Jesco von Puttkamer

Born

1933-09-22

Died

2012-12-27

Birthplace

Leipzig, Germany

Biography

Jesco Hans Heinrich Max Freiherr von Puttkamer was a German-American aerospace engineer, senior manager at NASA, and a pulp science fiction writer. In 1962, Puttkamer left West Germany for the United States, where he was recruited into Wernher von Braun's rocket team at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. He was a senior engineer on the Apollo program. His supervisor at Marshall was Ernst Geissler. Puttkammer was a consultant and technical advisor for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), contributing the hypothetical theory behind the faster-than-light space warp drive, and the wormhole effect featured in the film.