Appendix 1 Key Correspondence A number of letters were key to starting the restoration process. Sandra J. Tetley, the JSC Historic Preservation Officer, wrote to Mark Wolfe, who was Executive Director State Historic Preservation Office, Texas Historical Commission (Figure A.1.1). Eugene F. Kranz wrote to M. Wayne Donaldson, Chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (Figure A.1.2). The following article in the Houston Chronicle was instrumental in getting the Johnson Space Center management to agree to a meeting to discuss restoration of the control center. Save Mission Control The former nerve center for NASA put Houston on the map and should be restored Copyright 2016: Houston Chronicle, December 20, 2016 One Sunday night in July a generation ago, the whole world was watching Houston. On July 20, 1969, just before 10 p.m. local time, an awestruck television audi- ence around the globe saw ghostly black-and-white images beamed back to a build- ing at what was then called the Manned Spacecraft Center. Live from the lunar surface came the pictures and sounds of the first men setting foot on the moon. And families gathered around their television sets occasionally caught a wide-shot glimpse of Mission Control, the big room in Houston where hard-working people from the planet Earth made an impossible dream an improbable reality. Today, just about anybody of a certain age can tell you where he was or what she was doing that night. Mission Control is arguably the most historically significant place in Houston, a designated National Historic Landmark. Yet this irreplaceable piece of our heritage has fallen into a sad state of disrepair. © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 181 M. von Ehrenfried, Apollo Mission Control, Springer Praxis Books, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76684-3 182 Appendix 1 Key Correspondence As the Chronicle’s Andrew Dansby reported (“Money, access complicate effort to restore Mission Control,” Page A1, Dec. 4), the room that served as the nerve center for America’s space triumphs during the Gemini, Apollo and early shuttle eras now sits badly neglected. Visitors have cut up the upholstery for souvenirs, ash tray covers in the viewing room have been pried loose and the carpeting is a mess. It’s a dispiriting sight for former flight controllers, who decry the deterioration of this monument to our nation’s space legacy. Hordes of tourists taking daily Space Center Houston tours routinely visit the viewing area overlooking the room itself, ravaging the place where astronauts’ fami- lies and other dignitaries watched through a window. Preservationists also complain way too many VIPs are allowed to walk amid the consoles inside Mission Control. The National Park Service reports that about 40,000 people a year are allowed to wander around this area. That number, the park service says, needs to drop to 2,000. NASA and park service authorities have talked about restoring the room for decades, and space center officials have diligently preserved Apollo-era artifacts. A proposal released last year would cost an estimated $3 million and take about 18 months, but nobody’s set a date for work to begin. A consultation meeting required by the National Historic Preservation Act has yet to happen. And yes, somebody has to raise the money. Government employees aren’t legally allowed to tackle this task, so private citizens need to step up to the plate. Space Center Houston, the nonprofit visitor center entity, recently hired a CEO with a fun- draising background, but he’ll need all the help he can get. Surely the city that landed a man on the moon can raise the money and get this restoration project off the ground. When the Saturn V rocket sitting on the periphery of Johnson Space Center fell into disrepair, a “Save the Saturn” drive raised $2.5 million by passing the hat around various government and private sources, preserving the moon rocket for future generations. Now Houston needs to save Mission Control. The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing is now a little more than two years away. Less than a year later, NASA will mark the half-century anniversary of Apollo 13, the aborted moon mission depicted in the movie that made big-screen heroes out of the men working behind the scenes at the space center. So there’s a sense of urgency about launching this restoration project as quickly as possible. Our city has earned an unfortunate reputation for ignoring its past and allowing historic buildings to either fall into disrepair or fall to the wrecking ball. Mission Control, which did as much as anything to put Houston on the map in the 20th cen- tury, deserves better.” Appendix 1 Key Correspondence 183 Figure A.1.1 Letter from Sandra J. Tetley, JSC Historic Preservation Officer, to Mark Wolfe, Executive Director State Historic Preservation Office, Texas Historical Commission. 184 Appendix 1 Key Correspondence (continued) Appendix 1 Key Correspondence 185 (continued) 186 Appendix 1 Key Correspondence (continued) Appendix 1 Key Correspondence 187 (continued) 188 Appendix 1 Key Correspondence (continued) Appendix 1 Key Correspondence 189 (continued) 190 Appendix 1 Key Correspondence (continued) Appendix 1 Key Correspondence 191 (continued) 192 Appendix 1 Key Correspondence (continued) Appendix 1 Key Correspondence 193 Figure A.1.2 Letter from Eugene F. Kranz to M. Wayne Donaldson, Chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. 194 Appendix 1 Key Correspondence (continued) Appendix 1 Key Correspondence 195 Appendix 2 Mission Manning Lists These are the official manning lists from memoranda by the Director of Flight Operations to staff. There may be some individuals who are not listed because they were still in ­training or in positions that were not listed. In some cases, an individual who was “on job training” would not be listed. Bill Reeves has taken on a labor of love with the intent of having a database of anyone who ever worked operations supporting the manned space flights that were flown out of the National Historic Landmark. He has taken all available historical information and created an Excel spreadsheet that goes further than the following lists in identifying indi- viduals listed on official manning correspondence who served in the Apollo Mission Control Center in any capacity. This spreadsheet will be available on the MSOA website in the near future. Note that the following lists only go up thru Skylab. The lists for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, Approach and Landing Tests and Skylab up thru STS-53 (the last mission flown out of MOCR 2 in 1992) are being compiled and be in the MSOA Manning Lists in the near future. © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 196 M. von Ehrenfried, Apollo Mission Control, Springer Praxis Books, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76684-3 Appendix 2 Mission Manning Lists 197 Figure A.2.1 Flight Director Bill Reeves. Photo courtesy of NASA. 198 Appendix 2 Mission Manning Lists Figure A.2.2 Mercury Manning List. Appendix 2 Mission Manning Lists 199 200 Appendix 2 Mission Manning Lists Figure A.2.3 Gemini Manning List. Appendix 2 Mission Manning Lists 201 (continued) 202 Appendix 2 Mission Manning Lists (continued) Appendix 2 Mission Manning Lists 203 204 Appendix 2 Mission Manning Lists Figure A.2.4 Apollo Manning List. Appendix 2 Mission Manning Lists 205 (continued) 206 Appendix 2 Mission Manning Lists (continued) Appendix 2 Mission Manning Lists 207 (continued) 208 Appendix 2 Mission Manning Lists (continued) Appendix 2 Mission Manning Lists 209 (continued) 210 Appendix 2 Mission Manning Lists (continued) Appendix 2 Mission Manning Lists 211 212 Appendix 2 Mission Manning Lists Figure A.2.5 Skylab Manning List. Many thanks to former Flight Director Bill Reeves, President of the Manned Spaceflight Operations Association (MSOA) for compiling the names of people who served in the Mission Control Center. Appendix 3 Women Flight Controllers and Mission Support The history of women in flight operations is fairly recent. From the beginning of NACA, women primarily worked in administrative roles but there were many in the fields of science, mathematics, and computer support. From the beginning of NASA and the space program in 1958, flight operations was almost exclusively the domain of men with engineering and ­science degrees. They supported flight test pilots, who were also well educated. During Mercury and Gemini, the mission control center was always staffed with men. However, when the new Houston Mission Control Center was built there were computer rooms and Staff Support Rooms (SSR) that required both administrative and computer support. Some of the first women at MSC who supported missions in the early 1960s were Doris Folkes, Mary Shep Burton, Gloria B. Martinez, Cathy Osgood and Shirley Hunt, all of whom were in the Mission Planning and Analysis Division (MPAD). Women that sup- ported flight operations organizations included Sue Erwin, Lois Ransdell, Connie R. Turner, and Maureen Bowen. They worked as secretaries for various members of the Mission and Flight Control teams. By early Apollo, one would occasionally see several women in the SSRs but none in the MOCR unless they happened to enter with a message or some data. As missions became more complex and the software more sophisticated, you’d observe both contractors and NASA employees in the trajectory analysis areas such as the Flight Dynamics SSR, but only a few in the systems analysis areas such as the SPAN. Typically, the functions in the support areas were secretarial support, clerical support, math aides, data entry, and the traditional runners and messengers. Women with computer skills were supporting the RTCC, CCATS, and ACR.