The Authors

Ivan D. Ertel has been a contract historian to NASA's History Office since November 1972. He retired from NASA's Johnson Space Center in June 1972 after serving as the Center's Assistant Historian since September 1964. Born in Marion, New York (1914), he received his B.B.A. degree from Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia (1958). He was news editor of Atlanta's Suburban Reporter, East Point, Georgia, and the Decatur-De Kalb News, Decatur, Georgia (1954-1957). Before coming to NASA in 1961 he was Press Officer at Headquarters, Third U.S. Army. Ertel established the Manned Spacecraft Center's official news organ, Space News Roundup, authored fact sheets and brochures about each Mercury and Gemini manned flight and is co-author of The Apollo Spacecraft: A Chronology, Volume I (1969) and Volume III (1976) and Skylab: A Chronology (1977).

Roland W. Newkirk was born in Palenville, New York (1915). Following retirement from the Army and before joining NASA at the Johnson Space Center in 1965, Newkirk received his B.A. in history at the College of the Ozarks (1963) and his M.A. at the University of Arkansas (1965). He has also done graduate work in political science (public administration) at the University of Houston (1966-1970). Newkirk left the NASA Johnson Space Center in June 1973. He then served as a NASA contract historian for a short period. He authored Skylab: Preliminary Chronology, NASA HHN-130, May 1973, and is coauthor of Skylab: A Chronology (1977).

Courtney G. Brooks has been a Research Associate with the History Department of the University of Houston July 1969. Born in Savannah Georgia (1939), he received his B.A. degree from Huntingdon College, Montgomery, Alabama (1964), and his M.A. (1966) and Ph.D. (1969) degrees in history from Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana.