Home · Science · Oct 3 archive
Milt Windler, NASA Flight Director for Apollo 13, Dies at 94
Confirmed
In Short: Milt Windler, a NASA flight director who helped save the Apollo 13 mission, died on Thursday at the age of 94, surrounded by his family.
Windler was one of the four leaders of Mission Control during the Apollo 13 crisis in 1970, directing the round-the-clock efforts to bring the astronauts back to Earth safely.
Named a NASA flight director in 1968, Windler led shifts for critical missions including Apollo 8, Apollo 10, and the first three moon landings.
Windler, the seventh person appointed to the position, was known as 'Maroon Flight.' He was at the console during the historic Apollo 8 mission, which sent the first humans beyond Earth orbit.
Windler's career at NASA spanned several significant milestones, including Skylab missions and the early stages of the International Space Station.
In a 2006 interview, Windler reflected on the rapid pace of the Apollo program, noting, 'It was not a time for reflection.
Windler and his colleagues secretly prepared small flags to celebrate the Apollo 8 mission's success, but these were never displayed due to the mission's ongoing risks.
Windler's contributions extended beyond Apollo missions; he also worked on Skylab, where the challenge was to adapt to emerging scientific events in real time.
After retiring from NASA, Windler consulted on the International Space Station, focusing on operations and verification procedures.
Windler's legacy includes his role in the Apollo program and his dedication to space exploration, as well as his reflections on the importance of not celebrating until a mission's success is assured.
What this adds
Windler's involvement in the Air Force ROTC and his early work with NACA, NASA's predecessor, are newly highlighted in this report.
The specific details about the flags and their intended use during the Apollo 8 mission add a personal touch to Windler's story.
What's confirmed
- Windler died on Thursday, surrounded by his loving family, according to a brief notice posted online.
- “Apollo was such a rapid pace that I don’t think people had the chance to think about it very much. It has only become more clear to me later on that we were making history,” said Windler in a 2006 oral history interview for the University of North Texas.
- “It was not [a] time for reflection,” Windler said.
- “However, it was decided that this display was inappropriate, especially since the mission was only half over,” wrote Windler in a 2020 letter accompanying one of the flags that had since been acquired by a collector.
- He then retired from NASA and joined private industry to work on what would become the International Space Station, consulting on the operations aspect of the orbiting laboratory, and later, as modules were produced, on some of the verification procedures.
- Named a NASA flight director in 1968 after working on recovery operations during the Mercury and Gemini programs, Windler also led a shift of flight controllers for the Apollo 8 first circumlunar flight and Apollo 10 lunar landing dress rehearsal, as well as the second, third and fourth moon landings — Apollo 12, Apollo 14 and Apollo 15.
- He then served as a flight director for all three crewed missions to the United States’ first space station, Skylab.
- Each flight director chose a team name (at first colors).
- As the seventh person to be appointed to the position — and one of the first two to be selected from outside of the flight operations team — Windler became “Maroon Flight.” On his first mission at the flight director’s console, Windler was assigned to the third shift, putting him at the head of the operations control room when it was time to send the first humans beyond Earth orbit.
- The trans-lunar injection, or TLI, burn placed Apollo 8 crew members Frank Borman, Bill Anders and Jim Lovell on a trajectory to advance the United States ahead of the Soviet Union by becoming the first nation to orbit people around the moon.
- Realizing this, Windler, working with his wife, Betty, and other flight controllers’ spouses, secretly prepared a batch of small red and blue flannel banners, each with the numeral “1” in white at their center.
- “Consequently, the flags were never displayed during the mission and American flags were used at the time of a successful landing on Earth.” Later, Windler and all of his colleagues in Mission Control were provided with a dramatic reminder about why you do not celebrate until the crew has stepped onto their recovery ship.
What's still developing
- “We had to come up with a system that would allow us to plan in real time and accommodate the science people. If something interesting happened on the sun, which it did several times, then we needed to be able to schedule the ATM [Apollo Telescope Mount] work,” he said in 2006.
- He joined the U.S. Air Force’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) while still in school and then worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), NASA’s predecessor, before serving in the Air Force for four years.