John C. Houbolt: Visions can be realised
Named as TIME magazine’s unsung
hero of the Space Program and
Apollo 11, Houbolt was responsible
for transforming the strategy to get to
the Moon from the Werner Von Braun
favoured Direct Ascent and landing
to the untried and risky Lunar Orbit
Rendezvous.
A native of Altoona, Iowa, the
young John Houbolt always had
from a hay loft with an umbrella and
a glider built with wings attached
to a baby carriage. But these were
hopeful starts, as he soon graduated
to winning airplane competitions,
became a pilot himself, gained a
Masters in Civil Engineering from the
University of Illinois and eventually
a PhD in Technical Sciences from
ETH Zurich in 1957. As a self-reliant
learner, Houbolt continued his selftutelage through the ‘50s and ‘60s
on space travel principles and Lunar
Orbit Rendezvous. However, well
before gaining his PhD, Houbolt
became a member of the National
Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
(NACA). NACA later become NASA
in 1958, taking Houbolt’s career on an
The climate of fear during the
Cold War found a productive and
technical purpose in the Space
Race. Vast teams of engineers and
scientists were assembled on both
sides of the Iron Curtain to study
various methods of getting to the
Moon; the Buck Rogers style “Direct
Ascent”, Earth-Orbit Rendezvous
and Lunar-Orbit Rendezvous (LOR).
The idea that bigger was better and
faster appeared to be winning the
minds of NASA program managers
and Werner Von Braun himself, until
Houbolt deduced that weight would
be the deciding factor in winning the
race to the Moon. Smaller, modular
spacecraft would be essential, more
cost effective and faster to develop.
LOR required astronauts to leave
www.RocketSTEM .org
John Houbolt, the populariser of Lunar Orbit Rendezvous.
Earth orbit in a large rocket carrying
with them the modular spacecraft
Only a small lander was needed
to land and launch from the Moon
requiring a lunar orbit rendezvous
with the mother ship.
pioneers
Yuri
Kondratyuk
and
Hermann Oberth, but had been
buried
in
development
hell.
Remembering his education and
seeing true genius in LOR, Houbolt
prepared presentations, lectures
and reports proving the value of
LOR over other options. Despite his
populist methods being ignored
for over a year, Houbolt was
convinced LOR was the road to
the Moon and persevered, at risk to
his own reputation. He eventually
circumvented the management
chain of command by writing directly
to NASA Associate Administrator
Credit: NASA
Robert Seamans in a passionate and
forceful letter. This letter brought LOR
into serious conside