He was an early expert in orbital mechanics and coordinated mission techniques during the Apollo program.

In the words of flight director Gene Kranz, Tindall "was pretty much the architect for all of the techniques that we used to go down to the surface of the Moon.

Tindall's entry into the field of aerospace engineering came when he took a position working on Project Echo, an early communications satellite.

Catherine Osgood, an aerospace engineer who worked with TIndall at NASA, noted that "Bill would just dive into any problem he found, no matter where it was".

Tindall was known for the colloquial and entertaining tone of his memos, which were widely referred to as "Tindallgrams.