Remembering Nasa Photographer Bill Taub

(music) From it's beginning, the space program has given us images that are benchmarks of America's technological achievements, capturing the symbolic moments and giving us an eloquent record of the human journey. Bill Taub was able to capture the essence of the space program in his work From the time NASA began in 1958, through the last Apollo flight in 1975, he photographed every significant aeronautics and space event Bill likes to joke that he was a photographer for NASA, even before the agency was formed. In the 1940s and 50s, he worked as a wind tunnel photographer for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, NACA in Langley, Virginia. After hours, Bill worked alone, setting up his bulky 8 x 10 camera in the cavernous tunnels. This pioneering work let the public see aeronautical research as never before. Bill Taub: The first pictures that I made were more-or-less general wind tunnel type photographs. and I would look at these and I would see a way to make them a little more artistic. In 1958, NACA became NASA and Bill Taub was sent to Washington, DC, as the agency's senior photographer. He was assigned to the original seven astronauts, covering all aspects of their lives. Alan Shepard, the first American in space, looks back on the early days: Shepard: "We were really pioneering in so many ways, and even the training exercises -- there was tension. and I think Bill captured that. He captured the spirit of the occasion extremely well. But he was a member of the family, not only in the early days, but for over 30 years." During much of the training, closed-door engineering meetings and missions, Bill was the only photographer allowed access. It was pressure to capture the moments that said it all. John Glenn made history the day he entered his Mercury capsule. Taub knew he had to provide coverage that would satisfy photo editors all over the world. He did. During his career, he recieved many awards, among them Photograph of the Year, for coverage of Gordon Cooper's flight in 1963. In 1969, the world watched as astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins carried out America's first mission to the moon. They became instant celebrities After their return to Earth, they visited 24 countries and 27 cities in 45 days. For Bill, covering this world tour was a special highlight. Bill grew up in an era when travel by rail was everything and landing on the moon was only a dream Trains became a lifelong hobby. Retired from NASA in 1975, Bill now enjoys conducting train models, collected and built over the years. When he's not tinkering with his train collection, Bill enjoys leafing through some very special books. each page a memory a glimpse of history in NASA's photo album, which he helped create.