Introducing LA Made: The Other Moonshot (Coming January 29)

Norco 80

LAist Studios

True Crime

4.2 • 887 Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2025

⏱️ 3 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When Joanne Higgins was growing up in Compton in Los Angeles, she heard her godfather, Charlie Cheathem, tell stories about his key role in the Apollo mission to the moon. As an adult she realized that his experiences — and those of other Black engineers — had been left out of the history books. She set out to record for the first time the accounts of these men whose crucial contributions to the early days of the Apollo mission have been overlooked — or taken credit for by others — despite their ingenuity and determination. Find the first episode on January 29, wherever you get your podcasts.

"LA Made: The Other Moonshot" is a production of LAist Studios with Reasonable Volume, and the third season of the LA Made franchise.

Transcript

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0:00.0	For ongoing coverage of the Southern California Wildfires, download the new LASD mobile app so you can listen wherever you are.
0:07.0	You can also stream us on LAS.com or listen live on LAS 89.3.
0:11.7	LAS will be there with you every step of the way.
0:15.2	Hi, this is Larry Mantle. Our 23rd Annual Film Week Academy Awards preview is back on Saturday, February 22nd at the
0:23.6	Alex Theater in Glendale. Get your tickets now, LAIS.com slash events.
0:42.7	L.A. LAIS Studios Five, four, three, two, one.
0:51.0	We all know the story of how America got to the moon, but there's still, after all this time, another story that's pretty much unknown.
0:59.9	The story of the black aerospace engineers in Los Angeles who helped get us there.
1:04.9	I said, well, here we go. I'm going to work on this thing, and we're going to go to the moon.
1:10.3	Nathaniel Lavert, designed the engine propellant system for the second stage rocket
1:14.6	and worked on all the Apollo launches.
1:17.6	Shelby Jacobs, engineer in rocket propulsion.
1:21.6	I didn't ask to work on the cameras that came and got me.
1:25.6	Shelby designed the camera system that took the very first photographs of the
1:29.9	curvature of the earth from space.
1:32.6	And Charlie Cheatham, supervisor of configuration management.
1:36.3	They couldn't even launch the spacecraft until I stand off on it.
1:41.6	You follow me?
1:42.9	You've never heard that version.
1:45.0	During that time, we weren't really welcome.
1:47.0	I went over and said, I'm going to go in engineering or I'm going to sue you.
1:52.0	I had to sit down because I couldn't believe these guys were making that much more money to me.
	...

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