Official bracket-bound manual entitled “Missile Systems Division, PERT Systems: A Guide for Operating Management,” (BR-2610) prepared by the Raytheon Company of Bedford, Massachusetts, 193 total pages, 9 x 11.5, circa late 1963, with spine marked “PERT” and front cover label reading: “Missile Systems Division, PERT Systems.” The manual contains four main sections-Introduction, MSD PERT Policy, PERT Time System Description, PERT Cost System Description- and three appendixes: Glossary of Terms, PERT Operating Procedures, and PERT Cost Output Reports, the latter of which is a direct copy of the March 1963 preliminary issue of “Supplement No. 1 to DOD and NASA Guide.” The close of the introduction states: “The computer program discussed is the IBM 7090 PERT/COST Program, 7090-CP-01X version 1 modification level 2.” NASA used 7090s, and, later, 7094s to control the Mercury and Gemini space flights. Goddard Space Flight Center operated three 7094s and, during the early Apollo Program, a 7094 was kept operational to run flight planning software that had not yet been ported to mission control's newer System/360 computers. In fine condition.
PERT, an acronym derived from the words ‘Program Evaluation and Review Technique,’ is a technique designed principally to serve as an aid in the schedule planning and analysis of complex, one-of-a-kind operations. Also called ‘network diagrams’ and ‘precedence charts,’ PERT has been used at NASA and the Langley Research Center for decades.
Initially used during the late 1950s to plan and control the construction of major facilities (such as chemical plants) and the development of weapons systems such as Polaris, PERT was used extensively by NASA during the Space Race of the 1960s when an extremely high value was placed on schedule accomplishment and acceleration.
One major instance where PERT proved invaluable was for the site activation of Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39. After the painstaking completion of facility construction and electrical and mechanical outfitting, the installation, assembly, and testing of ground support equipment were next, a phase that, in some ways, constituted Apollo's greatest challenge. Hundreds of contractors sent nearly 40,000 pieces of ground support equipment to the Cape for installation at LC-39. On Merritt Island, KSC's Apollo Program Office had to integrate the activities of more than two dozen major contractors. Engineering and administrative interfaces numbered in the thousands. However, when Rocco Petrone in September 1964 appointed Donald R. Scheller as Staff Assistant for Activation Planning, the PERT program was called into action. Scheller’s office used the program to define each task, performer, and deadline in a descending and expanding level of detail that brought the daunting task of activating a state-of-the-art launch complex to glorious, historic fruition.
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