Today, Sci-Friday is honoring Bill Moon – NASA’s first Asian-American flight controller. Moon started at NASA when he was just 23 and at 27 was a flight controller for Apollo 11. He is the son of two Chinese immigrants and grew up in rural Mississippi. Bill Moon would go on to be the lead the Electrical, Environmental, and Communications controller for Apollo 16 and Apollo 17 and would then work on every manned spaceflight mission after that. Take a look at the video below and let’s talk about why this is worth celebrating:
Landing on the Moon was no mean feat for NASA, but unfortunately, NASA was full of mean feet. “Prior to Apollo 11, his coworkers had a daily game where they would compete to be the first to step on his foot as soon as he arrived to work. Whoever successfully did so would be proclaimed that day’s ‘first man to walk on the Moon.’ The winner would wear a special paper hat they made specifically for the game. Moon would later recount that though he always laughed and played along with the game, he secretly hated it and it filled him with dread that ‘men of the intelligence level required to derive enjoyment from such an infantile exercise were responsible for the lives of astronauts.'”
I hope you enjoyed this deep dive on the inspiring story of Bill Moon – NASA’s first Asian-American flight controller! Please feel welcomed to dive down the rabbit hole of every other Sci-Friday I’ve published in the past couple years. Have a great weekend! 🙂
