MISCONCEPTIONS about Apollo

My four friends and I were having a nice chat over a cup of coffee one afternoon.


We don't talk about this subject very often but one gal told us of the idiot that came into her office and said some really off-the-wall things. This lady is the Chairwoman of the Department of Mathematics at a large university.

So all five of us started talking about our favorite subject--Apollo.

Yes, all five of us worked as engineers during Apollo. Most of us worked for one of the 23,000 contractors--Boeing or Chrysler. There were also many gals that worked for NASA. I found a website about their work and who they were.

I cannot find them now. There were a number of women mathematicians who played important roles in the Apollo program. We estimate that after searches, there may have been 60 women working as engineers amoung the 400,000 people. We would love it if there were more.

We talked about the misconceptions of Apollo. We laughed a lot.



#1.We were supposed to know all of the other 400,000 employees who were scattered in hundreds of plants all over the U.S. (we were lucky to know anyone else in the same building).


#2.People seem to believe that only Houston and the Cape existed.


#3.The Astronauts designed and built EVERYTHING. They also launched the Saturn V themselves. Maybe they recovered themselves in the Pacific.

#4.Almost all of us never saw the Cape or Houston except on TV.

#5.All of us 400,000 could leave work to go see a launch in person.

There is more but we laughed at the total ignorance of the facts below:


To be an Engineer requires a 4 year college degree. Lots of math and science courses have to be studied before anyone can get into the core engineering courses. Chemical engineers often minor in chemistry, electrical engineers in computer science, mechanical and aeronautical engineers take a lot of physics and so on.

All use math extensively. Many future engineers have a degree in

Mathematics and/or Physics. Why? Mathematics teaches logic, problem solving and creative solutions.

Physics teaches about the basic principles of why and how everything works in our universe. Beware-Newton's 2nd Law can hit you hard.

All of us, especially the Chairman of the Mathematics Dept.,know that many people become engineers today with a Batchelor's degree in Chemistry, Math or Physics. I know some guys who have a degree in math and are electrical engineers today. We all do.

To be hired to work on Apollo in a scientific/technical/research position, EVERYONE had to have a Math Degree even the guys. We all were given the job description,

"engineer." NASA wanted it to be that way.

There is another untrue belief: When you graduate from college and you are hired by a company to go to work for them, people believe that they will be thrown to the wolves and told to "work." Ha! Ha!

Nothing is more dangerous than a recent graduate.

I have worked for almost 30 years. My friends have worked longer.

Every company has to "train" their newbies. Would you let some idiot loose in a nuclear power plant? Sometimes it takes a year or more to get someone trained.

I was sent to classes, attended seminars and trained by co-workers.

Then everyone without exception works on a "team." What? You think you are so smart that you don't need anyone else?

We can use the term "idiot" because we were one at some time. We are veteran "idiots" for many jobs. But guess what? We graduated. There are many wonderful people that research everything Apollo and get the best true facts. They are a real delight to me and my friends because they are kind, educated about Apollo and reach out to teach others.
By the way, we range in age from 60s, 70s and 80s. It is time for
fun and funny things.