Arthur Cosgrove!

Welcome to the Piece Of Advice Newsletter!

Good morning! Today we are blasting off at the life of Arthur Cosgrove, an unsung hero of early space exploration!

Arthur Cosgrove was just 23 years old when he started working on one of the most important space projects in history. Fresh out of college in the 1960s, he was hired by Eastman Kodak; yes, the film company; to help NASA get a better look at the Moon. America was in the middle of the space race, and before anyone could land on the Moon, they needed to know where it was safe to land. That’s where Cosgrove came in.

He joined a special team working on the “Lunar Orbiter” program, a series of five unmanned missions that flew to the Moon between 1966 and 1967. Their goal? Take pictures of the Moon’s surface from space; something that had never been done before with such precision. Arthur helped develop a new kind of imaging system that could take film photos in space, develop them onboard the spacecraft, and then send them back to Earth using radio signals. It was cutting-edge stuff, and it worked. The photos gave NASA the information it needed to safely land Apollo astronauts just a few years later.

Cosgrove didn’t just work behind a desk. He was in the thick of it; solving problems, testing systems, and working long hours. “We were working 12-hour days, six days a week,” he once recalled in an interview. But he loved every minute of it. The job was intense and fast-paced, but he knew they were doing something that had never been done before. His work helped map 99% of the Moon’s surface, making it one of the most thoroughly photographed objects in the sky.

Even decades later, Arthur never lost his passion for space. In 2019, on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, he gave a public talk at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York. He spoke about his experiences on the “Lunar Orbiter” team, sharing stories and photos that had once been classified. He explained how engineers, photographers, and scientists came together to make something truly groundbreaking. For many in the audience, it was the first time hearing about the behind-the-scenes heroes who made the Moon landing possible!

Piece Of Advice:

Giancarlo: What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Arthur Cosgrove: “Build teams”. The space program was a large group of very smart people who had to learn fast and work together as a large group of people. With a lot of specific knowledge; different personalities, knowledge basis, and interests. Today we have an extension group of people who are not working together as a team in our government. This is an example why we must learn and work together as a team.

Thank you so much for reading our newsletter today and please stay tuned for the great one we have coming your way next week! Have a great day!

-Giancarlo