Seven Responses to Vision Every Leader Should Measure

Written By: Rick Gibson, MBA, CEC

Publisher & CEO: Christopher Luna

Alann Russell Klumpp may have been a celebrated figure in the history of the Apollo space program; but, thankfully, he was also a non-compliant NASA employee. 

On the Apollo 11 moon landing mission, the crew had been trained to activate the rendezvous radar which mysteriously caused a back up of data, interrupting systems’ two-second guidance signals. When the data queue filled up, the computer flushed the commands and triggered several sudden alarms. It was not clear if this indicated a malfunction or a false alarm. However, like a scene from Apple TV’s hit series, “For All Mankind”, both the crew hovering over the lunar surface and mission control in Houston opted to press on, and they successfully landed on the lunar surface, completed the mission and changed the world.

In his assessment of the problem, Klump, a NASA engineer, recognized the guidance computer problem and coded a program change to drop delayed guidance commands and recommended the implementation of the revised program for Apollo 13; but NASA management, dealing with competing priorities, decided to delay its implementation until Apollo 14. 

To Klump, a mission-driven employee, this was unacceptable. In an environment where command-and-control was a religion, Klumpp did the unthinkable and bypassed the chain of command and placed a phone call directly to Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell. Klumpp’s superiors were infuriated by his insubordination and reprimanded him. In the end, his proactive rule-breaking garnered Lovell’s support and NASA reconsidered and successfully introduced the crucial fix on Apollo13.

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