Description

Model of Saturn rocket, in wood case.

NASA Associate Administrator Robert C. Seamans, Jr. used this model to explain the Apollo program to President Kennedy, members of Congress and other senior government officials. NASA selected the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous approach to go to the moon. This meant the rocket could be built in stages but it also poised a signficant guidance and navigation problem. Seamans recommended that MIT's Instrumentation Laboratory led by his former mentor Charles Stark Draper be given the contract to develop the Apollo Guidance, Navigation, and Control System.