Paul C. Donnelly
Paul C. Donnelly | |
|---|---|
Official NASA portrait, 1969 | |
| Born | March 28, 1923 |
| Died | March 12, 2014 (aged 90) |
| Known for | Apollo launch operations management |
| Awards | NASA Distinguished Service Medal (2) NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal (3) NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Guided missiles, electrical engineering |
| Institutions | 1942–45: National Hydraulic Lab 1946–58: Navy Bur. of Ordnance |
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). Responsible for the checkout of all Apollo launch vehicles and spacecraft, 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.