John Cornelius Houbolt was an aerospace engineer credited with leading the team behind the lunar orbit rendezvous mission mode, a concept that was used to successfully land humans on the Moon and return them to Earth. This flight path was first endorsed by Wernher von Braun in June 1961 and was chosen for Apollo program in early 1962. The critical decision to use LOR was viewed as vital to ensuring that Man reached the Moon by the end of the decade as proposed by President John F. Kennedy. In the process, LOR saved time and billions of dollars by efficiently using existing rocket technology. 

April 10th, 1919 in Altoona  /  Died:   Apr 16th, 2014