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Glynn Lunney

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                              Glynn Lunney
   Glynn Lunney in 1974, as manager of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.
         Born November 27, 1936
              Old Forge, Pennsylvania
   Occupation NASA manager and flight director
     Spouse   Marilyn Kurtz Lunney

   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. At 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 a pivotal figure in America's manned space program from
   Project Mercury through the coming of the Space Shuttle. He has
   received numerous awards for his work, including the National Space
   Trophy, which he was given by the Rotary Club in 2005. Chris Kraft,
   NASA's first flight director, described Lunney as "a true hero of the
   space age," saying that he was "one of the outstanding contributors to
   the exploration of space of the last four decades."

Early life and NACA career

   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 Centre in Cleveland, Ohio. The centre 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.

   After graduation, Lunney remained with NACA. His first job was as a
   researcher in aerospace dynamics at Lewis Research Centre, where he
   worked with a team studying the thermodynamics of vehicles during
   high-speed reentry. Using a B-57 bomber, the team sent small rockets
   high into the atmosphere in order to measure their heating profile.

NASA career

Mercury

   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." Lunney was soon transferred to Langley Research
   Centre in Hampton, Virginia, where in September 1959 he became a member
   of the Space Task Group, which was the body given responsibility for
   the creation of NASA's manned space program. Aged twenty-one, he was
   the youngest of the forty-five members of the group. His first
   assignment was with the Control Centre Simulation Group, which planned
   the simulations used to train both flight controllers and astronauts
   for the as-yet unknown experience of manned spaceflight.

   A member of the Flight Operations Division, Lunney was one of the
   engineers responsible for planning and creating procedures for Project
   Mercury, America's first manned space program. He took part in the
   writing of the first set of mission rules, the guidelines by which both
   flight controllers and astronauts operated. During Mercury, Lunney
   became the second man to serve as the Flight Dynamics Officer (FIDO) in
   Mission Control, controlling the trajectory of the spacecraft and
   planning adjustments to it. His colleague Gene Kranz described him as
   "the pioneer leader of trajectory operations, who turned his craft from
   an art practiced by a few into a pure science." It was during these
   years that Lunney became the protege of flight director Chris Kraft, a
   relationship that would last some twenty years.

   Lunney worked both in Mission Control and at remote sites; during the
   flight of John Glenn, America's first orbital spaceflight, he was
   serving as the FIDO in Bermuda. In 1961, NASA's manned spaceflight
   program was transferred to the newly built Manned Spacecraft Centre in
   Houston, Texas, and Lunney moved with it. In Houston, he became head of
   the Mission Logic and Computer Hardware section, where he defined and
   oversaw the computing and display requirements of the flight dynamics
   division within Mission Control.

Gemini

   Lunney (top left) with John Hodge and James Beach during Gemini 3.
   Enlarge
   Lunney (top left) with John Hodge and James Beach during Gemini 3.

   Gemini was a step forward for NASA's manned space program: the Gemini
   capsule was larger and more advanced than Mercury, capable of
   supporting two men for up to a two-week mission. Because of the longer
   mission durations, Mission Control began to be manned in shifts. In
   1964, Glynn Lunney and Gene Kranz were selected by Chris Kraft to join
   Kraft and his deputy John Hodge as flight directors. Aged only
   twenty-eight, Lunney was the youngest of the four.

   Lunney worked backup on Gemini 3, taking charge of the newly
   established Mission Control Centre in Houston, 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. However, he was not scheduled to serve as
   a flight director on the first manned Apollo mission, later known as
   Apollo 1. During the routine countdown demonstration test that resulted
   in the Apollo 1 fire, Lunney was at home having dinner with astronaut
   Bill Anders and his wife, and was called into Mission Control when the
   fire occurred. It was, as he recalled, "a tremendous punch in the
   stomach to all of us".The aftermath of the fire, in which three
   astronauts were killed, left Lunney and his colleagues at NASA feeling
   that they had perhaps failed to recognize the risks they were running
   in their efforts to meet Kennedy's timetable of landing a man on the
   moon by the end of the decade. "Maybe," said Lunney over thirty years
   later, "we had gotten a little overconfident."
   Lunney on console during the Apollo 16 mission.
   Enlarge
   Lunney on console during the Apollo 16 mission.

   Lunney 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".

   As a flight director, Lunney was known for his good memory and his
   unusually quick thought processes—traits that could sometimes prove
   problematic for his team of flight controllers. "Glynn would drive you
   crazy," said Jay Greene, a fellow controller, "because his mind would
   race so fast that he could churn out action items quicker than you
   could absorb, much less answer."

   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 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 were 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". On the
   day following the Apollo 13 splashdown, Lunney joined his fellow flight
   directors in accepting the Presidential Medal of Freedom on behalf of
   the Apollo 13 mission operations team. The award was made by President
   Nixon during a ceremony at the Manned Spacecraft Centre.

Apollo-Soyuz Test Program

   In 1970, while still a flight director, Lunney was selected as one of
   the representatives in a NASA delegation to the Soviet Union, which was
   to discuss the possibility of cooperation between the two countries in
   the field of manned spaceflight. "For me it was out of the clear blue
   sky," said Lunney, who was told of the plans while at a conference in
   early October. "I did not know anything about [the proposed talks]
   until that time." The trip took place in late October. While in Moscow,
   Lunney gave a presentation to Soviet engineers on the techniques that
   NASA used for orbital rendezvous, and on the compromises that would
   have to be made in order to achieve a rendezvous between American and
   Soviet spacecraft. The technical agreement that he helped to draft laid
   the groundwork for the mission which was to become the Apollo-Soyuz
   Test Project (ASTP). It was intended to be a joint mission, whose
   highlight was to be a docking between an American Apollo spacecraft and
   a Soviet Soyuz.
   Lunney (left) shows President Nixon a model of the Apollo and Soyuz
   spacecraft docked during a tour of the Johnson Space Center, March 20,
   1974.
   Enlarge
   Lunney (left) shows President Nixon a model of the Apollo and Soyuz
   spacecraft docked during a tour of the Johnson Space Centre, March 20,
   1974.

   Lunney was named technical director of the ASTP in the following year.
   As technical director, he made several more trips to the Soviet Union,
   helping to negotiate the seventeen-point agreement that would govern
   the conduct of the mission. He also took part in working groups in
   Houston that dealt with the technical details of the project. A New
   York Times profile reported that he was taking Russian lessons in order
   to be better prepared for the role.

   On June 13, 1972, Lunney was given overall responsibility for the test
   project; henceforth he would be in charge not only of building a
   partnership with the Soviets, but also of mission planning and of
   negotiating with North American Rockwell, the spacecraft contractor.
   According to the official history of the ASTP, Lunney's performance
   during Apollo 13 and during the Soviet negotiations had recommended him
   to Chris Kraft, who was by then director of Johnson Space Centre. In
   1973, Lunney became manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office, a
   position which gave him responsibility for the Apollo spacecraft used
   during Skylab missions, as well giving him more authority in his role
   as head of the ASTP.

   The ASTP mission took place in July 1975. It was criticized by some
   journalists as a "costly space circus," who felt that it wasted NASA
   funds that could have been better spent on projects such as Skylab.
   However, Lunney supported the project, saying in a later interview that
   he did not believe the cooperation necessary to build the International
   Space Station would have been possible if ASTP had not laid the
   groundwork for it.

Space Shuttle

   After the ASTP mission was completed, Lunney became manager of the
   Shuttle Payload Integration and Development Program. During this
   period, it was anticipated that NASA's space shuttle fleet would be
   flying very frequent missions, and carrying commercial payloads as well
   as flying missions for government organizations such as the Department
   of Defense and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The payload integration
   program was responsible for determining how the various demands of
   these customers could be satisfied, and how mixed payloads could best
   be physically accommodated within the cargo bay of the shuttle. During
   these years Lunney also spent time working at NASA Headquarters in
   Washington, D.C., as Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Flight
   and later as Acting Associate Administrator for Space Transportation
   Operations.
   Glynn Lunney (far right) as manager of the Shuttle program, at a press
   conference with Chris Kraft and Gene Kranz in 1981
   Enlarge
   Glynn Lunney (far right) as manager of the Shuttle program, at a press
   conference with Chris Kraft and Gene Kranz in 1981

   In 1981, Lunney became manager of the space shuttle program, a
   high-level position where Lunney found himself responsible for setting
   the agenda for the developing program. His responsibilities were broad
   ones; they included supervising program planning, budgeting and
   scheduling; systems engineering; and mission planning. During the
   earlier shuttle flights he was even involved in determining whether the
   weather was suitable for launch, but in later years that responsibility
   was largely devolved to lower levels of the hierarchy.

   Many of his colleagues had expected Lunney to succeed his mentor, Chris
   Kraft, as director of Johnson Space Centre; Neil Hutchinson, a fellow
   flight director, later commented that Lunney "was sort of the anointed
   one." However, when Kraft retired in 1982, former Apollo flight
   director Gerald Griffin was offered the position instead.

   In 1985, Lunney decided to leave NASA, feeling that the shuttle program
   had worn him out physically and mentally and that he was ready for a
   new type of challenge. Although he was no longer within the
   organization, he 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
   the joints of its solid rocket boosters had recently been redefined as
   non-redundant systems. Lunney was criticized for having failed to
   convene the Program Requirements Control Board that was supposed to
   approve such a waiver; however, sociologist Diane Vaughan has argued
   that his actions were not unusual in the context of NASA practice at
   the time, which allowed a "walk through" of such potentially
   controversial waivers if no debate was expected.

Career at Rockwell

   Upon leaving NASA in 1985, Lunney took a position at Rockwell
   International, the contractor responsible for the construction,
   operation and maintenance of the space shuttle. At first he worked in
   California, managing a Rockwell division that was building satellites
   for the Global Positioning System; this was his first experience with
   unmanned spacecraft. In 1990, he returned to Houston as President of
   the Rockwell Space Operations Company, which provided support for
   flight operations at Johnson Space Centre and employed about 3000
   people. For Lunney, this represented a return to his roots in mission
   operations, which he had left twenty years before.

   In 1995, Rockwell joined forces with its competitor Lockheed Martin to
   form the United Space Alliance, a jointly owned organization created to
   provide operations support for NASA, as well as to take over some of
   the functions previously performed by NASA employees. At this point,
   Lunney became Vice President and Program Manager of the United Space
   Alliance's spaceflight operations in Houston; he stayed in this
   position until his retirement in 1999.

Personal life

   While at Lewis Research Centre, Lunney met Marilyn Kurtz, who worked
   there as a nurse. They have been married since 1960 and have four
   children: Jennifer, Glynn, Jr., Shawn, and Bryan. Their youngest son
   Bryan has also pursued a career at NASA, becoming a flight director in
   2001 and working missions including Expedition 4, Expedition 11 and
   STS-115.

   During his leisure hours, Lunney enjoys sailing; during the sixties the
   family owned a twenty-foot sailboat which they took out on Galveston
   Bay, and he occasionally dreamed of going with his wife and children on
   an ocean cruise lasting for months. In his retirement he has taken up
   golf, saying that "I have come to realize that golf will never be
   mastered, but will continue to be humbling."

Awards and honours

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

   In 2005, he recieved the National Space Trophy from the Rotary National
   Award for Space Achievement Foundation. The award is given to
   individuals who have made an outstanding and career-spanning
   contribution to America's space program. Previous winners have included
   Chris Kraft and Neil Armstrong. "Lunney's innovation and dedication to
   the U.S. space flight program," said the RNASA Advisor General, "has
   set a standard for current and future generations of space explorers.
   As a manager, he inspired his employees to do their best work and
   offered direction and encouragement to his team when challenges arose;
   as an explorer, he always looked toward the future and saw the endless
   possibilities and benefits of man's journey into space."

In films

   In the movie Apollo 13, Glynn Lunney was portrayed by Mark McClure.
   However, McClure had a relatively minor role. The author Charles Murray
   lamented the fact that Lunney was "barely visible in the movie," being
   overshadowed by the focus on Lunney's fellow flight director Gene
   Kranz. "Without slighting Kranz’s role," Murray commented, "the world
   should remember that it was Glynn Lunney... who orchestrated a
   masterpiece of improvisation that moved the astronauts safely to the
   lunar module while sidestepping a dozen potential catastrophes that
   could have doomed them."

   Lunney has been interviewed in numerous documentaries about the space
   program, including Apollo 13: To the Edge and Back ( PBS), To the Moon
   (PBS) and Failure is Not an Option ( History Channel).

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 Centre.

     * 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 Centre.

     * 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.

     * Lunney, G.S. (1970). Discussion of Several Problem Areas During the
       Apollo 13 Operation (PDF). AIAA Paper 701260. Houston: American
       Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 7th Annual Meeting and
       Technical Display, 19-22 October 1970.

               Persondata
   NAME              Lunney, Glynn S.
   ALTERNATIVE NAMES
   SHORT DESCRIPTION NASA engineer
   DATE OF BIRTH     November 27, 1936
   PLACE OF BIRTH    Old Forge
   DATE OF DEATH
   PLACE OF DEATH
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