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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Sponsor

Honored by:
Carolyn Lantz

I was a UNIVAC computer analyst at Cape Canaveral from Spring 1958 until Autumn 1971. The "Athena" computer was the first all-transistor computer to be manufactured in quantity. It was developed to work with the Bell Labs (BTL) ground guidance system. at MTL/Univac we provided pre-flight checkout of guidance equipment and programming. In 1958 we had only one Athena computer at the Cape, and I was its only software analyst and programmer.

The system was used to guide all of the Titan-I ICBMs, which were launched from Cape Canaveral about forty times, from early 1959 through 1961. These Titan launches were suitable tests of down-range performance. Our guidance system also was used to guide some Thor-Bravo nose-cone tests in early 1959. I participated in preparing the BTL/Athena system for all tests and rocket launches, including post-flight analysis.

I wrote many small computer programs to check the various aspects of the entire guidance loop. These included tests of the Athena computer, the BTL radar system, the airborne transponder, and the rocket gyro interface. One such check I wrote inspected the rocket on the launch pad for its response to steering orders from the radar-computer link.

This rocket engine would gimbal under simple tests of guidance orders, such as square steps of one or two degrees. I elaborated on this by computing orders in the Athena to gimbal the rocket engine to move in a sine-wave pattern, which was very convincing that the rocket engine would move exactly right when in flight, and was more credit to our guidance system.

In late 1959 launches began from various satellites, using a Delta rocket and guided into orbit by our BTL/Univac system. On 1 April 1960 the TIROS weather satellite was the first ever to be guided into a circular orbit. This success evolved into the long series of DELTA rocket launches of many satellites. It began with the ECHO balloon in May 1960, and TIROS 2 later that year.
Subsequent launches of satellites into orbit via the DELTA rocket were so successful that a wide variety of many satellites were launched over the next eleven years. There were multiple launches for TIROS, OSO, Telstar, Comsat, Pioneer, Intelsat, and others. Over 80 DELTA rockets were launched using the BTL/Univac guidance system, with mostly very fine results.

In 1967 Delta satellite launches were fewer than usual, so we had a series of lectures by local engineers on the operation of the guidance system. When it came to the computer guidance logic, I was asked to explain the operation of the computer software. Using no notes, but a number of view graphs, I spoke for two hours to our largest group, explaining pre-flight analysis and testing, the rocket flight paths logic, and post-flight evaluation. All of the many attendees, including a few guests from NASA and some rocket engineers, said it was very enlightening.