From Dover Delaware to The Moon & Back

A classically trained pianist and big-band conductor, Norman Howard Casson enjoyed a highly successful six-decade career in aerospace engineering. Casson has often been recognized for his Cold War service as a Launch Test Conductor for the Titan I Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, and later, the Titan II, but he is best known for his significant contributions to the success of the nation’s lunar landing program, the Apollo Project.

The Apollo Spacecraft Checkout Group, headed by Casson, did their part to not only meet but beat the goals put forth by President John F. Kennedy, when he challenged our country to commit itself to the goal, before the end of the decade of the 1960s… to land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth. Norman Casson played a significant role in meeting that goal.

Born in Dover, Delaware, on Sep 8, 1931, Norman Casson was the third child of Clarence Roosevelt Casson and Nancy Jane Ingram Casson. Growing up at that time in history, and as a member of an extremely poor family, he nearly died of asthma at age 3, and he faced minimal educational opportunities as a child. His grade school teachers in New Castle, Delaware recognized gifted talent in Norman, and though there were no special programs available to him, they skipped him through the grades. Norman’s Aunt Sussie was the church pianist. She taught him how to play classical piano. He started playing piano when he was 3 years old. He was so tiny that his older brother would sometimes get down on all fours so Norman could sit on his back to reach the keys. Several years later, she said she had taught him all she knew, and recommended other instructors.

Norman attended Booker T. Washington Junior High School in Kent County, Delaware, transferring to the High School for Colored Students. Due to his economic condition at the time, Norman recalls great difficulty in affording a gardenia corsage and associated costs for his high school prom date. Little did he realize that years later, as a businessman, he would own over 30 acres, filled with gardenias, an irony worth mentioning at this point.

Norman received his high school diploma, then transferred to Delaware State College, now known as Delaware State University.  Inspired by his Advanced Mathematics Professor, Elvira (sp) Tooks, he set a career in engineering as his goal.  Before launching his long engineering career, Norman played varsity basketball.  Also, thanks to his Professor of Music, who arranged for Norman to play a performance at Delaware Hall for some very wealthy benefactors, Norman was sent to Europe for advanced studies in classical piano at their expense.

Norman Casson’s 60-year career in aerospace began during the Korean War as a Cold War draftee, with service in the Air Force, most of this with the Strategic Air Command under the immortalized General Curtis Emerson LeMay. He was involved with both combat and cargo aircraft, including heavy bombers, such as the B-29, B-36, B-50, and the B-52 (still flying today), in-flight air refueling tankers, such as the KC-97 and the KC-135, as well as cargo aircraft such as the C-124 Globemaster.

Casson served with a combat readiness technical force, an elite “Technical Tiger Team,” a mobile squad of six men per airbase, each having a thorough engineering knowledge and understanding of each aircraft's systems. In the event the ground maintenance personnel could not solve a technical problem, the elite Technical Tiger Team would be dispatched under emergency escort to the “ailing” aircraft, where they would troubleshoot, then direct ground maintenance personnel in whatever repairs, adjustments, or "tweaking" was necessary to get that aircraft rolling down the runway and into the air, within a predetermined “time window” as specified by the Cold War effort.  During his Air Force career, Norman also conducted a local Air Force band.

After ten years of active military service, Casson left active duty Air Force due to a major injury which prevented him from flying. Norman stayed in the service as a civilian with Martin (later known as The Martin Company, and Martin Murietta, and now as Lockheed Martin).  Instead of solving B-52 and KC-135 problems, he became associated with the most high-tech, lethal, deadliest weapon system in existence at that time, the TITAN I Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), a weapon capable of striking within a short distance of the center of its predetermined target with thermal-nuclear warheads, from a distance of over 6,000 miles. Within a few short years, this system was upgraded to the much improved and more deadly TITAN II.  

During his years working with the Air Force, both on active duty and as a civilian, Casson developed his technical fault isolation skills to an even sharper edge. He gained a reputation for having a computer-like memory as well as a faultless detailed understanding of the flow and properties within those combat aircraft for electricity, fluids, air, energy, and cryogenics, etc., all of which gave Casson the reputation of having a most “uncanny” ability to perform fault isolation trouble-shooting on those high-tech weapon systems, with seemingly lightning speed, and with pinpoint accuracy. 

As was the case when he was on active duty with the Air Force, Casson served in a key position as an Engineering Launch Test Conductor for a TITAN I missile and underground silo at Larsen Air Force Base, near Moses Lake, Washington.  Later, he served as a TITAN II Chief Test Conductor, over 5 such missiles in their silos. After recycling the missiles to replace defective seals, Casson was made responsible for the engineering launch countdown checkout of all 18 TITAN II ICBM’s headquartered in the areas around Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona. 

Norman’s beloved wife Ida knew that Norman’s work was extremely dangerous and lamented that he could lose his life at any time.  One of the most momentous events Norman recalls involving Ida happened on a particular day.  Norman’s test team was going to make a missile come out of the silo.  Somehow a convoy of the engineers’ wives had been discretely arranged to witness this, and they parked a great distance from the launch site.  Norman had no idea Ida was present to see it.  They heard the klaxon horns and they saw the mighty Titan rise, spitting ice everywhere, its mighty engines roaring.  Ida got to witness this.  Norman reflected on this later and considered that it was good she saw it, but on the other hand, he considered her seeing that missile coming out of the silo, spitting ice, hearing the klaxon horns, that this only tended to amplify in her mind the danger that he faced every day.  He regularly reflects that he could not have done his job without her stability and support.  Also, especially during times of transition between projects, Norman recalls with deep gratitude how Ida was always ready to pick up stakes to relocate, never complaining about this difficult aspect of Norman’s career.  

Casson was responsible for the test and checkout of every manned spacecraft during the Apollo program, as well as conducting the mission final “dress rehearsal” with the assigned astronauts on board the spaceship, operating the controls, all of which was monitored and responded to from control rooms like those at Houston and the Cape. He managed all the technicians, the test procedure engineers, four control rooms, tank farm fluid & gas facilities, the systems engineers, the Senior Test Project Engineering Managers, all clerical and operations support personnel, and the Apollo Post Recovery operation. The latter was a team of engineers and technicians who were at the splashdown area for all Apollo vehicles returning from space, saving the systems, and taking steps to prevent hostile contamination from the moon's surface.

During his long career, Casson received many awards, citations, plaques, special honors, and letters of appreciation for his accomplishments. He was nominated three times for “Outstanding Young Man in America.” He was presented the Gold Titan Award for TITAN I, and later for TITAN II, was one of only seven engineers at the time to have received two Gold Titan Awards. For his “Above & Beyond” contributions to the Apollo program, Casson was awarded the most coveted “Silver Snoopy” by the Apollo astronauts. The Charles Shultz comic character Snoopy was the official mascot of the Apollo program. He also received certificates, awards, and special recognition for his ability to organize large groups and for his exceptional ability as an effective executive manager.

Many, if not most, think that the Apollo spacecraft was “born” in either Cape Kennedy, Florida, or at the Space Center in Houston, Texas, but this is not the case. Every Apollo spacecraft, manned or unmanned, was conceived, designed, fabricated, manufactured, and assembled, then taken through its entire test, checkout, and mission dress rehearsal in Southern California. This took place at Downey, on Lakewood Boulevard, by NASA's prime contractor, North American Aviation (later North American Rockwell), at the massive Space Division complex taken over by NASA for Apollo. It consisted of several buildings and several hundred acres of land; it was a “city within a city.”

NASA and North American Aviation assigned total responsibility for the Apollo Spacecraft Checkout group, which included engineering, the entire budget, and administration for this organization, to Norman Howard Casson. This “Apollo Spacecraft Checkout Group” functioned like a well-organized unit in a factory-like manner to get all Apollo spacecraft certified for their missions into the deep void of space. The Apollo Spacecraft Checkout team maintained program schedule dictates, had no major injuries to personnel, was praised by NASA for shipping spacecraft that were ready to launch, and ensured astronauts were ready for their flights to and from the Moon because they had already been through much of the mission on the ground at the Apollo Spacecraft Checkout facility, in Downey.

A complete engineering test team was assigned to each of the four tall checkout stations located at the Downey complex in Building 290, where four Apollo spacecraft were checked out simultaneously. Each engineering test team consisted of system engineers, quality control engineers, safety engineers, test conductor engineers, test technicians, test pilots, test procedure engineers, automatic data processing engineers, and certified engineers to handle supercooled cryogenics and extremely toxic fuels and oxidizers. The test team organization also had its own clerical staff and four Control and Information Centers (one for each team), with real-time status plotters and supervision for each test team. This is also where each team (including the astronauts) held their pre-test briefings and post-test review meetings.

The astronauts assigned to each spacecraft were pre-certified for their missions only after they had completed several months of training at the test facility by operating the onboard spacecraft controls during each test and checkout phase. Each test team was managed by a top-level engineering manager, called the "Senior Test Project Engineering Manager." This entire engineering test team, including each Senior Test Project Engineering Manager, all of the engineers, test conductors, technicians, clerical people, and procedure writers, was organized within one huge organization for the engineering test and checkout and dress rehearsal of each of those manned spacecraft. This organization was known throughout the world of Apollo as “Apollo Spacecraft Checkout,” and Norman Casson was responsible for the entire organization.

In the early 1960s, Casson left Martin to join North American Aviation on the Apollo program in Downey, California, where he became the Chief Executive of the Apollo Spacecraft Checkout Group, with hundreds of engineers under his supervision.  No Apollo spacecraft flew without Norman Howard Casson’s signature.  The actual NASA Apollo astronauts who were assigned to each spacecraft were required by NASA to be pre-certified for their flight missions to the Moon and back only after several months of training at the Downey Building 290 test facility by operating the onboard spacecraft controls during each test & checkout phase.

Each of the aforementioned test teams was managed by a top-level engineering manager, called the “Senior Test Project Engineering Manager,” all four of which reported directly to Mr. Casson.  This huge engineering organization was known throughout the world of Apollo as ”APOLLO SPACECRAFT CHECKOUT”… and Norman Howard Casson was the top executive responsible for this entire massive organization. 

Casson always dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur and owning his own business.  After the conclusion of his NASA career, he founded his own engineering consulting company, Casson International, in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.  His facility in Los Angeles was 100,000 sqft and the building in San Fernando was 300,000 sqft, not including the smaller buildings scattered over 30 acres, much of the land of which was covered in gardenias.  

Later in life, Norman and Ida made their home with family in Jacksonville, Arkansas, where he continued to explore and expand his love of music. Norman’s beloved wife Ida passed away on Oct 28, 2018. She is sorely missed.

In 2010, Norman generously donated his collection of documents to the San Diego Air & Space Museum, including over two hundred photos, and a two-hour video presentation recorded in 2013 at the SDASM.  

The Norman Howard Casson online collection may be accessed at:

San Diego Air and Space Museum - Norm Casson Exhibit

San Diego Air and Space Museum - Personal Papers Collection

Norm Casson Images on Flickr

Book & Music Reviews by Norman