Aaron Cohen
The engineer who ran Mission Control
Aaron Cohen
1931–2010
Aaron Cohen spent three decades deeply involved in every aspect of the American space program, working on all six U.S. lunar landings, managing the space shuttle orbiter program, and helping to launch the space station. He was credited with helping NASA recover after the Challenger explosion, in 1986.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Born in Texas to Russian immigrant parents, Cohen grew up in San Antonio. After studying mechanical engineering at Texas A&M University, he earned a master’s degree in applied mathematics at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. His first engineering job was with RCA, said the Houston Chronicle, where he worked on a magnetron tube ultimately used in the microwave oven and on the cathode ray tube for color television. “But the launch of the Russian satellite Sputnik in 1957 changed the course of his life,” and he decided he had to work for the fledgling American space program.
After joining NASA, he “managed the computer guidance systems for the Apollo command module and the landing module that first carried astronauts to the moon’s surface,” said The Washington Post. In 1986, after the Challenger exploded, claiming the lives of seven astronauts, he was named director of the Johnson Space Center. Colleagues said he helped rebuild confidence within a shaken NASA, as he pushed the goal of getting Americans back into space. He was in charge three years later when shuttle flights resumed. He left NASA in 1993 to teach at his alma mater, Texas A&M.
Sending people into space was a humbling and nerve-racking experience, Cohen once told a group of students. Before a mission, he said, “you wondered, what did you forget? But once you got to the control center, we didn’t talk about failure because there was work to do to get the job done.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Is there a peaceful way forward for Israel and Iran?
Today's Big Question Tehran has initially sought to downplay the latest Israeli missile strike on its territory
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
The Week Unwrapped: Sudan, tackling homelessness and fake news
Podcast What is happening in Sudan? Could London really end rough sleeping? And why has Joe Lycett being making up stories?
By The Week Staff Published
-
Taylor Swift's surprise double album: an event of 'world-shaking proportions'
Why Everyone's Talking About Fans are 'reeling' after The Tortured Poets Department is followed by The Anthology – 15 additional tracks
By Julia O'Driscoll, The Week UK Published
-
Benjamin Zephaniah: trailblazing writer who 'took poetry everywhere'
Why Everyone's Talking About Remembering the 'radical' wordsmith's 'wit and sense of mischief'
By The Week UK Published
-
Shane MacGowan: the unruly former punk with a literary soul
Why Everyone's Talking About The Pogues frontman died aged 65
By The Week UK Published
-
'Euphoria' star Angus Cloud dies at 25
Speed Read
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
Legendary jazz and pop singer Tony Bennett dies at 96
Speed Read
By Devika Rao Published
-
Martin Amis: literary wunderkind who ‘blazed like a rocket’
feature Famed author, essayist and screenwriter died this week aged 73
By The Week Staff Published
-
Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian folk legend, is dead at 84
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Barry Humphries obituary: cerebral satirist who created Dame Edna Everage
feature Actor and comedian was best known as the monstrous Melbourne housewife and Sir Les Patterson
By The Week Staff Published
-
Mary Quant obituary: pioneering designer who created the 1960s look
feature One of the most influential fashion designers of the 20th century remembered as the mother of the miniskirt
By The Week Staff Published