Local engineer critical to NASA’s Lunar Orbiter project

Hub Knittel of Torrey Pines wrote the computer software that managed electrical power for the Lunar Orbiter 1. (Photo courtesy of the Carmel Valley News)

A few years before the historic moon landing of 1969, a team of Boeing engineers working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in Pasadena guided an unmanned spacecraft to the moon to map the landscape for future United States astronauts.

Research engineer Hub Knittel of Torrey Pines wrote the computer software that managed electrical power on Lunar Orbiter 1. That spacecraft, one of five under NASA’s Lunar Orbiter project, took the first photograph of Earth from the moon orbit.

Knittel was among a Boeing team of engineers selected by NASA to build a craft that could fly to the moon to make a map of its surface so that future Apollo 11 astronauts would know where they could safely land and walk. He monitored the satellite’s batteries required to charge the camera and other electronics aboard the craft.

Boeing literature describes the spacecraft as a flying photographic laboratory that used heat to process the film in space. Everything was built with technology that was available at the time, said Knittel.

“We just pulled them all together.”

The spacecraft electronics, including the camera and transmitter, were powered by batteries that were charged by four large solar panels. Those panels didn’t move independently so the entire craft had to be steered to face the sun as often as possible, Knittel explained. He remembers feeling comforted in knowing that no humans were onboard in case the spacecraft malfunctioned and didn’t complete the mission, and the great satisfaction he felt with its success the first time around. All five missions succeeded with 99 percent of the moon’s surface ultimately mapped out. However, the first was the most notable for the historic photograph showing the Earth we live on from the faraway vantage point of the moon.

“The picture of the Earth wasn’t the mission; the mission was to map the moon. But that was a pretty good by-product,” chuckled Knittel as he looked at a copy of the historic black-and-white photograph.

A crescent earth appears suspended in black space in the upper portion of the image with the lunar landscape dominating the foreground. That image may have never been captured if not for a Boeing crew member who suggested turning the spacecraft around so the camera pointed toward Earth, a move not designed in the original mission playbook, explained Knittel.

“It was pretty awesome,” Knittel recalled about the first time he saw the photograph which was taken Aug. 23, 1966. The image transmitted back to Earth from the satellite in several separate strips of 35-mm film and was eventually assembled side by side to create the finished photo. Since the picture arrived in pieces, at first the crew monitoring its arrival only saw the moon surface and were momentarily dejected believing that the camera on board the spacecraft had missed photographing the earth, said Knittel. Then the earth’s round image slowly appeared.

“When they saw that picture, I understand that there were a lot of teary eyes,” he said. “It was sort of like birthing a baby, I guess. It was such a big event.”

Knittel grew up in Salem, Oregon, where he graduated 12th grade and married his high school sweetheart Jozann. The couple had two children and recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. At 18, he joined the United States Air Force with dreams of becoming a pilot. However, he soon discovered that married recruits were banned from flight school so instead he learned to repair radars.

The Air Force gave Knittel the initial training that led him to an engineering degree from Oregon State University and ultimately the job with Boeing, he said. In 2006, Knittel and other members of his team were invited to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Lunar Orbiter Spacecraft Project. He received a medal engraved with the image of the spacecraft that he helped engineer. He later donated his 4-foot-by-2-foot framed photograph of Earth from the moon to a local museum.

The Lunar Orbiter took this photo of the Earth from the moon's orbit. (Photo courtesy of NASA)

In a file filled with booklets and data of his time at Boeing, Knittel has two color photographs that depict the 1969 astronauts moon landing that followed his time with the lunar mapping team. “After the astronauts landed they sent those to us to say thanks”, said a smiling Knittel. With the recent celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission and man’s first steps on the moon, Knittel, now 74, is once again remembering his part in lunar exploration - the long hours of toil and the success that followed.

“It really was an amazing ride for a 30-year-old kid,” Knittel said.

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