Norman John Brodeur Apollo Mission

I worked at MIT’s instrumentation lab which later became Draper Labs. My responsibility was instrumentation and guidance systems for the Apollo command module and the lunar module. Previous to that I worked for Avco-Everett Research Lab in Everett. There we focused on testing materials for the vehicle’s heat shield. I was doing heat studies of various materials and what we eventually developed would just burn off and the heat with it.

The computers were not very advanced. Really rudimentary. They had something like 2,200 words of memory. After each mission was done they would bring the computer to Raytheon where they would rewire it because it had to be specific for the next mission. So they had to do that each time.

During the Apollo 14 mission, the guidance computer received four errant false abort commands while orbiting the moon. Probably because of a loose switch or wire. But it had to be addressed or they would have to really abort the mission. One of the guys in the instrumentation lab, Don Eyles, knew that area of the programming and he went in and made a patch and the mission proceeded.

It was the highlight of my career. Yes, the highlight of my career. It was very exciting. Especially with the interface with the astronauts and the whole program. They brought back moon rocks and that was a big to-doo. And we had beat the Russians to the moon. That had big significance.

One of the things that excited me the most was when we actually went to see a lift-off. That gave me a lot of joy and excitement. We brought our grandson and took our children to other lift-offs. It was the biggest thrill of my life other than getting married to my beautiful wife Lia.