Jun 28 2008
From The Space Library
Robert C. Seamans Jr., who had served as NASA Deputy Administrator during the Apollo era, died of heart failure at age 89. Seamans had begun his career as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the 1940s. In 1960 he had accepted a position with NASA as Associate Administrator, and, from 1965 to 1968, he had served as Deputy Administrator. During his tenure, NASA had worked to achieve President John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the Moon, and Seamans had been instrumental to the success of that mission. In 1968 Seamans had left his position at NASA to return to MIT, although he remained a consultant to NASA’s Administrator. Later that year, he had assisted in making the controversial decision to send Apollo 8 to orbit the Moon, a move that had laid the groundwork for the lunar landing. Seamans had served as Secretary of the U.S. Air Force from 1969 to 1973. In 1974 he had been appointed Administrator of the Energy, Research and Development Administration, a predecessor agency to the Department of Energy. In 1977 Seamans had accepted a position as Dean of the School of Engineering at MIT, where he had continued to teach aeronautics classes even after his formal retirement in 1984.
Peter Schworm, “Robert Seamans; Helped Lead NASA During Apollo Missions,” Boston Globe, 30 June 2008.
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