Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

RIP, NASA Moon Landing Engineer John C. Houbolt

Posted by timothy on from the why-when-he-was-a-boy dept.

The Houston Chronicle reports the death of John C. Houbolt, whose ideas helped guide the U.S. moon-landing programs. Houbolt died on Tuesday at the age of 95, in a nursing home in Maine. Says the Chronicle's obituary: "His efforts in the early 1960s are largely credited with convincing NASA to focus on the launch of a module carrying a crew from lunar orbit, rather than a rocket from earth or a space craft while orbiting the planet. Houbolt argued that a lunar orbit rendezvous, or lor, would not only be less mechanically and financially onerous than building a huge rocket to take man to the moon or launching a craft while orbiting the earth, but lor was the only option to meet President John F. Kennedy's challenge before the end of the decade."

9 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. Makes me feel so old... by shanen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was a teenager when they reached the moon, but it makes me feel so old to think back to those days. I'm beginning to feel like we're getting dumber all the time, and I'm pressed to imagine how they conceived of such an approach.

    Now all of this high-tech stuff has led to Facebook? Give me a break. Please. If we don't give Facebook to the Chinese, they'll be building the first lunar colony, the way things are going nowadays...

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    1. Re:Makes me feel so old... by TubeSteak · · Score: 2

      If we don't give Facebook to the Chinese, they'll be building the first lunar colony, the way things are going nowadays...

      Everyone knows that Chinese fake lunar colonies are poor imitations of American fake lunar colonies.
      They use substandard fake moon rocks. Ours are the good stuff. You know, made in Taiwain.

      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
    2. Re:Makes me feel so old... by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 4, Insightful

      WW2 era rockets? Hey Anonymous Coward, are you just trolling?

      Whatever the political motivations, Apollo was freaking amazing. Launch the biggest rocket ever built. In space, couple up to the Lunar Module. Fly to the moon. Orbit moon. Decouple Lunar Module and fly it down to the surface with some spectacular piloting. Drive a car around down there. Blast descent stage from moon. Reconnect with Command Module and fly back to earth.

      All with slide rules.

      And no, I'm not American.

  2. The guy who made the moon trip really interesting by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

    I mean, what fun is there in flying a spacecraft without dramatic approach and docking maneuvers? ;-)

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  3. RIP you steely-eyed missle man by Slagothor · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yuri Kondratyuk to Tom Dolan to John Houbolt. These guys were pioneers. We stand on the shoulders of giants. RIP Mr. Houbolt. You sir are one steely-eyed missle man.

    1. Re:RIP you steely-eyed missle man by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      The problem is that we're not standing on those shoulders. We've hooked up our hammocks up there so we can twitter comfortably.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  4. Re:When things were done because they are hard... by sumdumass · · Score: 2

    Your boyhood joy was an illusion. We never went to the moon for the sake of knowledge, it was to prove our industrial might to the world- to prove that capitalism was better then the soviet communism. Knowledge was a product of that and we capitalized on it quite well too. This is the reason China, India and other countries are shooting for the stars too.

    The space race was not about gaining knowledge which is why it stopped for a period of time.

  5. R.I.P. Dr. Hobolt. by Major+Blud · · Score: 2

    A nice dramatization of this is in the 1998 HBO special "From The Earth to The Moon 5: Spider". You can get it on Netflix.

    --
    If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
  6. So sad by clickclickdrone · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That when someone dies who was key to one of the greatest achievements of man to date, all we can muster is a bunch of snide comments and jokes. Oh, the Facebook generation...

    --
    I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil