Guenter Wendt

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Guenter F. Wendt (born August 28, 1923 in Berlin as Günter Wendt ; † May 3, 2010 on Merritt Island , Florida ) was a German - American engineer who held the position of pad leader in Kennedy Space from 1967 to 1975 Center held.

Guenter Wendt (right) with astronaut John Glenn (1962)

Life

Wendt was born in Berlin in 1923 and studied aircraft construction there . During the Second World War he was employed as an on-board mechanic in the Air Force. In 1949 he emigrated to the USA (like his father before) and became a US citizen in 1955. He worked for McDonnell Aircraft until 1967 and was responsible for the safe condition of the spaceships during the Gemini and Mercury missions. After the tragic accident of Apollo 1 , Wendt switched to the North American Rockwell company , which manufactured the Apollo spaceships. Wendt was in the position of pad leader until 1975, responsible for preparing the start of the manned Mercury, Gemini, Apollo , Skylab and ASTP missions. So he was the one who was the last to say goodbye to the astronauts and lock the hatch of the command capsule. He retired in 1989 after his last responsibility for shuttle mission security .

Guenter Wendt was known for his pedantic, but also warm-hearted leadership style and was popular with the astronauts. He has also been a consultant on many TV and film productions. In 2001 his book "The Unbroken Chain" was published, in which he writes about his time at NASA .

In astronaut circles, the sentence "I wonder where Guenter Wendt" was spoken with a German accent ( I wonder where Günter went. Wendt becomes went (= went)). It was based on a saying by Donn Eisele after locking the Apollo 7 command module . The phrase became known to a wide audience through the actor Tom Hanks , who speaks it in the film Apollo 13 . In the German dubbing it became: "Guenter Wendt - If you don't know Berlin, you've slept through the world", whereby the original pun was lost.

Wendt died of a stroke on May 3, 2010 at his home on Merritt Island.

Wendt (right, standing) with the crew of the Apollo 11 (Collins, Aldrin, Armstrong) in the LC-39A "whiteroom"

Web links

Commons : Guenter Wendt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Guenter Wendt, 86, 'Pad Leader' for NASA's moon missions, dies. In: Collect Space. May 3, 2010, accessed January 3, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Wendt, Guenter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wendt, Guenter F .; Wendt, Günter (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American rocket engineer and space pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH August 28, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH May 3, 2010
Place of death Merritt Island