NEANews 

National Aeronautics and .,' I 

Space Ad minist ration I \' 

i Wallops Flight Center 

Wallops Island, Virginia 23337 

AC 804 824-3411 

Joyce 6. Milliner For Release: 

Wallops Flight Center June 1, 1981 

(Telephone: 804/824-3411, x579) 

RELEASE NO. 81-7 

WALLOPS FLIGHT CENTER DIRECTOR ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT 

Dr. Robert L. Krieger, long time Director of NASA's Wallops Flight Center, Wallops Island, Virginia, today announced his plans to leave the Government services 

in early August, after almost 43 years with NACA and NASA. Since 1948 he has 

headed the Wallops Island facility here on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. 

Krieger actually retired on February 29, 1980, but, at therequest of NASA's Administrator, has continued to serve as Wallops Center Director in order to provide continuity through the busy period of the Shuttle launch. More recently the 

request has been extended "until August of this year to help make the Wallops/ 

Goddard consolidation as smooth as possible.'' 

A native of Kentucky, Krieger began his career with NASA's predecessor agency, 

the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) at the Aeronautical Laboratory in Hampton, Virginia before World War I1 in 1936. He left Langley to attend the Georgia Institute of Technology and received a BS degree in Mechanical 

Engineering in 1943. 

Returning to Langley, Dr. Krieger was part of the group which established a branch 

facility, the Pilotless Aircraft Research Station at Wallops Island, Virginia, 

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under the leadership of Robert R. Gilruth, foremost in also establishing the 

U. S.'s manned space flight program. Working at Wallops part time, Krieger 

participated in the first firing of a U.S. guided missile on July 4, 1945. 

In 1948 he assumed leadership of the Wallops facility which became an experimental laboratory from which instrumented aerodynamic test models were rocket 

propelled at high speeds, providing data used as the basis of design of supersonic airplanes and missiles. 

In 1958 the Wallops facility became an independent field center of the National 

Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) which Dr. Krieger led through a 

period of rapid growth to make the first successful test flight of the Mercury 

capsule. He has continued to guide the expansion of NASA Wallops Flight Center's 

capabilities to accommodate flight systems and component development testing; 

aerodynamics and heat transfer research; launching small satellites into orbit; 

sounding rocket probes of the atmosphere; and the training of foreign nationals 

in space launch, tracking and data acquisition techniques. Thousands of research 

test vehicles, including nineteen satellites, have been launched from the Wallops 

range since its beginning in 1945. 

During his long career Krieger has initiated and encouranged many important contributions to range, aeronautical and space technologies and is recognized as 

one of the leaders in that community. 

Dr. Krieger has been very active in the educational and civic activities of Maryland's lower shore and Virginia's Eastern Shore. He was Chairman of the Eastern 

Shore Chamber of Commerce Steering Committee for the E.S. Community College and 

has since served as a member of the College Board. He has served as a Director 

and as President of the E.S. Chamber of Commerce and as Chairman, Virginia District Boy Scouts of America. He was a member of the Accomack Recreation Commission. In 1968 he was honored as being the Outstanding Citizen of the Eastern 
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Shore of Virginia. He has twice been awarded NASA's Outstanding Leadership 

Medal and in 1974 was awarded NASA's Distinguished Service Medal. He is in 

Who's Who in America and was elected as a Fellow of the American Astronautical 

Society. In 1978 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Engineering by the 

University of Maryland Eastern Shore Branch. 

Dr. Krieger and his wife, Frances, have acquired a home in Hampton, Virginia, 

as three of their seven children are residing in that area. After retirement, 

Dr. Krieger, who has an insatiable interest in the history of Virginia's Eastern 

Shore, hopes to spend a good deal of time photographing the area and studying 

Shore History. 

END 

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