Local man shares story about involvement with Apollo missions

Saturday will mark 50 years since man first stepped on the moon. Local resident Bob Schaefer was one of the designers of consumables on all the Apollo missions.

“I was in the mission design area, and we came up with what was called design mission for the spacecraft from which we derived the requirements for the subsystems, how much energy we needed from the electrical system, how much energy we needed for the control system and for the jets. When the Apollo 11 mission launched, I was in the mission support room at Downey. Part of my team were there 24/7.

Schaefer spoke with News Channel 3 about 50th anniversary of the historic moment.

“It brings back a lot of memories. I have been watching TV coverage of the mission and the Apollo program,” Schaefer said. “It’s hard to believe it has been 50 years. I was a young man.”

Schaefer further went into detail on his role in the mission.

“I personally was there for the launch and the first part of the mission through injection and at critical points for the CSM like when we went into lunar orbit and when we came out, I was there,” Schaefer said.

Schafer says he got to watch the historic moon from his home.