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Passing of Stan Lebar, NASA Goddard
"Stan Lebar, who led the Westinghouse Electric Corporation team that developed the lunar camera that brought the televised news images of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon to more than 500 million people on earth, died on Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2009."
"During his long and distinguished career, other camera programs he managed for NASA included the Apollo Color TV Cameras, the Skylab series of TV cameras, and the TV cameras for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Program (ASTP)."
Alas, another of the "old guard" has passed away. I know that in this age of cell phones, i-pods, personal computers, etc. it's easy to forget those that paved the way for the conveniences that we enjoy today. To those that ask why send humans into space to explore, I say to inspire and make life better for those that remain. Mr. Lebar may have never gone into space but I imagine that his engineering career was kindled at the time (1946) by the coming space age. I'm sure his efforts in developing cameras for Apollo were driven by a desire to enable others to share in the monumental achievements of the lunar missions.
Thanks Mr. Lebar for enabling me to watch those lunar exploits that inspired my engineering career. Rest in Peace.