The Secret of Apollo: Systems Management in American and European Space Programs (New Series in NASA History) [Paperback]

Stephen B. Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Series: New Series in NASA History | Publication Date: September 20, 2006

How does one go about organizing something as complicated as a strategic-missile or space-exploration program? Stephen B. Johnson here explores the answer—systems management—in a groundbreaking study that involves Air Force planners, scientists, technical specialists, and, eventually, bureaucrats. Taking a comparative approach, Johnson focuses on the theory, or intellectual history, of "systems engineering" as such, its origins in the Air Force's Cold War ICBM efforts, and its migration to not only NASA but the European Space Agency.

Exploring the history and politics of aerospace development and weapons procurement, Johnson examines how scientists and engineers created the systems management process to coordinate large-scale technology development, and how managers and military officers gained control of that process. "Those funding the race demanded results," Johnson explains. "In response, development organizations created what few expected and what even fewer wanted—a bureaucracy for innovation. To begin to understand this apparent contradiction in terms, we must first understand the exacting nature of space technologies and the concerns of those who create them."

(2007)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Soundly based on the secondary literature and on archival research in the United States and Europe and provides an excellent overview of the topic within Johnson's chosen boundaries... I can highly recommend Johnson's book to historians of both the Cold War military and civilian space programs.

(Journal of Military History 2004)

Johnson has been inspired by engineering to write good history.

(Jon Agar British Journal for the History of Science 2003)

This is a wonderful story and a great book. The issue is of maximum importance today, since NASA and other high-tech operations are replacing systems management with 'faster, better, cheaper' approaches to space flight, with decidedly mixed results. Skillfully interweaving technical details and fascinating personalities, Johnson tells the history of systems management in the U.S. and Europe. It is a very important work.

(Howard McCurdy, author of Inside NASA 2006)

A book for general readers interested in business and management issues in the space program.

(Choice )

Johnson's in-depth, nuts-and-bolts manual sheds much light on a seldom studied secret of our recent space history.

(Space Review )

Well written and engaging in style.

(Satellite Evolution Group )

From the Publisher

"This is a wonderful story and a great book. The issue is of maximum importance today, since NASA and other high-tech operations are replacing systems management with 'faster, better, cheaper' approaches to space flight, with decidedly mixed results. Skillfully interweaving technical details and fascinating personalities, Johnson tells the history of systems management in the U.S. and Europe. It is a very important work."—Howard McCurdy, author of Inside NASA --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (September 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801885426
• ISBN-13: 978-0801885426
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #420,335 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding History of Apollo Systems Management, May 26, 2005

By 

Roger D. Launius "Historian" (Washington, D.C., United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Secret of Apollo: Systems Management in American and European Space Programs (New Series in NASA History) (Hardcover)

This important book by Stephen B. Johnson of the University of North Dakota's Space Studies Department, skillfully interweaves technical details and fascinating personalities to describe the rise of systems management in the U.S. and Europe. It is a very important work that uses Apollo as its key example. Only through the application of sophisticated management concepts were such a complex activity as the Apollo Moon landings accomplished.

Reviewers received Johnson's work warmly and it has been accepted as an exceptionally important study of how Apollo technology succeeded. As Erik Rau of Drexel University commented: "[Systems management (SM)] forced new temporal and financial discipline on contractors and engineers, imposed practices that undermined functional organization and loyalties, and subjected to scrutiny all institutions and firms involved in the project. Schedule and cost slippages on large government-sponsored projects may have continued, but Johnson asserts that SM minimized their rate. In fact, Johnson persuasively argues that without the bureaucracy of SM, success on several large aerospace projects would have been unlikely" ("Enterprise & Society" 3 (2003): 372-74).

While Johnson argued that systems management allowed the accomplishment of large-scale technological endeavors such as Apollo, it did not do so on the cheap. Costs rise as the engineering team manage for schedule and reliability, since they are interrelated and must be managed as a group. This held true for the Apollo program. The schedule, dictated by the president, was firm. Since humans were involved in the flights, and since the president had directed that the lunar landing be conducted safely, the program managers placed a heavy emphasis on reliability.

Accordingly, Apollo used redundant systems extensively so that failures would be both predictable and minor in result. The significance of both of these factors forced the third factor, cost, much higher than might have been the case with a more leisurely lunar program such as had been conceptualized in the latter 1950s. As it was, Johnson concludes, this was the price paid for success under Kennedy's lunar landing mandate. Of course, understanding the management of complex structures for the successful completion of multifarious complex tasks was an important outgrowth of the Apollo effort.

This is a critically important book in the historiography of Project Apollo and human spaceflight. It is must reading for anyone interested in the evolution of spacefaring in the last fifty years. I recommend it highly as a worthy study of the history of the systems management that allowed the success the Apollo program.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars must have for aerospace managers, August 9, 2004

By 

Ryan Zelnio "space geek" (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Secret of Apollo: Systems Management in American and European Space Programs (New Series in NASA History) (Hardcover)

This book is more a history of how systems engineering evolved than a look at the apollo program. It starts with a long look at the problems with the early military ICBM program and the hard lessons learned from its development as well as going into a look at the major players in the early military space program. It then goes on to problems with the early spacecrafts at the jet propulsion lab and how these were fixed through applying principles of systems engineering. And of course it goes in depth into a look at the managing of the Apollo program. This ends with a good look at the early failings of ELDO (initial european rocket program) and the successes of ESRO (precursor to the European Space Agency).

Reading this book, you begin to get a clear understanding of the complexity involved in trying to develop massive systems such as rockets and spacecraft. This is a must read for anyone looking to go into management in the aerospace sector or is interested in learning how the sector is managed or anyone interested in the history of the players in military space program.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Johnson Contributes to Understanding of Systems Mgmt., January 8, 2007

By 

Jack Kennedy Jr. "Jack Kennedy 276.275.4700" (Wise, Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Secret of Apollo: Systems Management in American and European Space Programs (New Series in NASA History) (Hardcover)

Dr. Johnson's book The Secret of Apollo provides the reader with the critcial overview of how systems management was development by the American military and how it became to be applied in the civilian space program. The book provides a unique persepective on how success was achieved through the utlization of concurrency and systems management. There are many success and failure stories spread throughout he book as examples that tell the story. The book is easy to read and to undesrtand without having advanced degrees in either engineering or project management. Therefore, I commend this book as worthwhile reading from a histoc standpoint. Systems management, clearly, has been the American space program strength that was been transferred to our European allies.