Apollo 13 Flight Controller Speaks at Embry-Riddle

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Apollo 13 Flight Controller to Speak at Embry-Riddle

Sy Liebergot Daytona Beach, Fla., Feb. 11, 2008 -- A former NASA flight controller will speak about his dramatic experiences in the Apollo lunar program Wednesday, Feb. 20, at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

The main focus of Sy Liebergot’s presentation will be the survival story of Apollo 13, in which the failure of a cryogenic oxygen tank nearly cost three astronauts their lives. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held 4-6 p.m. in the Willie Miller Instructional Center auditorium on Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach campus, 600 S. Clyde Morris Blvd. The lecture is presented in honor of National Engineers Week.

Liebergot was the lead EECOM (Electrical, Environmental, Consumables) flight controller for all of the Apollo manned missions, an EGIL (Skylab EECOM) for all of the Skylab program missions, and the lead EECOM for the American-Russian Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission. He contributed his expertise to early space shuttle missions and to the design of the international space station.

He is a popular guest speaker nationwide and the author of Apollo EECOM: Journey of a Lifetime. Ron Howard, director of the movie “Apollo 13,” has remarked, “Aside from his involvement in Apollo 13, Sy’s life experiences should be held as an example of achievement. Young people ought to read this book and take note of a life well done.” In the movie, Liebergot is portrayed by Ron Howard’s brother, Clint.

Liebergot earned an electrical engineering degree from California State University-Los Angeles in 1963 and joined a newly formed flight operations group at North American Aviation in Downey, Calif., at the inception of the Apollo lunar program. In 1964, he transferred to Houston, Texas, as a member of the flight operations group in support of NASA mission operations at the Manned Spacecraft Center, which had just opened.

A year later Liebergot switched over to NASA to qualify for a “front room” flight controller position in Mission Control. He became a veteran flight controller of many flights, serving as operations and procedures officer on AS-202, as assistant flight director on AS-501 (the first Saturn V launch), and as EECOM flight controller on Apollo missions 8-15.

For more information on Liebergot’s appearance at Embry-Riddle, contact Professor Lisa Davids at lisa.davids@erau.edu or (386) 226-7057.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. The university educates more than 34,000 students annually in undergraduate and graduate programs at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Worldwide Campus at more than 130 centers in the United States, Europe, Canada, and the Middle East, and through online learning. For more information, visit www.embryriddle.edu.