Guenter Wendt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Guenter F. Wendt (b. 1924) was a native of Germany. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1949 and became a U.S. citizen in 1955. As an engineer, he worked for McDonnell Aircraft during the Mercury and Gemini manned space programs supervising spacecraft launch preparations at Cape Canaveral. He was the last person seen by the astronauts before liftoff. After the Apollo 1 accident on the pad, Guenter Wendt was hired by the Apollo CSM contractor North American Rockwell. He worked at the cape into the early Space Shuttle flights.
Guenter F. Wendt also served as a technical consultant for several TV and movie features and wrote in his biography The Unbroken Chain about his time at NASA. He is a personal friend of many astronauts and the recipient of NASA's "Letter of Appreciation" award.
During the Apollo era (1967-1975), Wendt was nick-named "pad leader" or "Führer of the Pad" by the Kennedy Space Center personnel for his strict but good-humored leadership.
[edit] Biography
- Guenter Wendt & Russel Still, The Unbroken Chain, (ISBN 1-896522-84-X)
[edit] On film and television
Guenter F. Wendt has been featured in a number of movies and television shows or series about the Space Race:
