Arnold Wolfe Frutkin (November 30, 1918 – September 1, 2020) was the Deputy Director of the
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
international programs office between 1957 and 1978,
and later, the associate administrator for external relations. He was the NASA Deputy Director for international affairs during the
Space Race
The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the t ...
between the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
.
Biography
Frutkin first started working for NASA when he was hired as deputy director for the U.S. National Committee during the
International Geophysical Year, July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958. This title later changed to assistant administrator for international affairs in 1963.
Frutkin was employed by NASA as deputy director of the international programs office during the
space race
The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the t ...
between the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
. After retiring, Frutkin commented although he had always disliked the space race, he had nonetheless felt disappointed by the success of
Sputnik 1.
In 1970, Frutkin and
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...
held discussions with the Soviets that would later become the base for the
ASTP.
Frutkin wrote a letter asking the French space program to reaffirm their pledge not to launch commercial communications satellites under the
Intelsat project's agreement that no other communications satellites besides Intelsat would be launched for commercial purposes. France had requested that NASA launch a French satellite which they identified as a research instrument. NASA gave the project the go ahead, but later, some French officials started to claim that the satellite would be used for commercial purposes and the launch of the satellite was cancelled. Lebeau, an employee of the French space program, claimed that Frutkin had refused to launch the French satellite, a comment that resulted in Frutkin barring him from his office. Frutkin took a copy of the letter he wrote with him when he went to meetings in Europe, so as he could produce it when he was queried as to why he supposedly refused the French project.
Frutkin believed that the USA had never lost the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
as the aim of the USA had been to prevent North Korea from taking over South Korea, in which they had been successful. This opinion went against what many of his colleagues at the time, including Thomas Paine, believed. Nonetheless, in 1973, Frutkin was awarded the
NASA Distinguished Service Medal by Thomas Paine, and Frutkin commented that Paine had always been "wonderful" to him.
In 1978 Frutkin was appointed as the associate administrator for external relations for NASA. He held this post until his retirement in 1979.
Frutkin died in September 2020 at the age of 101.
Arnold Wolfe Frutkin obituary
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References
1918 births
2020 deaths
American centenarians
Men centenarians
NASA people
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