Homer Joseph "Stewie" Stewart (1915–2007) was an American aeronautical engineer, rocket propulsion expert, and Caltech professor, who pioneered the first American

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

Biography

With a bachelor's degree from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

in 1936, Stewart matriculated at Caltech. In 1940 Stewart graduated from Caltech with a Ph.D. in aeronautics. In 1938, two years before earning his Ph.D., he became a Caltech faculty member. He taught aeronautics and meteorology, for many years dividing his time between teaching at Caltech and research at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). In 1958 NASA (

National Aeronautics and Space Administration The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding th ...

) was formed as a response to the USSR's 1957 launch of ''Sputnik'' 1. From 1958 to 1960, Stewart took a two-year leave of absence from Caltech to serve as NASA's director of planning and evaluation. He was in charge of calculating and analyzing the exhaust velocities required to lift rockets to their planned orbits. In addition to contributing to the development of the

WAC Corporal The WAC Corporal was the first sounding rocket developed in the United States and the first vehicle to achieve hypersonic speeds. It was an offshoot of the Corporal program, that was started by a partnership between the United States Army Ordn ...

MGM-29 Sergeant The MGM-29 Sergeant was an American short-range, solid fuel, surface-to-surface missile developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The missiles were built by Sperry Utah Company. The Sergeant was the third and last in a series of JPL rockets fo ...

, and

Jupiter-C The Jupiter-C was an American research and development vehicle developed from the Jupiter-A. Jupiter-C was used for three unmanned sub-orbital spaceflights in 1956 and 1957 to test re-entry nosecones that were later to be deployed on the more a ...

rockets, he helped prepare for

Pioneer 4 Pioneer 4 was an American spin-stabilized uncrewed spacecraft launched as part of the Pioneer program on a lunar flyby trajectory and into a heliocentric orbit making it the first probe of the United States to escape from the Earth's gravity. ...

and the preliminary planning of the Apollo moon missions. He also recommended

Cape Canaveral , image = cape canaveral.jpg , image_size = 300 , caption = View of Cape Canaveral from space in 1991 , map = Florida#USA , map_width = 300 , type =Cape , map_caption = Location in Florida , location ...

as a launching site. In 1959 Stewart and

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 ...

testified to Congress concerning the Soviet spacecraft and missile capabilities. Stewart was the chair of a committee formed to give advice on satellites to the US federal government. Except for his two-years with NASA, Stewart remained on Caltech's faculty from 1938 until 1980, when he retired as emeritus professor of aeronautics. In 1970 he was awarded the

NASA Exceptional Service Medal The NASA Exceptional Service Medal is an award granted to U.S. government employees for significant sustained performance characterized by unusual initiative or creative ability that clearly demonstrates substantial improvement in engineering, ae ...

. At his death, Homer J. Stewart was survived by two daughters, one son, and two grandchildren.

Publications

* * * * * * * * * (transcript of radio interview of Homer J. Stewart conducted by Irving Bengelsdorf) * *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart, Homer Joseph American aerospace engineers University of Minnesota alumni California Institute of Technology alumni California Institute of Technology faculty People from Lapeer County, Michigan 1915 births 2007 deaths 20th-century American engineers

Biography

Publications

See also

References

External links