GBH Openvault

NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Rocco Petrone, mechanical engineer and director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center from 1973-1974, part 1 of 3

Part of To the Moon Interviews.

1998

Rocco Petrone, mechanical engineer and director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center from 1973-1974, is interviewed about the early years of the Apollo program. Petrone begins with a discussion of the window of time when lunar sites could be reached, the "all-up" testing of the Saturn V, and the establishment of a procedure for the shuttle's launch. Petrone describes the sensations of the Saturn V liftoff, and explains where he was during the Apollo 1 fire. Upon hearing Kennedy's mandate to go to the moon before the end of the decade, Petrone recognized the work ahead of them, and explained the choice of Cape Canaveral as the launch site due to its proximity to the ocean, and mentions other potential sites in Texas and Hawaii. The other considerations for launch sites are explained, and Petrone discusses his role in preparing for the Lunar and Earth Orbit Rendezvous, as well as the difficulties of an Earth Orbit Rendezvous, and how those difficulties shaped the building of the Cape Canaveral site. Petrone ends by discussing the pressures of the job on the family.

Series

NOVA

Program

To the Moon

Program Number

2610

Title

Interview with Rocco Petrone, mechanical engineer and director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center from 1973-1974, part 1 of 3

Series Description

NOVA is a general-interest documentary series that addresses a single science issue each week. Billed as "science adventures for curious grown-ups" when it first aired in March, 1974, NOVA continues to offer an informative and entertaining approach to a challenging subject. It is also one of television's most acclaimed series, having won every major television award, most of them many times over.

Program Description

Alan Binder, former Principal Investigator of NASA's Lunar Prospector mission, is interviewed about the Lunar Prospector. Binder says that if moon travel became viable again, he would want to go to the moon, but says that in order to get financial and public support for space exploration, scientists need to sell the science of the moon. Another option, according to Binder, is to make travel to the moon commercially viable, and lists many benefits of going to the moon, including using it as a fuel source, or colonizing the surface for human habitation (audio cuts out from 00:07:30 - 00:09:00). Binder explains the work of the Lunar Prospector and talks about the necessity of having computers to do a lot of the work. On Apollo, Binder calls the program the most significant event of the 21st century, and talks about the roles of the Apollo program, the Clementine spacecraft, and hte Lunar Prospector. The interview ends with Binder's views on his relationship with NASA, which he characterizes as being needlessly bound up in beaurocracy and red tape.

Duration

0:23:26

Asset Type

Raw video

Media Type

Video

Subjects

Space

American history

Gemini

Astronaut

Moon

Apollo

Creators

WGBH Educational Foundation (Producing Organization)

Contributors

Petrone, Rocco Anthony, 1926-2006 (Interviewee)

Rights Summary

Rights Holder: WGBH Educational Foundation

Citation

Chicago: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Rocco Petrone, mechanical engineer and director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center from 1973-1974, part 1 of 3,” 1998, GBH Archives, accessed April 25, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_5C83711BA69646B5928F9B290BED9504.

MLA: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Rocco Petrone, mechanical engineer and director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center from 1973-1974, part 1 of 3.” 1998. GBH Archives. Web. April 25, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_5C83711BA69646B5928F9B290BED9504>.

APA: NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Rocco Petrone, mechanical engineer and director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center from 1973-1974, part 1 of 3. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_5C83711BA69646B5928F9B290BED9504