Robert R. Gilruth

Robert Rowe Gilruth
Gilruth at NASA Manned Space Center Born October 18, 1913(1913-10-18)
Nashwauk, MinnesotaDied August 17, 2000(aged 86)
Charlottesville, VirginiaOccupation Director of NASAManned Space Center, now Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center

Robert Rowe Gilruth (October 18, 1913 - August 17, 2000) was an American aviation and space pioneer.[1]

In the beginning of his career he was involved with early research into supersonic flight and rocket-powered aircraft and then with the manned space program, including the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects. He worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics from 1937 to 1958 and its successor agency, NASA, until retirement in 1973.

1 Early education and career
2 Creation of NASA
3 Portrayals in dramas
4 References
5 External links

Early education and career

Gilruth was born in Nashwauk, Minnesota. He attended and completed high school in Duluth, Minnesota. Gilruth received a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering at the University of Minnesota, and received his master's degree in 1936.

In the NACA Report R755, Requirements for Satisfactory Flying Qualities of an Airplane, published in 1941 he defined a set of requirements for the handling characteristics of an aircraft. Up until this point, no set of guidelines for pilots and aircraft designers existed.

Creation of NASA

When NASA was created, Gilruth became head of the Space Task Group, tasked with putting a man in space before the Soviet Union. When that didn't happen, Gilruth suggested to President John F. Kennedy that the United States should announce a bigger goal, such as going to the Moon. Soon the Apollo program was born, and Gilruth was made head of the NASA center which ran it, the new Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) (now the Johnson Space Center). Gilruth served as director of the MSC until 1972 and oversaw a total of 25 manned spaceflights, from Mercury-Redstone 3 to Apollo 15.