Interesting Information About Apollo

Did you know that the U.S. Navy recovered our Apollo Astronauts when they returned from the moon on each mission? One fleet was in the Pacific commanded by The USS Hornet which was the primary recovery ship. There was also another fleet in the Atlantic in case there was failure of the Saturn V during launches. No one really remembers the role our navy played and it is sad to me.

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.

Something Funny Happened on the Way to the Moon

Because my copyright was stolen in 2012 when I was in the hospital, this book is now out-of-print.
The new 2ne Edition is, "Mischief at Michoud" published by Tate Publishing.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This book is a light-hearted story of my life before, during and after Apollo. It is not meant to be technical. This book describes the high-jinks and the funny situations of one plant out of thousands that built the Saturn V. We are the rank and file of the workers. We were not known because there were 400,000 of us.
There is a lot of information in the book such as the Navy Recovery Fleet and the Apollo Missions.
I hope you will enjoy the humor and have a relaxing read.

Note: I found out that this book does not translate well in any of the Oriental languages such as Chinese. It probably will not translate in any of the Arabic languages, either. So if you do not understand the nomenclature of the Saturn V, please do not read this book. Thank you.

An Interview With Sara about Apollo

Your video is now live on the WriterViews website.




Here is a link you can share on your blog or other sites to let people know about the interview:


How Sara Howard Shot for the Moon and Landed Among the Stars

http://www.writerviews.com/how-sara-howard-shot-for-the-moon-and-landed-among-the-stars/

LIBRARIES- Please help. I need you!!

Would you please help us?
We would love to have you help us and spread some information about Apollo.
There are many people in America that do not know that we landed on the moon including our children.

Can we change that? Yes, we can. One library at a time.

Would you like to join our group in spreading the word?

I have a number of people helping me but I need you, too.

Apollo is a great shining achievement of mankind and
we Americans did it!
Let’s celebrate our nation and our great people.
There is a website http://www.publiclibraries.com
Click on the link: Public Libraries. All 50 states are on this site.

Just search for your state or any other state you like.

There will be a list of all libraries in the state by city and county.

You can either print out any page or just find a library and write down their phone #. ANY library is good. You can contact ANY library in ANY state. You do not have to be a member.

With one phone call you can give this information:

Ask for the acquisitions person or ask who buys their books.

Give: 1. Your name

2. Could you please add this book to your library: “Something Funny Happened on the Way to the Moon.” ?

The book is Adult non-fiction. It is a rare story of one of the only two women who were engineers on the Saturn V during Apollo.

3. Magic words: This book is in the Smithsonian Library and is a great chapter in American and women's history.
This book has been sold in nine countries including England, Scotland, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Russia.
Libraries are adding this to their collections every day. Then give the librarian a brief description such as “A light-hearted look at the people who were on the ground and who built the greatest rocket in history.”

The book can be found on Amazon and is in paperback as well as in e-book format. It is in the World Cat and  on Google Books.

4. The librarian can find who their distributors are and they can order the book from them. The usual ones are Baker & Taylor and Ingram.

5. Thank them for their consideration. That’s it! Done.

You can say anything you want. The purpose is to place the book in their library.

It took me much longer to type this than it takes to make a phone call or two.

I timed it and this less than 5 minutes for a call.

I would call every library in the country if I could but I would be dead before then. (smile)

In just a few minutes you could help contact a library.

All I am asking is that you make at least one phone call at your convenience.
Some are calling a library once a day or a few a week.

Also, would you mind sending this on to your friends and family and ask them to help?
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

                                                         
                                          MY BELOVED SATURN V

My Friends from All over the World

What a joy it is to hear from wonderful people from all over the world.  It shows me that although we are separated by oceans and land, space exploration is loved by everyone no matter the language.  We are all voyagers on our small beautiful planet. Sail on!
England, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, France, Japan, Russia,
Argentina and Estonia you are delightful!

PROOF FOR THE DOUBTERS

There are people who think we never went to the moon.  I have proof we did. I saw something with my own eyes. These two pictures proves what I say. Neil Armstrong is seen walking on the surface of the moon to plant one of two laser reflectors. Sometime after that an astronomical observatory started firing a ruby laser every night at the moon. This was to measure the distance between Earth and the moon. The laser has been fired every night for over 40 years. I was present at the observatory in 1973 and saw the laser being fired.  Isn't it interesting that these lunar hoax idiots think we did not go to the moon but they believe strongly that aliens are in a hangar at area 51?

GREAT INFORMATION ABOUT THE F-1 ENGINES:1st STAGE OF SATURN V

WATER FROM THE MOON

The Saturn V versus the Space Shuttle

There is nothing in common with these two except they both use the VAB and the launch pads.
There are procedures with the Shuttle that were never done on Apollo. Most folks that know the Shuttle equate everything done with the Saturn V. Not so.
In Apollo the people working in one plant never knew that there were more than one plant (there were hundreds). We were never told anything.  If there were communications between plants it was done at the highest levels--probably through Marshall Space Flight Center at Huntsville.  Most of us 400,000 were the Peons in the Pits. There were no cell phones and regular phones were few and far between.  Transistors had not been invented yet so there was no fancy technology.
I was recently asked some questions about procedures.  I had to laugh because it had nothing to do with the Saturn V.
Most of the reason for the lack of information was due to the paranoia of the "communists".
I laugh at "homeland security" and TSA. They have nothing on Apollo.  Have you seen these (name inserted) really find any terrorists? All they do is piss off passengers.  Have you seen old ladies strap on explosives and blow up anything in this country?
Americans are being punished for the horrors of 911.

OUR MOON

Some information about our Moon: It influences our Earth without being noticed such as tides and life like the rhythms of reproduction. I think it is beautiful to watch. It has pulled on our planet for billions of years.
Can we survive without it? Since Apollo Astronauts placed reflectors on the Moon, an observatory in the wilds of Texas has been firing a ruby laser at those reflectors every day. I have been there and watched the laser fire. Cool! But the bad news: our Moon is moving away from us and I was told that in about 10,000 years, there might not be ANY eclipses. Yikes! Civilization has not been in existance that long.
Did you know that our moon is the only one in the entire solar system that creates eclipses?
Recently it has been announced that another facility will be firing the laser. McDonald Observatory probably will be conducting other research.

APOLLO Contractors

I worked for Boeing-the prime and largest contractor on Apollo. Other major contractors were: North American Aviation, Douglas (McDonnell Douglas later) and IBM.
North American sub-contracted Chrysler and Rocketdyne which built the F-1 and J-2 engines. Then there was Grumann.
Here were the main facilities for the Saturn V: Seal Beach, Calif.; Huntington Beach, Calif; Michoud, La.; and Bethpage, N.Y.
Testing for the first stage the SI-C was done at the Mississippi Test Site near Bay St. Louis and at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

I will give you the specifications later of the Saturn V.

I just want you who are reading this to know that I have so much information to share that not even the people in NASA today have a clue. I can't find anyone who worked with me and that is sad.

There are very few (if any) Apollo employees online.

The Saturn V is still the largest rocket ever built.
I am so proud to have been a part of this magnificent endeavor.

When you see the Saturn V launch and you hear "ignition", that is our stage. The huge long flame just before staging is our stage, too. We boosted the Saturn V up to 38 miles in 2 1/2 minutes at 6,000 mph. We built a miracle.

Please Follow this Blog-Unique News

For all of you fine folks who are reading this Blog, would you please look on the left side for "Follow"? Please sign up. You can keep up with the posts. It is FREE.

Then when the spirit moves you, please leave a comment on any post.

Then, would you consider sending the URL to all of your email friends? I really need the traffic.

http://www.insidetheapolloproject.com/

One more thing: Do you have a website? How about trading links? I can show you how to do this.

Please keep in mind that after much research, it seems that Sallie and I were the ONLY women working as engineers on the entire Saturn V. If there are more, I cannot find them. No NASA women engineers worked directly on the Saturn V.
I have received files from NASA of the women who worked for them on Apollo.

Is there Anyone reading this? A sad day

There has been one thing over the years that I am very sad about. It has been over 40 years since I worked on the magnificent rocket--the Saturn V. I have never seen or spoken to any of our Astronauts. It looks like I never will. Those of us who created a solid piece of technology for the times are alone, forgotton and thrown in the trash pile. I do not want autographs. These do not give you the measure of a man.

Anyway, no one will miss me. No one has ever read this blog.
Well, maybe one or two.

Remember,"The astronauts have the right stuff but we engineers have the REAL stuff".

P.S. Addendum. I will keep posting. Thank you everyone for your input. I need to get more traffic.

The HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

What an absolutely fabulous telescope. The crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis did a wonderful job refurbishing the Hubble.

I bet there are scientists and astronomers who are waiting with bated breath until the day comes when First Light will be seen. Oh, the mysteries we will see. This mission has been one-of-a-kind and will never be seen again.

Sara's Newest Achievements

Announcements from Sara:

This book is for the kids. They really like the beautiful
pictures and easy read.
 My book has been published and is for sale on Amazon.com It is "The Biggest Explosions in The Universe" and has gorgeous pictures from the Hubble Telescope.

A SALUTE TO APOLLO 8

I have been meaning to post a salute to Apollo 8. They were the first Apollo Mission to orbit the Moon. They are dear to my heart because of what they did on Christmas Eve 1968.

The crew consisted of Frank Borman, Bill Anders and Jim Lovell. I just published a book about the stars for young readers. I have dedicated 2 pages as a salute to this special crew.

The book is "The Biggest Explosions in The Universe" and is for sale on Amazon.com

http://runurl.com/xx.php?pqo

We worked to keep our astronauts safe.

Welcome home guys!

Apollo Adventures at the Cape

Hi Sara! I worked at the Cape from June 1965 to May 1970 so I saw everything from the Saturn to the Titan. I worked in the Headquarters Bldg. and my first boss and the bosses under him were all very cool with letting us go outside to watch a launch if it was special. In fact, our big boss encouraged it. One day, we learned the Titan was going and just a few minutes before liftoff, one of the girls in my office, myself, and her sister from another office ran downstairs and jumped into her sister's car and we took off down to get as close to the pad as possible and listening to the countdown on radio. As we were at this lane on our left that went to the pad, we quickly parked and ran over to this mound (we learned later that it was a camera site and as close to the pad as we could have possibly gotten) and stood there and watched a spectacular shot that was so bright it almost blinded us as we didn't have our shades with us. No one said anything to us as we worked for Col. Petrone and his nickname was "The Rock!" He was a good guy though. Another time, one of the big ones was going and just as I got to entrance to my building, several people had gathered outside so I waited and shortly, it lifted off and the glass windows and doors in our building were moving like in shock waves! It almost gave me chills. The dog, Lassie made a couple movies out there and I was fortunate enough to get an autographed (paw print) of Lassie along with a nice photo. I still have it tucked away somewhere. I have to get busy and find all that stuff and get rid of some of my junk. I also have a packet of first day launch covers with stamps from several launches. You probably have a lot of mementos from your Rocket Scientist days. Those were the days, weren't they?
You bet-this from Hazel Lewis. Her husband was an engineer and he and his team worked on the Launch Pads. Cool! Huh!

Did You Know?

Did you know that we women who worked as Aerospace Engineers and other Engineers, Scientists and Researchers were the FIRST women in the world to do this? The Apollo program hired women with math degrees. We worked at Marshall Flight Center, Johnson Space Center, Cape Canaveral and at Michoud in New Orleans. There were a few who worked for NASA but we mostly worked for the contractors. I worked for Boeing, others worked for Chrysler, North American Aviation and others. NASA was so small, it had to hire 23,000 contractors who in turn hired close to 400,000 employees. NASA wants you to think that they did everything including building the infrastructure, the launch pads, all the stages and every nut and bolt. It is funny that when NASA trots out the astronauts,
it is a dog and pony show which has been going on for 40 years. :o)
We women were the "peons in the pits" and we are "lost in space"

The Miracle that was APOLLO

Forty years ago there were many people who were very excited about a new endeavor for mankind. In the late 1950s and early 1960s a group of visionaries convinced an American president that we must mount a great effort to take men to the moon. It was begun and humanity was never the same. In 1969 two men landed on the moon and humanity was changed forever. We had taken our first steps to the stars.
Humans are explorers and adventurers. We have the genes. They are inborn in us. We are a curious species and desire to know how things work, what is over that hill and what is it like to climb the tallest mountain?