Daily Press from Newport News, Virginia • Page 8

A8 Daily Press, Friday, July 21, 1989 LOOKING BACK AT THE GIANT LEAP Kraft NASA troops dislike scope of goal put an astronaut on the moon or on Mars, some 35 million miles from Earth. With the Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins sitting by him, Bush recalled their historic mission. "America dreamed it, and America did it," Bush said. "Within one lifetime, the human race had traveled from the dunes of Kitty Hawk to the dust of another world." he said. "We had a challenge.

We set a goal and we achieved it "The Apollo astronauts left more than flags and footprints on the moon. They also left some unfinished business. Even 20 years ago, we recognized that America's ultimate goal was not simply to go there and go back but to go there and go on," said the president. The president said he left it to "my right-hand man" Vice President Quayle, head of the National Space Council, to report back "as soon as possible" with money and timetable recommendations for the moon and Mars program for the 21st century. Just how difficult it will be to get the money from Congress was underscored Thursday when the House approved a $12.3 billion appropriation for NASA in 1990, $1 billion less than the administration's request.

For the space station, the House approved $395 million less than the $1.7 billion NASA had sought. Space Continued from Al this sort of (presidential) leadership and vision for America's future, that at the same time this very day up on the Hill we are in fact fighting very hard for the very life of Space Station Freedom and other things in the civil space program." Although the president provided ringing rhetoric for his goals, he gave no timetable, no pledges to fight for funding for what some say could be a $100 billion program to return to the moon. And, without increased staff and money, said Truly, "We can't do it." Truly said he could give no estimates of what it might cost to ority too. NASA had been flirting with moon travel plans that would have cost at least twice the final $24 billion figure until John C. Houbolt, a now-retired Langley researcher, helped persuade agency heads to use a cheaper plan.

"Why not go by Chevrolet instead of a Cadillac?" Houbolt wrote in a letter over his superiors' heads to NASA headquarters. Hewitt Phillips, a distinguished research assistant at Langley who played a key rea-search role in Apollo, believes NASA again is infatuated with luxury at the expense of practicality. Phillips, whose pennywise leadership procured a $7 million Apollo lunar landing simulator for $250,000, argues that the United States wouldn't be worrying about funding a fancy new space sta By MATIIEVV PAUST Staff Writer LANGLEY President Bush's pep talk on space exploration received only occasional, scattered applause from several hundred NASA-Langley Research Center scientists who packed an auditorium to watch it Thursday. "I think a lot of people felt let down," said Karen Cre-deur, who does long-range planning for research facilities at the center. "I would have liked something in the Kennedy mode, but I guess this is more Jim Hansen, Langley's historian, said he believes the Langley community had not expected Bush to propose anything so dramatic as John F.

Kennedy's bombshell challenge in 1961 to put a man on the moon within the decade. What Bush did exhort that the ongoing Space Station Freedom project be completed in the 1990s, with a permanent moon base established over the next century's first decade and a manned trip to Mars following that has been essentially this country's strategic space objective for more than 20 years. Clarence Poe, a Langley administrator, noted that President Reagan issued a similar endorsement of the space station project. But Bush said nothing about asking Congress for more money, and without-enough money, such tentative schedules, Poe said, "are not worth the paper they're written on." NASA officials have complained that Bush's requested $13.3 billion for the agency next year is only 1 percent of the total federal budget, while Stamp Continued from Al Hudgins. of Berwyn Heights, coincidental met two other fellow members of the American First Day Cover Society's Graebner Chapter at the Moon post office.

Larry Carney of Arlington and Rollin Berger of Clifton showed up with the same mission. They all said they picked Moon for its name. The only other Moon with a post office is in Kentucky. "The envelope's a valid souvenir if it's dated todav," Carnev said. "It's extra valu- able from a place like Moon." Collectors prefer postmarks from places with names that play on themes or places of historical significance.

Carney worked furiously to -ti'. and cancel stamps on rr. than a hundred p- Berger worked on ved t-f envelopes and a i oc-zt-r. old newspa-p from the The i i- A Jg 1 'rb't xa. 7 vv brio r.

c.4"'-' i i'i t' -1 pe ha'- to i Carney r. r. rw A typrai costs t'j v. J- r. stamp to r.or.-icrr r.c involved public recognition he deserved, Kraft said.

The Russians had opened an impressive lead with the first successful manned spaceflights, but by the end of the decade, Gilruth, Kraft and other members of the Space Task Group found the means to surpass them. "Bob Gilruth was the true father of manned spaceflight. He was the primary mover. People like Chris Kraft, Max Faget, and even Wernher von Braun were the doers. He was the true leader," Kraft said.

Initially, Gilruth had selected Kraft to the program because of the younger man's outstanding efforts in aeronautical research, where he specialized in basic stability, control and automatic control in airplanes, one of the problems that had to be mastered to make spaceflight work. His ideas contributed to operational control concepts and the estabishment of the Mercury tracking network which included world-circling ground- and ocean-based communications, data and tracking stations. Kraft typically deflects credit for those and other efforts. "We were a small, amicable group of people," Kraft said. "We were in a world of our own and there was a lot of camaraderie." "Sure we were in the limelight, but we were fortunate to have been a part of it." After the Apollo missions, Kraft was also responsible for meshing astronauts with the space shuttle system for the early flights beginning in 1981.

He said the shuttle and development of space stations are projects that, except for the Cold War competition with the Russians, would have been the logical steps prior to a moon walk. "When we went to the moon, demands drove the technology we developed. We will now be able to develop technology in the space environment to expand our exploration," he said. "In my opinion, history di-cated that we take another direction in the lunar program. Now we are involved in a backfilling effort by building an earth-orbiting station, which I think is the more rational approach." Kraft said he doubts the United States will return to the moon, or visit Mars, until it's easier to do so and the risks are removed.

"I believe we are taking a quality approach in this direction with the space stations." Success in the next steps in space won't require the scientific and engineering leaps performed in the 1960s, said Kraft. But it will require a leap of faith by politicians and the American people. "We are a country that reacts well to crisis," he said. "We don't have the same situation in the space program as we did in the 1960s." "This country reacted in the 1960s to the dangers associated with the Russians' space technology exploitations," said Kraft, noting the total support for the effort by the American people, the government and then-President John F. Kennedy.

"Our government fostered this crisis approach during that period, which resulted in the necessary scientific and engineering breakthroughs to go to the moon." Kraft said restraints on the national budget will continue to affect funding for space research programs. "The Soviet Union's space program has run up against the same critical problem. They, too, have budget restraints in order to meet the needs to improve the quality of life for its people." Meanwhile, Kraft believes Europe and Japan are in position and have great potential to take over the advancement of space travel and research. "After all, that is not uncommon in history. Remember, Americans developed the airplane, but it was the Europeans who first exploited the technology." By 1915.

the U.S. had built only 15 civilian and military planes, while the French, using the basic technology of the Wright brothers, had constructed 1,500 aircraft. That disparity prompted the United States to establish the first Langley flight center in 1916. "It is something to think about," said Kraft. Continued from Al demonstrated what the United States can and will do when driven.

I am proud of what this country did in a very tumultuous fashion." Kraft was born and raised in Phoebus, which is now a part of Hampton. After graduating from Virginia Tech at age 20 with an aeronautical engineering degree, he went to work at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics' Langley site in 1944 as an engineer specializing in aircraft stability. In 1958, when Langley was chosen as the headquarters of the nation's space program, Kraft was picked by Dr. Robert R. Gilruth to be one of the original members of the Space Task Group, established to manage Project Mercury, the country's first manned space effort.

He subsequently developed and trained the flight-control teams for the Mercury spaceflights and several of the Gemini flights. He was known internationally as the guy on television at Mission Control in Houston, wearing earphones and a microphone while barking orders with a big, black cigar in his mouth. Kraft, who has given up cigar smoking, now serves as a consultant to Rockwell International an aerospace contractor. He is also a member of the board of directors of three other businesses in Houston, where he and his wife, Betty, make their home. Kraft said he never dreamed he'd be involved in putting a man on the moon when he was a student at Virginia Tech.

As a teen-ager, he had a passion for automobile engines. In college he played baseball, and had a .320 batting average as an outfielder. "If the war hadn't come along, I would probably have been a baseball bum" after college, he said. When Kraft graduated. World War II was still going strong and he joined the Langley research center staff as an engineer in the flight research division.

He worked on the design for the F-8U aircraft, in which U.S. Marine John Glenn would set a coast-to-coast supersonic speed record in 1947. Eleven years later, the two would meet again when Glenn was selected as one of the Mercury astronauts. Kraft has compared his job in the space program to a symphony conductor, someone who cannot play all the instruments yet knows how they should sound when played together. Despite his lack of experience in the scientific details, he succeeded because he possessed one of the keenest intellects in the space program, colleagues said.

They said his special gift is the ability to absorb, which was vital in the manned spaceflight business where the margin for error was measured in micromil-limeters and microseconds and, Kraft himself said, "each of us had 10 jobs to do." Kraft demanded top performance from himself and others. When a "bird" was in the air, he spent all of his waking hours in mission control. His mild-mannered appearance and Tidewater accent changed dramatically when he was at the communications console at Mission Control during flights into space. With blue eyes snapping, his voice became a rapid staccato. His manner became blunt and somewhat salty when problems developed in flight, but when he finally gave what became a nationwide symbol of success "A-OK" his eyes twinkled and his mouth would turn up in a delightful smile.

When Gilruth and the top space team was moved from Hampton to Houston in 1961, Kraft went too. He guided the operational planning and conducted mission operations in support of all manned Apollo flights throughout the lunar landing. When Gilruth was transferred to NASA's Washington headquarters in 1972, Kraft became head of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where the astronauts are assigned. Kraft has high praise for Gilruth as a director of the nation's space efforts through the 1960s. Gilruth wasn't in the eye of a television camera often and never received the iJimiaGflpqiiaM, Thursday, July 21, 1969 12:54 a.m.

Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon ask Mission Control if they have completed chores scheduled for the lunar surface; affirmative response, Aldrin heads back to the ladder to enter the Lunar Excursion Module. 1:09 a.m. Armstrong joins Aldrin in LEM; duration of lunar surface mission out of LEM: 2 hours, 47 minutes. 1:11 a.m. LEM hatch closed; astronauts begin removing portable life support systems.

4:25 a.m. After two hours of questioning by Mission Control, Armstrong and Aldrin told to sleep. 9:44 a.m. Mission Control wakes Collins in the command module. Mission Control: "Not since Adam has any human known such solitude as Mike Collins is experiencing during this 47 minutes of each lunar revolution when he's behind the moon with no one to talk to except his tape recorder aboard Columbia." 11:13 a.m.

Aldrin and Armstrong are awakened. 1:54 p.m. Mission Control to LEM: "You're cleared for takeoff." Aldrin: "Roger. I understand we're number one on the runway." The LEM blasts off, quickly reaching a vertical speed of 80 feet per second. 5:35 p.m.

Eagle docks with Columbia, in orbit over the far side of the moon. 7:42 p.m. LEM jettisoned from command module; Collins, Aldrin and Armstrong prepare for early morning blast out of lunar orbit. during Project Apollo the agency got a 4 percent chunk. Congress already is grumbling over the president's budget figure for the space agency.

Two hours after Bush's speech, the House of Representatives voted to cut $1 billion from Bush's proposal. Hansen hasn't much hope for NASA's chances of getting anywhere near the 4 percent figure. "I think everybody realizes that the fiscal and political realities will make it difficult." Hansen said. "We're going to need a lot more just for a space station. I'm not sure the American people are really ready to demand that Congress spend several billion dollars more." Some Langley researchers emphasize that while funding is important, the agency should make practicality a pri Carney says he'll sell his envelopes for $5 with the first issue stamp.

Those with the Moon post office mark should sell for $7.50. Carney bought $2,700 worth of the first issue stamps. Berger bought $1,300 worth. The designer of the stamp, Christopher Calle, is the son of Paul Calle, illustrator of the 1969 First Man on the Moon 10-cent airmail stamp. Berger and Carney's last trip to Tidewater Virginia was for the Oct.

16, 1981, issue of stamps commemorating the battles of Yorktown and the Virginia Capes in 1781. On July 14, Berger went to Paris, near Winchester to postmark cacheted envelopes with the first issue of a French Revolution stamp. Postmaster Snow said she canceled about 300 stamps Thursday including the shoe-box full for the Washington collectors. That is about half as many as the number she canceled 20 years ago on the day of the first moon landing. The date is important to collectors no matter what the stamp.

A man from West Germany mailed Snow a packet of 50 envelopes to cancel. His cacheted envelopes show a design for the 20th anniversary of the Apollo mission and had an H-cent stamp commemorating the December 1968 mission of Apollo 8, the first flight to the moon. Snow received a delivery of 20 of the priority mail moon stamps Thursday, but they don't go on sale until today in all post offices. Equipment litters the moon's no atmosphere to cause decay or corrosion. "They may have a little lunar dust on them, but they would not have changed," said Terry White, a former NASA official who compiled a 28- tion if NASA had kept Skylab in orbit.

Skylab, America's first and only space station, was a 118-foot orbiting laboratory with crew quarters for three, including individual sleeping compartments, toilet facilities, a shower stall, exercise equipment and a work area for experiments. Launched in 1973, the space station was abandoned the following year after three missions. Five years later Skylab hurtled back to Earth, catching fire in the atmosphere and scattering debris over the Indian Ocean and southwestern Australia. A valuable lesson from the Skylab project is that the space station was built with existing technology and materials, he said, adding, "We had it designed before the money was even available." work after two decades of disuse, exposure to dust and the moon's nearly 500-degree temperature extremes is another matter. "I know if I were going back, I wouldn't want to plan on using anything," said Larry Haskin, a former NASA scientist now a chemist at Washington University in St.

Louis. "It would be a pleasant surprise if it worked." Some of the stuff should work, at least theoretically. Upon landing, moon visitors could strap on abandoned lunar backpacks and use the emergency supply of oxygen in the tanks. They could zip around on lunar rovers, though they'd need fresh batteries because the originals probably conked out long ago. Moon is a trash can for astronauts' unneeded gear MOOUMONITOR HI NASA ptioto surface in this 1972 photo.

page list of items left behind during the six lunar-landing missions. Scavengers on the moon could find everything needed for a nostalgic field trip. Whether the equipment would By CINDY SCHRKt Itl.K Orlando Sentinel Neil Armstrong left more than footprints when he took his giant leap for mankind. He also left his boots He wasn't alone All 12 of the U.S. astronauts who walked on the moon during the Apollo program left their boots and six top-quality still cameras, and three moon rovers, and sections of six spaceships, plus assorted tools, sample bags and hundreds of other items.

Just about everything NASA sent to the moon, except for the astronauts, was deemed too heavy to tote home. So anything that could be junked to lighten the load, even bags of human waste, were left behind. And there they will stay for thousands of years, because the moon has.