Helmut Justus Karl Horn (June 24, 1912 - January 20, 1994) was a German-American engineer and applied physicist who was employed at the early Marshall Space Flight Center. Horn worked first at the

Peenemünde Army Research Center The Peenemünde Army Research Center (german: Heeresversuchsanstalt Peenemünde, HVP) was founded in 1937 as one of five military proving grounds under the German Army Weapons Office (''Heereswaffenamt''). Several German guided missiles an ...

and later, after the end of World War II, was hired by the U.S. through

Operation Paperclip Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from the former Nazi Germany to the U.S. for government employment after the end of World War ...

Biography

Horn was born on June 24, 1912, in Frankfurt. He attended college at the

Technische Universität Darmstadt The Technische Universität Darmstadt (official English name Technical University of Darmstadt, sometimes also referred to as Darmstadt University of Technology), commonly known as TU Darmstadt, is a research university in the city of Darmstadt ...

, graduating in 1939 with an M.S. in engineering, specifically applied physics. After graduation, he went to work with the German rocket team at Peenemünde under

Wernher von Braun Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...

. He continued there from 1939 until the war's end in 1945. As a member of von Braun's rocket team, Horn was one of the engineers scouted by Operation Paperclip. He traveled to the U.S. aboard the ''Argentina'', arriving on November 16, 1945. After arriving Horn worked within the U.S. rocket program, first at

Fort Bliss Fort Bliss is a United States Army post in New Mexico and Texas, with its headquarters in El Paso, Texas. Named in honor of LTC William Bliss (1815–1853), a mathematics professor who was the son-in-law of President Zachary Taylor, Ft. Bliss h ...

and then at White Sands. His wife Leni followed him, immigrating to the U.S. to join him in 1951. By 1952, Horn had moved to Redstone Arsenal, where he taught at the Redstone Arsenal Institute of Graduate Studies as a lecturer in Applied Mathematics. By 1960, Horn had joined the rocket team at the newly created Marshall Space Flight Center, where he first served as head of the Dynamics Analysis Branch of the center's Aeroballistics Division. In 1960 or 1961, Horn was involved with development on the Saturn program. He adapted the bilinear tangent steering law developed by mathematician Derek Frank Lawden, creating an algorithm that would improve upon existing software to calculate optimal in-flight trajectories. Horn's algorithm eventually led to the Iterative Guidance Mode used by the guidance systems of numerous Saturn projects including the

Saturn V Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, with three stages, and powered with liquid fuel. It was flown from 196 ...

rocket. In 1962, Horn took part in investigating the viability of

lunar orbit rendezvous Lunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) is a process for landing humans on the Moon and returning them to Earth. It was utilized for the Apollo program missions in the 1960s and 1970s. In a LOR mission, a main spacecraft and a smaller lunar lander travel to ...

for Project Apollo. By February 1969, he was the assistant director of MSFC's Aero-Astrodynamics Laboratory; he was later promoted to deputy director.

References

External links

Helmut Horn Collection, The University of Alabama in Huntsville Archives and Special Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horn, Helmut American aerospace engineers German aerospace engineers German rocket scientists 1912 births 1994 deaths Scientists from Frankfurt Engineers from Frankfurt Technische Universität Darmstadt alumni Early spaceflight scientists Peenemünde Army Research Center and Airfield NASA people Operation Paperclip German emigrants to the United States