Seymour Liebergot

Seymour "Sy" Abraham Liebergot (born February 15, 1936, in Camden, New Jersey) is a retired NASA flight controller, serving during the Apollo program.

Liebergot was an EECOM controller and was responsible for the electrical and environmental systems on board the Command Module.

Seymour “Sy” Abraham Liebergot was born on February 15, 1936, in Camden, New Jersey, the second child of parents Ida née Soloff and Solomon “Sol” Liebergot.

His paternal grandparents immigrated from Kiev, Ukraine, and his maternal grandparents immigrated from Novosibkov, Russia to the U.S. Sy experienced an unstable and rough childhood.

Though money was scarce, his father gambled, drank, and had many gangster friends and enemies.

Ida spiraled into a nervous breakdown when Sol had an affair, attempting to kill Sy and his sister Phyllis in 1942.

Ida was permanently institutionalized.

Sol married the woman he had an affair with, and they later bore three more children.

Sol constantly uprooted his family, moving from place to place in order to escape danger from his debts, and he neglected his family and often beat Sy.

After graduating high school in 1953, Sy worked as a copy boy at the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In 1954, after turning 18, he decided to join the Army to take some time to receive technical training and figure out his life plans.

He was stationed in Fort Huachuca and the Yuma Test Station, where he fulfilled weather activity duties.

Sy was honorably discharged in 1957.

That same year, he moved to Los Angeles, CA and married his first wife, Deanna Cohen.

He decided to attend college for Electrical Engineering and enrolled at the Los Angeles City Junior College (LACC) for his first two years of study.

He simultaneously worked as a shoe salesman for five years to support himself and his family.

Liebergot’s first daughter, Shelli Lyn was born in 1958 and his twin sons, Mark Daniel and Scot Alan, were born in 1960.

He graduated from LACC after five semesters and enrolled in California State University at Los Angeles (CSLA) to finish the last two years of his degree.

Liebergot later moved to Houston to work for NASA.

There, he participated in various social activities.

In 1962, he began working full time as an engineer and finished his degree at night in two semesters.

He began his career in 1963 with North American Aviation after graduating from California State University, Los Angeles.

In 1964, he came to NASA.

Liebergot was an Assistant Flight Director on Apollo 4, then an EECOM flight controller on Apollo 8–15.

On Apollo 17, he served as CSSB SPAN (SPacecraft ANalysis room) Support.

He continued as a controller in the Skylab and ASTP missions.

In 1964, Liebergot joined the Flight Operations Support Group, which provided command and service module (CSM) information to NASA’s flight operations in Houston.

He stayed in Dowey, CA as a lead engineer while most of the group transferred to Houston.

In 1970, he was part of the team that guided Apollo 13 back to Earth following the explosion that crippled the spacecraft.

He joined the Space City Ski Club (SCSC) in 1972, eventually becoming the President of the club and ultimately president of the statewide ski club organization, the Texas Ski Council.

Liebergot and Cohen divorced in 1978.

Six years later in 1978, he married Tania Andrasko.

Liebergot also participated in chili cooking competitions with some friends, including the International Chili Championship in 1982.

They divorced in 1984.

In 1988, Liebergot started singing lessons again (the last time was in high school), and he completed Scuba Divemaster training in 1989.

Liebergot later met Elizabeth Craig Tharpe in 1988 at a monthly ski club meeting.

They married in 1990.

While still in college, Liebergot accepted a part-time evening job at North American Aviation (NAA) in the Space & Information Systems Division (S&ID) College Engineering Unit.

He became an assistant supervisor a year later.

Their division later won a contract with NASA to build a part of the Saturn V lunar launch rocket.