classic example of a bottom-up strategy, in which a humble but determined NASA engineer pitches his idea to the government agency’s management. Without his idea, the first moon landing in the 1960s most likely would never have taken place… his famous exclamation was: “Do we want to go to the moon or not?” After three years of tireless presentations and lobbying NASA, John Cornelius Houbolt saw the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR) strategy approved, which envisions a Command Module remaining in orbit while a smaller Lunar Module descends to the moon, thus significantly reducing the rocket’s size thanks to the fuel savings. LOR was first proposed by Yuri Kondratyuk, a Ukrainian, in 1919. Wernher von Braun and Hermann Koelle later suggested it as an option to NASA’s Abe Silverstein. NASA contractor Vought conducted its own LOR study based on Koelle’s presentation. Silverstein asked Houbolt, of Langley, Virginia, to evaluate it. Houbolt passed it on to Canadians Jim Chamberlain and Owen Maynard. Based on their evaluation, Houbolt recommended it to NAS management, persistently recommending it for several years until it was approved.
