- Krafft Arnold Ehricke
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name = Krafft Arnold Ehricke
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caption = Krafft Arnold Ehricke
birth_date =March 24 ,1917
birth_place =Berlin
death_date =December 11 ,1984
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Dr. Krafft Arnold Ehricke (March 24 ,1917 -December 11 ,1984 ) was arocket -propulsion engineer.Born in
Berlin , Ehricke believed in space travel from a very young age, influenced by his viewing of theFritz Lang film "Woman in the Moon". At the age of 12, he formed his own rocket society.He attended
Berlin Technical University and studiedcelestial mechanics and nuclearphysics under such luminaries asHans Geiger andWerner Heisenberg , attaining his degree inAeronautical Engineering .He worked at
Peenemuende as propulsion engineer from 1942 to 1945, then went to theUnited States with other German rocket scientists and technicians under "Operation Paperclip " in 1947 and worked with the Von Braun Rocket Team at Huntsville. (See alsoGerman rocket scientists in the US .)Upon leaving government service Ehricke worked at
Bell Aircraft , and then forConvair in 1952. While at Convair, he designed the D-1 Centaur, a high energy, upper-stage-booster that used liquid hydrogen and oxygen as fuel.Ehricke became friendly with
Eugene F. Lally while they worked together at Convair and became his mentor. Ehricke taught Lally celestial mechanics so he could determine available payload capacities for missions to planets and booster energy required.It has been said that Ehricke and Lally were the creative spark during the pioneering days of the American space program. Their concepts were publicized in the media and caught the fancy of the general public helping to promote space exploration and excite NASA to move forward.
In 1948 Ehricke wrote a book with
Wernher von Braun , "The Mars Project", which detailed how man could travel toMars using a ferry system. This ferry system is what we now call the "Space Shuttle ". He devoted his life to space exploration and, together with von Braun, was the chief advisor for North America on the Space Shuttle.The NEXUS reusable rocket was a concept design created in the 1960s by a group at
General Dynamics led by Krafft Ehricke.He proposed a
space station Astropolis .Space Burial in 1997 EhrickeEhricke's given name is commonly seen spelled "Kraft".
References
* http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4404/ch10-3.htm
* http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/E/Ehricke.html
* http://www.tdf.it/english/prec_frf.htm
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