James Donahue Burke (September 18, 1925 – August 19, 2023) was an American lunar settlement and exploration expert. He was known for being the first manager of the Ranger program, and considered one of the pioneers of America's space program.
G. Scott Hubbard (born December 27, 1948) is a physicist who has been engaged in space-related research as well as program, project and executive management for more than 45 years including 20 years with NASA, culminating as director of NASA's Ames Research Center. As of 2012, Hubbard chairs SpaceX Safety Advisory Panel, he previously served as the NASA representative on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, was NASA's first Mars program director and restructured the Mars program in the wake of mission failures.
John Cornelius Houbolt (April 10, 1919 – April 15, 2014) was an aerospace engineer credited with leading the team behind the lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) mission mode, a concept that was used to successfully land humans on the Moon and return them to Earth. This flight path was chosen for the Apollo program in July 1962. The critical decision to use LOR was viewed as vital to ensuring that man reached the Moon by the end of the decade as proposed by President John F. Kennedy. In the process, LOR saved time and billions of dollars by efficiently using the rocket and spacecraft technologies.
Kitty O'Brien Joyner (July 11, 1916 – August 16, 1993) was an American electrical engineer with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and then with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) upon its replacement of NACA in 1958. She was the first woman to graduate from the University of Virginia's engineering program in 1939, receiving the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award upon graduation. When she was hired by NACA the same year, she became the first woman engineer at the organization, eventually rising to the title of Branch Head and managing several of its wind tunnels. Her work contributed to research on aeronautics, supersonic flight, airfoils, and aircraft design standards.
Abraham "Abe" Silverstein (September 15, 1908 – June 1, 2001) was an American engineer who played an important part in the United States space program. He was a longtime manager at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). He was instrumental in the planning of the Apollo, Ranger, Mariner, Surveyor, and Voyager missions, and named the Apollo program after the Greek and Roman God.
Gene Porter Bridwell (October 4, 1935 – August 4, 2016) was the seventh director of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center located in Huntsville, Alabama. He served as director from January 6, 1994, to February 3, 1996.
Before becoming director of the Marshall Center, G.P. (Porter) Bridwell served as manager of the Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle Definition Office, where he supervised efforts involving the proposed vehicle's design, development, and integration. He also served on special assignment with the Space Station Redesign Team and later the U.S./Russian Space Station Integration Team. Previously, he served as manager of the Shuttle Projects Office. There he managed the Shuttle's propulsion elements, including the Space Shuttle Main Engine, External Tank, Redesigned Solid Rocket Motor, Solid Rocket Booster, Advanced Solid Rocket Motor, and related systems and activities, including the Michoud Assembly Facility.
Bridwell was born in Linton, Indiana, on October 4, 1935, and graduated from State High School in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1953. He earned a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering in 1958 from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. He began his professional career as an engineer with Rocketdyne in Canoga Park, California. He joined the Marshall Center in 1962, and his early experience included assignments within the former Saturn Systems Office and Saturn V Program Office. In 1975, he transferred to the Shuttle Projects Office and served in key positions including chief of the Project Engineering Office, and deputy manager of the External Tank Project. In February 1983, he was appointed manager of the External Tank Project.
In the spring of 1987, he served temporarily as acting deputy center director of National Space Technology Laboratories in Mississippi. He was appointed director of institutional and program support at the Marshall Center in October 1988, and assumed the position of manager, Shuttle Projects Office, in May 1989.
In January 1990, Bridwell became the director of National Launch Systems for NASA Headquarters, co-located at the Marshall Center. In February 1992, he was officially transferred back to the Marshall Center from headquarters, where he assumed his post as manager of the Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle Definition Office.
Bridwell died in Huntsville, Alabama on August 4, 2016, at the age of 80.
Charles Carter Schnetzler (June 3, 1930 – December 15, 2009) was a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Schnetzler is best known for analyzing Moon rocks brought back by the Apollo program and for studying the Earth's environment using the Landsat and the Earth Observing System. Schnetzler was born in Whiting, Indiana and grew up in Neodesha, Kansas. On November 4, 2009, Schnetzler was seriously injured after being hit by a motorist while walking near his home on Little Patuxent Parkway in Columbia, Maryland. He later died in his home on December 15, 2009.
Thomas C. McMurtry (June 4, 1935 - January 3, 2015) was an American mechanical engineer, and a former naval aviator, test pilot at NASA's Flight Research Center and a consultant for Lockheed Corporation.
Robert J. "Bob" Parks (April 1, 1922 – June 3, 2011) was an American aerospace engineer and pioneer in the space program where he was intricately involved and/or directed for some of the most historic and important U.S. unmanned space missions. Over a 40-year tenure at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL/NASA), located in Pasadena, California, Parks’ impact was essential to helping the United States lead the world in space exploration. He served as Guidance Engineer for Explorer 1, the first successfully launched satellite by the United States. He directed the initial flyby missions to the Moon (Ranger 7, 8 and 9 Missions), the first soft landing on the Moon (Surveyor Lunar Lander), Earth's first successful mission to another planet (Mariner 2 to Venus) and initial missions to Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and Uranus.
Parks concluded his career as Deputy Director of the JPL/NASA and retired in 1987. Some of the awards he received for his work include the NASA Exceptional Service Medal (1967), the Stuart Ballantine Medal (1967), the Goddard Astronautics Award (1980) and the Caltech Distinguished Alumni Award in 1982.
Dale Dehaven Myers (January 8, 1922 – May 19, 2015) was an American aerospace engineer who was Deputy Administrator of NASA, serving between October 6, 1986, and May 13, 1989. He was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1943.