Virginia veteran recalls his time in Army and NASA | 7Salutes

MCLEAN, Va. (7News) — Nowadays, private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are blazing new trails in space. But in the beginning, the U.S. military played a big role in our voyage to the stars.

7News sat down with a Virginia veteran who had a front row seat to the space race.

Thomas Tate’s entire adult life has been centered around space, even though he’s never left the ground. After studying marketing in college, he joined the U.S. Army and never could’ve imagined how his life would change.

“They ended up sending me to Fort Bliss Texas guided missile school,” Tate recalled.

Guided missiles were a relatively new military technology during the Cold War, and Lieutenant Tate was hooked.

“I sat in the truck, the truck that looks like a regular truck, but it's all computers inside, sat in there and played with incoming missiles and stuff like that and how much time you had left,” he remembered.

After completing his military service, Tate worked on a classified project developing missile and surface radar for the United States Air Force’s Ballistic Missile Early Warning System.

“[The system] would allow at least 9 minutes or 12 minutes' notice of a missile on the way,” said Tate.

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With NASA in its infancy, Tate wanted to be a part of it. So, thanks to the foundation he created during his time in the Army, Tate landed a job with Rockwell International, working closely with NASA on new technologies.

For example, we all know the iconic images of American astronauts splashing down in the ocean. Tate was part of a team developing an experimental glider for the Gemini spacecraft, which would’ve allowed the astronauts to simply land back on earth.

“We developed what they call a parachute type thing that you would pop when you’re flying down, and its like a kite,” he said.

Unfortunately, the program was later scrapped.

“Two test pilots both were injured so badly they never flew again,” said Tate.

But you can see an example of this spacecraft at the Smithsonian’s Udvar Hazy Center.

He spent decades at NASA, befriended many famous astronauts. His best friend was Jack Swigert, the Command Module Pilot on Apollo 13.

Tate recalls that after the oxygen tank exploded on board the crippled spacecraft limped its way home, conditions on board were far worse than many realize.

“I said to him one day, ‘Jack, how bad were you when the CO2 was leaking?’ He said ‘TomI was on my way, I was already loopy,’” said Tate.

“What he did was a very smart thing- him being the pilot in the middle, so he wouldn’t make any mistakes, he took tape, tape pieces and he put them over the switches so he wouldn’t press the wrong switch.”

As we know, Apollo 13 made it home safely and America’s journeys to the moon ended with Apollo 17.

“After Apollo, the thing is- what’s next? Now, there’s a whole cadre of companies wanted to build a space station.”

But Tate and his team instead worked with Congress to start a new Space Shuttle program. When that was approved, NASA finally realized its goal of a glider spacecraft.

Tate was with NASA during the good times and the bad. In 2003, after the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry, he was a member of the Return to Flight Task Group, to help NASA safely return to space shuttle to flight.

Today, Tate calls Sunrise of McLean Village home and fondly reflects on his illustrious career. While he’s excited for the future, he’s also cautious.

“We’ve come very far, we’ve come a long way,” said Tate. “China is trying to surpass us in every possible way.”

Tate has watched this country conquer new frontiers and believes we’ve only just begun.