Ed Steele (David Edward Steele) was born in 1941 and raised in the Oak Grove community of Lamar County near Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He was saved at the First Baptist Church of Oak Grove in 1952. After graduating from Oak Grove High School in 1958, he entered the University of Southern Mississippi (then Mississippi Southern College) earning a degree in Mathematics and Physics.
He is married to Barbara McRaney Steele and they are the parents of four children: Rhonda Brewer, Dave Steele, Karen Addison and Keith Steele. They have two granddaughters, Kaylen Addison and Kelsey Addison.
He only had one desire when entering college - to become an aero-space engineer with NASA. All required classwork was completed in December, 1961, and he immediately applied for employment at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. After being cleared by the FBI (for security purposes), he began his work in the Aerodynamics Division in early February, 1962, at 20 years of age. His work involved designing the trajectories required to attain the desired orbits for each mission as directed by NASA's Headquarters.
In 1961, President John Kennedy made the decision that earth orbit was not enough and pledged to put an American on the moon within 10 years. To accomplish this, the decision was made to build a new NASA facility near Houston, Texas, that was called the Manned Spacecraft Center (now Johnson Space Center). This would obviously entail a very exciting work so Ed applied for a transfer from Marshall to the Manned Spacecraft Center. The transfer was approved so he, Barbara (pregnant with Dave), and Rhonda made the move in early March, 1964.
He was assigned to the Theoretical Mechanics Branch of the Guidance and Control Division. The mission to the moon would require many new guidance equations being developed. MIT had the contract to provide the guidance equations for each part of the mission. Ed (and a small group of other engineers) had the duty of programming the equations into a computer and putting them through many tests. The equations that worked best were chosen to be placed in the onboard computer when the time for flight would come.
The equations for the trans-lunar injection determined the engine burn to leave earth orbit and begin the journey toward the moon. There were midcourse correction equations to ensure the vehicle would arrive at the correct distance above the moon. Once arriving near the moon, equations to fire the engine to put it into a lunar orbit was made. Once the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) had separated from the Command Module, the equations to guide the LEM to the lunar service had to be approved. Then there were the equations to guide the LEM as it ascended from the lunar surface back into orbit to rendezvous with the Command Module. A safe trans- earth burn would begin the journey back to earth.
A document had to be written on each part of the mission detailing the guidance equations to be used to perform the desired task. Ed had to program the equations into the computer and run all the tests and then help write the documents for the equations to perform the trans-lunar injection and the liftoff from the moon to the orbit of the Command Module. Then, he was assigned the task of determining which set of guidance equations for descending to the surface of the moon would allow the astronauts to change the landing site if they were headed to a site that was undesirable. Once the most proficient equations were chosen, a document had to be written revealing what the fuel cost would be to change the landing site to various distances.
The question arose: When the astronauts would first see the moon on their descent (they would be about 11,000 feet above the moon), how would they be able to identify the exact location of the landing site their computer is guiding them to? Ed was given the assignment to do a study and prepare a document telling the astronauts how to look through the grids on the LEM window to identify the site where the computer was taking them. This document was written in December, 1965, and the first landing was in 1969. It was also signed by the Chief of the Guidance and Control Division. Ed never knew if it was ever used by any of the astronauts or how accurate his calculations may have been.
Once the equations for all the aspects of the lunar mission had been approved, a new assignment was given to each engineer. Ed was placed over the Abort Guidance Section (AGS). There was a fear the onboard computer on the LEM may fail and the astronauts would be left helpless on the moon. The AGS was a small computer that was hand wired to make sure nothing would happen to it. It only had the equations to get the astronauts back into lunar orbit and to rendezvous with the Command Module. Ed's assignment would require a lot of travel to the contractors involved with the lunar mission, from California to Massachusetts.
Two things were developing that was not desirable. The travel was not something he wanted to do because it would mean leaving his family for days at the time. Secondly, NASA had started contracting out the engineering to companies and the NASA engineers were only monitoring the contracts. These are the two main things that led to another move.
He found out the work he had done at Marshall had been contracted out to Chrysler's Space Division at NASA's Michoud Operations in New Orleans. After checking out the possibility, he went to work there developing trajectories and determining orbits for the Apollo missions in March 1966. They lived in Picayune, MS, and were an hour drive away from each of their home towns.
Their family joined the Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Picayune and was greatly blessed by the pastors and church members. In early 1969, Ed began to feel the Lord's call into the ministry. He was licensed to preach the Gospel in July. Within three months, he was called by the Antioch Baptist Church, in Picayune, to be their Pastor.
Their family enjoyed ministry with the loving people at Antioch until February, 1972, when he was called to be Pastor at the Unity Baptist Church in Greenville, MS. Unity was a mission project of the Baptist Missionary Association of Mississippi and this necessitated him becoming a State Missionary. This move required Ed to leave his work as an aero-space engineer as well as his pastoral position at Antioch. Once again, the family was extremely blessed with the wonderful people at Unity.
Once Unity had grown to be able to assume all responsibilities for herself, Ed resigned in June, 1974, and moved to Hattiesburg to begin a new mission project that would become the Westover Baptist Church. Within less than 18 months, Westover built a new church building and parsonage and grew in membership where they could assume all responsibilities. Ed resigned as a State Missionary and remained as Pastor of Westover. After 32 years with the most gracious and wonderful people, he resigned (in 2006) to have the time to write and prepare Bible studies.
Following his years at Westover, Ed was busy filling in for other churches and preaching Revivals and teaching in Bible Conferences. In November, 2009, the Mount Gilead Baptist Church asked him to be their Interim until they called a Pastor. After a few months, they requested that the word 'Interim' be removed and he stayed on as their Pastor. Once again, Ed and Barbara were extremely blessed to worship with and serve some of the most wonderful people in the world. This ministry lasted for 6 years until he resigned in November, 2015.
Since that time, he has been blessed to preach as a fill-in and to preach Revivals at other churches. He and Barbara are members of First Baptist Church of Midway near Sumrall, MS.
Ed has often expressed that he stands in awe at how good the Lord has been to them! He wanted to be an aero-space engineer and the Lord gave him such memorable experiences for 10 years. When he realized that getting people to Heaven was more important than getting a man on the moon, God blessed him as he went on to pastor four wonderful churches. Their children have continued to be such a blessing to them and their granddaughters have added so much joy to the entire family.
Only God could have done all of this and to Him be the glory!