posted 03-08-2007 08:35 AM               

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As a launch operations electrical technician since 1956, Harry Packer helped launch the first U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile. He helped launch the first American astronaut to orbit Earth, the first robotic missions to Mercury, Venus and Mars, and the first spacecraft to leave the solar system.

He got to know most of the original astronauts. He wired up the launch pad where John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra and Gordon Cooper blasted off inside cramped Mercury capsules atop Atlas rockets.

"Of all the pads, I'm partial to it because I helped build it," Packer said.

Now, at age 80, Packer is helping tonight's liftoff at Cape Canaveral of the first Atlas rocket flown under the new United Launch Alliance venture.

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