Resting on the bookshelf above my work station is one of the most unique and treasured books in my archive. It is unique not only for its content, it is unique for the story that this particular copy of this book represents. The book itself is a silent witness to history having served its previous owner in making decisions that would change history. Its previous owner was a man who was one of the silent heroes of the early space program, a man who bore the final decision to send missions to the moon, to Skylab, America’s first space station and to the first Soviet American space mission. The name, printed in bold on the front cover gives the book identity. “Kapryan”
Born in 1920 inFlint Michigan, Walter J “Kappy” Kapryan graduated with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from WayneStateUniversity in 1947 after serving as a flight engineer on the B-29 bomber with the US Air force during World War 2 with the rank of Lieutenant. Following graduation; Kapryan served as an engineer in Hydrodynamic research for NACA before becoming part of the Space Task Group at Langley Research Center. Following the formation of NASA in 1959, Kappy relocated to Cape Canaveral as a Project Mercury engineer beginning with the initial Mercury Redstone 1 launch attempt in 1960.
With the cessation of the Mercury program, in 1963 Kapryan established the Gemini Program Office at Cape Canaveral participating in the countdown and launch of the 10 manned Gemini missions. Included in his Gemini duties were spacecraft testing and determining requirements for the equipment that would be used in Gemini spacecraft checkout.
In 1966, Kappy transferred to the Apollo program serving first as Assistant to the Apollo Spacecraft Manager before serving as Deputy to Apollo Launch Director, Rocco Petrone for Apollo Saturn launches up to and including the launch of Apollo 11 in July 1969.
With the primary goal of Apollo met, a number of senior engineers and managers within the manned spaceflight program were either reassigned or left NASA for lucrative contracts in private industry.
With the transfer of Petrone to NASA Headquarters, Kappy ascended to the position of Launch Director for the remainder of the Apollo moon landing program, Skylab, ASTP and other flights up to the advent of the Shuttle program beginning with the Apollo 12 launch in November 1969.
Kappy’s last role with NASA was to serve as the initial Director of Space Shuttle Operations at Kennedy SpaceCenter, a position held until his retirement from NASA July 1st 1979.
Moving to Private Industry, “Kappy” became Chief Technical Advisor for Lockheed Space Operations, then contractor for Space Shuttle processing.
The stereotypical view of a launch director as held by laymen is one of a crew cut square jawed military officer counting down from ten to zero and pushing a button to launch a rocket. Kapryan, standing just 5ft 4 inches tall was none of those things. Unlike his predecessor Petrone, Kapryan, known affectionately as “Captain Lightning” following the lightning strikes that impacted the Apollo 12 launch, was described as a cool calm effective leader. In contrast to the authoritarian Petrone, Kapryan was described by colleages as calm, cool, business like and to some, a gentleman. Such was the comfort of the launch team with Kapryan that their Christmas skit for 1969 parodied the Apollo 12 lightning strike with simulated thunder and lightning and, in a cape, “Captain Lightening” himself.
. We could have no finer example of what it is to lead a launch team than the example set by Walter Kapryan. It is a tribute to his character that he was not only able to achieve the record of launches that he did through what was arguably the golden era of space exploration to date, he was also able to guide the Kennedy launch team through the dark years of uncertainty that followed Apollo and preceded the shuttle. To many of the Kennedy launch team, Kappy was seen as a father figure, seeing them through the difficult period of transition that followed the Apollo program.
Walter Kapryan passed away in Indialantic Florida August 14 2015 aged 95.
Walter Kapryan’s passing sees the number of Apollo era engineers and managers with working knowledge and first hand experience that got us to the Moon continuing to dwindle. As we prepare to once again break the bonds of Low Earth Orbit we will look to the storehouse of knowledge that is the legacy of Apollo, drawing on the wisdom of its engineers and, if we are wise, looking at the makeup of the men who achieved that which was long thought impossible, yet was achieved in under ten years.
With NASA’s renewed commitment to space exploration, it is to be questioned as to whether the level engineering knowledge and experience among those currently in place in the Orion and other programs is appropriate to fulfil such an undertaking of such technical complexity. It would therefore be sheer folly not to seek guidance from those who came before.
This new generation of engineers will need to be visionaries. They will need to be capable of co-ordinating vast teams of engineers scattered across the globe and, in time, across space itself overcoming language and cultural barriers to create a truly global response to the challenges of planetary exploration.
If the new generation of Launch Director’s are truly wise, they will look to the example left by the engineers and flight controllers of Apollo and seek their guidance as they prepare to take the next steps in space exploration. They will look at the designs of the machines created by these men; they will look at the once futuristic concepts created by Apollo era engineers for lunar and interplanetary travel and use them as a basis for the challenges ahead. They will look at the procedures and mission rules developed to make the craft of the early programs fly, They will look at the decisions that were made in the preparation and launch of those craft and analyse the thought processes that went into those decisions; and they will undoubtedly look at the character of those who bore the ultimate responsibly for the success or failure of those flights: The Launch Directors in Florida; and the Flight Directors in Houston.
In any new exploratory endeavour, those who lead must be able to inspire those around them and command their respect. Even in the most fraught moments of the countdown such as that faced by Kapryan on Apollo 12, they must, under a pressure few can comprehend, make instantaneous decisions that could affect the success or failure of a flight and, by association, a program; based on information supplied in real-time by those under their leadership and they must do all this under the intense gaze of a watching waiting world.
Overriding all this is the fact that the very lives of the flight crew, in the final moments of the countdown are solely in the hands of the Launch Director. The decision of the Launch Director is literally a life or death decision for the crew riding atop the launch vehicle in what has been described as a controlled explosion.
In our new vision for space exploration, we will look to the new generation of Launch Directors and Mission Managers to make the decisions that will alter humanity’s course, for it is they who will send humanity on the beginning of a journey which will last for generations, if not eons as we take the first steps on the road to the stars. It will be they that will make the ultimate decision to Go for the Moon! And in time, Go for Mars! It is they who will lead humanity away from Earth and ever outward into space.
As the space program turns toward the flights of Orion and the Space Launch System, let us hope that there will always be men of the calibre of Walter J Kapryan to lead our endeavours… ever onward…ever outward… to the Moon, Mars and beyond.