page_title: Ernst Stuhlinger
section_title: Research scientist
hierarchical_section_title: Ernst Stuhlinger / Life / Research scientist
caption_attribution_description: Marshall Space Flight Center's (MSFC's) building 4200 hosts a new spaceflight history museum referred to as the Heritage Gallery, allowing employees and visitors alike to have the opportunity to experience history first hand. On display are many models of launch vehicles and spacecraft that have made the center famous. It features a full-scale mockup of the lunar roving vehicle, three built-in multimedia displays, a large theater screen, and two glass cases that house memorabilia such as personal items belonging to Wernher von Braun, MSFC's first Center Director. The new Heritage Gallery features the accomplishments of several past and present members of the Marshall team. Attending the ribbon cutting ceremony are: (left to right) Gerhard Reisig; Cort Durocher, executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; Ernst Stuhlinger; Konrad Dannenberg; Werner Dahm; Walter Jacobi; and host of event, Center Director Art Stephenson.
context_page_description: Ernst Stuhlinger was a German-American atomic, electrical, and rocket scientist. After being brought to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip, he developed guidance systems with Wernher von Braun's team for the US Army, and later was a scientist with NASA. He was also instrumental in the development of the ion engine for long-endurance space flight, and a wide variety of scientific experiments.
context_section_description: Stuhlinger was one of the first group of 126 scientists who emigrated to the United States with von Braun after World War II as part of Operation Paperclip. In the 1945–50 years, he primarily worked on guidance systems in US Army missile programs at Fort Bliss, Texas. In 1950, von Braun's team and the missile programs were transferred to Redstone Arsenal at Huntsville, Alabama. For the next decade, Stuhlinger and other von Braun team members worked on Army missiles, but they also devoted efforts in building an unofficial space capability. He eventually served as director of the Advanced Research Projects Division of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA). On April 14, 1955, together with many other Paperclip members, he became a naturalized United States citizen. 
  In the 1950s, Stuhlinger, along with von Braun, collaborated with Walt Disney Pictures.  Together, they produced three films, Man in Space and Man and the Moon in 1955, and Mars and Beyond in 1957.  Stuhlinger worked as a technical consultant for these films.
  Stuhlinger played a small but important role in the race to launch a US satellite after the success of Sputnik 1. There was little time to develop and test automated guidance or staging systems, so Stuhlinger developed a simple spring-powered staging timer that was triggered from the ground. On the night of January 31, 1958, Stuhlinger was at the controls of the timer when the Explorer 1 was launched, triggering the device right on time. He became known as "the man with the golden finger."  This satellite discovered the  Van Allen radiation belt through a cosmic ray sensor, a felicitous intersection with his early physics expertise, included in a science package supervised by Stuhlinger.
  In 1960, the major part of ABMA was transferred to NASA, forming the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama. Stuhlinger served as director of the MSFC Space Science Laboratory from its formation in 1960 until 1968, and then was MSFC's associate director for science from 1968 to 1975. Among his many other works at Marshall, he directed early planning for lunar exploration, worked on the Apollo Telescope Mount that produced a wealth of information about the Sun, led planning for the three High Energy Astronomical Observatories, and worked on the initial phases of what would become the Hubble Space Telescope.
  In 1970, shortly after the first lunar landing, Stuhlinger received a letter from Sister Mary Jucunda in Zambia, Africa, asking how billions of dollars could be spent for space research when so many children on the Earth were starving to death. Stuhlinger's thoughtful response is often cited to justify such expenditures.
  Stuhlinger spent much of his spare time developing designs for solar-powered spacecraft. The most popular of those designs relied on ion thrusters, which ionize either caesium or rubidium vapor and accelerate the positively charged ions through gridded electrodes. The spacecraft would be powered by one kilowatt of solar energy. He referred to the concept as a "sunship". He is considered as one of the pioneers of electric propulsion having, among many contributions, authored the classic textbook Ion Propulsion for Space Flight (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1964). In 2005, he was honored by the Electric Rocket Propulsion Society, and awarded its highest honor "The Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Electric Propulsion", which was renamed the Stuhlinger Medal shortly following his death.
  After retiring from NASA in January 1976, Stuhlinger became an adjunct professor and senior research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), holding this position for the next 20 years. In 1978, he was at the University of Munich for six months on a Humboldt Fellowship. Ernst was especially proud of winning this award as an American scientist.  During 1984-89, he was also a senior research associate with Teledyne Brown Engineering.
caption: MSFC Heritage Gallery
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