Robert Gilruth

Robert Gilruth was an American aeronautical engineer often called the 'father of the United States' crewed spaceflight program.' In 1958 he was named head of the Space Task Group, the small NASA team formed immediately after the agency's creation to plan America's first human spaceflight effort, and he went on to lead Project Mercury, the first American crewed spaceflight program, through its development and successful early flights, including Alan Shepard's and John Glenn's historic missions. In 1961 the Space Task Group he led grew into NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center, later renamed the Johnson Space Center, and Gilruth served as its founding director through the Gemini and Apollo programs until 1972, overseeing the astronaut corps, mission control operations and spacecraft design decisions across the entire Apollo era including the Moon landings. Before his NASA leadership role he had spent decades as an aeronautical research engineer at NASA's predecessor agency, specializing in aircraft flight-handling qualities and high-speed flight research.