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Old 26th May 2021, 23:56
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wiggy
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
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RIP John Hodge

Who?

One of the very first Flight Directors at NASA...on the console as Flight Director when Gemini 8 (Armstrong/Scott) had it's close call...

Reconstruction here with original audio, event starts at 22 minutes..


A Brit, to NASA by way of Canada - he one of many Brits and Canadians who moved south to the States as a result of the collapse of the Avro Arrow project and the need for a fast expending NASA to find engineers/flight test engineers...

Short obit here by Robert Pearlman:

Former NASA flight director ("Blue Flight") John D. Hodge, who was console when a stuck thruster sent Gemini 8 into a spin, died on May 19, 2021, according to flight controller Sy Liebergot. Hodge was 92.A British-born engineer who worked on the Avro Arrow in Canada before becoming a member of NASA's Space Task Group, Hodge served as chief of the flight control branch at Langley Research Center in Virginia. In addition to being a flight director, Hodge was chief of the flight control division and manager of the advanced missions program office at the Manned Spacecraft Center (today, Johnson Space Center) in Houston.

In 1982, Hodge became director of the Space Station Task Force at NASA Headquarters in Washington. He served as the deputy associate administrator for the space station from 1984 to 1985 and then acting associate administrator from 1985 to 1986.

Link to NASA Oral History - 1999 Hodge Interview

Last edited by wiggy; 27th May 2021 at 11:41.
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