RIP Glynn Lunney

[wiggy]

There are reports that former NASA Flight Director Glynn Lunney passed away earlier today...

For those that go: "who"?, NASA Bio below...


Glynn Lunney began his aerospace career as a co-op student at National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Lewis Research Center. He transferred to Langley and became part of the group of thirty five which formed the Space Task Group Flight Dynamics Office.Later he moved to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. He served in the Mission Control Center as a flight dynamics officer on Mercury, and flight director on Gemini and Apollo (most notably a key flight director on Apollo 13). He was Chief of the Flight Director's Office.

Lunney was the U.S. Technical Director for Apollo-Soyuz in the US and Russia joint space mission of I975. He led the Shuttle Integration program and served as Program Manager for the Space Shuttle.

In I985, he joined Rockwell and was the General Manager of the Satellite Systems Div. (built GPS satellites). He was Vice President and General Manager of Rockwell International/Seal Beach facility. He was Vice President of Downey-Rockwell and then President of Rockwell Space Operations in Houston.

Prior to his retirement, he managed the Space Shuttle Operations for USA, a joint venture of Lockheed and Rockwell [Boeing].

He was honored with numerous awards including NASA Distinguished Service Medals, Exceptional Service Medals, and the Medal of Freedom awarded to the Mission Control Team for Apollo 13.


​​​​​​With regard to Apollo 13, he and his "Black flight" team replaced Gene Krantz and the White Team about an hour after the Oxygen tank explosion and in the main it was Lunney and his team, not Krantz's, that managed the power up and crew transition PDQ to the LM, juggling fast dwindling resources in the process.. a fact that unfortunately got glossed over/ignored in the Apollo 13 movie, probably for editorial or production reasons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glynn_Lunney

[treadigraph]

Saw your headline, knew the name instantly but took me or a moment or two to place him.

A key member of a truly phenomenal group of engineers and scientists. RIP.

[tdracer]

There are reports that former NASA Flight Director Glynn Lunney passed away earlier today...

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Lunney at a Seattle Museum of Flight event about 10 years ago (along with about four dozen other space dignitaries - the evening rapidly turned into a memory overload blur :uhoh: - meeting so many of my boyhood hero's in a short period was just overwhelming).

​​​​​​With regard to Apollo 13, he and his "Black flight" team replaced Gene Krantz and the White Team about an hour after the Oxygen tank explosion and in the main it was Lunney and his team, not Krantz's, that managed the power up and crew transition PDQ to the LM, juggling fast dwindling resources in the process.. a fact that unfortunately got glossed over/ignored in the Apollo 13 movie, probably for editorial or production reasons.
Probably editorial reasons - there were three teams of flight controllers with alternating eight hour shifts - it would have been too confusing to show all three in the movie.
I don't know about Glynn Lunney, but Gene Krantz had an extended meeting with the producer Ron Howard before they started production - so it's natural that he used Krantz's team for the movie.
Interesting trivia - Gene Krantz never actually said "Failure is not an option" - it was Ron Howard who came up with that phrase to summarize what Krantz had told him during that meeting and it found it's way into the movie. Krantz loved the phrase and adopted it as his catchphrase - even making it the title of his autobiography.

[wiggy]

Probably editorial reasons - there were three teams of flight controllers with alternating eight hour shifts - it would have been too confusing to show all three in the movie.
.

I'm sure you're right....but it's kind of a shame IMHO..then again, it's the movies...

The Murray/Cox "Apollo" book has a wonderful description of Lunney in action that evening, comparing his task of keeping all the Flight Controllers in his team on task and focused with that of keeping a load of plates on sticks spinning, and just managing to get around the loop in time to stop any of them hitting the floor...if you listen to tapes from the control room, and especially the EECOM channel you can really get the feeling of how terribly close they were to running out of electricity and oxygen before they got things anything going in the LM and it demonstrates what a heck of a job Glyn Lunney did..

For those that don't know the audio channels and more are available here:

https://apolloinrealtime.org/

[Mr Mac]

I'm sure you're right....but it's kind of a shame IMHO..then again, it's the movies...

The Murray/Cox "Apollo" book has a wonderful description of Lunney in action that evening, comparing his task of keeping all the Flight Controllers in his team on task and focused with that of keeping a load of plates on sticks spinning, and just managing to get around the loop in time to stop any of them hitting the floor...if you listen to tapes from the control room, and especially the EECOM channel you can really get the feeling of how terribly close they were to running out of electricity and oxygen before they got things anything going in the LM and it demonstrates what a heck of a job Glyn Lunney did..

For those that don't know the audio channels and more are available here:

https://apolloinrealtime.org/
Wiggy
The spinning plates quote was used today by myself with my team scattered world wide, and all perhaps a little lonely. Unfortunately many had not heard about Apollo 13 either :ugh:
Cheers
Mr Mac

[treadigraph]

I have the Lovell, Kraft and Kranz books which I imagine all give a fairly balanced view of Apollo 13 and the work put in by the different FDs and their teams - such a pity that most of those who have seen the film won't pick up any of the books on the subject. As a youngster, I wasn't that taken by space flight, it's only in later life I've become far more interested in the history..

Someone telling me yesterday just how remarkably and technologically clever the little drones buzzing round the neighbourhood are. Yeah? They are as nothing compared to Mercury/Gemini/Apollo and the Russian programmes in the 1960s.

[wiggy]

Official NASA obit here:

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-remembers-legendary-flight-director-glynn-lunney

Belated edit to add this:

https://cosmo.org/blog/view/ill-miss-you-neighbor

[TURIN]

Thanks for posting this, I don't anything about the late Mr Lunney, I'll be reviewing that. Sounds like he's the sort of individual needed these days.