Obituary: Engineer Guenter Wendt ruled NASA’s launchpad
Obituary: Engineer Guenter Wendt ruled NASA’s launchpad.
Guenter Wendt, 86, a driven and disciplined German-born engineer who ran operations at the launchpad before some of America’s most celebrated space missions, died May 3 at his home in Merritt Island, Fla. He had congestive heart failure and complications from a stroke.
From the first sub-orbital flight through the moon landings, Mr. Wendt held one of the key positions in one of the most closely followed of American ventures.
Beginning half a century ago, he was in charge at the launching pad in Cape Canaveral in the tense moments as Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts prepared to carry the nation’s hopes into space.
“Now I lean in and ask each astronaut, ‘Are you happy with your straps, with everything?’ Everybody says okay, we shake hands, ‘Good luck, guys,’ ” he once said, recounting the seconds before liftoff.
“Now I request permission to close the hatch, and get the go-ahead.
“Then I look at my inspector, and tell him he is clear up to that sequence. He says yes, he is clear. I turn to the technician, tell him, ‘close the hatch.’ He and the suit tech close the hatch.”
As the man responsible for launch preparations, he was given the title of “pad leader.” But he recalled with amusement that astronaut John Glenn had another name: “pad Fuhrer.”