Tag Archives: Apollo

The Space Race~Part 2

3 Jun

A Slice of Life

 Bill Lites 

Then in 1961 I got a part–time job with the Missile Division of the Douglas Aircraft Co. in Santa Monica, CA as a design draftsman. One of the first projects I worked on was the U.S. Army’s Nike Zeus Anti-Missile Program. The most interesting job I was assigned to on that project, was to witness and evaluate 1st and 2nd stage booster motor case burst tests at the company’s Long Beach facility.

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In 1962 I was transferred to a full-time drafting job on the Saturn S-4B Stage project that the Douglas Space Systems Division was designing and building for the Apollo/Saturn V moon rocket. This change caused me to have to continue my engineering education on a part-time basis at night school. What a drag that was. The school didn’t always have enough students to justify some of the classes I needed at night, so I had to take what I could get, when I could get it.

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By 1963, and mainly because of the Space Race, the Southern California aerospace industry had been building up in many areas. One of my fellow students happen to be a supervisor at the North American Aviation, Inc. (NAA) Space Systems Division plant in Downey, CA.   He helped me get setup for an interview, and before I knew it, I was a full-time Associate Test Engineer with NAA in their Engineering Test Department.

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Even though NAA was well known as the company who built many famous WWII aircraft, such as the AT-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter and the B-25 Mitchell bomber, this facility and my new job was purely space related and had nothing to do with aviation. However, I never lost my love of everything associated with aviation. I attended airshows and visited aviation museums every time I got a chance. By the time I graduated from NIT in 1965, my job had segued into a Field Test Engineering position. That’s when I was transferred to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida to work on processing the Second Stage booster (S-II) of the giant Apollo/Saturn V Moon Rocket used to put the first U.S. astronauts on the moon. That was a thrilling time in U.S. history, and I am proud to have had a small part in that program.

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After the Apollo Moon Landing program ended for me, in 1973, I was laid off. DiVoran and I didn’t want to return to the Los Angeles area, so I bounced around the local area doing different jobs, for different aerospace contractors, working on different aerospace programs, during those lean years for aerospace engineers in the central Florida area.

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In 1975 I went to work for Lockheed Missiles & Space Co. (LMSC) on the U.S. Navy’s Trident I submarine launched ICBM development program at Complex 46 on Cape Canaveral. That program consisted of the assembling, testing and launching of 20 development missiles from a flat-pad, to qualify the missile for submarine launch operations and eventual duty in the Navy’s new nuclear submarine fleet. The new Ohio class nuclear submarines were modified to accept the smaller Trident I missiles.

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                                                            —–To Be Continued—–

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The Best Job I Ever Had~Part 3

29 Oct

A Slice of Life

By Bill Lites

Bill Lites

Bill Lites

 

One of the largest assignments I was responsible for was the 1st /2nd stage separation system. This system was used in two places on the S-II stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle; to separate the first stage S-IC from the second stage S-II, and again 30 seconds later, to separate the protective S-II Interstage from around the S-II engines. The S-IC and S-II stages were both 33 feet in diameter, so the test fixture used to test the full scale separation system was massive.

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The test fixture was designed to lift a simulated section of the separation plane off the ground so that when the explosive system fired, the lower portion could be photographed while it fell to the ground. This was the closest we could come to simulating the actual event, and we learned several important things from these tests that would drive the final design of the separation system itself. The first thing we discovered, was that the originally designed charge assembly would warp as it was unreeled from the installation spool, making it difficult to keep it lying flat on the tension plates it had to cut. Next, we found out that any amount of water between the charge assembly and the tension plate would diffuse the cutting ability of the explosive. The Los Angeles fog taught us this fact. This happened when we installed the separation system one day for a full-scale test the next day, and when the fog rolled in that night, the moisture ran down the stringers, onto the tension plates, and collected in the “V” of the shaped charge in several places. The final design consisted of a vinyl wrapped charge assembly that kept the moisture out of the cutting area, and a retention system that held the charge assembly tight against the tension plates. The manufacturer of the charge assembly also supplied a disposable holder that kept it from warping as it came off the installation spool.

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This separation system did not use a large size explosive charge, but because it had to cut the 216 tension straps around the 103 foot outside circumference of the vehicle, it ended up being a large explosion. After the first three tests, we had to move the entire test fixture to an El Centro desert facility because of complaints from the local Downey, CA residents.

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After finalizing the ordnance systems testing for the Apollo and Saturn S-II vehicles, I was transferred to the NAA Field Operations Group and moved to Florida in 1965 to be one of the Field Test Engineers responsible for the processing and installation of many of those same ordnance systems I had tested in California. My job now was to write the procedures for, and supervise the processing and installation of, these flight ordnance systems on the Saturn S-II launch vehicle that helped boost the Apollo Astronauts and their spacecraft to the Moon. What a thrill it was to be able to watch that giant 363 foot high Saturn V launch vehicle lift off, in all its glory, and see those systems work as they had been designed and tested. But of course, as it turned out, that job wasn’t near as much fun as the job of blowing up those system test specimens back in the early days at the home plant (Will I ever grow out of being a kid?).

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You may have seen the picture below or a video clip of it in an Apollo documentary or an advertisement, but this was the S-II Interstage falling away from the S-II Stage booster 30 seconds after separation from the S-IC stage, which occurred during each Apollo/Saturn V launch from the Kennedy Space Center.

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Most people have no idea how many unseen systems have to work perfectly, and in the proper sequence, during any rocket launch. I still get thrilled every time I watch a video of one of the Apollo/Saturn V launches, and see each of the many ordnance systems function as they were designed. And, it’s gratifying to know that I played a small part in that historical program to place the very first men on the moon.

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—–The End—–

 

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The Best Job I Ever Had~ Part1

15 Oct

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill Lites

Ever since I was a young boy visiting my relatives in rural Louisiana, I have been playing with fireworks. Back then we could buy fireworks year-a-round, so my cousins and I used them in every conceivable way. Of course, as I grew older, the challenge for bigger and louder projects eventually culminated, when I was a teenager, and learning how to make my own black powder. I’m not going to tell you what all kinds of projects my teenage friends and I used that black powder for, but then maybe you have an idea of how mischievous young boys can be. What finally cured me of playing with the black powder was when I tried to use it to fuel a model rocket (that didn’t work well, and luckily I still have all 10 fingers).

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After my stent in the US Navy (one of the best character builders there is), I went to college in Los Angeles where I met my future Aerospace supervisor. My first job with him was as a Hydraulics/Pneumatics Engineer in the company’s Test Group. That was a great job where I learned many of the basics of being a test engineer. The company’s work load was building up about that time, and it wasn’t long before a position opened up in the Test Group for an Ordnance Test Engineer. I must have been in the right place at the right time, because the next thing I knew that was my new title. After much schooling, the Ordnance Technicians taught me the safety procedures and rules for the handling and testing of explosive devices, and I was on my way to enjoying “The Best Job I Ever Had.”

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What was so great about this job was that my responsibility covered the testing of any Ordnance Test Specimen from beginning to end. The Test Group performed testing for the Apollo Spacecraft Engineering group, as well as the Second Stage Booster Engineering Group, both of which were for the Apollo Space Program’s Saturn V launch vehicle. The respective Ordnance Design Engineer would write up a test requirement plan for his system specimen and submit it to the Test Group. As an Ordnance Test Engineer, I would estimate how many man-hours it would take for the Test Group to test the system specimen in all the different parameters (high temp, low temp, vibration, etc.). That included the time necessary to design and have built any test fixtures required for the various tests, support personnel (photographers, etc.) and equipment required (high speed cameras, cranes, etc.).

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I would then submit this estimate to the Ordnance Design Engineer, and, if he agreed that I had covered all of his requirements in my estimate, he would get the necessary monetary approval from the company’s Engineering Department.   It was then up to me to establish a testing work schedule to perform all the specified test requirements in a timely manner and within the estimated budget.

—–To Be Continued—–

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U.S. Space Walk of Fame

16 Jan

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

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As two of the many workers on America’s Apollo moon landing program, Ron Spangler and Bill Lites were looking forward to attending the ground breaking ceremony for the Apollo monument at the U.S. Space Walk of Fame.  When completed, the U.S. Space Walk of Fame will honor the men and women who have been part of the U.S. Manned Space programs, from the first Mercury launch to the last Space Shuttle launch.

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The ceremony took place in Titusville, Florida on July 16,1999 exactly 30 years to the second of the launch of the mighty Apollo/Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center.  This was the rocket that carried the Apollo 11 spacecraft, and the first men from Earth, to a landing on the moon.  The Apollo monument was the third in a series of four planned monuments making up the U.S. Space Walk of Fame.  Astronauts Wally Schirra and Gene Cernan were among the honored guests, and more than 300 attendees were on hand to commemorate this special event.  As part of the ceremony, a bronze bust of President John F. Kennedy, who originally challenged our nation to what became the Apollo Lunar Landing program, was unveiled.

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The first of America’s Manned Space vehicles was the one-man Mercury capsule that carried a succession of American astronauts on missions into Earth orbit to prove man could live and work in space.

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Next in the progression of space vehicles was the two-man Gemini capsule that carried additional American astronauts into Earth orbit where they practiced space vehicle maneuvering. This involved rendezvous and docking procedures with various target vehicles.  In addition, space walks were performed to test space suit design and function.

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The Apollo project used the mighty Saturn V launch vehicle to carry American astronauts in the three-man Apollo space capsule and the two-man Lunar Landing vehicle to the moon, where Neil Armstrong and Buss Aldrin were the first humans from earth to set foot on the moon.

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The Space Shuttle was America’s 7-man reusable space plane that was used to assemble and serviced the International Space Station, and perform many other important manned space missions.  This was truly an International venture.

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The Hubble Space Telescope along with countless military and scientific satellites were placed in Earth orbit using the Space Shuttle Orbiter.

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So it was that Bill and Tom were there with the many others, that day, who came to the U.S. Space Walk of Fame ceremony to represent the nearly 300,000 dedicated men and women employed by NASA and a variety of contractors from all over America, who toiled to make the United States Manned Space Program a reality for the world to see and appreciate.  What a great feeling of satisfaction and pride each of those workers deserves to have, as a memory, for the rest of their lives.

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