Joachim Kuettner

Joachim Kuettner (September 21, 1909 – February 24, 2011), also spelled Küttner, was a German-American atmospheric scientist.

The booster of a Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle. MSFC Mercury-Redstone Project Manager Joachim Kuettner (left) and center officials host MR-4 astronaut Gus Grissom (6th from left).

Germany

Born and raised in Breslau, Germany, Joachim Kuettner put his early interest in the atmosphere aside to complete a doctorate in law and economics at age 21. He worked in small-town courts and gazed at cumulus clouds while on the road. As Germany's legal and political structure deteriorated in the 1930s, Kuettner switched gears to earn a second doctorate, this time in meteorology. For his dissertation, he deployed 25 instrumented gliders to gather data on lee waves, the newly discovered features forming downwind of mountains. He also set a world altitude record for gliders, soaring without oxygen—and with numb feet and blue fingers—to 6,800 meters (22,300 feet).[1]

Kuettner flight-tested the world's largest airplane, the Gigant, during World War II, narrowly escaping death as the plane broke apart in flight and his parachute opened just 200 meters (660 feet) above ground. After the war, "I wanted to go to a mountaintop and be alone," Kuettner recalled. He spent three years studying many atmospheric phenomena, including thunderstorm electricity, at the observatory atop the Zugspitze, the highest point in Germany.[2][3]

Move to U.S.

In the early 1950s, Kuettner came to the United States and joined the Sierra Wave Project[4] as scientific field director, investigating lee waves in California. Then, as the U.S. space program got under way, Kuettner became director of the Mercury Redstone project[5][6]— at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center which culminated in 1961 by putting the first American, Alan Shepard, into space. Kuettner also headed systems integration during the early stages of the Apollo project.[7]

GATE

Kuettner coordinated and planned many international atmospheric field studies, including the landmark Global Atmospheric Research Program's Atlantic Tropical Experiment (GATE)[8]—with more than 70 nations participating—in 1974; the Monsoon Experiment (MONEX)[9] in 1979; and the Central Equatorial Pacific Experiment (CEPEX)[10] in 1993.

NCAR

In the 1980s Kuettner was based at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. He joined the staff of NCAR's managing organization, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in 1994 when the National Science Foundation awarded him the UCAR Distinguished Chair for Atmospheric Science and International Research.[11] Shortly before his death in 2011, the Federal Republic of Germany presented Kuettner with the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit, one of Germany's highest civilian honors.[12]

Kuettner attributed his sustained love of atmospheric research to two traits: "curiosity and joy of adventure. If you can preserve these two wonderful afflictions through your life, you will never be able to stop exploring the atmosphere."

References
  1. Whelan, Robert F., Exploring the Monster: Mountain Lee Waves: The Aerial Elevator, Wind Canyon Books, 2000
  2. Seven decades of science, UCAR Magazine, September 23, 2009 Archived August 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Heise, R., Reinhardt, M., Selinger P.F., Joachim P. Kuettner- Aeronautical pioneer, record pilot, meteorologist, Segelflug International, January 1, 2012
  4. Grubisic, V. and Lewis, J.M., Sierra Wave Project Revisited, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, August 2004
  5. Overview of the Marshall Center’s Role in Mercury-Redstone Project, MSFC History Office, accessed May 9, 2011
  6. Mercury-Redstone Launch-Vehicle Development and Performance, NASA History Program Office, accessed May 11, 2011
  7. "Celebration of a Renaissance Man: the Joachim Kuettner Symposium, Staff Notes, November, 1994". Archived from the original on 2011-08-07. Retrieved 2011-05-11.
  8. Global Atmospheric Research Program (GARP) Atlantic Tropical Experiment (GATE), accessed May 9, 2011
  9. Google Scholar: Articles about MONEX by Kuettner, accessed April 7, 2011
  10. Google Scholar: Articles about CEPEX by Kuettner, accessed April 7, 2011
  11. "The first holder of UCAR's Distinguished chair is exactly that, UCAR Quarterly, Summer, 2000". Archived from the original on 2012-03-19. Retrieved 2011-05-11.
  12. Dr. Joachim Kuettner Receives Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, German Missions in the United States, May 6, 2010
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