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I think first about the moment when the

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moon landing took place itself I was at

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my son's place were sitting on the front

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lawn and had the television set in front

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of us and watch the landing at that time

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we were all in a sort of euphoria the

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combination of all the work that had

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been going on before we had absolute

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confidence that the landing would work

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only in retrospect later it dawn on me

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the enormity of this event it didn't

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dawn as while it happens because we are

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so involved in it you've in it had to

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work and it did we had great confidence

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that the landing would be successful

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after all our highest authority Verner

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von Braun said so I was the main

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developer of the launch facilities the

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crawler which transported the sang the

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taut umbilical Tower the vertical

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Assembly Building and then they launched

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machinery itself I patent was the whole

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hoedown mechanism that kept Saturn 5 on

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the launch pad why all the engines were

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firing but Jagger at that time we didn't

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have computers we did things with a

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slide rule we had central computers for

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flight mechanics but we I worked in the

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development of the whole launch

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machinery and launch equipment we didn't

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we had large groups of designers which

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was supervised the fascinating thing

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about it was

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was no president there was no precedent

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on what we were doing know how to books

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so out of our own imagination and ideas

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we had to form what later became the

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hardware that we are familiar with we

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had a bunch of very very creative people

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we had not only had to work accurately

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we had to work fast because as you

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remember we wanted to launch it to the

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moon before the decade was over there

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are many problems to overcome but we had

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confidence in ourselves we never doubted

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that we couldn't do it he never doubted

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it was just a certain amount of work

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that had to be done we worked long hours

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and and it paid off so the methods of

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managing a group to come up with all the

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concepts in the final design for other

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launch hardware ran place and everybody

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gave his best

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we had a certain common enthusiasm a

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certain atmosphere was within our

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organization there was just super very

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great enthusiasm and everybody gave his

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best without being coaxed we all work

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for a common goal be realized we did we

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did something we are about to do

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something that has never done before and

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like I said before only in retrospect I

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personally Bank realized the enormity of

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the horror undertaken the idea to go to

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the moon to send people to the moon

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originated decades before

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not only after Kennedy announced our

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intentions decades before that when a

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young people we were rocket enthusiasts

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and the moon of course was the obvious

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first target and space so we're mentally

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oriented toward this mission in

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peenemuende during world war ii secretly

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we developed a moon rocket on paper it

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had to be secret because you're not

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supposed to do it yeah but we had to

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build weapons so the irony was when we

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came to United States we again had to

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build weapons and our success late I was

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based again on something that we did in

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secret which was in this case designing

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everybody was happy that we did it later

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but our moon plants they are always

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there if when the go-ahead came we know

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exactly what to do

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Ronna from brown included many qualities

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in one person he was a great scientist

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engineer a great politician they greatly

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a born leader and he had something that

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I wished every manager would have he had

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a great sense of humor it could be very

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funny the main thing is we trusted him

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without limits he was a true leader of a

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team he had the goal and he hated

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determination to follow it and he had

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the team to carry it out he was very

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easy to work with

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he was very people minded his doors were

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when mistakes were made and admitted

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there on who did the mistake was getting

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an award that was his style of

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management openness complete trust among

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when one obvious part of our present

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program are the launch facilities we use

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the same crawler that carried the sarin

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file to carry the shuttle we have the

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same vertical Assembly Building to

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prepare the shuttle before launch

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then we had in the Saturday's

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philosophically much has been lost I

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think after the Apollo days my personal

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opinion is is not much has been

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transferred from our Apollo experience

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to the shuttle experience and I think

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events have shown that while the first

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moon landing was going on we were

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already preparing for a follow-up

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program it was called the integrated

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space program it was initiated by George

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Miller and NASA headquarters I was

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involved in laying out the elements of

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this program the content of the

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follow-on program was of course number

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one a shadow

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reusable shuttle a space station a base

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on the moon and a face on Mars the

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interesting thing about this program are

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these elements these program elements

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the derivatives of the Shannon fire the

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stages of the Saturn the hardware of the

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Saturn program was modified to build

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lunar bases in mass basis one new thing

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was a shuttle like I said and a nucleus

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shuttle between Earth and Mars so a

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rather grandiose program of course all

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these plants died except the space

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shuttle as you know it's the only piece

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of that grandiose plan that survived so

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we were quite busy thinking about post

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Apollo there was one thing that had

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changed though

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the public perception of space there was

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no more support for any large missions

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and this did the integrated space

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program in a good I think we are fake

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that the Apollo moon landing was one of

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the greatest events in the area of

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Technology and science of mankind I

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think it peril is the building of the

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pyramids other great works of humans it

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was the first step out of the earth to

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another heavenly body this whole project

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had an enormity about it that many

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people like I said before did not

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perceive but it was our done there was a

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Vietnam war going on the infamous get

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know who that drained all the resources

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not only economically but also any any

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idealistic resources in the American

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people I don't think that if Kennedy

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would have lived that we would have done

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much more than we would have done than

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we did because the political scenery had

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it had an influence but a delayed

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influence because the program had enough

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momentum to go on during these political

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upheavals that we had in our country it

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had enough momentum to carry through to

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Apollo 17 its effect was delayed Apollo

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18 was scrubbed cancelled and the after

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you know what happened nothing so these

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factors did have an influence

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fortunately it delayed influence walking

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people historically had been non

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politicians they didn't care much about

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politics they were tied and almost

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married to their work it's great

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enthusiasm they care very little right

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or wrong about political scene scenery

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that went on around them that can be

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said even during World War two when we

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developed the v2 we were enthusiastic

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market people and fascinated by our work

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and cared very little about what went on

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around the same thing happened I think

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during the 60s and early 70s when there

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was turmoil in the United States we were