Guenter Wendt, a German-born mechanical engineer, was best known for his contributions to the American manned spaceflight programme. Between 1961 and 1968 he was in charge of the launch pads for the Mercury and Gemini programmes. He was known as the Pad Leader, or “Pad Führer” as one astronaut jokingly called him because he was a strict disciplinarian with a heavy German accent.
As Pad Leader he was in charge of the so-called “White Room” at the top of the launch tower where, in a controlled environment, astronauts prepare to board the spacecraft. He was the last person the astronauts saw before the hatch was closed for lift-off.
It was one of the key positions in the US space programme. He had the last word for the team in the launch tower responsible for securing the astronauts and making sure that the spacecraft instrumentation, switches and controls were correct for launch. He was in complete control; anyone who approached the spacecraft could not touch it without his permission. During emergencies he had to be able to take immediate decisions on his own authority.
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He was also the Pad Leader at the John F. Kennedy Space Centre (KSC), for the manned part of the Apollo programme (1968 to 1975), for the first few launches of the Space Shuttle, and for Skylab (America’s first space station). The main aim of Apollo was to land the first human beings on the Moon, a goal accomplished on July 20, 1969, when the Apollo 11 mission put the astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon.
Mercury, the first American human spaceflight programme, had the goal of putting a human being in orbit around the Earth, which it achieved on February 20, 1962. The Gemini project was America’s second human spaceflight programme. Ten manned Gemini spaceflights occurred in 1965 and 1966 to develop techniques for space travel, particularly those needed for the Apollo Project. The first American spacewalks took place on Gemini missions and so did orbital manoeuvres such as docking in space.
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These early American spaceflight programmes were President John F. Kennedy’s response to the successful launch by the Soviet Union, on October 4, 1957 , of Sputnik I, the world’s first artificial satellite. Sputnik came as a profound shock to the Americans, who saw it as a significant setback in the Cold War.
Guenter Franz Wendt was born in Berlin in 1923. His parents soon separated and his father moved to the US. Wendt studied mechanical engineering in Berlin and served in the Luftwaffe during the Second World War as a flight engineer on night fighters. He was shot down at least once. He also served an apprenticeship in aircraft manufacture.
There were few job opportunities for engineers in postwar Germany and so, in 1949, he decided to emigrate to the US to join his father in St Louis, Missouri. McDonnell Aircraft (later McDonnell Douglas) would have employed him as an engineer but was unable to hire a German citizen for security reasons. He found a job as a lorry mechanic and became a shop supervisor. In 1955 he was given US citizenship and was immediately employed by McDonnell Aircraft, which assigned him to work on the space programme.
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When the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) changed the contractors for the Apollo programme, he moved to North American Aviation (soon to become North American Rockwell). He continued his work at the KSC until he retired in 1989.
Wendt then served as a technical consultant for several TV and cinema films. In 2001, he co-wrote his autobiography, The Unbroken Chain, with Russell Still and received a Nasa Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.
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His wife predeceased him in 1993. He is survived by three daughters.
Guenter Wendt, mechanical engineer, was born on August 28, 1923. He died on May 3, 2010, aged 86