Zahra Khan 16.895 Book Review Assignment Book Information Title: The Secret of Apollo - Systems Management in American and European Space Programs Author: Stephen B. Johnson Year of Publication: 2002 ISBN: 0-80188-542-6 Summary, Relevance and Discussion Although the title of this book places it on the reading list of those wishing to learn about Project Apollo, the subtitle reflects its actual content. The organization of the book is essentially that of an argumentative essay; the thesis being that the success of an engineering development program is heavily dependent on its management. Launius has placed this book in the category of Apollo Technology but that categorization seems ill-fitting as the book’s emphasis is not on the technology itself but rather the management of technology. As mentioned several times in class, the term “Apollo Project" has become a colloquialism to refer to the concerted efforts of a large number of people and resources to achieve extraordinary results. "The Secret of Apollo" attempts to uncover the organizational mechanisms that lead to this image of Apollo which currently pervades the national consciousness. It must be noted that this is not the first time that such an attempt has been made. Congressional investigations held in the 60s also attempted to uncover the organizational secrets of Apollo for application to other arenas. Johnson has taken a fresh look at the topic through the 20/20 vision of the history of the events that followed as well as the events that preceded Apollo. The book begins by tracing the early history of how managers in the United States learned to manage large scientific and technical programs. The author chooses to focus on projects and organizations in the space industry as representative of very large technical systems and adopts a crosscutting approach to examine the role of management in the success of these projects. To set the stage for the rest of the book, he identifies various groups involved in engineering development programs and attempts to unearth their needs and motives. He also discusses common "systems" 1Zahra Khan 16.895 Book Review Assignment engineering issues encountered in space projects such as vibration, electromagnetic interference and problems caused by mismatched interfaces. Each chapter of the book focuses on a specific space-related project or organization and its approach to the management of technology, major technical and/or organizational problems it encountered and its path to adopting system management techniques. The Apollo Project is but one example investigated in the book, the others being the U.S. Air Force Atlas missile program, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's rocket and spacecraft programs, as well as the European launcher and spacecraft development programs. In the first half of the book, the author identifies the US Air Force as the originator of core techniques of system engineering and management including configuration control for its missile development programs and as the major force in their dissemination to the aerospace industry through its procurement regulations. He then delves into painstaking detail, to further follow the spread of these techniques to JPL and NASA through both direct and indirect paths. The second half of the book focuses on the history of European space programs and their incorporation of American management techniques. It compares the management structures of the European Launcher Development Organization (ELDO) and the European Space Research Organization (ESRO) and relates them to the success of the organization. It traces the failures of all the hardware developed by the ELDO to poor system management resulting from lack of central financial and contractual authority, as well as poor communication between the various stakeholders. By contrast, spacecraft developed by the ESRO functioned extremely well due to an organized planning approach as well as oversight and assistance provided by NASA to aid in the adoption of American system management techniques. The creation of a European Launcher Development Organization (ELDO) is one of the most interesting decisions discussed in the book. The idea originated with the British as both a political and financial maneuver to gain access to the European Common Market through offering superfluous rocket technology to other countries. The motivations of the other countries involved in the program were more mixed; a combination of an opportunity to gain rocket technology without full scale in-house 2Zahra Khan 16.895 Book Review Assignment development as well as to spark a “technological revolution" to enhance the country’s image on the world stage. The situation illustrates a very interesting interplay between political and technical considerations. For the British, this purely political gamble paid off initially due to the technological limitations faced by other countries. However, all countries lost in the subsequent failures of the integrated launcher, all but one of which originated in communication problems rooted in the political maneuverings of member countries. The national jealousies between the ELDO countries led to withholding of technical interface information between various entities in the project, inevitably leading to mismatches and failures. The conclusion is that for large-scale projects involving various stakeholders, political and organizational decisions play an extremely important role in technical success or failure. The Secret of Apollo concludes with the lessons learned in system management from the American and European space programs and asserts that system management has survived the test of time due to its incorporation of the viewpoints of the various stakeholders involved. The longevity of this approach is demonstrated by its standardized use in the modern aerospace industry as well as its spread to other successful industries such as software. As a final note, the author compares American system management with comparatively decentralized Japanese management techniques to assert that the American technique is superior due to its effective management of research and development programs, whereas the Japanese technique works well only for mass production industries. Critical Examination of Content and Sources "The Secret of Apollo" is a well-organized book that follows the "tell them what you're going to tell them, then tell them,