posted 02-23-2011 05:42 AM               

In 1999, Resonance Publications interviewed Koelle and prepared this biography:

Heinz-Hermann Koelle was born in 1925 in Danzig (former Freestate), and was a pilot in World War II. After the war, he received his formal education in mechanical engineering at the University Stuttgart (Dipl.-Ing. in 1954), and the degree of Dr.-Ing., Technical University Berlin in 1963.

He organized the 3rd International Astronautical Congress at Stuttgart in 1952.

From 1955-1960 he was Head, Preliminary Design Branch, U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency, Huntsville, Alabama and a member of the launch crew of Explorer I (the first U.S. satellite) in 1958.

He became Director, Future Projects Office, Marshall Space Flight Center, NASA in 1960. In this position he was responsible for the preliminary design of the Saturn launch vehicles and the planning of the Marshall Space Flight Center part of the Apollo lunar landing project.

He was the Editor-in-Chief of the "Handbook of Astronautical Engineering" (McGraw-Hill, 1961). In 1965, he accepted the Chair of Space Technology at the Technical University Berlin. He retired in 1991; his last position was Dean of the Transportation Department.

Since 1985, he was co-chairman of the Moon-Mars Committee of the International Academy of Astronautics.