[symple_spacing size=”80″]This is Space the Final Frontier Part 2 and I will continue by talking about NASA working with private companies. The best known examples are Rockwell, Grumman Aerospace Corp., Boeing, North American Aviation and Douglas Aircraft Corporation of the prime contractors that built major components that contributed to the manned landing on the moon in 1969.

NASA could not itself actually build the components that enabled man to leave the confines of the earth and land on the moon, if it had I am sure that the program would have cost much more.  And maybe the United States would not have beat the then Soviet Union, Russia, to the moon. Our government has been smart enough to know that by employing private industry to construct our spacecraft, it saved both time and money while at the same time helping the economy.

Some of the names of the companies involved have changed by mergers, but there are even more companies involved in today’s space program than there has been in the past. Now many companies are designing their own spacecraft without NASA’s input or help, examples of that are SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Bigelow and others players. If I have whetted your curiosity about these companies, well you will just have to wait for part three.

Rockwell was a name that should be recognized by many as the premier contractor for NASA in the 1960s to the 1980s. And they were heavily involved in the manned portion; they made the Apollo Command Module. They were called North American Rockwell at the time.

Boeing made the massive Saturn V first stage, North American Aviation did the second stage and Douglas Aircraft Corporation made the third stage. Grumman Aerospace made the Lunar Lander (LEM) which was a landing craft, short term habitat and launch vehicle. It consisted of the Lander and the habitat/launch vehicle.

Just as an aside, the Rocketdyne Division of North American Aviation made the rocket engines for the Saturn V and International Business Machines (IBM) made the instruments.

Wernher von Braun, the German born scientist, and his associates at the Marshall Space Flight Center were the brains of the Moon Landing program. An interesting side note is that the decision to launch the Lunar Module and the Apollo Command Module with the Service Module all at once on one booster (rocket), the Saturn V, took some time and discussions before it became a reality. There were many schools of thought as to how and when the various sections should be launched into orbit and if they should rendezvous in Earth orbit or in orbit around the Moon. The technology of the 1960s finally dictated an Earth orbit rendezvous.

One of the facts not generally known by the public that at least for the Lunar Module, is that Grumman outsourced to Job Shops components such as parts of the landing gear. I know this for a fact because the Father of one of the engineers I worked with made parts of the landing gear for Grumman in his shop.

You can find more information using the links I have provided. In part three I will talk about private spaceflight.

That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike