Character Analysis
Floyd has more of a role in later novels in the series, but in this one he's even less of a character than Moon-Watcher and David Bowman. There's a passing reference to his deceased wife, some mention of kids, and a passing memory of a previous summer. But mostly you learn he's a bureaucrat and a scientist and that he's good at keeping bureaucratic, scientific secrets. Really, he's just a convenient point of view through which the reader can get to the moon and be impressed by TMA-1. Floyd's a foil for a slab. 'Nuff said.
Heywood Floyd's Timeline