Recruiting for Apollo

Getting to the moon, 50 years ago as of July 20, required an army of scientists, engineers, and technicians, recruited to work on developing technology and systems that did not exist. At its peak in 1967, the Apollo program employed over 400,000 people. Most were young with barely any experience. When Neil Armstrong stepped on to the surface of the moon, the average age of engineers at Mission Control was 28. Recruiting this massive workforce was not easy. NASA and its contractors needed every engineer and scientist they could find. One engineer’s experience was typical of how hiring worked at the time.