George Edwin Mueller (; July 16, 1918, October 12, 2015), was an American electrical engineer who was an associate administrator at NASA, heading the Office of Manned Space Flight from September 1963 until December 1969. Hailed as one of NASA's "most brilliant and fearless managers", he was instrumental in introducing the all-up testing philosophy for the Saturn V launch vehicle, which ensured the success of the Apollo program in landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth by the end of 1969.
Facts
Defining ContributionAs NASA's Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight (1963-1969), introduced the all-up testing strategy for the Saturn V, over initial resistance from Wernher von Braun's Marshall Space Flight Center engineering team, a decision historians credit wit 1 Marshall's own engineers favored the traditional incremental, stage-by-stage flight-test approach; see the dissent recorded on this fact. Connections
Associated With
Introduced all-up testing for the Saturn V used throughout Project Apollo.
Source Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
NASA Associate Administrator for the Office of Manned Space Flight, 1963-1969.
Source Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Sources
1. Wikipedia: George Mueller (engineer)
Wikipedia (space and spaceflight articles)
Wikimedia FoundationGeorge Mueller (NASA), NASA and the Apollo program section
It sounded reckless, but George Mueller's reasoning was impeccable.
- George Mueller (NASA), infobox
- Associated With: NASA, George Mueller (NASA), lead section
View the Source Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Defining Contribution
Marshall's own engineers favored the traditional incremental, stage-by-stage flight-test approach used on earlier US rockets and initially resisted Mueller's all-up strategy of testing complete, live rocket stages together as too risky for an unproven vehicle. Mueller overruled the objection, and the all-up approach was used for every Saturn V test flight.
A dissenting reading, from a reviewerWikipedia (space and spaceflight articles), Wikimedia Foundation
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