By Linda Herridge
NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center
NASA is remembering Isom “Ike” Rigell, retired chief engineer and deputy director of the Apollo Space Program at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. He died on Feb. 23, 2022, at the age of 99.
A resident of Titusville, Florida, Rigell oversaw launch operations for Apollo 11, the mission that put astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon. He was responsible for about 400 engineers and 8,000 contractors. After Apollo, he also served as director of launch operations for Apollo-Soyuz, a collaboration between the United States and Russia.
He was born on Jan. 10, 1923 in Slocomb, Alabama. At the age of 18, Rigell enlisted in the U.S. Marines after graduating from high school. He was on the Midway Atoll during the Battle of Midway, one of the greatest naval fights of World War II, as well as at Iwo Jima, Saipan, and Tinian.
After four-and-a-half years in the Marine Corps., Rigell returned home and enrolled at Georgia Tech, where he earned a degree in electrical engineering. After graduation, he worked at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. He later moved to Cape Canaveral and worked as an elite team member for the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, which transferred to NASA in 1960. He worked on the Redstone rocket program before segueing into a career with NASA.
He was an original member of the launch team at Cape Canaveral, which included launching the first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, in 1958, and the first U.S. astronaut, Alan Shepard, into space in 1961.
After retiring from NASA in 1991, Rigell worked 10 additional years on the Space Shuttle Program and retired as vice president of United Space Boosters, Inc. (USBI), Florida Operations.
He served as president of the local NASA Alumni League and was a guest speaker for the Apollo Challenger Columbia Lessons Learned Program at Kennedy. In 1993, he was the recipient of a NASA Lifetime Achievement Award. Rigell is the author of “Ike,” a memoir of his experiences.