mission
Space Shuttle tiles
Leading up to the first mission of the Space Shuttle, STS-1, in 1981 Houboult co-wrote a letter with structural engineer Holt Ashley
Holt Ashley (January 10, 1923May 9, 2006) was an American aeronautical engineer notable for his seminal research of aeroelasticity.[Chris Kraft
Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr. (February 28, 1924 – July 22, 2019) was an American aerospace and NASA engineer who was instrumental in establishing the agency's Mission Control Center and shaping its organization and culture. His protégé ...](_blank)
, director of Johnson Space Center, imploring him to delay the launch believing the orbiter would suffer major loss of thermal protection tiles, and potentially lose the vehicle.
Of particular concern was a strut attaching the nose of the orbiter to the External Tank. Langley Research Center urged further wind tunnel testing, which Kraft reluctantly agreed to do. While the tiles had been an ongoing concern since the original development of the Shuttle, the teams involved believed it was safe to fly by that point.
Upon jettisoning, the External Tank did show heat damage around the forward strut area, as feared. On reaching orbit some tiles were visibly missing around the tail of the Shuttle, and fears that the more-critical tiles on the underside of the vehicle were damaged led to a hastily arranged effort to use KH-11 KENNEN
The KH-11 KENNEN (later renamed CRYSTAL,p.199-200 then Evolved Enhanced CRYSTAL System, and codenamed 1010 and Key Hole) is a type of reconnaissance satellite first launched by the American National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in December 1 ...
spy satellites and the Kuiper Airborne Observatory
The Gerard P. Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO) was a national facility operated by NASA to support research in infrared astronomy. The observation platform was a highly modified Lockheed C-141A Starlifter jet transport aircraft (s/n: 6110, regi ...
to acquire imaging of the Shuttle in orbit to assess the damage. Fortunately, the damage was minimal, and the mission concluded safely.
Damaged leading edge thermal protection panels on the left wing, with a similar but more stringent heat protection job, caused the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disaster in 2003.
Quotes
* "Somewhat as a voice in the wilderness, I would like to pass on a few thoughts." (In a 1961 letter to Robert Seamans
Robert Channing Seamans Jr. (October 30, 1918 – June 28, 2008) was an MIT professor who served as NASA Deputy Administrator and 9th United States Secretary of the Air Force.
Birth and education
He was born in Salem, Massachusetts, to Pauline ...
, NASA associate administrator.)
* "Do we want to go to the moon or not?" (in the same letter)
* "Thank you, John." — Wernher von Braun to Houbolt upon the successful landing of Apollo 11, a remark captured on a NASA film taken at Mission Control in Houston. If Houbolt had not pushed the LOR concept—risking his NASA career and professional reputation—it would have been unlikely that the first successful lunar landing and return mission could have been accomplished by President Kennedy's 1969 completion date. Von Braun recognized this and personally invited Houbolt to the control center for the event.
References
External links
*
*
*
*
The Soaring Achievements of John C. Houbolt
Permanent, 2-story museum exhibit about John Houbolt and his contributions to the space program.
Tony Reichhardt, ''Airspacemag.com'', January 1, 2008
Interview with Dr John Houbolt
*
*
*The Man who Knew The Way to The Moo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Houbolt, John
1919 births
2014 deaths
American aerospace engineers
NASA people
People from Altoona, Iowa
Grainger College of Engineering alumni
ETH Zurich alumni
Joliet Junior College alumni
University of Virginia faculty
People from Scarborough, Maine
Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering
Deaths from Parkinson's disease
Neurological disease deaths in Maine