Below is the text of an editorial that appeared in the Daily Intelligencer on Monday, May 9, 2011.

History made here

America’s space program has roots in Warminster

IT WAS ALL so new then, so unfamiliar, so much like something out of Capt. Video: On May 5, 1961 – 50 years ago – astronaut Alan B. Shepard, one of the original seven U.S. astronauts, became the first American in outer space.

The Russians had beaten us to manned flight – Yuri Gagarin did it in April of that year – just as they had shocked the United States and the world years earlier with the launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite.

By comparison, Gagarin’s ride – a 108-minute orbital trip – made Shepard’s 15-minute suborbital journey seem like a walk across the street.

Nevertheless, Shepard was hailed as a national hero with parades in several cities. President John F. Kennedy awarded him a medal. More importantly, Shepard’s “foot in the space door” launched America’s manned space program, which eventually overtook the Soviet Union’s and culminated with the first moon landing, Apollo 11, in July 1969. Shepard himself would walk on the moon in 1971 as the commander of Apollo 14.

Shepard retired from NASA in 1974 and died of leukemia on July 21, 1998, 21 years to the day after the first moon walk. Though he’ll never be forgotten as America’s first space pioneer, he’s back in the news for a couple of reasons.

Last week, the U.S. Postal Service issued a first-class stamp in Shepard’s honor.

And in an event much closer to home, the original centrifuge gondola that Shepard trained in during Project Mercury was returned to Warminster Township, where the former Johnsville Naval Air Development Center once was home to the world’s largest human centrifuge. The arrival of the gondola on May 5 coincided with the 50th anniversary of Shepard’s first flight.

Many other astronauts from the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs came to the NADC to ride the gondola and experience the effects of high G-forces that they would later be subjected to during launches.

After its days of spinning astronauts were over, the gondola became part of the collection at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington. But its place at the Smithsonian for well over four decades – in an outside storage yard, away from public view – hardly did proper justice to such a key contributor to the U.S. space program.

According to the Johnsville Centrifuge and Science Museum website, the return of the gondola to its home in Warminster is part of the Save Our History campaign sponsored by The History Channel.
Eventually, the gondola will be displayed at the centrifuge building.

That our early astronauts prepared for their journeys right in our own backyard is not a particularly well-known chapter in the story of America’s space program. The centrifuge gondola’s homecoming is a good reason to learn about the role Bucks County played in the nation’s early exploration of the final frontier.

TICKETS ARE NOW AVAILABLE
FOR OUR SECOND ANNUAL SPRING GALA:
SAT., MAY 14TH 2011 AT THE VE CLUB

Renown Astronomer Derrick Pitts to Provide Comments on Importance of Science Education

Program will also feature Special Q&A Session
with Retired Naval Corpsman
who Helped Train Mercury Astronauts

We are happy to announce that Derrick Pitts, the Chief Astronomer and Director of the Fels Planetarium at the Franklin Institute will be providing comments at our event. Derrick’s father worked at NADC and inspired Derrick’s interest in space and science at a young age. Derrick is well known in the Philadelphia region for his work on WHYY and WXPN-FM an is recognized nationally for his many appearances on show like The Today Show, Good Morning America, and Newton’s Apple. We are thrilled to welcome Derrick to our event.

In addition, retired Naval Corpsman Art Guntner will be featured in a special Q&A session. In what promises to be an extraordinary oral history, Art will recount his days in the Navy where one of his assignments was as an Aerospace Medicine Technician at the Johnsville Centrifuge. While stationed at Johnsville, Art flew over 350 simulations in the centrifuge and was personally involved in briefing and training the Mercury Astronauts.  

Our Second Annual Spring Gala will be held on Saturday, May 14 from 6 to 11 PM at the VE Club at 130 Davisville Road in Warminster, PA. Tickets are $60 each and include your choice of Filet Mignon or Salmon. Tables of 8 are available. Tickets can be purchased by contacting nadcmuseum@comcast.net or by calling 267-250-8841. We look forward to seeing you at this very special event.

Renown Astronomer Derrick Pitts will speak at the Second Annual Spring Gala

c1960, Art Guntner (left) assists John Glenn after a flight in the Johnsville Centrifuge

The Johnsville Centrifuge & Science Museum will reopen on April 17th and will be open on the first and third Sunday of each month between 1 and 3:30 PM.  We look forward to this year as we commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Alan Shepard’s historic flight in May and take part in the year long celebration of Warminster’s tricentennial.  Looking forward to next February, we will commemorate the 50th anniversary of John Glenn’s orbital mission.  The Bucks County connection is cannot be understated as the American astronauts endured grueling training sessions on the world famous Johnsville Centrifuge right here in Warminster, PA until just before their missions.

We also have an exhibit of the Mercury Program currently on display at the Warminster Township Parks and Recreation office at 1101 Little Lane in Warminster as part of our own contribution to 100 years of Naval Aviation and Warminster’s Tricentennial.  The exhibit tells the story of the technology and people behind our nation’s early space exploration efforts as well as marking President Kennedy’s speech that put Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins on a trajectory to where no man had gone before.  It also commemorates the service members, workers and contractors who played a part in our success as a nation by contributing their services at the Naval Air Development Center.  Stop in and check it out when you are in the area.

Plans are underway for our Second Annual Spring Gala which will be held on Saturday, May 14 at the VE Club.  Details are on our home page at www.nadcmuseum.org.  We hope you come out to for a fun night to support us.  We look forward to seeing all of our friends at the Gala and at the museum as we kick off another great season.    

Finally, we recently were granted approval from the Smithsonian Institute to bring the original gondola that was used for training the Mercury astronauts back to Warminster.   We’ll have more details on the move soon.

Retired Navy Corpsman Art Guntner made a trip to the Johnsville Centrifuge and Science Museum in Warminster, PA from his home in Inwood, West Virginia not knowing what he would find in the building where he worked as an Aerospace Medicine Technician (AMT) in the early 1960s. What he found was that the largest and most powerful human centrifuge ever built was still standing. Although it hasn’t run for more than a decade and the copper sheeting that once lined the 125 foot diameter chamber has long been removed, seeing the giant machine where he helped to train the Mercury astronauts brought back a flood of memories.

Art Guntner was born and raised in the mining town of Morgantown, West Virginia and is the son of Kathleen and Frank G. Guntner. The Guntner family is steeped in military service, his step-father was in the Army at the end of WWI, his father was a Marine in the Pacific in WWII, and his uncle Charles M. Blaney from Westover, West Virginia, fought on Iwo Jima and was present for the flag raising on Suribachi. A younger uncle, Robert Blaney, retired as an Air Force Master Sargeant.

Guntner joined the Navy in 1958 and graduated from Aerospace Medicine School in 1960. Immediately after graduation he was sent to the Naval Air Development Center (NADC), Johnsville, PA; located just north of Philadelphia. NADC was home to the Aviation Medical Acceleration Laboratory (AMAL) where the largest human centrifuge in the world was located. The centrifuge was built in the late 1940’s to test the limits of human endurance under the high G forces that were produced by the new jet fighters being used by the military. However, by late 1959 and into the early 1960’s the focus of training and research at AMAL turned to preparing the men who would be the first American space explorers.

Given the full schedules of the Mercury astronauts, it was impractical for them to be present for early runs or “flights” on the centrifuge that were made to determine baseline performance. It fell to younger staff members like Guntner to serve as the test subjects for the initial simulations. Over the course of his time at Johnsville, Guntner estimates that he endured over 350 flights in the centrifuge, more than any other test subject. Some flights pushed him to as high as 15 Gs. By way of comparison, a driver in the Indianapolis 500 sustains 4 to 5 G’s in the turns, and astronauts rarely experience more than 6 Gs at liftoff and reentry.

Art Guntner exits the gondola of the Johnsville Centrifuge in 1960 after one of more than 350 simulations.

When the Mercury astronauts arrived for their training, it was Guntner who briefed them on the results of the early simulations, telling them what they could expect from the experiences they were about to undergo. As an AMT, part of his job was to place the bio-medical sensor on the astronauts and monitor functions like heart rate and breathing as they took their rides on “the wheel”.

Guntner was soon working on a first name basis with the Mercury Seven and recounted stories of working with John Glenn and Alan Shepard. He recalled one time when another flight surgeon insisted in placing the bio-med sensors on John Glenn. After half an hour of placing the sensors and another half an hour of getting suited up, when initial diagnostics were run, several of the sensors were not producing any readings. At that point an exasperated Glenn looked at Guntner and waved him into the preparation room saying simply, “Come on, Art, show him how it’s done!”

Art Guntner assists John Glenn after a flight in the Johnsville Centrifuge

He recalled another time when he was called in on short notice on a weekend to work with the astronauts. His wife had other commitments that day and it was too late for him to find a sitter for his two year old daughter, so he brought her to work with him. It was a long busy day operating with a skeleton staff, so it fell to Alan Sheppard and John Glenn to take turns on babysitting duty. Art says that it is something that his daughter still talks about to this day.

During his visit, Guntner shared his many photos that were taken of him with the astronauts. At the time, Guntner knew that he was involved in a very special program but remained focused on the work he was doing as “just a job that need to be done, and needed to be done to the best of my abilities.” Guntner also recalled some interactions he had with Ham, the chimp whose rocket ride preceded those of any humans.

In addition to his work with the astronauts, Guntner’s work at Johnsville included testing the design of G-suits and the configuration of the space capsules interior control panel under acceleration, and many other classified tests. After his time at the Centrifuge, Guntner qualified as aircrew in the H-34 Seahorse, WC-121 Constellation, the WP-3A Hurricane Hunters, then the H1-N, the H-2 and H-3 helicopters. Guntner was a CICO, (combat information control officer) for four years, flying hurricanes and winter storms over the north Atlantic. Eventually his career took him to NAS Jacksonville, FL and other bases before retirement in 1979. Looking back on a full Navy career, Guntner is proud of the opportunity that he had to serve his country, but it is his time working with the first Americans to fly into space that he will always be the most proud of.

2010: Art Guntner returns to Johnsville to share his stories about his experiences working with the Mercury Astronauts.

Did you or someone you know work at Johnsville?  If you’ve got stories, we’d love to hear them.  Contact us at stories@nadcmuseum.org