A THRILLING new book celebrates the life of the Anglesey man who played a key role in America’s missions to the Moon.

Rockets, Radar and the Big Bang tells the story of Tecwyn Roberts, a spaceflight engineer who helped put the first men on the Moon.

Published as part of a non-fiction set of books for children, the book features Tecwyn as one of five Welsh heroes from the worlds of science and technology.

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“Tec was at the heart of America’s missions into space during the 1960s and 1970s,” said author Greg Lewis. “His is a wonderful story, taking him from a cottage in Anglesey to a top seat at Mission Control.

North Wales Chronicle: View of Mercury Control Center prior to the Mercury flight.View of Mercury Control Center prior to the Mercury flight.

“He is an inspirational figure, and his life is a great way for young readers – for us all – to learn about the technology that took humans into space.”

Tecwyn’s own inspiration came when he was a pupil at Ysgol Parc y Bont in Llanddaniel Fab – a wireless radio was brought into his class and he was transfixed by the voices and music it played.

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After winning a scholarship to study at Beaumaris Grammar School, he went on to do an engineering apprenticeship with a company in England.

He later moved to Canada to work on jet aircraft and was then headhunted by NASA to work on the mission to put a spaceship with a person inside into orbit around the Earth.

“When John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth, Tec received the personal congratulations of President John F. Kennedy,” explained the author.

North Wales Chronicle: Buzz Aldrin on the Moon with the American flag.Buzz Aldrin on the Moon with the American flag.

Tecwyn then helped design the Mission Center (now known as the Johnson Space Center) in Houston, Texas, from where the Moon missions were planned.

One of his primary roles was to ensure that the astronauts could communicate with Earth, in his role as NASA's first Flight Dynamics Officer with Project Mercury.

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“Because of the work of Tec’s team, people could see and hear Neil Armstrong when he stepped on the Moon for the first time,” said Mr Lewis. “His work helped make possible one of the greatest moments in history.”

Tecwyn Roberts died aged 63 in 1988, having returned to Anglesey in the 1970s to tell schoolchildren all about his part in the space missions.

Rockets, Radar and the Big Bang is available here, and from all major bookshops via the Wales Books Council, priced at £9.99.

North Wales Chronicle: The cover of the book.The cover of the book.