Retiring from NASA in 1984, Bostick went to work for Grumman Aerospace Corporation. In the years to come, Bostick was an ever-present force in Mission Control as head of The Trench. After joining NASA in 1962, Bostick worked in the Mission Planning and Analysis Division before becoming a flight controller. They considered themselves ground-based astronauts who pointed the spacecraft in the direction it needed to travel.īostick grew up in rural Mississippi, and served as a Congressional page and doorman in the House of Representatives in Washington D.C. Unofficially nicknamed The Trench, the group responsible for the trajectory of the spacecraft, and members of The Trench were an admittedly cocky bunch. One of just a handful of people to have worked in Mission Control during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo eras, Jerry Bostick worked his way up to the position of chief of the Flight Dynamics Branch during the Apollo program. With the help of Jack Garman in a Staff Support Room, Bales determined that it was okay to continue and gave a hale and hearty “Go!”īefore Bales retired from NASA in 1996, he eventually served as the deputy director of operations at Johnson Space Center.
#First man on the moon movie 1964 cast series#
Then, a series of computer alarms threatened to derail the landing. The first time, the Lunar Module Eagle was descending too fast.
Just four-and-a-half years later, Bales was on the cusp of calling an abort not once, but twice during Apollo 11’s historic lunar landing. In that role, Bales was responsible for navigational systems and guidance computer software, as well as maintaining the onboard attitude reference system. Those contacts paid off, and Bales was hired as a Guidance officer in December 1964. In order to do a better job of explaining what people were seeing, Bales began talking to the people who would staff the consoles in Mission Control. Instead, he got his start at NASA by giving tours around the agency’s brand new home. The young Iowan was hired as a summer intern at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, but not as a flight controller. Was such a fantastic thing even possible? Not long afterward, the Soviet Union took a huge step in that direction by launching Sputnik, the first man-made object into space. He became a flight controller widely considered to be one of the most capable ever to step foot in Mission Control.Īfter Apollo, he continued to work in Mission Control during the Skylab space station program and later in management for what would eventually become the International Space station.Īs a teenager, Steve Bales watched a Walt Disney television program about the future of human spaceflight in complete amazement. Aaron entered college with the intent to become a teacher, then save up enough money to purchase cattle for the ranch he dreamed of owning.Īaron joined NASA in 1964 and first worked the EECOM console during the Gemini program, a job in which he was responsible for monitoring electrical and environmental life support systems. The son of a farmer and a Methodist minister, Aaron was the youngest child in a family that also included six sisters and a younger brother who died as a toddler. One flight later, Aaron’s leadership in overseeing the critical power-up checklist was instrumental in bringing the crew of Apollo 13 home safely. John Aaron’s split-second decisions when lightning struck during the launch of Apollo 12 forever cemented his status as a “steely eyed missile man” in the eyes of his NASA co-workers.
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