After years of straining hard, Long Island's Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. last week broke into the charmed if turbulent circle of major aerospace contractors. Edging such bigger birds as General Dynamics and Boeing, Grumman was awarded NASA's $350 million initial contract to build the lunar "bug" that, it is hoped, will land Apollo astronauts on the moon by 1970. The 12-ton bug, called LEM (for Lunar Excursion Module), will be like nothing ever seen before: 10 ft. wide and 15 ft. high, with a window-dome top and three strutlike "legs" for landing.
The plan is for LEM to be lofted into...
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