Despite the Apollo program’s American underpinnings and imagery, Canadians played a key role in the success of the endeavour. Many of them had worked on the Avro Arrow program in Canada before it was infamously cancelled in 1959. Here are a few of the brightest lights:
Jim Chamberlin
The aerodynamicist was the head of engineering for NASA’s Mercury program, playing a major role in the final design of the capsule that put John Glenn into orbit in 1962. He also designed the Gemini space capsule, an undertaking that earned him a NASA Gold Medal. The native of Kamloops, B.C., who was obsessed with designing model airplanes as a boy, served as engineering troubleshooter on the Apollo project.
Owen Maynard
Years after serving in the Second World War as a pilot, Maynard was head of systems engineering in the Apollo program office, and was recognized for playing a pivotal role in the development of the lunar module which eventually carried six astronauts to the moon. Maynard sketched out the initial designs for the lunar landing module. Despite his many years living in the United States, the Sarnia native spent his retirement in Waterloo, Ont., where he died in 2000. Maynard will receive national recognition for his work Monday when he is posthumously given the Canadian Air and Space Pioneer Award.
R. Bryan Erb
Erb provided technical leadership for key elements of the Apollo spacecraft, including the heat shield. Born in Calgary, he remained with NASA beyond the Apollo years, and worked on the International Space Station and with the Canadian Space Agency for many years.
Robert Vale
The Toronto-born Vale helped design the lunar surface experiments package that the Apollo astronauts set up at their landing sites
Leonard Packham
Packham, originally from Saskatoon, Sask., helped develop communications for Apollo. He worked with NASA on its original Project Mercury manned missions.
Dr. Bill Carpentier
As the flight surgeon for the Apollo 11 crew, Carpentier was locked up with the astronauts for almost three weeks before the mission to perform medical tests. And he was in the recovery helicopter that hovered over the spacecraft after it dropped into the Atlantic Ocean on July 24, becoming the first physician to examine the astronauts after the mission. Carpentier, from a small town on Vancouver Island, joined NASA during the Gemini phase of manned spaceflight.
Dr. Owen Coons
Also a flight surgeon, Coons was lured to NASA in 1963. He was a mentor to Carpentier. Coons was present for many of NASA’s dramas, including the fateful Apollo 1 fire in 1967, which claimed the lives of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee and almost derailed the entire Apollo effort.
Heroux Machine Parts
This Quebec-based company made the legs for Apollo 11’s lunar module, and for five others. The legs were made from lightweight aluminum using a compressible honeycomb design.
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