GBH Openvault
NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with John Cornelius Houbolt, aerospace engineer behind the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR), part 2 of 4
Part of To the Moon Interviews.
1998
John Cornelius Houbolt, aerospace engineer behind the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR) is interviewed about the LOR. Houbolt explains the effect of rocket thrusters on the weight of a spacecraft, and Houbolt uses a chart to explain the differences in weight between LOR and direct descent. He also details his campaign to get the LOR accepted by NASA, and Werner von Braun's championing of the LOR, and how LOR saved the US government at least 25 Billion dollars. Houbolt explains Gemini as a "stepping-stone to the moon" by proving rendezvous was feasible and showed that men could do long spaceflight. According to him, LOR was essential to getting men on the moon, and ends with a description of how long it took him to fight for LOR and a conversation on not getting a $100K prize from NASA, but also relates the reaction in the Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR) to Apollo 11's landing on the moon, and von Braun's thanks.
- Series
- NOVA
- Program
- To the Moon
- Program Number
2610
- Title
Interview with John Cornelius Houbolt, aerospace engineer behind the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR), part 2 of 4
- 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
0:20:06
- Asset Type
Raw video
- Media Type
Video
- Subjects
- Moon
- American history
- Astronaut
- Space
- Apollo
- Gemini
- Creators
- WGBH Educational Foundation (Producing Organization)
- Contributors
- Houbolt, John Cornelius, 1919-2014 (Interviewee)
- Rights Summary
Rights Holder: WGBH Educational Foundation
- Citation
- Chicago: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with John Cornelius Houbolt, aerospace engineer behind the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR), part 2 of 4,” 1998, GBH Archives, accessed April 25, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_E4FA6DD498F846279AD0846BA163F6BB.
- MLA: “NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with John Cornelius Houbolt, aerospace engineer behind the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR), part 2 of 4.” 1998. GBH Archives. Web. April 25, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_E4FA6DD498F846279AD0846BA163F6BB>.
- APA: NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with John Cornelius Houbolt, aerospace engineer behind the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR), part 2 of 4. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_E4FA6DD498F846279AD0846BA163F6BB