George E. Mueller, NASA Engineer, Dies At 97; Dubbed As The 'Father Of The Space Shuttle'

George E. Mueller, NASA engineer and also better known to the public as the "father of the space shuttle", has died last Monday on Oct. 12 at the age of 97.

George Mueller was the administrator who assisted in directing the NASA agency during the 1960s and was also known for being the "father of the space shuttle". He died this week due to a brief illness at his home in Irvine, Calif. He was 97, according to Yahoo! News.

The agency of NASA and some people close to the family of Mueller were the ones who confirmed his passing on Oct. 15, last Thursday, according to sources. Congestive heart failure was the cause of his death, according to Arthur Slotkin who was the family spokesman.

George E. Mueller, NASA engineer, scientist, and administrator was a coolly decisive person, according to The Washington Post. He was the one who was given credit for enabling NASA to meet President John F. Kennedy's manned moon landing timetable. He was also the one who initiated the Skylab and the other space shuttle programs.

Mueller joined NASA in 1963. He took the position of Associate Administrator of the NASA Office of Manned Space Flight. His role was to oversee the planning and testing of the hardware and space flights. This led to seeing the first lunar landings, states a report on io9.

George Mueller stepped down from his role in 1969. After that he helped to establish NASA's Skylab and a reusable spacecraft. This spacecraft was later known as the Space Shuttle. This embodied some the concepts of reusability that he advocated, according to sources.

George E. Mueller, NASA engineer, believed in the importance of space exploration.

"The only question is whether this nation will prevail in space... or will we abandon the future to others," he once said, according to sources.