John Houbolt (eBook)

lt;P>William F. Causey has followed the space program since 1961, when he watched in his elementary school gymnasium astronaut as Alan Shepard became the first American in space. Trained as a lawyer who started his legal career on Capitol Hill, Causey later worked at the United States Department of Justice, the American Red Cross, and the District of Columbia Office of the Attorney General. He taught for more than three decades at the Georgetown University Law Center. Causey also served on numerous historical, educational, and literary society boards, including the Board of Trustees of American University, the Board of Directors of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, and the Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit. Now retired, Causey serves as a docent at the National Air and Space Museum, where he has met and talked with dozens of astronauts, engineers, and managers of America’s space effort. Causey and his wife, Sally, reside in Washington, DC.

lt;p>“John C. Houbolt was another of the ‘hidden figures’ of NASA during the Apollo era. Bucking institutional blinders, Houbolt convinced the leaders of the space agency that lunar orbit rendezvous was the best way to conduct the Apollo program. William Causey’s biography of Houbolt tells the fascinating story of how this lone engineer battled bureaucracy to help America achieve President Kennedy’s vision, ‘before this decade is out,’ of ‘landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.’”

“The choice of how to get to the moon was critical to meeting President Kennedy’s goal of a lunar landing ‘before this decade is out.’ Bill Causey’s deeply researched and clearly written book depicts how the persistence of one man, NASA engineer John Houbolt, decisively influenced the tortuous and contentious process of making that choice. The book nicely fills a glaring gap in the history of America’s journey to the moon, and reminds us that the lunar journey was far from straightforward.”