Von Braun and the Lunar-Orbit Rendezvous Decision: Finding a Way to Go to the Moon
- Paper number
IAC-07-E4.2.03
- Author
Dr. Michael Neufeld, Smithsonian Institution, United States
- Year
2007
- Abstract
Wernher von Braun’s historic talk at Huntsville on 7 June 1962, when he endorsed Lunar-Orbit Rendezvous (LOR) as the mode for landing on the Moon, has long been seen as one of the most critical dates in the entire Apollo program. It effectively ended a months-long divisive debate inside NASA over LOR versus Earth-Orbit Rendezvous (EOR) versus Direct Ascent (a single huge rocket to launch a lander directly at the Moon, with no rendezvous). Von Braun and his Marshall Space Flight Center had a long-standing commitment to EOR. While historians have long emphasized the significance of this surprise endorsement of LOR, there has been little analysis of how and when he arrived at that decision. This paper will discuss the process by which von Braun finally decided for LOR in the spring of 1962 and attempts to pinpoint the date of that decision. But the paper will also examine von Braun’s long prehistory of Moon proposals, beginning in public at least with his October 1952 articles in Collier’s magazine. He had discussed versions of what amounted to EOR and Direct Ascent during the 1950s. In 1961, after President Kennedy’s endorsement of the Apollo landing goal, he leaned toward EOR primarily because he did not want to build the huge Nova launch required for Direct Ascent. He seemed to endorse Earth-Orbit Rendezvous as the way to go, only to gradually and somewhat reluctantly change his mind. How that came about will be the fundamental substance of this paper.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-07-E4.2.03.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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