“WE WOULD NOT HAVE GONE TO THE MOON WITHOUT PROJECT MERCURY”

INTERVIEW BIO

Robert Yowell

Robert Yowell served as a technical consultant on the set of The Right Stuff. His knowledge and experience came from working as an engineer for NASA, beginning in 1989 and lasting over 11 years. Afterwards he had roles as director of The Aerospace Corporation and as a senior mission manager for SpaceX, as well as multiple roles within the US Air Force.

What experience do you have with NASA and space exploration missions? What were your roles in the past?

Primarily the Space Shuttle program. I was 22 in 1989; NASA hired me right out of college. I worked at the Johnson Space Center in Houston [Texas]. For the first two years there my primary responsibility was developing the onboard computer displays for Space Shuttle missions, which were carrying various payloads into orbit. My first job was to support the STS-46 mission, which flew about three years later in 1992. In 1989 I developed the onboard display to deploy a European satellite that was called EURECA [European Retrievable Carrier]. And I worked with the first Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier, who flew on that Space Shuttle mission.

Two years after that I