The Moon and Me

There is an interesting connection that I have with the moon. So, yes, I was born in early July and that makes me a Cancer. The only zodiac sign that is ruled by the moon. Cancers are said to feel emotions deeply and pick up on others’ emotions. They can be empathetic, sympathetic, and compassionate. Cancers tend to have mood swings, and this is all attributed to the moon. I’ll let my readers determine the accuracy of this “description” of me based on my “sign”.

 

One of my most memorable events was the first moon landing. I recall all the hype prior to the lift off and then the actual lift off, and finally – that one small step for man. I had just turned eight a few short weeks earlier and I recall my parents getting my sister and I out of bed shortly before 11pm on that hot Sunday night. It was the 20^th of July 1969. Interesting how the first steps mankind took on the moon fell during the June 21 – July 22 dates for the sign of Cancer.

 

Man stepping on the moon was an amazing technological feat that only the United States could have accomplished so early in human history. To put this remarkable and historic achievement in perspective, a little more than a half century later, today few countries are capable of only getting a satellite into orbit. Only China has made it to the moon but un-manned. The US remains the only country to have put men on the moon and get them back safely.

It is that technology that allowed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to fly to the moon, step onto the lunar surface, and return safely to mother earth that my personal connection to the moon continues.

A man by the name of Thomas Kelly is considered the “The Father of the Lunar Module”. Kelly was born in Brooklyn in 1929 and was raised in Merrick, NY. Merrick is one town over from Bellmore where I grew up. Kelly graduated from Wellington C. Mepham High School in Bellmore in 1946 – the very High School I graduated from in 1979.

Kelly attended Cornell University in upstate New York on a scholarship funded by Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation and was later known as Grumman Aerospace Corporation. Kelly earned his master’s degree at Columbia University and a PhD from the Polytech Institute in Brooklyn.

Paying back his dues to Grumman for launching his scholastic credentials, Kelly went to work for Grumman as a propulsion engineer. After a brief stint in the Air Force and a short tenure at Lockheed Corporation (a competitor of Grumman), Kelly returned to Grumman in 1959 where his career blasted off to new heights and was promoted to assistant chief of propulsion.

In 1961 during a speech to Congress President Kennedy challenged the nation to send a man to the moon. The space race with the Soviet Union was at full throttle. Many aerospace companies began designing machines, researching material, and developing complicated mathematical formulas all with the purpose of presenting the best way to meet Kennedy’s challenge and more importantly win lucrative government contracts.

Grumman was awarded the coveted contract to design and build the vehicle – the machine that would take Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon’s surface - the Lunar Module. Grumman promoted Kelly to lead the design and manufacture.

 

Kelly worked for Grummans' headquarters in Bethpage Long Island. A WWII veteran named Andrew Camizzi also worked for Grumman at Bethpage. Andy, as he was known by family and friends, was a bit of a character and had an interesting life story, but he was also a natural machinist. He had the mechanical ability of ten men - a gift for seeing how parts moved and worked with one another. Andy was tapped to be the chief machinist for the Lunar Module project. Andy was also my grandfather.

 

The machinist was the person who built the machines that built the parts for the Lunar Module. Imagine that your job is figuring out a way to make a machine that makes other things. That’s what my grandfather did. He oversaw that effort for Grumman.

 I have some old photos of my grandfather getting awards from Grumman executives and I have no doubt that Kelly and Andy knew one another and collaborated on many efforts at Grumman to bring the Lunar Module to life and find its place in history.

There were many Lunar Modules for all the Apollo Missions. The Module that took the crew to set foot on the moon was named Eagle. When Armstrong and Aldrin were ready to head back to the docking spacecraft that would take them home, the lower part of the module remained on the moon. Somewhere on the lower half of the module is a plate etched with the names of all the engineers at Grumman who helped make this amazing feat possible. My grandfather’s name, Andrew Camizzi, is on the moon!