Joseph F. Shea: A brilliant engineer with heart and the hopes of a nation
In an era of macho pilots, politically
bruising management and buttoned
down engineers, Joe Shea brought
a no nonsense Bronx attitude with
a calm but assertive and unifying
authority to the Apollo Program
overseeing the development of the
Apollo spacecraft. A maths whiz, he
received an engineering education
at the University of Michigan before
gaining an engineering doctorate
via Dartmouth and MIT. His technical
aptitude and managerial savvy were
becoming well known and sought
General Motors.
After delivering the Titan 2 ICBM
missile guidance system on time within
budget for Bell Labs, NASA invited
him to help them answer Kennedy’s
clarion call to land a man on the
Moon. Shea believed in Kennedy’s
mission and stepped up for the cause
1961 to share his systems engineering
expertise.
With his ability to win a strong
consensus between various, culturally
different and independent NASA
centres, Shea greatly assisted in
smoothing the waters for acceptance
of the LOR concept throughout
NASA. In 1963 he became the new
head of the Apollo
Spacecraft
Program
Joe Shea (far right) at a press conference in 1962 to announce to decision to go with the LOR concept.
Credit: NASA via Retro Space Images
change requests, disagreements and
engineering discipline and renewed
cooperative purpose, the CM was
Naturally being in the spotlight
Shea was a target for hostile criticism
but even his enemies acknowledged
his considerable engineering nous
and managerial style that had
momentum to the ASPO.
TIME Magazine was even
planning to have Shea
the same consensus
grace their cover in
building
mandate
February 1967. And then
between NASA and
tragedy struck.
its contractor North
American Aviation.
On January 27, 1967,
the complicated and
At the time warring
by now widely known to
factions within NASA
be problematic Apollo 1
and North American
CM underwent a routine
had been unable to
“plugs out” test with the
reach agreements on
crew of Gus Grissom,
how to build the Apollo
Command
Module Joe Shea demonstrating the docking Ed White and Roger
(CM), burning out two between the Apollo Lunar and Chaffee