Oscar Carl Holderer, the last member of the German design team working under Dr. Wernher von Braun to create America's Saturn V moon rocket, has died in Huntsville, Ala., his family says.
Holderer, who died May 5 at the age of 95, was the last member of von Braun's original team, a group of German rocket engineers and scientists brought to the United States by the U.S. Army in a program known as "Operation Paperclip."
The group worked at the Army's Redstone Arsenal on ballistic missiles, starting with upgraded version of the German V-2 rocket of World War II and moving to ever-larger and more sophisticated designs, culminating in the Saturn V that took U.S. astronauts to the moon.
Holderer, who became an American citizen in 1955, was born in Preum, Germany, in 1919.
He worked with von Braun in the German rocket research program during the war, then joined von Braun and 120 other members of the program who were brought to the U.S. in 1945.
His main contribution to the moon program was in designing and building a supersonic wind tunnel used in the development of the Saturn rocket, a facility still in use today.
At the time of his death, Holderer held 19 patents.
He designed and built his own home in Huntsville, a home he lived in for 61 years.
After his retirement from NASA in 1974, Holderer designed many exhibits and devices at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, including a multiaxis trainer, a one-sixth gravity chair, and many interactive displays.
The center was the site of NASA's Space Camp program for students, and Holderer was inducted into the camp's Hall of Fame in 2008.
Holderer suffered a stroke earlier this month from which he did not recover, his son Michael Holderer said.
Holderer is survived by his wife, Jan Smith Dunlap Holderer, two sons, a stepson and stepdaughter.
