Casson (Norman) Personal Papers, 1965-2010, bulk Bulk, 1965-1969

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Summary

Title:
Norman Howard Casson Personal Papers
Subtitle:
Dates:
1965-2010, bulk Bulk, 1965-1969
Creators:
Casson, Norman Howard
Abstract:
Norman Howard Casson has spent his technical career of six decades in aerospace. This collection contains photographs and text materials related to Casson's work, with the bulk related to his work on NASA's manned luanr missions, "Project Apollo".
Extent:
0.53 Cubic feet
Language:
Preferred citation:

[Item], [Filing Unit], [Series Title], [Subgroups], [Record Group Title and Number], [Repository “San Diego Air & Space Museum Library & Archives”]

Background

Scope and content:

One box, 12.25”x 5” x 15”, containing primarily photographs as well as instruction booklets and “Skywriter” articles from 1965-1969. Folders and their contents have been kept in their original order.

Biographical / historical:

Norm Casson worked on the Apollo Missions for NASA, beginning as an engineer and becoming the director in charge of checkout testing procedures.

Norman Howard Casson has spent his technical career of six decades in aerospace. Though Casson was employed as a launch test conductor for the Titan I Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, and later the Titan II – and received many honors for his work there – he is best known for his contributions to the United States lunar landing program, “The Apollo Project.”

NASA trusted Casson with the responsibility to thoroughly test and checkout every NASA manned spacecraft and take it through testing, and mission rehearsal with the actual astronaut crew members. After proving himself capable of managing Station C of the state-of-the-art Building 290 (constructed specifically for these operations), he was eventually given the responsibility of managing all Technicians, the Test Procedure Writing engineers, four control rooms, tank farm fluid and cas facilities, the systems engineers, the senior engineering test project managers, as well as all clerical and operations support personnel and the Apollo Post Recover operation and budget. This last was a team of engineers and technicians required to travel to the “splashdown” area of all Apollo Spacecraft returning from space, to save the systems and take steps to prevent hostile contamination from the surface of the moon.

Casson was immensely successful. He completely restructured the organization into what he believed was a “lean and agile” machine. He set up systems to assure the engineers working on the project were up-to-date with certification and qualifications as well.

Casson worked on the Apollo Missions for NASA as an engineer as well. He has a wealth of information on the American Space program. Casson lives in Arkansas and visits the Library & Archives when he is in the San Diego Area.

Acquisition information:
The materials in this collection were donated to the San Diego Air Space Museum in March 2010. The collection has been processed and is open for research with no restrictions.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid prepared by Stephania Villar
Date Prepared:
July 24, 2013
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using the Archivists' Toolkit 2015-01-29T11:42-0500

Access and use

Restrictions:

The collection is open to researchers by appointment.

Terms of access:

Some copyright may be reserved. Consult with the library director for more information.

Preferred citation:

[Item], [Filing Unit], [Series Title], [Subgroups], [Record Group Title and Number], [Repository “San Diego Air & Space Museum Library & Archives”]

Location of this collection:
2001 Pan American Plaza, Balboa Park
San Diego, CA 92101, US
Contact:
(619) 234-8291
archives@sdasm.org
Website