Glynn Lunney
Encyclopedia
Glynn S. Lunney 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 later becoming a Vice President of the United Space Alliance
.
Lunney was a key 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".
. 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 Center in Cleveland, Ohio
. The center 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 Center, 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.
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 Center Simulation Group, which planned the simulations used to train both flight controller
s 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, after Tecwyn Roberts
, 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 Center 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 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 Center
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.
, 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 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 cantankerous 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". He was also diplomatic about Donn Eisele's sarcastic comment to the CAPCOM that he would "like to meet the man, or whomever it was, that dreamed up that little gem". The "gem" turned out to be Lunney's.
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 unprecedented 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 German 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
as a member of the Apollo 13 mission operations team
. The award was made by President Nixon during a ceremony at the Manned Spacecraft Center.
(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 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 Center. 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.
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.
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 Center; 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 Gerry 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 had retired from NASA the year before, 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. 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.
, 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 Center 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.
, Lunney met Marilyn Kurtz, who worked there as a nurse. They have been married since 1960 and have four children: Jennifer, Glynn, Jr. (Distinguished Professor of Law at Tulane University), Shawn, and Bryan. Their youngest son Bryan
has also pursued a career at NASA, becoming a flight director in 2001 and working missions including STS-115
, STS-120
, STS-123
, STS-131
and STS-133
.
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."
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 received 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."
, Glynn Lunney was portrayed by Marc McClure
. However, McClure had a relatively minor role. Writer 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).
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
. An employee of NASA since its foundation in 1958, Lunney was a flight director
Flight controller
Flight controllers are personnel who aid in the operations of a space flight, working in Mission Control Centers such as NASA's Mission Control Center, or ESA's Operations Center. Flight controllers sit at computer consoles and use telemetry to monitor in real time various technical aspects of a...
during the Gemini
Project Gemini
Project Gemini was the second human spaceflight program of NASA, the civilian space agency of the United States government. Project Gemini was conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, with ten manned flights occurring in 1965 and 1966....
and Apollo
Project Apollo
The Apollo program was the spaceflight effort carried out by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration , that landed the first humans on Earth's Moon. Conceived during the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Apollo began in earnest after President John F...
programs, and was on duty during historic events such as the Apollo 11
Apollo 11
In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...
lunar ascent and the pivotal hours of the Apollo 13
Apollo 13
Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the American Apollo space program and the third intended to land on the Moon. The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 CST. The landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later, crippling the service module upon which the Command...
crisis. At the end of the Apollo program, he became manager of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
-Backup crew:-Crew notes:Jack Swigert had originally been assigned as the command module pilot for the ASTP prime crew, but prior to the official announcement he was removed as punishment for his involvement in the Apollo 15 postage stamp scandal.-Soyuz crew:...
, the first collaboration in spaceflight between the United States and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Later, he served as manager of the Space Shuttle program
Space Shuttle program
NASA's Space Shuttle program, officially called Space Transportation System , was the United States government's manned launch vehicle program from 1981 to 2011...
before leaving NASA in 1985 and later becoming a Vice President of the United Space Alliance
United Space Alliance
United Space Alliance is a spaceflight operations company. USA is a joint venture which was established in August 1995 as a Limited Liability Company , equally owned by Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The company is headquartered in Houston, Texas and, employed approximately 8,800 people in Texas,...
.
Lunney was a key figure in America's manned space program from Project Mercury
Project Mercury
In January 1960 NASA awarded Western Electric Company a contract for the Mercury tracking network. The value of the contract was over $33 million. Also in January, McDonnell delivered the first production-type Mercury spacecraft, less than a year after award of the formal contract. On February 12,...
through the coming of the Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...
. 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 city of Old Forge, PennsylvaniaOld Forge, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania
Old Forge is a borough in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 8,313 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Old Forge is located at . The borough has a total area of 3.5 square miles which is all land..-History:The history of Old Forge can be traced back to the creation of...
. 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
University of Scranton
The University of Scranton is a private, co-educational Catholic and Jesuit university, located in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in the northeast region of the state. The school was founded in 1888 by Most Rev. William O'Hara, the first Bishop of Scranton, as St. Thomas College. It was elevated to a...
from 1953 through 1955, he transferred to the University of Detroit, where he enrolled in the cooperative training program run by the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
. The center was a part of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was a U.S. federal agency founded on March 3, 1915 to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958 the agency was dissolved, and its assets and personnel transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and...
(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 Center, where he worked with a team studying the thermodynamics of vehicles during high-speed reentry. Using a B-57 bomber
B-57 Canberra
The Martin B-57 Canberra was a United States-built, twin jet engine light bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, which entered service with the United States Air Force in 1953. The B-57 was initially a version of the English Electric Canberra built under license. However, the Glenn L...
, the team sent small rockets high into the atmosphere in order to measure their heating profile.
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 CenterLangley Research Center
Langley Research Center is the oldest of NASA's field centers, located in Hampton, Virginia, United States. It directly borders Poquoson, Virginia and Langley Air Force Base...
in Hampton, Virginia
Hampton, Virginia
Hampton is an independent city that is not part of any county in Southeast Virginia. Its population is 137,436. As one of the seven major cities that compose the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, it is on the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula. Located on the Hampton Roads Beltway, it hosts...
, where in September 1959 he became a member of the Space Task Group
Space Task Group
The Space Task Group was a working group of NASA engineers created in 1958, tasked with superintending America's manned spaceflight programs. It was headed by Robert Gilruth andbased at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. After President John F...
, 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 Center Simulation Group, which planned the simulations used to train both flight controller
Flight controller
Flight controllers are personnel who aid in the operations of a space flight, working in Mission Control Centers such as NASA's Mission Control Center, or ESA's Operations Center. Flight controllers sit at computer consoles and use telemetry to monitor in real time various technical aspects of a...
s 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
Project Mercury
In January 1960 NASA awarded Western Electric Company a contract for the Mercury tracking network. The value of the contract was over $33 million. Also in January, McDonnell delivered the first production-type Mercury spacecraft, less than a year after award of the formal contract. On February 12,...
, 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, after Tecwyn Roberts
Tecwyn Roberts
Tecwyn Roberts was a Welsh-born, American spaceflight engineer who in the 1960s played important roles in designing the Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas and creating NASA’s worldwide tracking and communications network...
, 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
Gene Kranz
Kranz's book, titled Failure Is Not an Option, published five years after the movie, stated, "...a creed that we all lived by: "Failure is not an option."" . The book has three index references for the phrase, but none of those give any indication of the phrase being apocryphal...
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
John Glenn
John Herschel Glenn, Jr. is a former United States Marine Corps pilot, astronaut, and United States senator who was the first American to orbit the Earth and the third American in space. Glenn was a Marine Corps fighter pilot before joining NASA's Mercury program as a member of NASA's original...
, America's first orbital spaceflight
Mercury-Atlas 6
Mercury-Atlas 6 was a human spaceflight mission conducted by NASA, the space agency of the United States. As part of Project Mercury, MA-6 was the successful first attempt by NASA to place an astronaut into orbit. The MA-6 mission was launched February 20, 1962. It made three orbits of the Earth,...
, he was serving as the FIDO in Bermuda. In 1961, NASA's manned spaceflight program was transferred to the newly built Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, 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
Gene Kranz
Kranz's book, titled Failure Is Not an Option, published five years after the movie, stated, "...a creed that we all lived by: "Failure is not an option."" . The book has three index references for the phrase, but none of those give any indication of the phrase being apocryphal...
were selected by Chris Kraft to join Kraft and his deputy John Hodge
John Hodge (engineer)
John Dennis Hodge is a British-born aerospace engineer. He worked for the CF-105 Avro Arrow jet interceptor project in Canada. When it was cancelled in 1959, he became a member of NASA's Space Task Group, which later became the Johnson Space Center. During his NASA career, he worked as a flight...
as flight directors. Aged only twenty-eight, Lunney was the youngest of the four.
Lunney worked backup on Gemini 3
Gemini 3
Gemini 3 was the first manned mission in NASA's Gemini program, the second American manned space program. On March 23, 1965, the spacecraft, nicknamed The Molly Brown, performed the seventh manned US spaceflight, and the 17th manned spaceflight overall...
, taking charge of the newly established Mission Control Center
Mission Control Center
A mission control center is an entity that manages aerospace vehicle flights, usually from the point of lift-off until the landing or the end of the mission. A staff of flight controllers and other support personnel monitor all aspects of the mission using telemetry, and send commands to the...
in Houston, at a time when flights were still controlled from Cape Canaveral
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA installation that has been the launch site for every United States human space flight since 1968. Although such flights are currently on hiatus, KSC continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program...
in Florida. On Gemini 4
Gemini 4
Gemini 4 was the second manned space flight in NASA's Project Gemini, occurring in June 1965. It was the tenth manned American spaceflight . Astronauts James McDivitt and Edward H. White, II circled the Earth 66 times in four days, making it the first US flight to approach the five-day flight of...
, 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 MercuryProject Mercury
In January 1960 NASA awarded Western Electric Company a contract for the Mercury tracking network. The value of the contract was over $33 million. Also in January, McDonnell delivered the first production-type Mercury spacecraft, less than a year after award of the formal contract. On February 12,...
, Lunney was involved in Project Apollo
Project Apollo
The Apollo program was the spaceflight effort carried out by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration , that landed the first humans on Earth's Moon. Conceived during the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Apollo began in earnest after President John F...
right from the beginning. He took charge of the "boilerplate" tests of the Apollo abort escape system at White Sands
White Sands Missile Range
White Sands Missile Range is a rocket range of almost in parts of five counties in southern New Mexico. The largest military installation in the United States, WSMR includes the and the WSMR Otera Mesa bombing range...
, which took place during the Gemini program, and was flight director during the first unmanned Saturn V
Saturn V
The Saturn V was an American human-rated expendable rocket used by NASA's Apollo and Skylab programs from 1967 until 1973. A multistage liquid-fueled launch vehicle, NASA launched 13 Saturn Vs from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida with no loss of crew or payload...
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
Apollo 1
Apollo 1 was scheduled to be the first manned mission of the Apollo manned lunar landing program, with a target launch date of February 21, 1967. A cabin fire during a launch pad test on January 27 at Launch Pad 34 at Cape Canaveral killed all three crew members: Command Pilot Virgil "Gus"...
. 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 attracted significant media attention in 1968, when he worked as lead flight director on Apollo 7
Apollo 7
Apollo 7 was the first manned mission in the American Apollo space program, and the first manned US space flight after a cabin fire killed the crew of what was to have been the first manned mission, AS-204 , during a launch pad test in 1967...
, the first of the manned Apollo flights. Coming as it did after the Apollo 1
Apollo 1
Apollo 1 was scheduled to be the first manned mission of the Apollo manned lunar landing program, with a target launch date of February 21, 1967. A cabin fire during a launch pad test on January 27 at Launch Pad 34 at Cape Canaveral killed all three crew members: Command Pilot Virgil "Gus"...
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 cantankerous mission commander, Wally Schirra
Wally Schirra
Walter Marty Schirra, Jr. was an American test pilot, United States Navy officer, and one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts chosen for the Project Mercury, America's effort to put humans in space. He is the only person to fly in all of America's first three space programs...
, 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". He was also diplomatic about Donn Eisele's sarcastic comment to the CAPCOM that he would "like to meet the man, or whomever it was, that dreamed up that little gem". The "gem" turned out to be Lunney's.
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
Jay Greene
Jay H. Greene is a retired NASA engineer. He worked as a FIDO flight controller during the Apollo Program and a flight director from 1982 to 1986, most notably as ascent flight director during the Challenger accident in 1986...
, 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
Apollo 13
Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the American Apollo space program and the third intended to land on the Moon. The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 CST. The landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later, crippling the service module upon which the Command...
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 unprecedented 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
Ken Mattingly
Thomas Kenneth "Ken" Mattingly II, is a retired American astronaut and rear admiral in the United States Navy who flew on the Apollo 16, STS-4 and STS-51-C missions. He had been scheduled to fly on Apollo 13, but was held back due to concerns about a potential illness...
, the astronaut who had been bumped from the Apollo 13 crew due to his exposure to German 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
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...
as a member of the Apollo 13 mission operations team
Apollo 13 Mission Operations Team
The Apollo 13 Mission Operations Team worked at the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston during the mission, and was responsible for all aspects of the Apollo 13 mission once it became airborne after liftoff....
. The award was made by President Nixon during a ceremony at the Manned Spacecraft Center.
Apollo-Soyuz Test Program
In 1970, while still a flight director, Lunney was selected as one of the members of 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 ProjectApollo-Soyuz Test Project
-Backup crew:-Crew notes:Jack Swigert had originally been assigned as the command module pilot for the ASTP prime crew, but prior to the official announcement he was removed as punishment for his involvement in the Apollo 15 postage stamp scandal.-Soyuz crew:...
(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
Soyuz spacecraft
Soyuz , Union) is a series of spacecraft initially designed for the Soviet space programme by the Korolyov Design Bureau in the 1960s, and still in service today...
.
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 Center. In 1973, Lunney became manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office, a position which gave him responsibility for the Apollo spacecraft used during Skylab
Skylab
Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a mass of...
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
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
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 DefenseUnited States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The facility is headquartered in the city of Pasadena on the border of La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena...
. 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.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, as Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Flight and later as Acting Associate Administrator for Space Transportation Operations.
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 Center; 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 Gerry 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 had retired from NASA the year before, he was called to testify before the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology in the aftermath of the Challenger accident
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida at 11:38 am EST...
. 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
Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster
The Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters were the pair of large solid rockets used by the United States' NASA Space Shuttle during the first two minutes of powered flight. Together they provided about 83% of liftoff thrust for the Space Shuttle. They were located on either side of the rusty or...
had recently been redefined as non-redundant systems. 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 InternationalRockwell International
Rockwell International was a major American manufacturing conglomerate in the latter half of the 20th century, involved in aircraft, the space industry, both defense-oriented and commercial electronics, automotive and truck components, printing presses, valves and meters, and industrial automation....
, 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
Global Positioning System
The Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites...
; 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 Center 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
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area....
to form the United Space Alliance
United Space Alliance
United Space Alliance is a spaceflight operations company. USA is a joint venture which was established in August 1995 as a Limited Liability Company , equally owned by Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The company is headquartered in Houston, Texas and, employed approximately 8,800 people in Texas,...
, 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 CenterGlenn Research Center
NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field is a NASA center, located within the cities of Brook Park, Cleveland and Fairview Park, Ohio between Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and the Cleveland Metroparks's Rocky River Reservation, and has other subsidiary facilities in Ohio...
, Lunney met Marilyn Kurtz, who worked there as a nurse. They have been married since 1960 and have four children: Jennifer, Glynn, Jr. (Distinguished Professor of Law at Tulane University), Shawn, and Bryan. Their youngest son Bryan
Bryan Lunney
Bryan Lunney is formerly a NASA flight director.-Early life:The son of Apollo-era flight director Glynn Lunney, Bryan Lunney grew up in Friendswood, Texas and attended Friendswood High School...
has also pursued a career at NASA, becoming a flight director in 2001 and working missions including STS-115
STS-115
Note:The P3/P4 Truss segment and batteries were so heavy that the crew count was reduced from seven to six.-Crew notes:...
, STS-120
STS-120
-Crew notes:As commander of STS-120, Pamela Melroy became the second woman to command a space shuttle mission. Additionally, the Expedition 16 crew that received STS-120 was commanded by Peggy Whitson, the first female ISS commander...
, STS-123
STS-123
-Mission parameters:* Mass:* Orbiter liftoff: * Orbiter landing: * Perigee: 336 kilometers * Apogee: 346 kilometers * Inclination: 51.6 degrees* Period: 91.6min-Mission payloads:...
, STS-131
STS-131
STS-131 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station . launched on 5 April 2010 at 6:22 am from Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A, and landed at 9:08 am on 20 April 2010 on runway 33 at the Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility...
and STS-133
STS-133
STS-133 was the 133rd mission in NASA's Space Shuttle program; during the mission, Space Shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station. It was Discoverys 39th and final mission. The mission launched on 24 February 2011, and landed on 9 March 2011...
.
During his leisure hours, Lunney enjoys sailing; during the sixties the family owned a twenty-foot sailboat which they took out on Galveston Bay
Galveston Bay
Galveston Bay is a large estuary located along the upper coast of Texas in the United States. It is connected to the Gulf of Mexico and is surrounded by sub-tropic marshes and prairies on the mainland. The water in the Bay is a complex mixture of sea water and fresh water which supports a wide...
, 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 honors
Lunney is a Fellow of the American Astronomical SocietyAmerican Astronomical Society
The American Astronomical Society is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC...
and of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics is the professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA was founded in 1963 from the merger of two earlier societies: the American Rocket Society , founded in 1930 as the American Interplanetary Society , and the Institute...
. In 1971, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate from the University of Scranton
University of Scranton
The University of Scranton is a private, co-educational Catholic and Jesuit university, located in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in the northeast region of the state. The school was founded in 1888 by Most Rev. William O'Hara, the first Bishop of Scranton, as St. Thomas College. It was elevated to a...
. He has received many awards from NASA, including three Group Achievement Awards, two Exceptional Service Medals
NASA Exceptional Service Medal
The NASA Exceptional Service Medal is an award granted to U.S. government employees for significant sustained performance characterized by unusual initiative or creative ability that clearly demonstrates substantial improvement in engineering, aeronautics, space flight, administration, support, or...
and three Distinguished Service Medals
NASA Distinguished Service Medal
The NASA Distinguished Service Medal is the highest award which may be bestowed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States...
.
In 2005, he received 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
Neil Armstrong
Neil Alden Armstrong is an American former astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor, United States Naval Aviator, and the first person to set foot upon the Moon....
. "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 13Apollo 13 (film)
Apollo 13 is a 1995 American drama film directed by Ron Howard. The film stars Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Kathleen Quinlan and Ed Harris. The screenplay by William Broyles, Jr...
, Glynn Lunney was portrayed by Marc McClure
Marc McClure
Marc A. McClure is an American actor. McClure was born in San Mateo, California. He is not, despite a popular misconception, related to the late Doug McClure.-Superman film series:...
. However, McClure had a relatively minor role. Writer Charles Murray
Charles Murray (author)
Charles Alan Murray is an American libertarian political scientist, author, columnist, and pundit working as a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, DC...
lamented the fact that Lunney was "barely visible in the movie", being overshadowed by the focus on Lunney's fellow flight director Gene Kranz
Gene Kranz
Kranz's book, titled Failure Is Not an Option, published five years after the movie, stated, "...a creed that we all lived by: "Failure is not an option."" . The book has three index references for the phrase, but none of those give any indication of the phrase being apocryphal...
. "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 Center.
- 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 Center.
- 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. AIAA Paper 67–272. Cocoa Beach, Florida: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Flight Test, Simulation and Support Conference, 6–February 8, 1967. AIAA Paper 701260. Houston: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 7th Annual Meeting and Technical Display, 19–October 22, 1970.