Michael Vaccaro

Michael Vaccaro

Animal space flight

Astronautics--Human factors

Space flight

Michael Vaccaro was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1927. When he started high school at the age of 14, Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese. When he graduated high school, he enlisted in the Navy in 1945 so he wouldn't have to go into the Army. He was on a crew of a destroyer, and stayed in the Navy for two years. Following his discharge, Michael started college in 1948. To help pay for college, he started working with the merchant marines selling out oil tanks. He finished this in 1951. Michael started out in college at New York University, and soon after he almost had to go back to the Navy due to the outbreak of the Korean War. To avoid going back, he joined the ROTC at NYU. In 1952, he entered the extended active duty with the United States Air Force as a second lieutenant. He went to Keesler Airforce Base for training, and he spent two years there. There, he became a Radar Officer. After his training, Michael then started to become interested with Von Braun, and the development of rockets in Huntsville, AL. He then finally made a decision to leave the Air Force, and he moved to Huntsville to work. He went into the Mechanical Engineering Design group. One of the first projects he was assigned to was the life support system, working with two monkeys. He then was offered a job in the Bioengineering group, which he liked much better, so he decided to stay with this group. His last program he worked on was on the Hubble Telescope, where he had the opportunity to work with Buzz Aldrin.

Oral History Collection

University of Alabama in Huntsville Archives and Special Collections

2017-9

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Interviews

Video

Friday__September_8__2017_at_12_16_04_PM_default_2b1019c8

MC_136_

2000s

Stokes, Jack

Vaccaro, Michael

0:45:29