Raised in a small Iowa farming community Bales graduated of Iowa State University with a degree in "aeronautical engineering". After being hired by the space agency, Stephen Bales is best known for having been guidance officer during the Apollo 11 lunar landing. At a Dinner in Los Angeles Honoring the Apollo 11 Astronauts, President Richard Nixon said of Bales, "This is the young man, when the computers seemed to be confused and when he could have said Stop, or when he could have said Wait, said, Go." His long NASA career ranged from 1964 through 1996. After retirement from NASA he went to work at Amspec Chemical in New Jersey.