The "Eagle" had successfully landed, Neil Armstrong had taken his "one small step for man," and the Apollo 11 astronauts were speeding back to Earth and a hero's welcome.
But this "giant leap for mankind" would have ended in disaster, not ticker-tape parades--and jeopardized the U.S. space program--had it not been for the courageous actions of two fast-thinking meteorologists: Navy Capt. Willard (Sam) Houston, Jr., and Air Force Capt. Hank Brandli.
Houston, a former Naval Postgraduate School meteorology instructor, had been transferred into just the right place at the right time, armed with just the right classified knowledge, to help save Apollo 11's astronauts. Pulled prematurely from a tour in Rota, Spain, Houston had taken command of Fleet Weather Central-Pearl Harbor just 48 hr. before the launch of Apollo 11, the first Moon-landing mission.
Barbara Honegger and USAF Lt. Col. (Ret.) Hank Brandli 12/13/2004, Page 78
USAF, Navy Weathermen Saved Apollo 11 Astronauts from Disaster
Aviation Week & Space Technology
Navy Capt. Willard (Sam) Houston, Jr., Commanding Officer of Fleet Weather Central-Pearl Harbor in 1969, used Corona satellite data to leverage a last-minute change to Apollo 11's splashdown location.
More importantly, Houston was the Defense Dept.'s chief weather officer for the Apollo 11 mission, and the only man in the Navy who had worked directly with the USAF's Top Secret Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). He knew what the polar-orbiting Block IV DMSP spacecraft could deliver and knew there was an imagery station at nearby Hickam AFB.
"When I arrived in Hawaii, I still had my Top Secret clearance from having worked in the Joint Meteorological Satellite Program Office at [USAF] headquarters in Washington, in 1964 and '65," Houston recalled. "The Air Force's [DMSP] satellite program was kept secret from the other branches of government. We were in the Cold War then, and technology was closely guarded."
At Hickam AFB's DMSP Site 7 facility, then-Captain Brandli was charged with tracking weather systems for the ultra-classified "Corona" spy satellite program, which photographed sensitive activities in the Soviet Union. He used then-secret DMSP data to develop forecasts that ensured film-return canisters ejected from orbiting Corona spacecraft would reenter the atmosphere in areas clear of adverse weather. While descending under a parachute, the Corona film canisters were retrieved in midair by special USAF aircraft (AW&ST June 12, 1995, p. 167).
Days before Apollo 11's return to Earth, Brandli made a startling discovery--but couldn't tell anyone, thanks to classification constraints.
"It was a crazy situation," the USAF Corona satellite meteorologist said. "With just 72 hr. to go, I had all these classified photos of a deadly 'Screaming Eagle' thunderstorm with tops at 50,000 ft. forming over exactly where I knew the Apollo 11 astronauts were going to come down. The [storm] would have ripped their parachutes to shreds. Without parachutes, they'd have crashed into the ocean with a force that would have killed them instantly. I was the only person who knew this and, because the [DMSP] program and its technology were strictly classified, I couldn't warn NASA."
Brandli decided he had to act. He called Fleet Weather Central and convinced Houston to meet him in a parking lot. The Navy officer wasn't briefed on the Corona program, but, thanks to his DMSP clearances, could be taken to Brandli's secure "vault."
"When I got to the [vault], Captain Hank Brandli literally yanked me through the door," Houston recalled. "The [DMSP] classified images showed all the signs of a major tropical storm forming over the splashdown site, but due to security and the chain-of-command, [Brandli] was locked in and couldn't tell anyone. I'd arrived just in time."
Brandli showed Houston the latest secret DMSP satellite images of the developing "Screaming Eagle" storm pattern--a Pacific phenomenon Brandli had researched.
"I said, 'Captain, this storm will move west at 5 deg. a day and burst into a monstrous thunderstorm directly over where the astronauts are slated to come down.' Fortunately, he believed me. It was also fortunate he already knew about the DMSP program and the satellite's capabilities, or we would have been there for hours. As it was, it took only a fraction of the time."
"Seeing this, I made a split-second decision to go directly to Rear Admiral (Donald C.) Davis, the commander of Task Force 130, [who was] in charge of retrieving Apollo 11's capsule," Houston recalled. "With confidence, having seen the 'Special Access Required' [DMSP] images firsthand, I was able to convince him we had irrefutable proof that the landing site needed to be changed."
"But Captain Houston had to convince Admiral Davis without the photos, which were from a satellite that wasn't supposed to exist," Brandli stressed. "He couldn't tell him how he knew what he knew."
"Now you'll have to convince Washington," Davis told Houston. "But I don't think they'll have any choice." Then he added, "You'd better be right, young man!" To get the carrier USS Hornet to the new splashdown site in time, Davis would have to reroute the entire task force before receiving official orders.
"If I was wrong, and the orders didn't come, it would have been a career-ender for both of us, and we knew it," Houston said. "With Rear Admiral Davis already redirecting the carrier task force to the new location, I called the satellite program headquarters on their inside line, to convince them they had to get NASA's top meteorologist to make this a national emergency," Houston added. "Though reluctant at first, as last-minute changes in [a spacecraft's] programming can introduce errors, he agreed, and the atmospheric reentry point--and splashdown point along with it--[were] changed with only 72 hours to go."
Former Navy Lt. Cdr. Herman (Dutch) Spanagel, who was at NASA's Houston Mission Control Center, recalls the 11th-hour change in the initial programmed landing site.
"I was an astronaut recovery officer with [the Defense Dept.'s] Manned Space Flight Support Office on the last seven Apollo recovery teams, beginning with Apollo 11," Spanagel said. "I was on duty when Neil Armstrong and 'Buzz' Aldrin landed on the Moon and Apollo 11 returned to Earth. The Support Office was normally at Patrick AFB, but about a week before the first Moon-flight mission, we moved to Mission Control Center in Houston. Our [Defense Dept.] responsibility picked up the moment the spacecraft hit atmospheric reentry, [then] through its ocean surface landing and recovery, at which point it reverted to NASA control. I remember we got word from NASA not long before splashdown that there was a weather problem and the location had to be changed. The actual retro-rocket firing [to achieve this] was done by NASA, and our office concurred."
In 1969, then-Capt. Hank Brandli (inset) mapped weather systems for the Corona spy satellite program. He predicted "Screaming Eagle" cloud
formations (below) would explode into deadly thunderstorms over the planned capsule splash -down and retrieval site. Credit: BOTH PHOTOS COURTESY OF USAF LT. COL. (RET.) HANK BRANDLI
On July 24, 1969, Houston, watching television from his home in Pearl Harbor, saw the Apollo 11 capsule land in perfect weather 215 mi. downrange from the planned splashdown site. The same day, military aircraft flew to the original ocean-landing position and found exactly what Hank Brandli had predicted--violent thunderstorms that would have ripped the capsule's parachutes to shreds.
Subsequently, ticker tape fell like rain, America pulled ahead of the Soviets in the space race, and the West won the Cold War.
For 30 years, Houston and Brandli kept "The Secret"--as did Rear Adm. Davis and Cdr. Spanagel. When President Bill Clinton declassified the Corona project in 1995, Houston could at last reveal the story behind his Navy Commendation Medal, presented by then-Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., for saving Apollo 11.
"Captain Houston's outstanding proficiency in weather forecasting was instrumental in averting what could have been a major tragedy and severe setback to this country's manned Moon-flight program," Zumwalt wrote in awarding Houston the medal. "His timely warning to Commander, Task Force 130 of intense thunderstorms forecast to be over the Apollo 11 landing site resulted in movement of the site 200 mi. to the northeast, where a smooth letdown and landing were accomplished."
Reflecting on all that could have gone wrong, Brandli said, "It was a huge undertaking to move the recovery carrier fleet and convince the powers-that-be to change the landing site. Captain Houston did a hell of a job. I often wonder, if it had been anyone else, would it have happened the same way?"
"When you look back," Houston agreed, "so many things had to happen to make it come out right."
Barbara Honegger is a senior military affairs journalist with the Naval Postgraduate School's Public Affairs Office in Monterey, Calif. As a USAF meteorologist, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Hank Brandli provided weather forecasts for the Corona spy satellite, Popeye cloud-seeding and other highly classified programs during his career. Honegger's original "Saving Apollo 11" story appeared in the Fall 2004 issue of Domain, a publication of the Naval Network & Space Operations Command.
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