[NASA]

Originally from the personal collection of Dr. George E. Mueller (1918-2015).

Hailed as “The Man who put Men on the Moon” and the “Father of the Manned Spacecraft Program,” Dr. George Mueller played a pivotal role at NASA from 1963-1969. Mueller led the Office of Manned Spaceflight at NASA Headquarters, what is now the Human Operations and Exploration Mission Directorate. In this role, he shaped all operations leading to the fulfillment of President Kennedy’s ambitious goal of a lunar landing by the end of the decade. The breadth of what these operations entailed is referenced in this lot. 

Mueller was sworn in in 1963, right as the Gemini flight operations were gearing up. This chapter of his legendary career at NASA is represented by an ashtray featuring the Gemini capsule, engraved with Dr. George Mueller’s name and presented by NASA and the contractor McDonnell to commemorate the Gemini program. Regarded as a bridge between the Mercury and Apollo missions, the Gemini program featured the launch of  twelve flight crews under Mueller’s tenure. Gemini laid the groundwork for Apollo by testing whether intravehicular and extravehicular activity was possible in space. A former professor before his tenure as deputy administrator, Mueller did not believe in asking others to execute tasks he would not be willing to do himself. Before the first extravehicular activities (EVAs) took place in space by Gemini astronauts, Mueller himself flew in a KC-135 zero gravity aircraft in a pressurized space suit, personally verifying that he could get into and out of the space craft in zero gravity. 

The largest desk presentation celebrates the success of the Apollo program with a miniaturized lunar lander and a sculpted half of a command module extending from the base of the presentation. Renowned pioneer of spaceflight Dr. Werner Von Braun commented, “Without George Mueller, we would not have landed on the moon as soon as we did.” Mueller set and managed the schedule for the entire program and ensured that the costs of landing men on the Moon, when accounting for inflation, were exactly the same as projected at the outset of the program six years before. One of the innovations Mueller brought to the program to keep the United States from falling behind the Soviet Union in the Space Race was the switch to “All-Up” testing. A concept from Mueller’s previous work with the Air Force ballistic missile program, “All-Up” testing allowed for simultaneous flight testing of rocket stages. This differed from NASA’s prior approach, in which they tested each stage separately. The simultaneous testing saved NASA time, money, and hardware that could later be used on later programs such as Skylab. Beyond budget and time management, Mueller’s dogged advocacy for scientific advancement in addition to engineering ensured the maximum scientific return from each spaceflight. 

The final presentation, dated January 1970, was gifted to Dr. Mueller by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. This presentation highlights an often undersung element of NASA’s success: the worldwide network of tracking stations through which NASA personnel were able to monitor and communicate in space in Earth and lunar orbit. Prior to his time at NASA, Mueller had set up and overseen a satellite tracking network for the Air Force in his work on various ballistic missile programs. The tracking systems at NASA were developed to maximize space coverage and build in redundancies. It was through this worldwide network that television and audio coverage of the Apollo program was possible.