Space Industry

The Apollo 11 spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral on July 16, 1969. Four days later, humans walked on the surface of the moon for the first time.

A team of thousands was required to make that lunar mission a success. Dr. Al Koller was a member of that team, working in the Firing Room.

“I served as the remote eyes for the top management of NASA and the stage contractors for the operations at the launch pad three miles away,” says Koller. “We did that using sixty-one video cameras, all black and white, mounted on the pad service and at all key levels of the 363 foot-tall launch tower. My job was to direct the camera crew by selecting the right cameras to keep track of the key technical work underway and to provide the best possible video views of any troubleshooting taking place.”

Koller was still in high school when his family moved to Titusville in 1958. He started working in the aerospace industry at the age of 17, when he had the opportunity to work with rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun.

“My father was involved in aviation and space from the early days, and when we moved to Florida I was in my senior year of high school, and they had a science fair,” says Koller. “I placed well in that, and out of that came a job with the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, which was the group that had a launch center here, essentially for von Braun’s rocket team.”

The next year, the rocket operation was transferred to NASA, and Koller along with it. After returning from college, Koller worked his way up from being a NASA technician to being a staff engineer. His 32 year career with NASA included work on both the Apollo and the Space Shuttle programs.

“I got to lead the group that wrote and published the environmental impact statement for the space shuttle at the cape,” says Koller. “We’re launching rockets from the middle of a wildlife refuge, one of the country’s largest and most diverse. I worked with a lot of really talented people.”

Prior to his retirement in 2013, Koller led the creation of SpaceTEC, the National Science Foundation’s Center for Aerospace Technical Education.

Koller is author of the new book “Exploring Space: Opening New Frontiers,” available from amazon.com. The book explores the past, present, and future space launch activities at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center.

“Coming out of World War II, we were able to bring with us the remnants of the German rocket team,” says Koller. “They came to us rather than go to the Russians, and we immediately became involved in a space race with the Russians, post war. By 1948-49, our government was looking for where it would launch from. They were already launching rockets in White Sands, New Mexico, for example. They had a base in Texas, and they were looking for how you would launch big rockets.”

Cape Canaveral, Florida was selected as the launch site for America’s space program.

“In our area was the Banana River Naval Air Station, so we already had land here, government land with infrastructure in place,” says Koller. “Because we’re on the east coast of Florida, we now have launch over water for a vast area. We can go downrange for thousands of miles and not overfly land. We’re on the outside of the spaceship Earth, moving at a thousand miles an hour, so if you launch from Florida, close to the equator, and you launch to the east, you already have a thousand miles an hour of orbital velocity to work from.”

Today, independent commercial companies are partnering with the government more than ever before to move America’s space program forward.

“What they won’t do or can’t do, the government will, and what the government doesn’t have to do, they will do for us,” says Koller. “It’s a much broader program, and I think it’s about to really blossom. People like you and I will have the chance to go into space if we want to do it. All you need to have is a lot of money. It’s coming.”

Forty-five years ago this week, the flight of Apollo 11 changed the course of human history.

On July 16, 1969, a Saturn V rocket launched from the Kennedy Space Center carrying astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. into space. Four days later, Neil Armstrong, closely followed by Buzz Aldrin, left the lunar module Eagle and walked on the surface of the moon.

Historians, humanities scholars, and sociologists say that the moment Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, the Modern Era ended and the Post-Modern Age began.

With the words “It’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” Armstrong moved us all from an era that began with the European Renaissance of the 1400s into a future we are still creating.

Florida history encompasses the “bookends” of the Modern Era, with Spanish exploration and colonization of the New World on one end, and the launch of humans to the surface of the moon on the other. Like all of America’s manned missions into space, the Apollo 11 flight was launched from Cape Canaveral (known as Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973), which is also the oldest North American place name to appear on a European map.

The Apollo mission was the fifth manned launch into space, but was the first to bring human beings to the surface of the moon. That goal was established by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961, when he announced, “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”

Although President Kennedy would not live to see his dream fulfilled, the workers at the Kennedy Space Center made it happen with five months to spare.

“It is estimated that between 750,000 and 1,000,000 people came to visit Brevard County to see this historic launch,” says Lisa Malone, Director of Public Affairs for NASA, adding that U.S. 1 and surrounding roadways were filled with people, and that the Indian River was packed with boaters waiting to see the launch. “Everyone all over the world stopped to see what was going on down here at Kennedy Space Center.”

Like many current NASA employees, Lisa Malone is a descendant of an Apollo program worker. Her father Joe Malone led a team of NASA draftsmen.

On the fortieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, a monument to the Apollo program was unveiled at Space View Park in Titusville. Sculptor Sandra Storm created the Apollo monument. Her other work includes the Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore memorial in Viera, a religious sculpture in Kansas, and a World War II monument in Kissimmee.

“For any sculptor to be able to do a monument of such an important event in history is just incredible,” says Storm.

It took longer to conceptualize, design, and create the elaborate Apollo monument than it did to bring President Kennedy’s dream of landing a man on the moon to fruition. The monument consists of a huge stainless steel “A” encircled by a bronze earth and moon, 12 bronze panels telling the Apollo program story, and a life-size statue of John F. Kennedy at a podium. Lining the walkway around the monument are pylons featuring the names and hand prints of all the Apollo astronauts.

Charlie Mars is president of the U.S. Space Walk of Fame Foundation, the group that raised the money to design and build the monuments in Space View Park. Mars was involved in the Apollo program from the early design phase through the last mission as the Lunar Module Chief Project Engineer.

Mars says that every Apollo program launch was a “tourist attraction,” but that the Apollo 11 mission had a particularly significant impact on the economy of Brevard County. “There’s no telling how many millions of dollars poured into the economy from workers and hotels and restaurants and gift shops and rental cars and airline tickets.”

As our modern space program is in a relative period of stasis, it is important to remember the remarkable accomplishments of our local NASA pioneers.

One giant leap for mankind, indeed.

Dr. Ben Brotemarkle is executive director of the Florida Historical Society and host of the radio program “Florida Frontiers,” broadcast locally on 90.7 WMFE Thursday evenings at 6:30 and Sunday afternoons at 4:00, and on 89.5 WFIT Sunday mornings at 7:00. The show can be heard online at myfloridahistory.org.