Günter Wendt: The Most Influential NASA Employee You've Never Heard Of

[Tex]

Günter F. Wendt (August 28, 1923 – May 3, 2010) was a German-American engineer noted for his work in the U.S. manned spaceflight program. An employee of McDonnell Aircraft and later North American Aviation, he was in charge of the spacecraft close-out crews at the launch pads for the entire Mercury and Gemini programs (1961–1966), and the manned phase of the Apollo program (1968–1975) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). His official title was Pad Leader.

As a McDonnell engineer, Wendt supervised spacecraft launch pad preparations at Cape Canaveral during the Mercury and Gemini manned space programs beginning with the flight of Ham the chimpanzee in 1961. He came to be regarded as a welcomed good luck figure to the astronauts; always the last reassuring earth-bound face the crew members saw, kidding with them and wishing them a successful flight as he directed completion of the complex pad close-out procedures just prior to launch.

Wendt's was the final word for the launch tower white room team responsible for loading and securing the crewmen, ensuring that spacecraft instrumentation, switches and controls were correct for launch, and securing the hatch. Nobody touched anything without his permission.

Wendt is a recipient of NASA's Letter of Appreciation award, the Silver Snoopy award[3] and several Group Achievement awards. He received a NASA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.

[Credit to Wikipedia, find more sources from there]

So yeah, Mr. Wendt was a sort of a big deal. Not only is he the last person the astronauts saw before they blasted off, he was the one responsible for making sure that they've buckled up snugly and shares good-natured jibes with the crews. It's sad to say that he passed away in 2010, because now that I know who he is, I'd like to shake his hand.

An interesting note: Because he had a quite thick German accent to his English, he was nicknamed the Pad Fuhrer. So yeah.

Günter Wendt will always share a place when I think of space now!

[czokletmuss]

He was in "From the Earth to the Moon", wasn't he?

[astropapi1]

An interesting note: Because he had a quite thick German accent to his English, he was nicknamed the Pad Fuhrer. So yeah.

Oh, I was going to say that.

[TheShadow1138]

He was featured in "From the Earth to the Moon", he was also quickly featured and mentioned by name in "Apollo 13".

[Roastduck]

he was also quickly featured and mentioned by name in "Apollo 13".

This is the only reason I knew the name until now. Glad I know of his importance now.

[Kilmeister]

This may be the wrong forum for "I've bet you've never heard of..." about spaceflight

I actually only learned about him after watching Apollo 13 a number of years ago and I Googled him.

[peadar1987]

I vunder vere Gunter Wendt?

[Lordherrmann]

As a German I naturally watched Apollo 13 in German (about 200 times? I first watched it when I was 3 or 4). I wouldn't have known him being such an important person from Germany, if my Cousin hadn't told me back then. They also couldn't use the signature quote feautured in the above post for obvious reasons. In the german version Lovell said: "Ah, Günter Wendt, wer Berlin nicht kennt, hat die Welt verpennt." (Hey, Günter Wendt, one who doesn't know berlin has missed the world by oversleeping.)

I watched 'From the Earth to the Moon' in English and there was one part, where it became quite obvious to me, that the actor portraying Günter Wendt was not German. In the scene where he closes up the hatch for Apollo 7(?) he bids the crew farewell by saying:"Auf wiedersehen." with a really thick american accent. I also find this line very fitting because by saying auf wiedersehen one expresses the wish to see somebody again.

Edited February 19, 2014 by Lordherrmann

[Soda Popinski]

I watched 'From the Earth to the Moon' in English and there was one part, where it became quite obviuos to me, that the actor portraying Günter Wendt was not German.

That was Max Wright. I recognized him as dad on ALF.