Issam (Isam) al-Nimr

Biography

Issam (Isam) Saʿid al-Nimr (عصام سعيد النمر; US records: Isam Nimr, sometimes Sam) was a Palestinian-American engineer from Jenin, son of the physician Saʿid Nimr. The family origin is Tubas/Jenin. His mother, Ramziyah, died in 1927. After 1948 he studied aerospace engineering in the United States. In 1967–early 1968 NASA’s Houston center listed him as an on-site engineer for Grumman Aircraft, builder of the Apollo Lunar Module. The October 1967 and January 1968 Manned Spacecraft Center telephone directories record NIMR, Isam as a contractor — not a civil servant — for Grumman Aircraft Engineering, extension 3471, Building 108 room 35, the Grumman Lunar Module resident office. He is gone from later MSC books from August 1968 onward. Documented Houston residency at the center is therefore late 1967–early 1968, before Apollo 11 flew. Palestinian family and press accounts also describe later work and a 1972 visit to Jenin; those details are not confirmed in US records. Family and WAFA say the Jenin municipal library holds a signed Armstrong/Aldrin/Collins crew photo he presented in 1972; this atlas does not independently verify that holding. He died in Houston in July 2005. Arabic media often call him a NASA launch officer and say he sent a Jenin stone to the Moon; neither claim appears in NASA personnel lists, PPK/LM inventories, or the official catalogue of objects left on the Moon. Sonia Nimr, writing in Jerusalem Quarterly 30 (Spring 2007), names him the third son, an aerospace engineer at NASA concerned with combustion for Apollo spacecrafts, and frames the stone as a story told about him, not as documentation.

Why This Person Matters

A Jenin-born engineer whom NASA’s Houston telephone directories listed in 1967 and early 1968 as a Grumman Aircraft contractor on the Apollo Lunar Module — not a NASA civil servant.

Historical Context

Al-Nimr was the third son of the Jenin physician Saʿid Nimr, whose family origin is Tubas/Jenin; his mother, Ramziyah, died in 1927. After 1948 he studied aerospace engineering in the United States. The only US personnel record this atlas has placed him in Houston in late 1967 and early 1968 as a Grumman contractor at the Manned Spacecraft Center, in the Lunar Module prime contractor’s Building 108 office, before Apollo 11 flew. He died in Houston in July 2005. A 2007 WAFA date is treated here as an error.

Historical Context

1. 2005 — Passed away

Legacy & Influence

What can be documented is a brief, dated contractor listing at NASA Houston and a family memory, in Sonia Nimr’s Jerusalem Quarterly essay, of an aerospace engineer from Jenin. Arabic media often call him a NASA launch officer and say he sent a Jenin stone to the Moon; neither claim appears in NASA personnel lists, PPK/LM inventories, or the official catalogue of objects left on the Moon. Sonia Nimr herself frames the stone as a story told about him, not documentation.

Topics & Themes

• Diaspora
• West Bank

References & Sources

1. Sonia Nimr, “Saʿid Nimr’s Stormy Career,” Jerusalem Quarterly 30 (Spring 2007), pp. 77–87 — https://palestinianstudies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/jq_30.pdf
2. NASA Manned Spacecraft Center telephone directory, October 1967 (contractor listing: NIMR, Isam) — https://www.mannedspaceops.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/02_MSC_1967_1000_OCR.pdf
3. NASA Manned Spacecraft Center telephone directory, January 1968 (contractor listing: NIMR, Isam) — https://www.mannedspaceops.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/02_MSC_1968_0100_OCR.pdf
4. NASA, Catalogue of Manmade Material on the Moon (no Jenin stone listed) — https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/final-catalogue-of-manmade-material-on-the-moon.pdf