Sy began his
engineering career with North American Aviation, in Downey, CA, before graduating from California State University-Los Angeles with a B.S. in
Electrical Engineering in 1963. His space career began at North American at the
very inception of the Apollo lunar program when he joined a newly formed Flight
Operations Group. In 1964, he transferred to Houston, Texas as a member of the
Flight Operations Group in support of NASA Mission Operations at the Manned
Spacecraft Center, which had just opened.
Sy switched over
to NASA after about a year to qualify for a "front room" flight controller
position in the mission control center in order to "get in on the action." He
became a veteran flight controller of many flights serving as Operations and
Procedures Officer on AS-202, as Assistant Flight Director On AS-501 (the first
Saturn V launch), and as EECOM (Electrical, Environmental, Consumables) Flight
Controller on Apollo missions 8 - 15.
Sy was the Lead
EECOM Flight Controller throughout all Apollo manned missions and an EGIL
(Skylab EECOM) for all of the Skylab program missions. On the international
scene, Sy was the Lead EECOM for the American-Russian Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
(ASTP) mission. He contributed his experience to early shuttle missions and to
the space station design.
Sy, as a Senior
Project Engineer, directed the design and fabrication of the astronaut neutral
buoyancy trainers for the International Space Station (ISS). He remains an
active booster and international public speaker of NASA's space accomplishments
and the importance of a good education. He lives in Pearland, Texas with his
wife, Craig.
What's An EECOM?
EECOM is an acronym introduced
for the Mercury Program. It originally stood for
Electrical,
Environmental and
COMmunication systems. This historic
radio call sign is unique to manned space flight operations.
The EECOM position in the Mission Operations
Control Room (MOCR) in the Mission Control Center is steeped in
tradition. Men who sat at the EECOM console during Apollo inherited
standards of professional behavior and performance that gave
newcomers to the position some pause. Ongoing Gemini flights and the
addition of Apollo operations required training of additional EECOMs,
subjecting them to a steep learning curve.
The Apollo EECOM Flight Controller was
responsible for the life support systems of the Command and Service
Module (CSM), which amounted to roughly half of the systems of that
spacecraft. These were the systems that provided all electrical
power and its distribution, heating and cooling, cabin atmosphere
pressure control, breathing oxygen, cryogenic hydrogen and oxygen
for fuel cell electrical power plants, the sequential system that
controlled the separation events and the parachutes, and many of the
mechanical systems. The EECOM was also responsible for the CSM
communications system though Apollo 10, thereafter the
responsibility was moved to a new console named INCO. The EECOM
position responsibilities became even further diluted on the Shuttle
program.
The Flight Directors historically saw EECOM as a
catch-all: if a function didn't fit anywhere, then it belonged to
EECOM. An EECOM was willing to take responsibility for situations or
anomalies not claimed by anyone else. "That's yours, isn't it EECOM?"
was a common Flight Director query. Consequently, an EECOM was
required to develop a broad understanding of the spacecraft systems
and their operation.
Professional Experience
1963: BS Electrical Engineering
California State University
1961-1964: North American Aviation
Flight Operations Group
1964-1986: NASA
Flight Controller
Lead EECOM Flight Controller - Apollo
Lead EGIL (EECOM) Flight Controller -
Skylab
Lead EECOM Flight Controller - ASTP
Project Design Team - Space Shuttle
Project Design Team - ISS
1995-2001: SpaceHab
Senior Project Engineer for Design of Astronaut Neutral
Buoyancy International Space Station Laboratory Trainers
Appearances
Seattle Museum of Flight
Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Museum
Johnson Space Center
National Space Society International Space Development
Conference
Return to the Moon Conference
VI
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Students for the Exploration and Development of Space Conference
Keynote Speaker- Aids Infected Children Fundraiser-
Saarbrucken, Germany
Keynote Speaker- International Society for Measurement
and Control, New Jersey
Keynote Speaker- Silicon Valley Engineers Week, NASA
Ames Research Center, California
Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Museum Lecture
Series--Hutchinson, Kansas
Georgia Tech College of Engineering
MAPLD Conference, Washington, DC
MIT graduate engineering class - Boston, Mass.
Museum Of Flight- Astronaut Remembrance Week- Seattle,
Washington
NASA Ames Research Center
University of Alaska-Anchorage
University of Illinois-Urbana, Dept. of Aerospace
Engineering
University of Washington College of Engineering,
Seattle,Washington
Weston/Wayland Rotary Club-Boston, Mass.
Honors
Presidential Medal of Freedom- Apollo 13
NASA
Commendation Award- leadership role in the Apollo-Soyuz Test
Project (ASTP) international space mission.
Distinguished Alumnus- California State University-Los Angeles
School of Engineering and Technology
Museum of Flight
"Wings of Heroes" Honoree
Space
Frontier Foundation 2005
Hero of the Moon
A co-recipient of the coveted Silver Telly Award for the
2005 Museum of Flight Gala live production
Publications and Consulting
As EECOM in Mission Control on Apollo 13,
Sy was at the focal point of the crisis when the
spacecraft oxygen tank exploded. He has advised and
contributed to several books concerning Apollo 13 includingthe movie, Apollo 13; and was the technical
adviser for an archival multi-media CD-ROM entitled
Apollo 13, A Race Against Time, which is devoted to
the Apollo 13 mission. He has appeared in the PBS
NOVA series, the History Channel Modern Marvels,
and the acclaimed Public Broadcast System documentary
Apollo 13, To The Edge and Back. He served as
the on-camera host for a space documentary entitled
In the Shadow of the Moon, produced by the CBS
affiliate in Austin, Texas. He recently has published
his autobiography entitled Apollo EECOM: Journey Of A
Lifetime.
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