Geroge E. Mueller

1918 – 2015
NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight

NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight, Dr George Mueller in front of the Honeysuckle Creek servo console. Photo by Hamish Lindsay, 6 January 1967. Scan and image repair by Colin Mackellar. Detail from this photo.

Honeysuckle Creek’s Hamish Lindsay wrote,

“Born in 1918, Dr Mueller had a brilliant career in the space industry. In his NASA years he was Deputy Associate Administrator of Manned Space Flight in 1963, Acting Director of the Apollo Program Office in 1964, and Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight from 1963 to 1969.

Known as the Father of the Space Shuttle, he was also responsible for the ‘all up testing’ of the Saturn V rocket. He tossed out all the cautious existing plans by the rocket engineers and telescoped the trials to speed up progress. Von Braun admitted that without Mueller’s proposals the lunar landing would never have taken place before 1970. Mueller also sketched out the original concept of the Skylab laboratory.

He was awarded three NASA Distinguished Service Medals.”

Born in St. Louis, Missouri to parents of German background, George Mueller insisted that his name be pronounced as “Miller” – as Hamish Lindsay discovered when he accompanied the MSFN Network Inspection Team to the three Canberra tracking stations on 6 Janaury 1967.

NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight, Dr George Mueller is holding an audience of Honeysuckle people discussing the antenna boresight television. Behind him from the left is Greg Thrum, STC’s ACT Manager; Station Director Bryan Lowe; Chief Engineer Wes Moon; and seated is Servo Operator Brian Bell. Photo by Hamish Lindsay, 6 January 1967, two months before the Station officially opened. The Manned Space Flight Network Inspection Team visited the three tracking stations in the ACT. The team also visited Orroral Valley that day, and The Wing at Tidbinbilla the next day.

Dr George Mueller returned to Honeysuckle on Monday 1 December 1969. (He visited Tidbinbilla the following day for the groundbreaking ceremony for DSS43.) Here, in the Honeysuckle Creek Conference Room, he is presented with a copy of Hamish Lindsay's photo of Honeysuckle Creek tracking Apollo 8 on its first lunar orbit, 24 December 1968. Left to Right: Allen Sharpe, Controller R&D, Department of Supply; Dr George E. Mueller, NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight Tom F.C. Lawrence, Dept of Supply; Tom Reid, Honeysuckle Creek Station Director. Photo: Hamish Lindsay. 2024 negative scan by Colin Mackellar.