Apollo Engineer and NASA Institution Jesco von Puttkamer Dead at 79

Jesco von Puttkamer, who has worked at NASA since 1962. (Credit: NASA)

Jesco von Puttkamer, died on December 27, 2012. (Credit: NASA)

Jesco von Puttkamer, engineer who started working at NASA in 1962  in Wernher von Braun’s team at the  Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama, has died at 79. Von Puttkamer, who is survived by his wife, passed away after a brief illness.

“Jesco was an institution at NASA,” said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations at NASA HQ in Washington. “His time here spanned almost the entire breadth of the agency’s human spaceflight programs. He was a direct link from von Braun’s efforts to get people off the ground to the International Space Station and 12 years of continuous human presence. We lost an outspoken advocate for NASA’s efforts to explore farther than we ever have gone before.”

von Puttkamer was recruited personally by von Braun to work at MSFC in 1962.  In 1974, von Puttkamer was transferred to NASA Headquarters. In Washington, von Puttkamer worked in the International Space Station Program as a technical manager, writing the ISS Daily Report for more than 10 years. He was also important in moving forward the cooperation between U.S. and Russia in human spaceflight; the ISS program is still benefiting  from his work. His distinguished career at NASA was recognized by many awards, including an Exceptional Service Medal in 2004, NASA Honor Award for advancing U.S.-Russian space cooperation in 2007, and the 2008 “Distinguished German-American of the Year” award.

He was the author of many books on spaceflight and a revised edition of his diary/book on the first lunar landing was published for the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission in July 2009.

Below, Jesco von Puttkamer featured in ‘This Week @ NASA,’ March, 23, 2012:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WtMLWhGqm8]

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