Paul C. Donnelly

For other people named Paul Donnelly, see Paul Donnelly (disambiguation).
Paul C. Donnelly
Official NASA portrait, 1969
Born(1923-03-28)March 28, 1923
Altoona, Pennsylvania
DiedMarch 12, 2014(2014-03-12) (aged 90)
Indian Harbour Beach, Florida
Known forApollo launch operations management
AwardsNASA Distinguished Service Medal (2)
NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal (3)
NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal
Scientific career
FieldsGuided missiles, electrical engineering
Institutions1942–45: National Hydraulic Lab

1946–58: Navy Bur. of Ordnance
1958–64: LOD-Cape Canaveral
1964–78: Kennedy Space Center

1978–89: United Space Boosters, Inc.

Paul Charles Donnelly (March 28, 1923 – March 12, 2014) was an American guided missile pioneer and a senior NASA manager during the Apollo Moon landing program at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC).[1] Responsible for the checkout of all Apollo launch vehicles and spacecraft,[2] he was also involved in every U.S. manned launch from Alan Shepard's Mercury suborbital flight in 1961 through the tenth Space Shuttle mission (STS-41B) in 1984.

During World War II, Donnelly helped develop the U.S. Navy's Bat, the first "smart bomb" in the history of warfare, which his Navy squadron dropped on Japanese ships in Borneo's Balikpapan Harbor in 1945.[3][4]

  1. ^ "Operational changes made in Apollo". The Free Lance-Star. 85 (219). Cape Kennedy, Florida: Associated Press: 13. September 17, 1969. Retrieved November 25, 2009.
  2. ^ Godwin, Robert (1999). Apollo 11: The NASA Mission Reports. Apogee Books. p. 117. ISBN 978-1-896522-53-1.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Interview of Mr. Paul Donnelly was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference bathead.com was invoked but never defined (see the help page).