BBC Archive: The Brits Who Bolstered the Moon Landings
- Published
In 1969, when man first stood on the Moon, a number of British engineers, from towns and villages such as Billericay, Leigh-on-Sea and Llanddaniel Fab, helped get the Apollo 11 mission off the ground.
BBC Archive has unearthed interviews with some of these men.
Francis Thomas Bacon
©Royal Society
In 1932, Essex-born Francis Thomas Bacon invented a fuel cell which derived power from hydrogen and oxygen. Without this, the Apollo 11 crew wouldn’t have had the power necessary for essentials like lights, air-conditioning and communications.
When President Nixon welcomed Bacon to the White House, he was candid in his appreciation, telling him that "without you, Tom, we wouldn't have gotten to the Moon".
In the above clip, from BBC Radio 4's The World At One, Nancy Wise interviews Francis Thomas Bacon about his fuel cell which had most recently been used in the Apollo 8 mission.
John Hodge
John Hodge speaks to Raymond Baxter. Tomorrow's World, 1966
Essex-born John Hodge was flight director at Mission Control in Houston for a number of the Mercury, Gemini and early Apollo manned space missions. He had retired from his flight director role by 1969, but his earlier contributions helped in the progress of the Apollo 11 mission.
Dr Ian Dodds
Ian Dodds speaks to BBC science correspondent Reg Turnhill, 1968
Born in Batley, West Yorkshire, Dr Ian Dodds was manager of systems dynamics on the Apollo missions, with key responsibility for launch escape, docking and Earth recovery systems. He was co-author of a paper detailing the functioning of the Apollo escape system, an ejection device designed to help astronauts if there was a failure during launch.
Tecwyn Roberts
Tecwyn Roberts during the BBC's Apollo 13 coverage.
Anglesey-born engineer Tecwyn Roberts served as Nasa's first Flight Dynamics Officer. He was involved in designing Mission Control at Nasa's Johnson Space Center in Houston and helped create its worldwide tracking and communications network.
Keith Wright
A systems engineer at Bendix Aerospace, Keith Wright was responsible for the pre-launch operations of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package at Kennedy Space Center.
Prior to lift-off, the Nottingham engineer etched a Union flag onto part of a solar panel which remained on the Moon after Armstrong and Aldrin completed their mission.
