That Howard W. 'Bill' Tindall is our kind of hero is not a secret because this section is entirely dedicated to him and his work. For those who know what, or of whom, we are talking, there is nothing to explain. But for those who have never heard of him, or of Tindallgrams and Mission Techniques books, a brief introduction is required.

In the middle of Apollo development chaos was born about coordinating all the aspects related to flying a mission, managing spacecraft systems and maneuvers, and keeping all controlled from ground. In all that, computer software (for both the LM and the CSM) was a key player and coordination with MIT and other suppliers was becoming a nightmare, with culture clashes and unforeseen problems cropping out everywhere.

 The 3rd of August 1967 George Low appointed Howard Tindall Jr. as Chief of the Apollo Data Priority Coordination, a multidisciplinary position established within MPAD (Mission Planning and Analysis Division) that cut across all aspects of mission planning. Bill Tindall was going to have the great picture of all things involved and had to make everything and everyone work in terms of software, procedures and constraints. Coming from the Mercury and Gemini programs, he was instrumental in devising the practical ways to do orbital rendezvous (in itself a major accomplishment of those years and a key achievement in Apollo success), an activity then only mathematically proven but never integrated into a mission plan. Before his new assignment, Tindall had already been working on Apollo software since 1966, finding and solving critical issues in the development effort that were becoming show stoppers for the entire program. He brought rationalisation, organisation and software development techniques in a period of history when all this was uncharted territory and after major struggles with MIT's Instrumentation Laboratory academic culture that was badly used to the pressure of the Apollo deadlines.

With his new appointment, Tindall and his team had to sort out how to fly each of the different phases into which an Apollo lunar mission was divided, including all the possible contingencies. To do that he managed meetings with hundreds of engineers and other interested parties with the aim of defining, or resolving, all the open issues required to be closed before the execution of each phase. Steve Bales (A11 Guido) quotes (from Murray and Cox): "The guy was incredible. Had a thousand-ring circus going all the time." The outcome of this grueling effort by Tindall and his team was a series of books called Mission Techniques, issued for every particular phase of a flight. These books developed over a few years and, after a close examination of their content, it is considered not less than a miracle that in less than two years everything was in place for Apollo 11. From crew checklists, to consumables management, from nominal procedures to abort plans, from launch windows to splash-down locations, everything was accounted for with inputs for the crew, the mission controllers, the tracking network and, of course, the computer software.

Tindall quickly became highly respected by astronauts, mission controllers, fellow engineers and contractors. So esteemed, in fact, that just before the Apollo 11's powered descent on the lunar surface, flight director Gene Kranz invited him to sit close to his console during the whole historical event, undoubtedly the highest honor one could think of at that time in history.

Tindall success came not only for his technical skills but also for his unique management approach. Basically he was always providing ways for all interested parties to express their ideas and fight for them so a commonly agreed resolution could be obtained, although not without very long meetings or temperamental behaviors. People knew that every meeting held was the place were final decisions were taken, so everyone who had an interest in a topic was present and ready. In addition, Tindall was also known for his often very long memos, written in an easy to read, casual, style not without caustic remarks and fun expressions. As Compton says (SP-4214): "He had the gift, rare among engineers and still rarer among managers, of compacting large amounts of information into a few clear and understandable paragraphs, leavened with considerable humor." He really wrote as he was used to think and speak and the effect on people was to take this memos in very high regard, so high they were even given a name of their own: "Tindallgrams" and after the program, collected together in different ways. After becoming head of MPAD (soon after A12), Tindall kept working in Apollo, then Skylab and the Shuttle program. He has been considered one of the handful of people directly responsible for the success of Apollo.

We would like to make Tindallgrams, and Mission Techniques books (full collections of both are not still available) a major feature of this site and we are honored to devote a dedicated section of this site to Bill Tindall and the people in the Mission Planning and Analysis Division.

15/12/2008 - Edited after proofreading by librarian.