Nelson Bates

n 1969 when the first man walked on the moon, Richard M. Nixon was president, the Vietnam War and Woodstock music festival were making headlines, gasoline sold for $ 0.35 per gallon, a loaf of bread cost $ 0.23, and a postage stamp was $ 0.06.

That was also the year LETU alumnus Nelson Bates, a 1964 electrical technology graduate, was part of the famed moon-walk mission when astronaut Neil Armstrong said those immortal words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Bates was part of the mission as a reliability engineer in the Apollo Support Department/Missile and Space Division of General Electric.

“I was part of the team that would research and find answers when something went wrong or find answers to problems onboard a spacecraft,” he said. 

"My dad encouraged my mother to go hear Mr. LeTourneau speak, and she ended up seeing him several times,” he said.

After learning about LeTourneau College, his mother suggested that Nelson attend the school. 

Like many others, Bates worked in the plant as a student—and learned even more lessons than were taught in the classroom.

“I learned a lot about working in industry—lessons I carried with me the rest of my life,” he said. 

Before graduating in 1964, Bates began work as an electrical engineer with Chance-Vought in Grand Prairie, Texas. Eventually, he found himself at NASA and a part of the Apollo missions.

Bates was a part of what has been referred to as NASA’s successful failure, the Apollo 13 mission, which never landed on the moon due to an explosion aboard the spacecraft’s service module which placed the lives of the crew in peril.

“I was among those working at the space center to determine how to bring the crew back home,” he said. Bates was later presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the commander of the Apollo 13 mission, Jim Lovell. 

Reflecting on his time at LeTourneau and how it impacted his life, Bates said, “LeTourneau provided me with a foundation for real-life experiences and gave me a lifetime of friendships and memories.”