Jack McCaine was born in 1923 in Houston. He attended Texas A&M College prior to WWII and graduated in 1950 from the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture.
He joined the Spacecraft Center Area Office, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1962. From August 1962 - January 1966, Jack McCaine was employed as project manager for the design and construction of the Mission Control Center, Buildings 30 and 48, and an addition to the Central Heating and Cooling Plant, Building 24 at the Manned Spacecraft Center. This project had an extremely tight schedule, being tied to the space program in progress. This was a first--no one had built a Mission Control Center before. He was project manager for design of Project Engineering Facility, Building 45, which is a seven-story office building. He was also manager for design of Test Operations Support Facility, Building 32A. This was an addition to the large vacuum chamber building.
In addition to the above, he handled specification-writing chores for the Area Office, plus various small projects.
From January 1966 to June 1975, he was an architect, with the Engineering Division, Manned Spacecraft Center, which became the Johnson Space Center in 1973.
Some of the projects that he was responsible for include the design of Engineering Building 17, which is a two-story office building, the design of Systems Integration and Mockup Facility, Building 9a. This is the facility (a large, air conditioned hanger) that contained the full-scale mockup of the Shuttle which visitors were allowed to visit. The West end of the facility contained a large air-bearing floor that was a first-of-its-kind.
Jack McCaine was also Project Manager for various projects such as a proposed addition to Emergency Power Building 48. While in his position, he was responsible for facility preparations for Presidential visits, astronaut returns and other events.
He also handled facility modifications for various exhibits, the museum area of Building 2 and updated and maintained construction guide specifications for JSC.
From June 1975 to December 1979, he served as a General Engineer in the Engineering Division, Nasa, Johnson Space Center. In this capacity, he was Manager of the Construction Services Contract. This contract provided day-to-day, on-site services for modifications to buildings and facilities. This included a work order system handling all types of construction tasks and employing 40 to 60 craftsmen plus superintendents, estimating and accounting support. This effort provided construction services for a wide range of tasks and normally had 200+ tasks in the system at one time.
The Jack McCaine Collection consists of approximately 6.75 cubic feet of newspapers, books, magazines, brochures, posters, photographs, certificates, charts, memorabilia, awards and recognitions. There is also approximately .25 cubic feet in the vault.
Since most of the material covers the decade of the sixties, when the Space Center was called the Manned Spacecraft Center (the name changing to the Johnson Space Center in 1973), the early name will be used throughout the collection.
This material is arranged in the following series:
Prepared by Lois Morris 1993
Jack McCaine NASA papers, 1963-1994, MS 45, Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University.
There are no restrictions on the use of the McCaine Collection.
Permission to publish from the Jack McCaine Nasa Collection must be obtained from the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library.
The collection was a gift from Jack McCaine to the Woodson Research Center at Rice University on October 15, 1991 with addendums received in 1999, 2000, and 2001.
This series consists of newspapers, newsletters, books, and magazines.
The
The Publications series is organized first according to subject and then chronologically.
Public Affairs has an assortment of interesting material
used generally for publicity purposes such as the Presentation Packets, and
autographed photographs of the Original Seven Astronauts. The
Both color and black and white photographs can be found in the General Photographs series. Some of the more interesting photographs are ones taken of the exterior and interior, before and after renovation of the Lunar Planetary building, (originally the Jim West mansion,) which is adjacent to the Johnson Spacecraft Center.
Also located in this series is a photograph album containing serial photos taken of the Manned Spacecraft Center during different phases of construction. The photos have been removed from the album and placed in acid free sleeves.
See Boxes 5 and 10 for Additional Photos
An inventory list of the financial costs for construction of various buildings at the manned Spacecraft Center and a list of Corps of Engineer Contracts can be found in this series.
See Boxes 6, 6A and Box 10 for Photos of MSC
Some of the most interesting material in the collection can be found in the Awards and Recognition series. Jack McCaine received many awards and recognitions during his years of working on the constriction of the Manned Spacecraft Center. Among the more interesting ones are the letters received from President Richard Nixon and Frank Borman, thanking him for his contributions to the space program.
A piece of the heat shield from "Auora Seven" (the Mercury flight of Scott Carpenter in May of 1962), along with some interesting medallions and group achievement awards can also be found in this series.
(see Archivist)
(see Archivist)
Items collected by Jack McCaine during the years of his association with the Manned Spacecraft Center can be found in his series. An assortment of flags representing various countries, along with a collection of patches commemorating different flights, are among the interesting items in this series.
The material in this series is a mixture of various items found in some of the other series, but which will not fit into the standard size boxes.
There is also an interesting assortment of charts, such as an Apollo Earth Orbit charts, and Atlas of Mars and Skylab 4 Mission chart.
Although there is a General Photograph series, photos that were generated for publicity purposes can be found in the Public Affairs series. The Oversize series was formed to hold material that will not fit into standard size archival boxes. Additional photos and memorabilia can be found in the Oversize series.
Some of the oversize items have been placed in Map Case Drawer 34. These items have been listed within the appropriate series.
The collection is divided into seven series, with sub-series as necessary.
Bldg 1, 30, 45 & ??? MSC of Central Plant & Water Tower, Unidentified