Jesco von Puttkamer

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For the German colonial military chief, see Jesko von Puttkamer.

Jesco von Puttkamer

Jesco Freiherr von Puttkamer (also spelled v. Puttkamer) is a German rocket engineer (born September 22, 1933 in Leipzig, Germany), who worked with Wernher von Braun at NASA in Huntsville, Alabama as an engineer during the Apollo Program, starting in 1962 and receiving United States citizenship in 1967. He later became a NASA program manager in charge of long-range planning of deep space manned activities (flights beyond Earth orbit) and he was/is an ardent advocate of manned space exploration and SETI. He also worked with Gene Roddenberry as Technical Advisor to Paramount Pictures for the first Star Trek motion picture, contributing, among else, the hypothetical theory behind the faster-than-light space warp drive and the promotional slogan "Space - The Human Adventure is just beginning".

Today (2005), Dr. Jesco von Puttkamer is providing management leadership at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, on the programs of the International Space Station (ISS), Space Shuttle and, since 2004, President George W. Bush's Moon/Mars Exploration Vision, stationed in the HQ Office of Space Operations. From 1985 to 2000 he also lectured at the RWTH Aachen University at Aachen/Germany as a Honorary Professor. He has said that among his most treasured achievements at NASA were his contributions to the Apollo Lunar Landing in 1969, which fulfilled President John F. Kennedy's mandate of 1961; helping to rescue America's experimental space station Skylab after its disastrous launch into orbit on May 14, 1973, making it habitable and eminently successful for three set of U.S. Astronauts later that year; and also "rescuing" the backup Skylab version from being discarded so it could be publicly displayed in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, instead of being sold for scrap.

Von Puttkamer has been honored with numerous high NASA awards, among them NASA's prestigious Exceptional Service Medal, which he received in 2004. He is the author of more than a dozen books on Spaceflight, and, during his post-WWII student years in Germany, also of many well-known science fiction novels. In the English language he has among else authored the novelette "The Sleeping God" published in "STAR TREK: The New Voyages 2", edited by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath, ISBN 0-553-11392-5.

[edit] Notes

Note regarding personal names: Freiherr is a title, translated as Baron, not a first or middle name. The female forms are Freifrau and Freiin.

(See also Discussion)