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Author name: KENNETH LIPARTITO, ORVILLE R. BUTLER

: A History of the Kennedy Space Center
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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 387.8
EAN num: 9780813030692
ISBN number: 0813030692
Label: University Press of Florida
Manufacturer: University Press of Florida
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 496
Printing Date: August 12, 2007
Publishing house: University Press of Florida
Sale Popularity Level: 532684
Studio: University Press of Florida



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Product Description:
This very first comprehensive history of the Kennedy Space Center, NASA's famous launch facility located at Cape Canaveral, Florida, reveals the vital but largely unknown work that takes place before the rocket is lit. Though the famous Vehicle Assembly Building and launch pads dominate the flat Florida landscape at Cape Canaveral and attract 1.5 million people each year to its visitor complex, few members of the public are privy to what goes on there beyond the final outcome of the flaring rocket as it lifts into space. With unprecedented acess to a wide variety of sources, including the KSC archives, other NASA centers, the National Archives, and individual and group interviews and collections, Lipartito and Butler explore how the methods and technology for preparing, testing, and launching spacecraft have evolved over the last 45 years. Their story includes the Mercury and Gemini missions, the Apollo lunar program, the Space Shuttle, scientific missions and robotic spacecraft, and the International Space Station, as well as the tragic accidents of Challenger and Columbia. Throughout, the authors reveal the unique culture of the people who work at KSC and make Kennedy distinct from other parts of NASA.
 As Lipartito and Butler show, big NASA projects, notably the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station, had much to learn on the ground before they made it to space. Long before a spacecraft started its ascent, crucial work had been done, work that combined the muscular and mundane with the high tech and applied the vital skills and knowledge of the men and women of KSC to the design of vehicles and missions. The authors challenge notions that successful innovation was simply the result of good design alone and argue that, with large technical systems, real world experience actually made the difference between bold projects that failed and innovations that stayed within budget and produced consistent results. The authors pay particular attention to 'operational knowledge' developed by KSC--the insights that came from using and operating complex technology. This work makes it abundantly clear that the processes performed by ground operations are absolutely vital to success.
 




Customer Reviews
User popularity level: out of 5 stars

Rated by buyers 2 out of 5 stars - This is a joke!
The other reviewer is right,it is "A" history. If you want to learn History of the Kennedy Space Center, save your money, buy something else.


Rated by buyers 3 out of 5 stars - Clarifications and Omissions


If you are interested in the politics between KSC and the Headquarters and other NASA Centers during the Shuttle Program, this book provides a good insight. If you are interested in understanding how the KSC operated and made a sucess of several prior programs and the early Shuttle Program, this is not the book. This book portends to be "A"" history of the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). However, it is really the politics of the Shuttle Program during the initial planning and after its arrival at KSC in 1979. It document this history to a degree. However, due to some very serious omissions of content, it is not an overall history of KSC. Some of these omissions are: (1) The Gemini Program which was assigned to KSC in 1965 and the effect that it had on the follow-on programs such as Apollo and Shuttle was mentioned only in passing; (2) expendable Launch Vehicles that were launched from the Cape Canerval Air Force Station that supported the unmanned science are barely mentioned, (3) the European Space Agency's (ESA) Spacelab comes in with little history although KSC contributed a considerable amount of engineering and operational experience to the ESA; (4) during the Shuttle facility development period, the Design Engineering Directorate under Ray Clark provided the primary KSC technical support to ground systems development, design, and installation but very little is said of the tremendous effort required to accomplish that task: (5) the contribution of the Shuttle Project Office and its leader, Dr. Robert Gray or "Mr KSC", to the external interfaces is not mentioned.. This office managed not only the development and construction of all of the Shuttle facilities at KSC, but also drove the design of the flight hardware / ground system interfaces through extensive involvement with the very cooperative Shuttle Program Office in Houston from 1971 until delivery of the flight hardware to KSC; "Bob" Gray was the driving force at KSC throughout the entire Shuttle development; and (6) the Spacecraft Operations Directorate, and its leader, John Williams, that planned and conducted the checkout and preparation for the Gemini and Apollo Spacecraft Missions and early Shuttle Planning is not mentioned. To not mention these individuals if like writing about the Battle of Chancellorsville and not mention Stonewall Jackson. These are grievous errors of omission in a history.

During the Apollo era, there were two distinct programs, the Launch vehicle or Saturn, and the spacecraft, Apollo, which consisted of the Service Module, the Command Module and the Lunar Module at the KSC. This is the origin of the two different philosophies discussed in the book. Too often in the text, no differentiation is made between the two programs and the associated personnel nor a concise description of the differences, if any.

In addition, there are several errors. The Mercury Program had no association with KSC, it was a project of the Space Task Force and the Manned Space Center, later, the Johnson Space Center (JSC)). It was during these programs that the KSC Spacecraft method of doing business was developed and used on Gemini, Apollo, and early Shuttle. The method is not described but has many negative commends directed toward it. Had it been understood by the authors, it would have cleared up or eliminated a considerable amount of text in the following chapters.

In the Introduction, the book defines the geographical and organizational differences between the NASA KSC, which is really the upper end of Merritt Island, and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which is normally referred to as the "Cape" but says they are used interchangeably. Only people that are not associated with KSC make that assumption. To often in the text, the "Cape" means "KSC".

The term "Hands On" is used throughout the book and gives the impression that NASA personnel were in deed turning the wrenches, screwing the screws, and operating the ground equipment. Nothing could be further from the truth except maybe for the early days when the launch function was an arm of the Army. In general, KSC has always had a contractor performing the tasks with NASA providing detailed requirements and oversight. Other terms are used, like Ship and Shoot, but are not defined other than the title.

The book implies that there was considerable German influence on all programs at KSC. That is not the case. It may have influenced the Saturn launch vehicle to a degree but the spacecraft programs were all influenced by the rules established by the Space Task Group and the efforts of the personnel trained at the American missile manufacturers. I worked there twenty years and the only German that I knew was Gunter Wendt (Author: The Unbroken Chain ), a contractor.

Too much is made of the conflict with the other NASA Centers. KSC participated in the various Design Reviews ... Read More


Rated by buyers 4 out of 5 stars - The Story of Spaceflight Operations--"Where the Rubber Meets the Road"
"A History of the Kennedy Space Center" is a very good book about the evolution of spaceflight launch operations at "the Cape"--a largely unknown, undocumented and unappreciated aspect of the exciting space missions that make the headlines.

There are many excellent books in print about the design, manufacture and flight of unmanned and manned NASA spacecraft. Many of them are stories about building and testing the hardware, filled with engineering details and scientific minutia sure to satisfy the most fanatic technophile. "A History of the Kennedy Space Center" is different. Its subject is limited to the operations that take place at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) from the time an aerospace contractor delivers a space vehicle to the Cape until it is launched, weeks, months or (in some cases) years later. This is the story of the "wrench turners" and "pad rats" who toil unsung behind the scenes to prepare spacecraft for launch, and of the various types of organizations that NASA has tried over the years--mostly unsuccessfully--to make the pre-flight process faster, simpler, cheaper and safer.

During the Apollo era, former German ex-V-2 engineers held most supervisory positions at the Cape. They brought with them from Peenemunde a "hands-on" engineering tradition with very tight working relationships between the hardware designers and testers, and between factory and field personnel. As the Apollo program showed (notwithstanding the Apollo 1 launch pad fire), this approach was right for the lunar program, and was a major factor in America's defeat of the Soviet Union in the "moon race." However, in later years, the experienced Germans retired, and the "hands-on" tradition faded as less-experienced managers decided they could manage better without getting their hands dirty. Tensions between designers at the factories and launch preparation teams at KSC increased. The designers thought they knew best, and did not welcome critical feedback from the blue-collar launch pad "techs" who had the nerve to suggest better ways to design hardware from an "operations" perspective. This attitude--among other things, of course--contributed to the losses of Space Shuttles "Challenger" and "Columbia." Exacerbating the problem was Washington's relentless drive to privatize spaceflight operations, a "shoot yourself in the foot" strategy that turned NASA employees into contract managers rather than knowledgeable engineers, with predictable consequences.

The authors show convincingly that the Cape is really "where the rubber meets the road," and that it is the dedicated work of the "wrench turners" there that makes much of the difference between a successful space mission and a failure. NASA would be well-advised to heed the lessons of the past as related in "A History of the Kennedy Space Center" as it grapples with today's problems of an aging Shuttle fleet, an International Space Station in search of a mission and the burgeoning international competition for space launch services.

Well-written, comprehensive and authoritative, "A History of the Kennedy Space Center" deserves a place on every space buff's bookshelf.


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