Mastering the Art of Success
regular everyday people who lived quiet, normal lives, across the
country who were part of this huge mission. Sending a man to the
moon was unimaginable; something you would read in a science fiction
novel, but it actually became a reality through the efforts and
dedication of regular, everyday people like my dad.
Through my dad’s guidance and example, I learned about technology
at an early age. I think he saw the vision of the future—what was
possible with technology, what could be accomplished through a team
effort, and what advances could be made in the years ahead. When he
worked on the part for Apollo 11, he used slide rulers to do
calculations. Back then, computers were nothing like they are today—
th ey were big, bulky machines that filled an entire room, with as much
computing power as a cell phone would have today. It was a different
time period, but he saw the potential. Even though I was a girl, and
especially during that time in history where many people assumed a
woman would get married, stay at the home as a housewife, and not
worry about working, I think he had the opposite idea and wanted us,
his children, to get exposure and to get comfortable with technology
early on.
He was, and always will be, a humble and modest man, quietly doing
what needed to be done as part of his job. To me, it was much more
th an that. I think my dad played such a significant role, along with the
other four hundred thousand Americans who contributed to the
success of the Apollo 11 mission. He t ested a remote temperature
sensor device, making sure it could withstand the different
environmental changes that it might be exposed to while in space and
on the moon.
The main focus that was instilled in him and all the other people
involved in this mission was Zero Tolerance. This meant that nothing,
absolutely nothing, could go wrong within your area of responsibility
because we were sending human beings to the moon, to unknown
territory, and the entire country was relying on you to make sure nothing
ha ppened to them.
Zero Tolerance meant th at there would be no tolerance for any
defects or oversight; these astronauts were counting on you to return