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Glynn Lunney

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File:S74-19111.jpg
Glynn Lunney as manager of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (1974)

Glynn S. Lunney (born November 27, 1936) is a retired NASA engineer. An employee of NASA since its foundation in 1958, Lunney was a flight director during the Gemini and Apollo programs, and was on duty during historic events such as the Apollo 11 lunar ascent and the pivotal hours of the Apollo 13 crisis. After the end of the Apollo program, he became manager of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first collaboration in spaceflight between the United States and the Soviet Union. Later, he served as manager of the Space Shuttle program before leaving NASA in 1985 and becoming a Vice President of the United Space Alliance. Lunney was described by Chris Kraft, NASA's first flight director, as "one of the most outstanding men in the business".


Early life

Glynn Lunney grew up in the coal town of Old Forge, Pennsylvania. He was the eldest son of William Lunney, a welder and former miner who encouraged his son to get an education and to find a job beyond the mines. A childhood interest in model airplanes prompted Lunney to study engineering in college. After attending the University of Scranton from 1953 through 1955, he transferred to the University of Detroit, where he enrolled in the Cooperative Training Program run by the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The center was a part of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), a United States federal agency founded to promote aeronautical research. Cooperative students at NACA took part in a program that combined work and study, providing a way for them to fund their college degrees while gaining experience in aeronautics. Lunney graduated from college in June, 1958 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering.

NASA career

Lunney's first job was as a researcher in aerospace dynamics at Lewis Research Center, where he met his wife. Only a month after Lunney graduated, President Eisenhower signed into existence the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), into which NACA was subsumed. His timing was perfect, for as Lunney later said, "there was no such thing as space flight until the month I got out of college." He was soon transferred to Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, where, at twenty-one, he became the youngest of the forty-five members of the Space Task Group, the body given responsibility for the creation of NASA's manned space program.

Mercury

A member of the Flight Operations Division, Lunney was one of the engineers responsible for planning and creating proceedures for manned space flight. Among other things, he took part in the creation of the first sets of mission rules, the guidelines by which all flight controllers and astronauts operated. During Project Mercury, he worked as a Flight Dynamics Officer, both at remote sites such as Bermuda and in Mission Control. It was during these years that Lunney became the protege of flight director Chris Kraft, a relationship that would last some twenty years.

Gemini

At the beginning of Project Gemini, Lunney became a flight director, choosing black as his team color. He was only twenty-eight years old. He worked backup on Gemini 3, taking charge of the newly established Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas, at a time when flights were still controlled from Cape Canaveral in Florida; on Gemini 4, he again was working backup, this time in Florida, supporting the first mission that was controlled entirely from Houston. After spending some time on unmanned testing for the Apollo program, he returned to work as a flight director on Gemini 9, 10, 11 and 12.

Apollo

As with Project Mercury, Lunney was involved in Project Apollo right from the beginning. He took charge of the "boilerplate" tests of the Apollo abort escape system at White Sands (which took place during the Gemini program), and was flight director during the first unmanned Saturn V test flight, SA-501.

He attracted significant media attention in 1968, when he worked as lead flight director on Apollo 7, the first of the manned Apollo flights. Coming as it did after the Apollo 1 fire, the mission was an important test for the Apollo program, and was stressful for astronauts and controllers alike. It was Lunney who had primary responsibility for dealing with the cantakerous mission commander, Wally Schirra, who repeatedly refused to take orders from the ground. Although pressed by reporters in news conferences, Lunney stayed diplomatic and said nothing critical of Schirra. Privately, however, he was extremely exasperated, and later assured his team of young controllers that "manned spaceflight is usually better than this".

During the Apollo 13 crisis, Lunney played a key role. Coming on shift an hour after the oxygen tank explosion that put the crew's lives in jeopardy, Lunney and his Black team faced the unpredecented challenge of having to power up the lunar module on an extremely tight timeline, while transferring guidance and navigation data to it from the dying command module. His excellent memory and quick thinking as flight director was critical in the success of his team during the ensuing hours. Ken Mattingly, the astronaut who had been bumped from the Apollo 13 crew due to his exposure to measles, later called Lunney's performance "the most magnificent display of personal leadership that I’ve ever seen".

Apollo-Soyuz Test Program

In 1971, Lunney became manager of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, a project which aimed to bring the United States and the USSR together in a joint space mission. He studied Russian for the role, which involved diplomacy and engineering work in equal parts, as well as numerous trips to the Soviet Union.

From 1973 through 1975, Lunney was manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Project, and from 1975 through 1981 was manager of the Shuttle Payload Integration and Development Program. During these years he also spent time working at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC, as Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Flight and later as Acting Associate Administrator for Space Transportation Operations.

Space Shuttle

Many of his colleagues had expected Lunney to succeed his mentor, Chris Kraft, as director of Johnson Space Center. However, when Kraft retired in 1982, Lunney's fellow Apollo flight director Gerry Griffin was instead offered the position. Lunney remained manager of the space shuttle program, a position that he had held for a year already.

Although he left NASA in 1985, Lunney was called to testify before the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology in the aftermath of the Challenger accident. While still manager of the shuttle program, he had signed the "Criticality 1" waiver that allowed Challenger to launch even though its SRB joints were considered non-redundant. Although Lunney was criticized for having failed to convene the Program Requirements Control Board that supposed to approve such a waiver, his actions were not unusual in the context of NASA norms, since there was no debate on the issue.

Career at Rockwell

Upon leaving NASA, Lunney took a position at Rockwell International. From 1990 through 1995 he was President of Rockwell Space Operations; he then worked as Vice President and Program Manager in Houston for the United Space Alliance.

Awards and honors

Lunney has received many awards from NASA, including three Group Achievement Awards, two Exceptional Service Medals and three Distinguished Service Medals. He received an honorary Doctorate from the University of Scranton in 1971, and in 2005 he was awarded the National Space Trophy by the Rotary Society of America. He is a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society and of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

In films

In the movie Apollo 13, Glynn Lunney was portrayed by Mark McClure. He has been interviewed in numerous documentaries about the space program, including Apollo 13: To the Edge and Back (PBS) and Failure is Not an Option (History Channel).

Footnotes

  1. "Apollo Ground Chief," New York Times, October 23, 1968.
  2. G.S. Lunney, Oral History (PDF), February 8, 1999, Johnson Space Center Oral History Project, p. 49.
  3. G.S. Lunney, Oral History (PDF), January 28, 1999, Johnson Space Center Oral History Project, p. 54.
  4. "Apollo Ground Chief," New York Times, October 23, 1968.
  5. J. Atwater, "The Men Who Control Our Missions to the Moon," Saturday Evening Post, December 28, 1968, p. 72.
  6. J. Greene, Oral History (PDF), November 10, 2004, JSC OHP p. 11.
  7. C. Murray and C. Bly Cox, Apollo: the Race to the Moon, pp. 286, 413.
  8. T.K. Mattingly, Oral History (PDF), June 11, 2001, JSC OHP, p. 43.
  9. See, for example, N. Hutchinson, Oral History (PDF), January 21, 2004, JSC OHP, p. 4.
  10. D. Vaughan, Challenger Launch Decision, p. 152.

References

  • Atwater, James (December 28, 1968/January 11, 1969). "The Men Who Control Our Missions to the Moon". Saturday Evening Post. pp. 34–36, 68, 70, 72. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  • "Apollo Ground Chief: Glynn Stephen Lunney". New York Times. October 23, 1968. p. 24. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  • "Glynn S. Lunney" (PDF). NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project Biographical Data Sheet.
  • Murray, Charles (1989). Apollo: The Race to the Moon. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-61101-1. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Vaughan, Diane. (1996) The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture and Deviance at NASA. ISBN 0-226-85176-1

Select publications

  • Lunney, G. S. and K. C. Weston. (1959). “Heat-Transfer Measurements on an Air-Launched, Blunted Cone-Cylinder Rocket Vehicle to Mach 9.7.” NASA-TM X-84. Cleveland, Ohio: NASA Lewis Research Center.
  • Lunney, G. S., L. C. Dunseith, and J. F. Dalby. (1960). “Project Mercury: Methods and Pertinent Data for Project Mercury Flight Computing Requirements.” NASA-TM-X-69335. Hampton, Virginia: NASA Langley Research Center.
  • Lunney, G. S. (1964). “Launch-Phase Monitoring.” In Manned Spacecraft: Engineering Design and Operation. Ed. Paul E. Purser, Maxime A. Faget, and Norman F. Smith. New York: Fairchild Publications, Inc.
  • Lunney, G.S. (1967). "Summary of Gemini Rendezvous Experience" (PDF). AIAA Paper 67-272. Cocoa Beach, Florida: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Flight Test, Simulation and Support Conference, 6-8 February 1967.
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