Apollo: The Race To The Moon

by Catherine Bly Cox

It was a tortuous experience. Marty Cioffoletti, the young North American engineer, remembered writing Test Preparation Sheets (T.P.S.) for removing the engines from the command module and disassembling the propulsion system. He explained the process. Suppose the disassembly was approaching the point where the team would be ready to take out a screw in one of Cioffoletti’s systems. Before Cioffoletti or any of his technicians could touch it, Cioffoletti had to write a T.P.S. that would specify the physical action (unscrew the screw). The part number of that particular screw. The torque that was supposed to be necessary to break the screw loose. With the T.P.S. in hand, Cioffoletti, the presiding engineer, would read an instruction. A North American quality inspector would move into place. One of NASA’s inspectors would move into place. A photographer would be called over. A North American technician would get into the burned-out spacecraft (observing whatever specific precautions were detailed for getting to that particular part of the spacecraft at that particular stage of the disassembly process) and then, using the specified mechanical device, take the screw out. The engineer would record the torque necessary to break it free. The technician would hand the screw to the North American quality inspector, who would make sure that it was the right part and the right part number, recording his results on his copy of the T.P.S. The North American inspector would hand it to th...