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Mrazek, Willi
Mrazek
Mrazek
Credit: NASA
German-American engineer. Worked at Peenemuende from early days, but sent to Russian Front before being returned. A loads engineer, he went with von Braun to the US and became Director, Structures and Mechanics Division, at Huntsville.

Born: 1911-10-20. Died: 1992-02-08. Birth Place: Germany.

Mrazek had been in Peenemuende since the early days, but that had not prevented him from seeing combat on the Russian front. His face was marked by a saber scar. In 1945 he moved with von Braun's team to Fort Bliss, Texas, and then in 1950 to Huntsville, Alabama. By 1960 he was Director, Structures and Mechanics Division, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

When von Braun's team subcontracted development of the Saturn V to aircraft builders, their traditional methods of design and development clashed with those of the American aircraft industry. Mrazek was stubborn in these conflicts - his team after all was the only one in the United States that had built a succession of ever-larger rocket designs. In one memorable fight, North American and Mrazek's organization got into an argument over the magnitude of certain internal loads in the S-II stage of the Saturn V. North American ended up winning the argument after a huge investment of engineering hours on both sides to defend their respective positions. This did not endear North American to Mrazek.



Country: Germany, USA. Bibliography: 1980, 394, 4472.
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1911 October 20 - .
1961 November 6 - .
1968 February 3 - .
1968 September 18 - .
1992 February 8 - .

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