Robert Gilruth worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics from 1937 to 1958 and its successor NASA, until his retirement in 1973.
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15 Facts About Robert Gilruth
2.
Robert Gilruth was involved with early research into supersonic flight and rocket-powered aircraft, and then with the United States human spaceflight program, including the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.
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3.
Robert Gilruth was inspired to pursue a career in the field after reading about NACA's Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Virginia.
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4.
Robert Gilruth received a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Minnesota in 1935, and received his Master of Science degree in 1936.
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5.
In January 1937 Robert Gilruth was hired at NACA's Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, where he performed flight research.
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6.
Robert Gilruth's research led to the NACA Report R755, Requirements for Satisfactory Flying Qualities of an Airplane, published in 1941, in which he defined a set of requirements for the handling characteristics of an aircraft.
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7.
Robert Gilruth pioneered the recording of data from instruments during flight test, to be later correlated with the pilot's experience.
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8.
Robert Gilruth had been working on hypersonic missile rockets as the assistant director of the Pilotless Aircraft Research Division of NACA.
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9.
When NASA was created, Robert Gilruth became head of the Space Task Group, tasked with putting a man in space before the Soviet Union.
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10.
In 1961, when President John F Kennedy announced that America would put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade, Gilruth was "aghast" and unsure that such a goal could be accomplished.
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11.
Robert Gilruth was integral to the creation of the Gemini program, which he advocated as a means for NASA to learn more about operating in space before attempting a lunar landing.
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12.
Soon the Apollo program was born, and Robert Gilruth was made head of the NASA center which ran it, the new Manned Spacecraft Center .
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13.
Robert Gilruth was inducted into the National Space Hall of Fame in 1969 and served as director of the MSC until his retirement in 1972.
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14.
Robert Gilruth was inducted as a member of the inaugural class to the International Space Hall of Fame in 1976.
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15.
Robert Gilruth oversaw a total of 25 crewed space flights, from Mercury-Redstone 3 to Apollo 15.
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