Tecwyn Roberts

After serving briefly in the Royal Air Force (RAF), Roberts was released in 1944 and resumed work with Saunders-Roe at their Southampton works, from where he was transferred to the Isle of Wight in 1946. At that time, he also attended the University of Southampton where he obtained a degree in Aeronautical Engineering in 1948 and was awarded the Institute of Mechanical Engineers Special Award. Whilst working for Saunders-Roe on the Isle of Wight, Roberts met Doris Sprake whom he later married.[9]

In December 1952, Roberts and his wife left England for Canada to take up a position with the aircraft manufacturing company Avro Canada near Toronto.[10] From 1952 to 1959, he was a member of the engineering team that developed the CF-105 Arrow,[11] a highly advanced delta-winged interceptor aircraft.[12] When the Avro Arrow project was suddenly cancelled by the Canadian government on 20 February 1959, many Avro Canada engineers including Roberts followed the lead of Jim Chamberlin and moved to the United States to join NASA's Space Task Group at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.[13]

Created in November 1958, the Space Task Group under the leadership of Robert Gilruth was tasked with superintending America's human spaceflight program, Project Mercury, having been given the responsibility of placing a human in orbit around the Earth. Of its original 37 engineers, 27 were from Langley Research Center and 10 had been assigned from Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1959, Gilruth's group was greatly expanded by the addition of the engineers from Canada who had been left without jobs when the Avro Arrow project was cancelled.[14]

Roberts joined NASA in April 1959,[15] one of a group of 25 engineers and technicians hired from Avro Canada by NASA.[16][N 1] He was involved immediately in formulating the requirements for the tracking and communications network, and the Mercury Mission Control Center to provide the flight control of the missions.[18]

Recreation of Mercury Control with a map showing the location of the Mercury stations

In 1960,[18] Roberts became NASA's first Flight Dynamics Officer[19] at the Mercury Control Center,[20] where his tasks centered on controlling the trajectory of the spacecraft and planning adjustments to it.[4]

Roberts may have popularised the use of the phrase "A-OK", making those three letters a universal symbol meaning "in perfect working order."[4] The first documented use of the English language phrase "A-OK" is contained within a memo from Tecwyn Roberts, Flight Dynamics Officer, to Flight Director (entitled "Report on Test 3805", dated 2 February 1961) in penciled notes on the countdown of MR-2, dated 31 January 1961.[21] U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. John "Shorty" Powers popularised the expression while NASA's public affairs officer for Project Mercury.[22][23]

In 1962, Roberts was appointed head of the Mission Control Center Requirements Branch,[18] as which he played a key role in the design and further development of the Mercury Control Center at Cape Kennedy and also at the subsequent Mission Control Center at the Manned Spacecraft Center (later Johnson Space Center) in Houston, Texas,[20] where NASA's manned spaceflight program had been transferred in 1961. NASA's concept of Mission Control had previously been developed under the leadership of Christopher C. Kraft. When Roberts assumed his new position, Glynn Lunney succeeded him as Flight Dynamics Officer. As head of the Mission Control Center Requirements Branch, he was assigned responsibilities for determination, coordination and implementation of all design requirements for the construction of the new Mission Control Center in Houston. For his accomplishments in that area, Roberts received the NASA Outstanding Achievement Award.[2]

On 21 May 1962, Roberts was appointed head of Manned Flight Division at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.[20] At that time, Roberts and his wife also resided in Maryland. Their only child, Michael (born about 1960), attended Spalding High School in Severn, Maryland.[20]

In July 1964, Roberts became Technical Assistant to the Deputy Assistant Director of Tracking and Data systems at Goddard Space Flight Center,[2] and chief of the Manned Flight Engineering Division.[24] This put Roberts in charge of NASA's Manned Space Flight Network, a set of tracking stations built to support the American space efforts of Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab. There were two other space communication networks at this time, the Spacecraft Tracking and Data Acquisition Network (STADAN) for tracking unmanned satellites in low Earth orbit, and the Deep Space Network (DSN) for tracking more distant unmanned missions.

In 1964, Dr. Robert R. Gilruth, director of the Manned Space Center[N 2] (left) presented a $1,000 cash award and certificate to Tecwyn Roberts (center), flanked by Roberts' wife Doris.

Also in summer 1964, he was honoured by Gilruth with the NASA Special Service Award for his contribution to the manned space flight program in the area of flight operations. The award was primarily for his determining the technical requirements of the Manned Spaceflight Control Center.[26]

Apollo Road – The road to Honeysuckle Creek.

Roberts became chief of the Manned Flight Support Division at the Goddard Space Flight Center during the Apollo program in 1965. To support the Apollo program, Goddard commissioned three 85 ft (26 m) antennas that would be equally spaced around the world. These were in Madrid (Spain), Goldstone in California (USA) and at Honeysuckle Creek in Australia. Roberts was present when the Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station was opened by Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt on 17 March 1967.[27]

Later in 1967, Roberts became Chief of the Network Engineering Division,[18] which he headed during the first landing on the Moon. In 1969, he received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal for his work in support of the Apollo 8 flight.[2] In 1972,[18] Roberts became Director of Networks at the Goddard Space Flight Center,[24] a position he still held by the time of the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project in July 1975. His chief responsibility in this role was to ensure that contact was maintained between the orbiting US and Soviet spacecraft. This was to be his last direct involvement with NASA's manned space flights.

In 1976, Roberts and Robert S. Cooper, the Director of the Goddard Space Flight Center, were elected Fellows of the American Astronautical Society.[24]