Ernst Stuhlinger, 94; Space Program Pioneer

Ernst Stuhlinger, 94, who became a pioneering figure in the U.S. space program after coming to this country from Germany following World War II, died May 25 at his home in Huntsville, Ala.

During a long career in Europe and the United States, Dr. Stuhlinger received a PhD in physics, fought in the German army at Stalingrad, worked on the German rocket program under Wernher Von Braun and went on to play a significant role in the U.S. space program, again under Von Braun.

Ralph Petroff, a Huntsville friend and neighbor, said Dr. Stuhlinger died of "complications of old age."

Trained in physics rather than engineering, he was Von Braun's "chief scientist," said Petroff, who has been active in preserving aspects of the space program's history.

Petroff said Dr. Stuhlinger was one of the chief figures of "the golden age of space exploration" and a visionary who helped shape goals, missions and techniques.

Creative and original, "he was a great theoretician," said Petroff, but he also was an extremely practical man, who built a key piece of equipment in his garage that ensured the success of the first U.S. satellite, Explorer I.

Moreover, Petroff said, Dr. Stuhlinger "was enormously grateful to the United States" for his life here. Having seen firsthand the effects of the erosion of civil liberties in Nazi Germany, "he was more than delighted to live in a free society."

Fred Ordway, a veteran of the U.S. rocketry program, emphasized Dr. Stuhlinger's contributions to an important method of propelling spacecraft on interplanetary voyages.

Reducing weight is vital on such missions, and Dr. Stuhlinger's designs essentially eliminated the need to carry and burn large quantities of fuel. His designs in effect converted energy from the sunlight that streams through space into the motion of tiny charged particles that gave the craft the needed thrust.

"He was one of the practical fathers of ion propulsion" said Ordway, who served as a scientific and technical adviser to the 1968 science-fiction film "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Dr. Stuhlinger was the author of "Ion Propulsion for Space Flight" (1964).

As chief of science for Von Braun, Ordway said, Dr. Stuhlinger's role was to "assure maximum scientific input into the rocket systems" that were being developed.