German aeronautical engineer (1925?2011)
Heinz-Hermann Koelle
(22 July 1925, in
Danzig
,
Free City of Danzig
? 20 February 2011, in
Berlin
,
Germany
) was a German
aeronautical engineer
who made the preliminary designs on the rocket that would emerge as the
Saturn I
. Closely associated with
Wernher von Braun
's team at the
Army Ballistic Missile Agency
(ABMA), he was a member of the launch crew on
Explorer 1
and later directed the
Marshall Space Flight Center
's involvement in
Project Apollo
. In 1965, he accepted the Chair of Space Technology at the
Technical University of Berlin
.
[1]
Early life
[
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Koelle was born in 1925 in the
Free City of Danzig
, son of a lieutenant-colonel in the police. After Germany annexed Danzig in 1939, Koelle joined the
Luftwaffe
and served as a pilot during the war. During his time in a
prisoner of war
camp after the war, Koelle turned his back on military matters and turned to the field of civilian spaceflight.
[2]
In 1948 he re-formed the pre-war
German Society for Space Travel
, which brought him into contact with von Braun and many others of the former
Peenemunde
team. In 1951 he and another ex-pilot helped von Braun publish his book
Mars Project
in Germany, arranging a publisher to take it on.
[2]
He started studying
mechanical engineering
at the
University of Stuttgart
, and led the Astronautical Research Institute between 1952 and 1954, when he received his Dipl.-Ing. On his graduation, von Braun invited him to join the ABMA team at the
Redstone Arsenal
in
Huntsville, Alabama
.
[2]
[3]
ABMA and MSFC
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Koelle arrived in the U.S. in April 1955, three months before President
Dwight D. Eisenhower
announced that country's intent to launch a satellite during the
International Geophysical Year
in 1957.
[2]
He took charge of Preliminary Design Section of the Structures and Mechanics Laboratory. The section had the task of carrying out
"blue-sky"
studies into conversions and modifications of various missiles for use as space launchers. Over time the section grew from 4 to 70 people as their studies on what was then known as "Super-Jupiter" evolved into the "Juno V" and finally into the
Saturn I
. Koelle's last job for the Army involved a feasibility study for a lunar base under
Project Horizon
.
[2]
When ABMA became part of
NASA
in 1960, the Redstone Arsenal became the
Marshall Space Flight Center
(MSFC) and the Preliminary Design Section became the Future Projects Office. The Office served to coordinate between MSFC and NASA as a whole, as well as continuing to study new missions based on the Saturn rockets. In 1960 Koelle became a naturalized American citizen. He took his doctorate in Engineering at the
Technical University of Berlin
in 1963.
[2]
Chair of Space Technology
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As Koelle watched the conduct of the
Vietnam War
force reduction in NASA budgets, he concluded that the rapid progress he had participated in was no longer possible, and decided to look for other work. In 1965 he accepted a teaching position at the
Technical University of Berlin
.
[4]
Following the death of
Eugen Sanger
(1964), the University offered him the Chair of Space Technology in 1965, a position he held for 30 years.
[2]
He received the 1952 Medal of the French Aeroclub and the 1963
Hermann Oberth Gold Medal
.
[1]
In 2007 he received the
Space Pioneer Awards
of the
National Space Society
.
[5]
Family
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He married Elisabeth Trautmann in 1951; they had three daughters, Ingrid, Karin and Patricia.
[1]
Works
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- Handbook of astronautical engineering
, Editor Heinz Hermann Koelle, McGraw-Hill, 1961
- Prospects of a settlement on the moon: development, operation, cost, benefits
, Institut fur Luft und Raumfahrt (Berlin), 2002
References
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Notes
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Bibliography
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Further reading
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]
- Heinz-Hermann Koelle, "Werden und Wirken eines Deutsch-Amerikanischen Raumfahrt-Professors" ("Growth and Work of a German-American Spaceflight-Professor"), W&T Verlag, Berlin, 1994,
ISBN
3-928943-08-1
- Heinz-Hermann Koelle (Editor-in-Chief), "Handbook of Astronautical Engineering", McGraw-Hill, 1961
External links
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