Sy Liebergot

Best Known

Sy Liebergot is best known for being a key member of the team that brought Apollo-13 back home.

Author

Sy Liebergot, David M. Harland, Apollo EECOM, Journey of a lifetime, ISBN-13: 978-1896522968

Education

Sy Liebergot began his engineering career with North American Aviation before graduating from California State University-Los Angeles with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1963.

Career

His space career began at the very inception of the Apollo lunar program when he joined a newly formed Flight Operations Group. In 1964, he transferred to Houston, Texas in support of NASA Mission Operations at the Manned Spacecraft Center, which had just opened. Sy switched over to NASA after about a year to qualify for a "front room" flight controller position in the mission control center in order to "get in on the action."

Sy became a veteran flight controller, most notably the Lead EECOM (Electrical, Environmental, Consumables) Flight Controller throughout all Apollo manned missions and an EGIL (Skylab EECOM) for all of the Skylab program missions. On the international scene, Sy was the Lead EECOM for the American-Russian Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP)mission. As EECOM in Mission Control on Apollo 13, Sy was at the focal point of the crisis when the spacecraft oxygen tank exploded.

More recently, as a Senior Project Engineer, he directed the design and fabrication of the astronaut neutral buoyancy trainers for the International Space Station (ISS).

Medal of Freedom

As part of the Apollo 13 Operations Team, Sy was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He also received the NASA Commendation Award for his leadership role in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project international space mission. He has advised and contributed to several books concerning Apollo 13 including the movie Apollo 13 (Sy was portrayed by actor Clint Howard), and has published his autobiography entitled Apollo EECOM: Journey Of A Lifetime. He remains an active booster and international public speaker of NASA's space accomplishments and the importance of a good education.