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I'm bill hubscher and I'm Lori Meggs and

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welcome to focus on Marshall we're here

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right outside the gates of redstone

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arsenal on a very exciting day for a

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very special ceremony yeah kind of a

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birthday party of sorts that's right the

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george c marshall space flight center

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turns 50 and we are here to mark the

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occasion with the unveiling of an

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historic marker to celebrate this

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important milestone that's right we're

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also going to get to talk to some of the

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great folks who have contributed to

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America's space program we've had a

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chance to catch up with some of our

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colleagues here and to sit down with a

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few as well so let's get right to it i'm

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here with marshall center director

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Robert Lightfoot and Robert today is all

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about the work of generations tell us

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what that means to the team here well

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we're celebrating our 50th anniversary

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we got a historical marker we're going

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to dedicate today to represent his

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contribution to the state of Alabama and

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the nation so it's kind of cool and as

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you know our 50th anniversary has been

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all about the workers generations

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everything we get to do builds off the

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first folks that we're here to start us

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on this path along 50 years ago today

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personally what's it like for you to be

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the center director of the marshall

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center uh well it's it's it's exciting

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it's a great opportunity to get to lead

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a cool a bunch of folks that really love

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what they do and really have a great

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passion for exploration and just been

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been on top of that group is pretty

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humbling frankly because they're so

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dadgum smart and so good at what they do

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but just trying to trying to lead at

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this time is a it's an interesting time

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with everything going on and all the

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changes but we're it's fun we're having

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a good time with it I'm glad you said

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all those nice things about me thank you

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Robert for your time today well the

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dignitary certainly have come out

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Charles scales is joined to seize the

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associate deputy administrator for the

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agency and mr. scales thanks for coming

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down from Washington DC for this one

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happy to do it always good to come back

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to the Tennessee Valley so you spent

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half of Marshalls 50 years here at

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Marshall tell us a little about how you

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got started down here well I started

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here as a cooperative education student

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in January 1973 this beautiful Center

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was only 12 years old at that point so I

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started as the coop for me I am in the

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office of telecommunications

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okay what other departments did you end

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up spending some time i shall i die i

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started in telecommunications then I

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worked in program control in the

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facilities office and resources

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management and the information systems

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office plans and analysis in the center

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operations directorate and that was the

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Equal Opportunity officer here for about

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four and a half years love time in

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building 4200 correct and a lot of time

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in feeling 4200 I enjoyed every day of

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it considering that you got your start

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with the agency here at Marshall what

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does this marking this anniversary me to

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you oh it's a great opportunity when I

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started to work here we were getting

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prepared for the apollo-soyuz mission

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which is our first link up with what was

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then was the Soviet Union which was a

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major milestone in international

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relations and we were also making

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preparations for the Skylab mission and

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you know we're also making great plans

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for the start of the shuttle program so

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it was an exciting time to be here it's

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exciting that we were able to have you

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here and we appreciate you coming to

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emphasize how can you do it Alex thank

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you for inviting us into your home today

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we have a lot of ground to cover since

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you started working at Redstone Arsenal

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in 1954 let's start there tell us what

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it was like well you have to look at the

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Community House for very small you

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probably have 50,000 people the Germans

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had just come in 1950 from Fort Bliss

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Texas it was red stone are so they just

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started and the Germans has already

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started looking at a redstone missile

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for the army we all work farming those

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days we worked on Explorer satellite in

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fact i was in proposing those days and i

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sighs the tanks and there was a lot of

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activity going on for the explorer

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Secretary of Defense decided the Navy

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would be putting up first satellite

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Sputnik had come along we could put ours

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up first and that's in the history books

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you can find that but we were told put

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ours in the warehouse in the meantime

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Vaughn Vaughn says we can do it so they

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so next thing we started looking at

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besides for the redstone modified to put

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a suborbital flight which was Alan

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Shepards flight he flew I think was May

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5th 1961 suborbital he is one up and

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down leaves our first person in space so

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we felt like we were getting there but

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we hadn't gone in orbit yet now later on

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was John Glenn's flight how did you

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transition to the Saturn program you'd

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worked on the redstone rocket how

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difficult was that at the time well it

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somewhat award the technical part the

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challenges were tremendous but we had to

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cluster engines von Braun had to side

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here putting things together and we were

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able to take the tanks redstone tanks

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with 70 inch in diameter liquid oxygen

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tags 105 minutes and we clustered those

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and cluster the engines now the

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nightmare was was a plumber's nightmare

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we had all these lines getting the

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proponents out of the tanks into the

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engines had to deal with that had

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crosstalk he had to continue to

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pressurization of the tanks when you go

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during a said yet because the propellers

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are coming out he had to keep pressure

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in there you didn't want to take to be

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sucked in McCulloch atmospheric pressure

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but all this was a precursor and helping

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us to understand how you cluster engines

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how'd he get the proposed how you do to

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pressure the pressure season and the

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propellants and dealing with those for

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Saturn 5 because now we're going to one

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and a half million pounds thrust per

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engine who had to deal with five engines

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seven half million pounds of thrust I me

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as a nightmare number one with the

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engines get the ins info we grew up

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pumps I'm telling you wait Rick test

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stands lots and lots of that and so

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after that reconciling those problems

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have a big meeting here at Marshall and

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I was fortunate to participate in that

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meeting dr. von Braun his boss our

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corporate presidents were here and

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George Lewis suggested we fly man around

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the moon ok concern again this

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technological race with Russians and

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thought we could do it so they go to the

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moon

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and then everything was okay all the

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systems work good we've watching that

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bated breath and everything but they get

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ready to go around the moon Frank Borman

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has the Bible he's going to read about

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the creation account book of Genesis hey

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what and the classic is when you they go

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around the moon and they're looking back

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at Earth and there's a picture of the

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earth and you see that most people

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seeing that I get goosebumps thinking

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about even now as we talk when we've

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launched like all Apollo vehicle all the

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whole thing everything go into the water

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we lose it so in the meantime smart guys

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away when we design something like an

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airplane at least bring some of it bite

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say the money reuse it so we start

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looking at shuttle and then later on

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1970 i went to a test team for two years

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get the configuration which we fly today

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what is marshal well first marshall it

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to me is an organization it's a living

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organization and i just hope they can

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get something to continue engineering

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we've always had excellent leadership

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see starting with von Braun and his team

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that he had been brought over with so no

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question when you think about government

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owns a NASA number one nothing compared

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to NASA Alex thank you so much this has

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been so interesting and we really