Kurt H. Debus
Encyclopedia
Kurt Heinrich Debus was a German V-2 rocket
scientist during World War II
who, after being brought to the United States under Operation Paperclip
, became the first director of NASA
's Kennedy Space Center
in 1962. Debus' U.S. organizations conducted 150 launches of military missiles and space vehicles, including 13 Saturn V
rockets, the booster for the Apollo manned moon landings.
where he earned his initial and advanced degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering. He served as a graduate assistant on the faculty for electrical engineering and high-voltage engineering while studying for his master’s degree.
In 1939, he obtained his engineering doctorate with a thesis on surge voltages, and was appointed assistant professor at the university. During this period Debus, who was a member of the SA
and the SS
(since 1940), became actively engaged in the rocket research program at Peenemünde
. During World War II development of the V-2 rocket
, Debus led the Test Stand Group personnel at Peenemünde and was the engineer in charge at Test Stand VII
.
At the end of the war, Debus and a small group of the V-2 engineers led by Wernher von Braun
’s brother sought out the advancing American 44th Infantry Division near Schattwald on May 2, 1945. Debus was detained by the U.S. Army with the rest of the Peenemünde scientists at Garmisch–Partenkirchen.
Debus served as both a technical and diplomatic liaison between German rocket engineers and the British during Operation Backfire, a series of V-2 test launches from an abandoned German naval gun range near Cuxhaven, Germany in October 1945.
in Huntsville, Alabama.
The arsenal became the focal point of the Army’s rocket and space projects (larger rockets were launched first from White Sands Missile Range
in New Mexico, and later from Cape Canaveral
). The Army assigned von Braun as chairman of a Development Board, and Debus supervised the development program of the Guided Missile Branch until November 1951.
The Army Ordnance Department reorganized the team and called it the Ordnance Guided Missile Center. By November 1951, the pace had picked up and a new missile program, the Redstone
, was taking shape. Von Braun named Debus to lead a new Experimental Missiles Firing Branch. Debus' organization also launched the first U.S. missiles carrying atomic warheads in the Pacific Ocean area during a series of tests.
Starting in 1952, Debus supervised the development and construction of rocket launch facilities at Cape Canaveral for the Redstone, Jupiter, Jupiter C, Juno and Pershing military configurations continuing through 1960. The organization he directed was transferred from the Army to NASA.
Beginning in 1961, Debus directed the design, development and construction of NASA's Saturn
launch facilities at the north end of Cape Canaveral and adjacent Merritt Island.
On July 1, 1962, the Florida launch facility at Cape Canaveral was officially designated as NASA's Launch Operations Center (renamed to honor President John Kennedy after his assassination in 1963) and Debus was officially named its first director. In October 1965, he became responsible for NASA unmanned launch operations at the Eastern and Western Ranges, assuming the additional title of KSC director of launch operations until Rocco Petrone
took the post in 1966.
Under Debus' leadership, NASA and its team of contractors built what was hailed as the Free World
's Moonport—KSC's Launch Complex 39—as well as tested and launched the Saturn family of rockets for the Apollo and Skylab
programs. Debus retired as KSC director in November 1974.
www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/pdf/84985main_debus.pdf
Page 3
Making Ends Meet in the 1930s During the Christmas
season of 1932, the young student had met 17-year-old
Irmgard ‘Gay’ Brueckmann (Figure 5). Debus was 24 at
the time. Over the next few years, he taught Gay to dance
and made numerous trips back and forth to Frankfurt while
courting the young, blonde dental assistant. They were
married on June 30, 1937. Kurt and Gay Debus would have
two daughters in Germany—Ute and Sigried (‘Sigi’)
(this text includes date of marriage, and birth country of
two children, and other trivia)
on the far side of the Moon
to the east-southeast of the crater Ganskiy
, past the eastern limb, is named for Debus; as is The Kurt Debus Conference Center at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex
.
Since 1990, the National Space Club of Florida has presented its annual Debus Award to recognize significant aerospace achievements in Florida, including individuals associated with launch vehicles, spacecraft operations, ground support services, range activities, space education and spaceport research and development. The award was conceived as an adjunct to the Goddard Award given each year by the National Space Club
in Washington, D.C. to an individual in the aerospace field on a national level.
V-2 rocket
The V-2 rocket , technical name Aggregat-4 , was a ballistic missile that was developed at the beginning of the Second World War in Germany, specifically targeted at London and later Antwerp. The liquid-propellant rocket was the world's first long-range combat-ballistic missile and first known...
scientist during World War II
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
who, after being brought to the United States under Operation Paperclip
Operation Paperclip
Operation Paperclip was the Office of Strategic Services program used to recruit the scientists of Nazi Germany for employment by the United States in the aftermath of World War II...
, became the first director of NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's Kennedy Space Center
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA installation that has been the launch site for every United States human space flight since 1968. Although such flights are currently on hiatus, KSC continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program...
in 1962. Debus' U.S. organizations conducted 150 launches of military missiles and space vehicles, including 13 Saturn V
Saturn V
The Saturn V was an American human-rated expendable rocket used by NASA's Apollo and Skylab programs from 1967 until 1973. A multistage liquid-fueled launch vehicle, NASA launched 13 Saturn Vs from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida with no loss of crew or payload...
rockets, the booster for the Apollo manned moon landings.
Germany
Born to Heinrich and Melly Debus in Frankfurt, Germany in 1908, Debus received all his schooling in that country. He attended Darmstadt UniversityDarmstadt University
Darmstadt University refers to:*Darmstadt University of Technology, founded in 1877*Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, founded in 1971...
where he earned his initial and advanced degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering. He served as a graduate assistant on the faculty for electrical engineering and high-voltage engineering while studying for his master’s degree.
In 1939, he obtained his engineering doctorate with a thesis on surge voltages, and was appointed assistant professor at the university. During this period Debus, who was a member of the SA
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
and the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
(since 1940), became actively engaged in the rocket research program at Peenemünde
Peenemünde
The Peenemünde Army Research Center was founded in 1937 as one of five military proving grounds under the Army Weapons Office ....
. During World War II development of the V-2 rocket
V-2 rocket
The V-2 rocket , technical name Aggregat-4 , was a ballistic missile that was developed at the beginning of the Second World War in Germany, specifically targeted at London and later Antwerp. The liquid-propellant rocket was the world's first long-range combat-ballistic missile and first known...
, Debus led the Test Stand Group personnel at Peenemünde and was the engineer in charge at Test Stand VII
Test Stand VII
Test Stand VII was the principal V-2 rocket testing facility at Peenemünde Airfield and was capable of static firing of rocket motors up to 200 tons thrust...
.
At the end of the war, Debus and a small group of the V-2 engineers led by Wernher von Braun
Wernher von Braun
Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun was a German rocket scientist, aerospace engineer, space architect, and one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany during World War II and in the United States after that.A former member of the Nazi party,...
’s brother sought out the advancing American 44th Infantry Division near Schattwald on May 2, 1945. Debus was detained by the U.S. Army with the rest of the Peenemünde scientists at Garmisch–Partenkirchen.
Debus served as both a technical and diplomatic liaison between German rocket engineers and the British during Operation Backfire, a series of V-2 test launches from an abandoned German naval gun range near Cuxhaven, Germany in October 1945.
United States
In late 1945, Debus was transferred to Fort Bliss, Texas under contract as a “special employee” of the U.S.Army, as were the other German rocket specialists. He was deputy director at the Guidance and Control Branch through December 1948, when he was promoted to assistant technical director to von Braun at the Redstone ArsenalRedstone Arsenal
Redstone Arsenal is a United States Army base and a census-designated place adjacent to Huntsville in Madison County, Alabama, United States and is part of the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area...
in Huntsville, Alabama.
The arsenal became the focal point of the Army’s rocket and space projects (larger rockets were launched first from White Sands Missile Range
White Sands Missile Range
White Sands Missile Range is a rocket range of almost in parts of five counties in southern New Mexico. The largest military installation in the United States, WSMR includes the and the WSMR Otera Mesa bombing range...
in New Mexico, and later from Cape Canaveral
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is an installation of the United States Air Force Space Command's 45th Space Wing, headquartered at nearby Patrick Air Force Base. Located on Cape Canaveral in the state of Florida, CCAFS is the primary launch head of America's Eastern Range with four launch pads...
). The Army assigned von Braun as chairman of a Development Board, and Debus supervised the development program of the Guided Missile Branch until November 1951.
The Army Ordnance Department reorganized the team and called it the Ordnance Guided Missile Center. By November 1951, the pace had picked up and a new missile program, the Redstone
Redstone (rocket)
The PGM-11 Redstone was the first large American ballistic missile. A short-range surface-to-surface rocket, it was in active service with the U.S. Army in West Germany from June 1958 to June 1964 as part of NATO's Cold War defense of Western Europe...
, was taking shape. Von Braun named Debus to lead a new Experimental Missiles Firing Branch. Debus' organization also launched the first U.S. missiles carrying atomic warheads in the Pacific Ocean area during a series of tests.
Starting in 1952, Debus supervised the development and construction of rocket launch facilities at Cape Canaveral for the Redstone, Jupiter, Jupiter C, Juno and Pershing military configurations continuing through 1960. The organization he directed was transferred from the Army to NASA.
Beginning in 1961, Debus directed the design, development and construction of NASA's Saturn
Saturn (rocket family)
The Saturn family of American rocket boosters was developed by a team of mostly German rocket scientists led by Wernher von Braun to launch heavy payloads to Earth orbit and beyond. Originally proposed as a military satellite launcher, they were adopted as the launch vehicles for the Apollo moon...
launch facilities at the north end of Cape Canaveral and adjacent Merritt Island.
On July 1, 1962, the Florida launch facility at Cape Canaveral was officially designated as NASA's Launch Operations Center (renamed to honor President John Kennedy after his assassination in 1963) and Debus was officially named its first director. In October 1965, he became responsible for NASA unmanned launch operations at the Eastern and Western Ranges, assuming the additional title of KSC director of launch operations until Rocco Petrone
Rocco Petrone
Rocco Anthony Petrone was an American engineer who was the third director of the NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, from 1973 to 1974...
took the post in 1966.
Under Debus' leadership, NASA and its team of contractors built what was hailed as the Free World
Free World
The Free World is a Cold War-era term often used to describe states not under the rule of the Soviet Union, its Eastern European allies, China, Vietnam, Cuba, and other communist nations. The term often referred to states such as the United States, Canada, and Western European states such as the...
's Moonport—KSC's Launch Complex 39—as well as tested and launched the Saturn family of rockets for the Apollo and Skylab
Skylab
Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a mass of...
programs. Debus retired as KSC director in November 1974.
Family
Debus married Irmgard "Gay" (née Brueckmann); and they had two daughters, Siegrid and Ute.www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/pdf/84985main_debus.pdf
Page 3
Making Ends Meet in the 1930s During the Christmas
season of 1932, the young student had met 17-year-old
Irmgard ‘Gay’ Brueckmann (Figure 5). Debus was 24 at
the time. Over the next few years, he taught Gay to dance
and made numerous trips back and forth to Frankfurt while
courting the young, blonde dental assistant. They were
married on June 30, 1937. Kurt and Gay Debus would have
two daughters in Germany—Ute and Sigried (‘Sigi’)
(this text includes date of marriage, and birth country of
two children, and other trivia)
Recognition
A small lunar craterDebus (crater)
Debus is a small lunar crater that is located on the far side of the Moon, past the eastern limb. It lies to the east-southeast of the crater Ganskiy, and just to the west of the huge walled plain Pasteur....
on the far side of the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
to the east-southeast of the crater Ganskiy
Ganskiy (crater)
Ganskiy is a lunar crater that is located on the far side of the Moon. It lies to the southeast of the walled plain Hirayama.The rim of this crater is roughly circular, with a slight hexagonal appearance. There is some wear along the rim, particularly along the southwest where a pair of small...
, past the eastern limb, is named for Debus; as is The Kurt Debus Conference Center at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex
Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex
The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is the visitor center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It features exhibits and displays, historic spacecraft and memorabilia, shows, two IMAX theaters, a range of bus tours of the spaceport, and the Shuttle Launch Experience, a simulated ride into...
.
Since 1990, the National Space Club of Florida has presented its annual Debus Award to recognize significant aerospace achievements in Florida, including individuals associated with launch vehicles, spacecraft operations, ground support services, range activities, space education and spaceport research and development. The award was conceived as an adjunct to the Goddard Award given each year by the National Space Club
National Space Club
The National Space Club is a non-profit organization whose mission is devoted to promoting space activity. It is based in Washington D.C.. It has four main objectives:* Promote US Space Leadership* Continue to push for the advancement of space technology...
in Washington, D.C. to an individual in the aerospace field on a national level.