https://peertube.dngr.us/videos/watch/590a7a5a-e902-40cf-858b-8bbf44fc185f "Sam was one of the most important people in the first three decades of the space program", said Jay Barbree, NBC's long-time space correspondent. Better known as "Sam", Samuel T. Beddingfield arrived in Florida in 1959 to work at what became the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and the Kennedy Space Center. He was lured to NASA by his friend Gus Grissom, who that year was named one of the country's first seven astronauts. When he arrived, NASA had 33 employees who worked out of hangars, without air-conditioning. Beddingfield got badge No. 4. His first job was helping to get Project Mercury started, serving as mechanical engineer. Young, hardworking and under pressure, the newly minted NASA engineers launched rockets and fixed problems on the fly. In 1983 Beddingfield told the Orlando Sentinel: "People have always been impressed with what we've done, but if they really knew what we did, they'd be really impressed" Beddingfield often told people that when he was first asked to take the NASA job, he protested that he didn't know anything about rockets. Don't worry, he was told, nobody does. He described a crew so new to space flight that they didn't always know what to worry about, and technicians who came to rely on special green missile tape to make most any repair. "It got to the point that people said, 'If you don't have something taped up with green tape, it won't fly,' " he said. During his career, Beddingfield worked on the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle programs and was deputy director of space shuttle management when he retired in 1985. He was close friends with the original seven astronauts and many who followed. During his 26-year NASA career, he received numerous forms of recognition for his service. Among them was the NASA Exceptional Service Medal for both the Apollo and the Shuttle programs. He also received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006 from the Florida Committee of the National Space Club. Born in Clayton, N.C., Beddingfield first took flying lessons when he was about 14. Beddingfield earned a mechanical engineering degree from North Carolina State University. He then joined the Air Force and worked as a flight test engineer on new aircraft. Stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, he met and became friends met Grissom, who was a test pilot there. A licensed pilot, flying remained a central part of Beddingfield's professional and private life until health problems forced him to stop piloting his own planes. After his retirement from NASA, Beddingfield was an active volunteer, giving tours at the Kennedy Space Center and at the Space Walk of Fame Museum (now the American Space Museum). He also served on the museum board of directors. "He was one of us who felt very passionately about what we did and that it should be preserved for the younger generation," said Charlie Mars, a retired NASA engineer who worked with Beddingfield and now serves on the museum board of directors. Beddingfield also worked with Mars to gather handprint casts of astronauts to be used in Titusville's Space View Park and here at the museum. Beddingfield and his late wife, Barbara, also loved to travel and watch birds together. He served on the board of the Merritt Island Wildlife Association. Cheerful, giving and fond of playing the piano, Beddingfield seemed to make friends wherever he went. "He was also a dedicated family man who relished that role even more than his professional accomplishments", said his daughter, Nan Lafferty. Sam Beddingfield died June 13, 2012 at 78 after battling lung cancer. His daughters, Nan Lafferty and Beth Mathis, have continued to support this museum with donations and loans of many of Sam's personal space artifacts. Sam's daughter, Beth Mathis, and grandson, Sam Mathis, continue in his footsteps as museum volunteers. ORIGIN: An ORIGINAL production of The American Space Museum, Titusville, FL. Part of our "Space Workers Oral History" Project. More to come! INTERVIEWD by Dr. Lori Walters on 10/26/2001 EDITED by Bruce Landon Jacobs COPYRIGHT: 2001, 2020 American Space Museum and U.S. Space Walk of Fame Foundation Mirrored from YouTube: https://youtu.be/QB-8A7SrHwM Original channel: American Space Museum Wed, 15 Jul 2026 12:40:12 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://peertube.dngr.us https://peertube.dngr.us/lazy-static/avatars/ec5edb1e-3795-4978-be4f-c67e98fbc992.png https://peertube.dngr.us/videos/watch/590a7a5a-e902-40cf-858b-8bbf44fc185f All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://peertube.dngr.us/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.