NASA engineer’s archive chronicling the first seven years of work on the Apollo space program, including manuals, revised draft proposals, reports, presentations, manuscript material, transparencies, internal communications & correspondence, etc. Over 130 separate items, totaling thousands of pages of primary source materials, from the collection of Robert M. Taylor, a lead NASA engineer, who was stationed at Parkes Observatory during the Apollo 11 Moon Landing & Broadcast.
The collection includes more than 130 items, from brief annotated reports to large, bound, multi-hundred page operations and regulatory manuals; numerous manuscript items, revised & corrected drafts of internal reports, printed presentations & transparencies, typescript & manuscript materials, etc., several of which were authored by NASA Engineer Robert M. Taylor, and many bear his name, dated ownership stamps, annotations, and communications between NASA and various contractors. It includes documents from various NASA locations (Texas, Florida, California, and Washington, DC); plus contractors, General Electric-Apollo Support Department, US Air Force Systems Command, Hughes Aircraft (Apollo Division), etc.
The bulk of the archive spans 1961-1967, with an engineer’s focus on mission reliability tests, analyses, projections, and mathematical modeling, for a myriad of aspects of the Apollo Program, including computational and data systems, design and manufacturing, launch and lunar landing systems, space suits, lunar exploration vehicles, etc. A number of documents are related to the Apollo A-204 mission, which went on to be renamed Apollo 1, after the deadly disaster that claimed all three astronauts on board during the failed launch in February, 1967. Some documents track NASA’s requested and realized budgets, projected staffing, and materials flow-charts (noting the millions of parts involved in the project). This archive represents a rare opportunity to see the evolution of the Apollo program, from its birth, through an engineer’s eye, including their revisions, corrections, comments, and internal communications.
A few highlights of the collection:
ANALYTICAL APOLLO MISSION SUCCESS AND ABORT MODELING. By W. J. MacFarland. Dec. 13, 1962. General Electric. 27 pages, folder-bound. Inscribed note from MacFarland to Taylor.
LONG LIFE RELIABILITY IN SPACE. General Electric Co. Spacecraft Dept. Presentation made to Mr. J. Levine (NASA/MSC) by Mr. Dan Huebner of the Spacecraft Department. May 27, 1963. Mechanically reproduced sheets, c.25 pages, stapled. Bearing Taylor’s dated rubber stamp.
APOLLO CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT MANUAL. May 18, 1964. Washington, DC: NASA, 1964. Circa 300 pages, metal pressure-clamp binding. Rubber-stamped on front cover: “Received June 6, 1964, R. M. Taylor.”
APOLLO. THE LUNAR ORBITAL RENDEZVOUS MANNED LUNAR LANDING MISSION. June 24, 1964. Corrected typescript of an illustrated “Presentation to IEEE Professional Group on Reliability, Cocoa Beach Chapter, June 24, 1964.” 31 leaves, including 22 full-page illustrations depicting every stage of the launch, lunar touchdown, liftoff, earth atmosphere re-entry, and touchdown.
ONE HOUR BRIEFING ON THE MATH MODEL FOR GENERAL PHILLIPS. March 29, 1965. Daytona Beach, FL: GE, Apollo Support Operations, 1965. Mechanically reproduced sheets (with corrections), 12 pages, stapled. Gen. Phillips (1921–1990) was a USAF general who served as Director of NASA's Apollo program from 1964 to 1969, and as commander of the Space and Missile Systems Organization from 1969 to 1972. Also present are multiple corrected earlier drafts of the above.
APOLLO RELIABILITY. By George A. Lemke, Apollo Reliability and Quality, Manned Space Flight Program Status Review, March 22, 1965. Various versions and paginations, typescript and mechanically reproduced sheets, cut-and-page mockups, etc., stapled. Present are multiple versions of corrected and annotated drafts by Taylor, and at least one other NASA engineer.
MISSION RELIABILITY AND SAFETY ANALYSIS. WORK PLAN FOR PERIOD APRIL 1 TO DECEMBER 31, 1965. March 27, 1965. Mechanically reproduced sheets, 15 pages, stapled. 4 versions, each with corrections and annotations. Together with 16 NASA Transparencies to accompany the above presentation.
APOLLO HARDWARE INDENTURE CODE. Spacecraft Reliability Analysis Program. December 30, 1965. Houston, TX: Manned Spacecraft Center, 1965. 3-ring binder, c.250 pages.
APOLLO SPACECRAFT PROGRAM OFFICE FLIGHT READINESS REVIEW PROCEDURE. MSC-A-D-66-6. Houston, TX: NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, October 12, 1966. Mechanically reproduced sheets, 36 pages, stapled. Signed “Taylor” on front cover.
RELIABILITY STATUS REPORT #1-#5 [bound out of order]. [1966]. Mechanically reproduced sheets, 15 pages.
COPIES OF CHARTS PREPARED AT “FARM” MEETING, GALVESTON TEXAS, DECEMBER 6-7, 1966. Typescript(?), 20 pages, stapled.
MISSION SUCCESS AND FLIGHT SAFETY ANALYSIS REVIEW. [1967]. Typescript, 6 pages stapled, with corrections and pencil annotations.
RELIABILITY, QUALITY AND TEST ENGINEERING. GE SUPPORT. OCT. 1, 1967-OCT. 1, 1968. [3/67]. Corrected draft, c.20 pages. Together with a revised version, in mimeo., and a third version, being another draft, with manuscript corrections.
[WILLIAM] BLAND’S QUESTION. ISSUE 3 [title in pencil and ink manuscript]. EVCT & LEM DOCKING… [late 1967?]. Mechanically reproduced sheets, 17 pages.
MSC RELIABILITY AND QUALITY ASSURANCE OFFICE. OBJECTIVE: ACHIEVE THE HIGHEST RELIABILITY AND QUALITY. 9/13/67. Typescript with corrections and overlay, 9 pages.
PRESENTATION BLAND TO CONDON 9/15/67. Manuscript and typescript with corrections, mock-ups, etc., c.15 pages. With R. M. Taylor’s dated rubber stamp on front cover. Together with a revised, and corrected (earlier) version. 12 pages. Stapled.
MEMORANDUM. October 4, 1966. To: L. W. Warzecha From: R. W. Peverley. Subject: Revision of Technical Paper for the 37th Shock and Vibration Symposium. Mechanically reproduced sheets, c.25 pages, Illustrated with drawings, charts and reproduced photographs.
The definitive 4-volume history of the Apollo Program covers 1961-1974 (published by NASA between 1969-1978). The documents in the archive offered here span all 4 volumes (1961-1967), with Vol. 3 ending in January, 1966. Robert Taylor was stationed in Maryland for years leading up to the Apollo 11 mission, and was in Australia, at Peak’s Observatory, during the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, as noted below– this may explain the absence of later documents related to that mission—as these came from his estate outside Houston, Texas, where he began working at the newly established Manned Space Flight Center in Houston in 1961.
Robert M. Taylor worked on the Apollo Program from its inception through its successful moon landing and safe return to Earth. He served as NASA Operations Manager at Parkes Observatory (NSW, Australia) during the Apollo 11 Moon Landing (one of the main telescopes used in the television broadcast, the other being Goldstone Station in California). He was a graduate of North Carolina State University, and had 14 years experience in the heavy radar field-research, navigation, surveillance equipment and supervision of equipment in naval bases, air stations, and at sea. Taylor logged a million air miles on this work, concentrating on the Pacific region. He was stationed in Japan from late 1956 to 1960. His base at the time of Apollo 11, was the Goddard Space Flight Center, where he had been attached for four years (at the time of the landing he was in Australia, leading efforts at Parkes, including the moonwalk broadcast). His division came under the control of the Manned Flight Support Director, whose engineering division had four key branches, one of which specialized in tracking and data relay - the work undertaken at Parkes– overseen by Taylor. For a more detailed account of Taylor’s role in the Moon Landing broadcast, and photographs of him and his NASA team in the control room, see Sarkissian, “On Eagle's Wings: The Parkes Observatory's Support of the Apollo 11 Mission,” in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, p. 288.
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