Robert Gilruth

Robert Gilruth

Robert Rowe Gilruth (born October 8, 1913 in Nashwauk , Minnesota , USA ; † August 17, 2000 in Charlottesville , Virginia , USA) was an American aerospace pioneer. He was from 1961 to 1972, the first director of the Johnson Space Center of NASA .

Gilruth attended high school in Duluth, Minnesota and studied aeronautical engineering at the University of Minnesota . In 1935 he obtained a bachelor's degree and a master's degree the following year .

Gilruth began his career researching supersonic flight and developing rocket propelled aircraft. He later switched to the manned space program, where he played a central role in the implementation of the Mercury , Gemini and Apollo programs.

From 1937 to 1958 he worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and then for its successor, the US space agency NASA.

With the establishment of NASA, Gilruth became head of the Space Task Group , whose task it was to bring a person into space off the Soviet Union . When that failed, it was Gilruth who convinced US President John F. Kennedy that the United States needed a bigger goal, like landing on the moon.

When the Manned Spacecraft Center (since 1973 Johnson Space Center) was founded in Texas in 1961 , Gilruth took over its management. He held the position until 1972 and in this function had overall responsibility for 25 manned space flights from Mercury-Redstone 3 to Apollo 15 . In 1971 Gilruth was awarded the James Watt Medal . Since 1970 he has given its name to Mount Gilruth , a mountain in the Antarctic.

Gilruth then worked in an advisory capacity at NASA headquarters in Washington until he retired in 1973. In 1974 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences .

Web links

Commons : Robert Gilruth  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Internet Obituary Network: Dr. Robert Gilruth, 1913-2000 ( Memento of October 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), in the Internet Archive , at archive.org, as of October 10, 2007 (English)