In Memory of: Konrad Dannenberg (by Greg Allison -NSS)
Thursday, February 19th, 2009I just got this summary from an old friend in Minnesota:
Ben Huset president of the MNSFS - Minnesota Space Frontier Society
This is a sumary of a great man who passed away this week: Konrad Dannenberg
Written by Greg Allison of the Huntsville HAL-5 chapter of NSS - National Space Society
Space Pioneer Konrad K. Dannenberg passed away on the 16th of February 2009 at the age of 96. He was not only one of the last of the Von Braun’s original rocket team, but one of the most active publicly. In the 1920’s Dannenberg began his rocketry career developing mail rockets after a lecture by Max Valier inspired his interest in space. Mr. Dannenberg designed the injectors of the A4 “V-2″ rocket. Dannenberg went to Ft. Bliss Texas as part of Operation Paper Clip to advance US Army missile development. Later he transfered with the rest of the German Rocket Team to Redstone Arsenal next to Hunstville Alabama where he became a manager on the US Army’s Jupiter and Redstone missiles. He joined NASA when the Marshall Space Flight Center was formed and became a key member of America’s first program to land people on the moon. Mr. Dannenberg rose to the position of depty director of the Saturn V Program, developing the largest rocket ever flown.
This earned him NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal. After retiring from NASA in 1973 Dannenberg worked extensively with young people to foster their interest in space. He was an instructor at the US Space Camp, and led the way for student flight experiments on space shuttle Get-Away-Special (GAS) canisters. As a man of vision, Dannenberg was active in the World Future Society. He was a charter member and served on the Board of Directors of the L5 Society, parent society to the National Space Society. Mr. Dannenberg played a critical role in starting Huntsville’s chapter the Huntsville Alabama L5 Society (HAL5). He called HAL5’s first meeting. Dannenberg was a major advocate for Newspace. He was an advisor to the Canadian X-Prize Team that sought to build an uprated manned V-2. He was there in the Mojave when Burt Rutan’s team won the X-Prize and later presented NSS’s Von Braun award to Rutan. Dannenberg’s career spawnned the entire space age. He inspired many young people to seek careers in space, science and engineering. Many engineers were inspired to excellence by the example Dannenberg established both in his areas of technology development and public service. Konrad Dannenberg set the bar that we should all strive to meet. Those of us that were honored to know Konrad will dearly miss him.
