Richard Battin (1925-2014)

Richard Battin, who developed and led the design of the guidance, navigation, and control systems for the Apollo flights, died February 8 at the age of 89.

“Dick literally wrote the book for much of the algorithm wok in the field and guidance and control,” Jim Shields, president and chief executive of Draper Laboratories, told a Boston Globe correspondent. The AIAA’s obituary adds —

Battin was noted for his teaching abilities… Three of the Apollo astronauts were his graduate students. To honor his teaching abilities, the students of MIT’s Aeronautics and Astronautics Department honored Battin with their first Undergraduate Teaching Award in 1981.

[Thanks to Chip Hitchcock for the story.]

2 thoughts on “Richard Battin (1925-2014)

  1. Car? Your cellphone of today has more computing power than the Apollo Command and Lunar Modules combined — and that’s just a flip-phone, much more a smartphone.

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