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Phillips, Samuel C

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Phillips

Born: 1921-02-19. Died: 1990-01-31. Birth Place: Arizona.

Samuel C. Phillips , was trained as an electrical engineer at the University of Wyoming, but he also participated in the Civilian Pilot Training Program during World War II. Upon his graduation in 1942 Phillips entered the Army infantry but soon transferred to the air component. As a young pilot he served with distinction in the Eighth Air Force in England--earning two distinguished flying crosses, eight air medals, and the French Croix de guerre--but he quickly became interested in aeronautical research and development. He became involved both in the development of the incredibly successful B-52 bomber in the early 1950s and headed the Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile program in the latter part of the decade. In 1964 Phillips, by this time an Air Force general, was lent to NASA to head the Apollo moon landing program, which, of course, was unique in its technological accomplishment. He went back to the Air Force in the 1970s and commanded Air Force Systems Command prior to this retirement in 1975.

In the 1950s, General Phillips conducted engineering work involving the Falcon and BOMARC programs at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. He played a key role in arranging for Thor IRBM basing in Great Britain and then took charge of the Minuteman Program during the critical period of testing and deployment from 1959 to 1963. After a stint with NASA to manage the Apollo program, Phillips assumed command of the Space and Missile Systems Organization (SAMSO) from 1969 to 1972. His final tour of duty placed him in command of the Air Force Systems Command.

• Birth of Samuel C Phillips - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Phillips, Samuel. American USAF officer, talented manager who developed the B-52 and Minuteman for the Air Force, then was brought to NASA to head the Apollo program 1964-1971..

• Samuel C Phillips new NASA Deputy Director for Apollo Program - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Mueller, Phillips, Samuel. Program: Apollo.

  NASA announced the appointment of Air Force Brig. Gen. Samuel C. Phillips as Deputy Director of the NASA Headquarters Apollo Program Office. General Phillips assumed management of the manned lunar landing program, working under George E. Mueller, Associate Administrator of Manned Space Flight and Director of the Apollo Program Office.

• Samuel C Phillips named Director of Apollo Program - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Mueller, Phillips, Samuel. Program: Apollo.

  NASA announced the appointment of Major General Samuel C. Phillips as Director of the Apollo Program. Phillips thus assumed part of the duties of George E. Mueller, Associate Administrator of Manned Space Flight, who had been serving as Apollo Director as well. Phillips had been Deputy Director since January 15.

• Apollo X missions following completion of Apollo's prime goal of landing on the Moon. - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Phillips, Samuel, Shea. Spacecraft Bus: Apollo CSM. Spacecraft: Apollo X.

  In a letter to Apollo Program Director Samuel C. Phillips regarding tentative spacecraft development and mission planning schedules, Joseph F. Shea, Apollo Spacecraft Program Manager, touched upon missions following completion of Apollo's prime goal of landing on the Moon. Such missions, Shea said, would in general fall under the heading of a new program (such as Apollo X). Although defining missions a number of years in the future was most complex, Shea advised that MSC was planning to negotiate program package contracts with both North American and Grumman through Fiscal Year 1969, based upon the agency's most recent program planning schedules.

• Requirements for Apollo spacecraft launched by Saturn IB assessed - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Phillips, Samuel. Program: Apollo.

  At the request of Maj. Gen. Samuel C. Phillips, Apollo Program Director, ASPO reexamined the performance requirements for spacecraft slated for launch with Saturn IBs. MSC currently assessed that the launch vehicle was able to put 16,102 kg (35,500 lbs) into a circular orbit 105 nm above the earth. Based on the spacecraft control weights, however, it appeared that the total injected weight of the modules would exceed this amount by some 395 kg (870 lbs). Additional Details: here....

• Apollo hardware delivery schedules changed - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Phillips, Samuel. Program: Apollo. Spacecraft: Apollo CSM.

  In a memorandum to ASPO, Samuel C. Phillips, Apollo Program Director, inquired about realigning the schedules of contractors to meet revised delivery and launch timetables for Apollo. Phillips tentatively set forth deliveries of six spacecraft (CSM/LEMs) during 1967 and eight during each succeeding year; he outlined eight manned launches per year also, starting in 1969.

• Mission directive for Apollo-Saturn 201 - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Phillips, Samuel. Program: Apollo. Spacecraft: Apollo CSM. Samuel C. Phillips, Apollo Program Director, issued the mission directive for Apollo-Saturn 201. The mission would flight-test the Saturn IB and the Apollo CSM..

• Six key checkpoints in development of Apollo hardware listed - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Phillips, Samuel. Program: Apollo. Spacecraft: Apollo CSM.

  Samuel C. Phillips, Apollo Program Director, listed the six key checkpoints in the development of Apollo hardware:

  1. Preliminary Design Review (PDR)
  2. Critical Design Review (CDR)
  3. Flight Article Configuration Inspection (FACI)
  4. Certification of Flight Worthiness (COFR)
  5. Design Certification Review (DCR)
  6. Flight Readiness Review (FRR)
  Additional Details: here....

• Launch schedule for Apollo-Saturn IB flights revised - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Phillips, Samuel. Program: Apollo. Spacecraft: Apollo CSM, CSM Block I.

  Samuel C. Phillips, Apollo Program Director, notified the Center directors and Apollo program managers in Houston, Huntsville, and Cape Kennedy that OMSF's launch schedule for Apollo-Saturn IB flights had been revised, based on delivery of CSMs 009 and 011:

  • AS-201 - January 1966
  • AS-202 - June 1966
  Schedules for AS-203 through 205 (July and October 1966, and January 1967) were unchanged.

• Apollo LEM TM-5 cancelled - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Phillips, Samuel. Program: Apollo. Spacecraft: Apollo LM, LM Landing Gear. Maj. Gen. Samuel C. Phillips, NASA Apollo Program Director, approved the deletion of the LEM TM-5 from the ground test program.. Additional Details: here....

• Dual Apollo AS-207/208 mission planned - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Phillips, Samuel. Program: Apollo. Spacecraft: Apollo CSM. Apollo Program Director Samuel C. Phillips notified the three manned space flight Centers that they were requested to plan for a dual AS-207/208 mission, assuming that launch would occur one month later than the 207 launch now scheduled..

• Apollo environment control unit in serious trouble - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Phillips, Samuel. Program: Apollo. Spacecraft: Apollo CSM, CSM ECS.

  Apollo Program Director Samuel C. Phillips told Mark E. Bradley, Vice President and Assistant to the President of The Garrett Corp., that "the environment control unit, developed and produced by Garrett's AiResearch Division under subcontract to North American Aviation for the Apollo spacecraft was again in serious trouble and threatened a major delay in the first flight of Apollo." Additional Details: here....

• Apollo AS-204 rendezvous with a biosatellite impracticable - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Phillips, Samuel, Shea. Program: Apollo. Flight: Apollo 204. B. Kaskey, Bellcomm, Inc., gave NASA Apollo Program Director Samuel C. Phillips three reasons why an AS-204 rescue of or rendezvous with a biosatellite would be impracticable.. Additional Details: here....

• Apollo mission redesignations - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Mueller, Phillips, Samuel. Program: Apollo. Flight: Apollo 204.

  Directions had been prepared to designate mission AS-501 formally as Apollo 4, AS-204/LM-1 as Apollo 5, and AS-502 as Apollo 6, NASA Apollo Program Director Samuel C. Phillips informed Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight George E. Mueller. Phillips said he thought it was the right time to start using the designations in official releases and appropriate internal documentation. Mueller concurred.

• Sequence of Apollo missions following the first manned flight - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Phillips, Samuel. Program: Apollo. Flight: Apollo 7. Spacecraft: Apollo CSM, CSM Recovery.

  Robert O. Aller, NASA OMSF, told Apollo Program Director Samuel C. Phillips that considerable analysis, planning, and discussion had taken place at MSC on the most effective sequence of Apollo missions following the first manned flight (Apollo 7). The current official assignments included three CSM/LM missions for CSM/LM operations, lunar simulation, and lunar capability. MSC's Flight Operations Directorate (FOD) had offered an alternate approach of that sequence by proposing that the third mission be a lunar-orbit mission rather than a high earth-orbit mission. Aller preferred the FOD proposal, since it would offer considerable operational advantages by conducting a lunar-orbital flight before the lunar landing. He recommended Phillips consider that sequence of missions and that consideration be given to including it as a prime or alternate mission in the Mission Assignments Document. "Identifying it in that document," Aller said, "would initiate the necessary detailed planning."

• Apollo problems could seriously delay the program - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Phillips, Samuel. Program: Apollo.

  Apollo Program Director Samuel C. Phillips told ASPO Manager George Low he believed progress had been made toward Apollo objectives. At the same time, Phillips believed certain problems, if not solved expeditiously, could seriously delay the program. He was concerned particularly with the couch design, weight problem, docking changes, and delivery schedules. Phillips requested an early response on the problem areas.

• Apollo schedule decisions - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Phillips, Samuel. Program: Apollo. Spacecraft: Apollo LM.

  Apollo Program Director Samuel C. Phillips wrote the manned space flight Centers of Apollo schedule decisions. In a September 20 meeting at MSC to review the Apollo test flight program, MSC had proposed a primary test flight plan including

  1. the addition of a second unmanned LM flight,
  2. addition of a third unmanned Saturn V flight, and
  3. addition of a new' primary mission, a lunar orbital mission.
  Phillips now wrote that decisions had been made to accommodate MSC's first two proposals into the mainline Apollo flight mission assignment. In addition, the proposal for the lunar orbital mission would be included in the Apollo flight mission assignments as an alternate to a landing mission.

• Two-burn lunar orbit insertion (LOI) maneuver studied - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Phillips, Samuel. Program: Apollo. Spacecraft: Apollo LM, LM Guidance.

  Apollo Program Director Phillips wrote MSC Director Gilruth concerning the April 10 proposal for a two-burn lunar orbit insertion (LOI) maneuver and a spring ejection of the LM from the spacecraft-lunar module adapter. Phillips agreed to the two-burn LOI in place of the originally planned one burn if results of an analysis should prove the requirement. He specified that an analysis be made of the tradeoffs and that the analysis include the risk of crash, the assumed risks due to lengthening the lunar orbit time (about four hours), and risks due to an additional spacecraft propulsion system burn, as well as the effect of the lunar gravitational potential on the ability to target the LOI maneuver to achieve the desired vector at the time of LM descent. The proposal for spring ejection of the LM from the SLA was approved with the provision that a failure analysis be made in order to understand the risks in the change.

• Weekly review of all Apollo changes that produced extra work - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Phillips, Samuel. Program: Apollo.

  In an effort to stem the number of hardware changes at KSC, Apollo Program Director Samuel C. Phillips instituted a weekly review of all changes that produced additional work at KSC in excess of normal checkout flow. Phillips stressed the extraordinary importance of change control and the requirement that only mandatory changes be approved through the control boards at MSC and MSFC. The volume of changes currently under way at KSC constituted a major concern. Key program objectives, he said, were in jeopardy.

• Webb briefed on Apollo 8 lunar mission concept. - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Low, George, Paine, Phillips, Samuel, Webb. Program: Apollo. Flight: Apollo 7, Apollo 8. Spacecraft: Apollo CSM.

  Phillips and Paine discussed the plan with Webb in Vienna. Webb wanted to think about it, and requested further information by diplomatic carrier. That same day Phillips called Low and informed him that Mueller had agreed to the plan with the provisions that no full announcement would be made until after the Apollo 7 flight; that it could be announced that 503 would be manned and possible missions were being studied; and that an internal document could be prepared for a planned lunar orbit for December.

• Saturn IB program placed in a standby status - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Phillips, Samuel. Program: Apollo. Flight: Apollo 8.

  Apollo Program Director Samuel C. Phillips ordered that the Saturn IB program be placed in a standby status pending any future requirements for Apollo or the Apollo Applications program. Phillips' action signaled the shift in Apollo to the Saturn V vehicle, effective with AS-503.

• AS-504 and AS-505 missions officially designated as Apollo 9 and Apollo 10 - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Phillips, Samuel. Program: Apollo. Flight: Apollo 10, Apollo 9. NASA Apollo Program Director Samuel C. Phillips officially designated the AS-504 and AS-505 missions as Apollo 9 and Apollo 10..

• Task force for Apollo hardware development - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Phillips, Samuel. Program: Apollo. Flight: Apollo 20. Spacecraft: Apollo LM. In establishing a task force for hardware development, Apollo Program Director Samuel C. Phillips stated: "We have recently been given . . . approval on our plans for continuing the lunar missions through Apollo 20...". Additional Details: here....

• Gen Samuel Phillips made Commander of SAMSO - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Phillips, Samuel. Program: Apollo.

  The Secretary of Defense announced the assignment of Lt. Gen. Samuel C. Phillips (USAF), who had been serving as Apollo Program Director in the NASA Office of Manned Space Flight, to be Commander of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Organization (SAMSO) in Los Angeles. He would assume his new responsibilities in the Air Force effective September 1.

• Rocco A Petrone named as Director of the Apollo Program - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Petrone, Phillips, Samuel. Program: Apollo. NASA named Rocco A. Petrone, Director of Launch Operations at KSC, to succeed Samuel C. Phillips as Director of the Apollo Program effective September 1..

• Death of Samuel C Phillips - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Phillips, Samuel. American USAF officer, talented manager who developed the B-52 and Minuteman for the Air Force, then was brought to NASA to head the Apollo program 1964-1971..