UAH Archives, Special Collections, and Digital Initiatives

Oral History Interview With Charles Van Valkenburg

Item

Dublin Core

Identifier

Friday__September_28__2018_at_10_34_25_AM_default_122089af
MC_136_

Title

Oral History Interview With Charles Van Valkenburg

Description

Charles Van Valkenburg grew up in Huntsville, AL, and he went to Auburn University. There, he majored in Industrial Design and he had a part-time job as a draftsman at one of the civil engineering firms. After graduating college, he received a job at Essex in Huntsville. At this job, Charles would get in the water of the Neutral Buoyancy Tank and make sure that all the tools and everything was in place for an astronaut. Sometimes, he would even be the test subject. After all the testing from the day, they would all have a debriefing session at this company where the astronaut, human factors experts, and engineers would all make inputs. After the debriefing, they would take the ideas and get the machinists to make some modifications to the hardware. Charles would also work in pressure suits, and he explains how restricted the suit made him feel. He also mentions the foot restraints, and how difficult they were to work with. In his career, Charles was also able to help design the underwater version of the manned maneuvering unit.

Date

2018-09-28

Temporal Coverage

Format

.MP4

Source

Oral History Collection
University of Alabama in Huntsville Archives and Special Collections

Language

Rights

This material may be protected under U. S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S. Code) which governs the making of photocopies or reproductions of copyrighted materials. You may use the digitized material for private study, scholarship, or research. Though the University of Alabama in Huntsville Archives and Special Collections has physical ownership of the material in its collections, in some cases we may not own the copyright to the material. It is the patron's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in our collections.

Citation

Van Valkenburg, Charles and Stokes, Jack, “Oral History Interview With Charles Van Valkenburg,” UAH Archives, Special Collections, and Digital Initiatives, accessed March 19, 2024, http://libarchstor2.uah.edu/digitalcollections/items/show/9461.

Transcribe This Item

  1. Friday__September_28__2018_at_10_34_25_AM_default_122089af.mp4