George Mueller, who led NASA's human spaceflight efforts through the first moon landing and was credited as the "father of the space shuttle," died Oct. 12 after a brief illness. He was 97. Mueller, as associate administrator, headed the Office of Manned Space Flight at NASA's Washington headquarters from 1963 through 1969. During that time, Mueller brought together NASA's three human spaceflight centers under a common management system, introduced an approach to testing that made landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade possible, played a key part in the design of the United States' first space station and advocated for a reusable space transportation system that became known as the space shuttle. Mueller did not stay at NASA to see the shuttle be approved in 1972 or to see Skylab launch in 1973. Rather, he resigned from the space agency in 1969, four months after the first moon landing, and returned to industry, serving as General Dynamics senior vice president and as chairman and chief executive of System Development Corp.
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