"Ignition and Liftoff!"

MR. JERRY ROBERTS graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1959 and, within a month, was an electrical engineer with McDonnell-Douglas Astronautics and Project: Mercury’s Automatic Stabilization and Control System team. Sounds simple, but his job description involved him with Mercury’s autopilot system, horizon sensor and attitude indicator. “We were responsible for design definition, hardware procurement, testing, evaluation and system integration. I frequently briefed the astronauts regarding system operation and status,” Roberts said in February.

Roberts worked with Mercury for the entirety of the series, then quickly switched to Project: Gemini in time to work with Gus and co-pilot John Young as they prepared the “Molly Brown” for the first launch of the Gemini series, on March 23, 1965. Roberts and Grissom worked tirelessly on the Gemini craft, trying to give it the “feel” of a jet with a control stick. That philosophy took root, and the Gemini capsule was soon dubbed the "Gusmobile.” As one astronaut described it, “It felt like we were flying this one, and not just along for the ride.”

Roberts and scores of McDonnell-Douglas engineers spent the Mercury and Gemini years commuting between St. Louis and the Cape. After Gemini, Roberts stayed with McDonnell-Douglas while accepting assignments to the Manned Orbiting Lab, Skylab and development of the Tomahawk missile. By the time he retired, in 1989, he was chief design engineer and department manager of all McDonnell-Douglas electrical and mechanical design engineers.

With the advent of Skylab, Roberts was again splitting time between St. Louis and the Cape. His assignment was to coordinate the design and definition of electrical systems in the M-D hardware, to ensure safe connections between the M-D hardware and other contractors’ hardware. And soon, “I was again a member of the launch team for initial hardware module launch.”

“I pursued a job with McDonnell Aircraft strictly because they had received the Mercury contract, and I had a strong interest in space exploration,” added Roberts. “My greatest thrill was a close working association with the original astronauts, and being in the blockhouse when the vault door closed, the rocket engines ignited and we had liftoff!”