John Houbolt

John Cornelius Houbolt was an aerospace engineer credited with leading the team behind the lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) mission mode, a concept that was used to successfully land humans on the Moon and return them to Earth. This flight path was chosen for the Apollo program in July 1962. The critical decision to use LOR was viewed as vital to ensuring that man reached the Moon by the end of the decade as proposed by President John F. Kennedy. In the process, LOR saved time and billions of dollars by efficiently using the rocket and spacecraft technologies.

10 April 1919

Born on the same birth day (10 April): Ahmed Adel Abdel Moneam • Alex Pettyfer • Andy Ram • Anna-Leena Härkönen • Charlie Culberson • Chris Heston • David Helvarg • Fernando Gago • Indro Olumets • Jake Warren • Kishori Amonkar • Louis Rougier • Mark Jones (basketball, born 1961) • Montague Summers • Paul Bearer • Paul Theroux • Sean Avery • Shay Mitchell

Born in the same month (April 1919): Alberto Breccia • Don Cornell • Donald J. Cram • Ervin Drake • Ian Smith • István Anhalt • J. Presper Eckert • Joseph Murray • Richard Hillary • Roland Gaucher