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USAF announces Space, Missile Pioneer Award winners (Forwarded)
Air Force Space Command News Service
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 21, 2003 Story ID 03-175 AF announces Space, Missile Pioneer Award winners By Tech. Sgt. Gino Mattorano, Air Force Space Command Public Affairs PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- Four visionaries who helped pave the way for the successful national space and missile programs of today were selected to receive the 2003 Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Award. They will be honored in an award ceremony and Hall of Fame Induction Luncheon here on Aug. 28. John C. "Jack" Herther, retired Brig. Gen. Martin Menter, retired Navy Capt. Robert C. Truax, and retired Col. Albert J. "Red" Wetzel will receive the award, which will be presented by Gen. Lance W. Lord, AFSPC Commander. The award recognizes civilians and military members who played significant roles in the advancement of Air Force space and missile programs. "This award is especially significant because at the time, for political and security reasons, these men received little public recognition for their accomplishments," said Skip Bradley, AFSPC historian. "The award gives them the formal recognition they never received while actively contributing to the Air Force space mission." A panel chaired by AFSPC's former vice commander, Lt. Gen.Robert Hinson, selected this year's award recipients. Each year, the panel reviews all nomination packages and selects two to four winners. The AFSPC commander approves the panel's decisions before announcing the winners. Herther, in his May 1955 master's thesis, proposed placing a satellite in a 300-mile, circular orbit by means of computer-controlled vernier thrusters from rocket burnout to apogee. From this foundation, he worked as an Air Force lieutenant and Itek engineer to design a three-axis stabilization system during the late 1950s that enabled Lockheed's Agena space vehicle to become the workhorse of the Corona reconnaissance program. Menter, in his May 1959 ICAF thesis titled "Astronautical Law," asserted that the Roman maxim ex facto oritur jus (law rises from fact) was appropriate for the development of space law. His was one of the first legal treatises on space law anywhere. He was concerned especially with the effects of space activity on the concept of sovereignty, and from the 1960s onward was an international leader in the fields of aeronautical and space law. Truax began experimenting with liquid-fueled rocket engines while at the US Naval Academy in 1936. Frustrated with the navy's progress in large-scale rocket development, he arranged in 1955 for assignment to the US Air Force's Western Development Division, where he played an instrumental role over the course of three years in the early stages of the Thor IRBM and WS-117L satellite development programs. Wetzel directed the Titan (WS 107A-2) intercontinental ballistic missile program from its concept stage to operational readiness during 1958-1961. His leadership resulted in the decision to make a complete configuration change for Titan II, which remained on alert as an ICBM into the late 1980s, was man-rated to launch NASA's Gemini spacecraft into Earth orbit, and was refurbished to launch satellites into the 21st century. The Air Force Space Pioneers Award was first given under the sponsorship of the National Space Club in Washington, D.C., which in 1989 honored ten key military and civilian leaders in the Air Force space program. In 1997, the program was revitalized and established as an official Air Force award under AFSPC. It was renamed the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Award and first presented in 1997during the Air Force's 50th anniversary celebrations. The award ceremony is at 11 a.m. in the Hartinger Building Atrium. The Induction Luncheon is at noon at the Officers' Club. The luncheon is open to all Peterson and Schriever AFB personnel. For more information or to attend the luncheon, call Lt. Col. Fernando Aguilar at 554-8322. |
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