July 19, 2019
Apollo 11 landed on the moon 50 years ago tomorrow. I have been watching a lot of public television and listening to stories on MPR. What an amazing accomplishment!
In 1963 I was a contract draftsman in Minneapolis. Minnesota Engineering sent me to Honeywell Stinson Boulevard to report to a drafting department. I had just started on this career and I was self-taught. The truth was, I was not very good at the task. It turned out that Honeywell was working on gyroscopes for the Apollo project. After a couple of days, the department head confronted me and told me that I was the worst draftsman that he had ever met. He transferred me to the Polaris project in the next building. I reported to , Nevin Jahns and he took me on as an engineer aid. My job was to make changes to sepias of drawings. The simplest of tasks. I worked hard and I managed to stay there until March of 1965 when I left to return to St. Cloud State College. At my going away party they gave me a Polaris Submarine tie clasp and a briefcase for my books plus a compass set that belonged to the young fellow that had my job, but never returned to work after a long weekend. I never knew his name or what happened to him. He must have hated the job. My good fortune.
If you go to MPRnews.org you can listen to an interview with Cathy Wurzer and Nancy Atkinson who lives near Upsala. She has written a new book, “Eight Years to the Moon, the History of the Apollo Missions”. She was in our studio last Friday, linked to a live broadcast on Maine Public Radio. She has uncovered a lot of details.
Live from Here this week is a live show from the Green Music Center in Rohnert Park, CA. Guests include The Tallest Man on Earth, Lulu Miller, Zakir Hussain, Ganesh Rajagopalan and Gaby Moreno. Enjoy the show.
“That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” Neil Armstrong 9:56pm central time. Sunday, July 20, 1969
Category : General 