THE GIANTS OF THE GOLDEN QUARTER CENTURY ARE PASSING AWAY: NASA engineer Glynn Lunney dead at 84. “He led the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and Space Shuttle programs before retiring from the agency in 1985, then led human spaceflight activities in private industry with Rockwell International and, later, United Space Alliance until his retirement in 1995. Lunney received the Presidential Medal Freedom as part of the Apollo 13 Mission Operations Team in recognition of actions that made it possible to save three Apollo 13 astronauts aboard a spacecraft that became disabled on the way to the moon on a 1970 mission. Under Lunney’s guidance, the team worked with the astronauts to shut down the command module systems so that the lunar module could be used as a lifeboat for the crew during the journey home to Earth keeping the crew alive and safe while NASA’s teams developed longer-term plans for successful re-entry and splashdown.”