Eberhard Rees

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title: "Eberhard Rees" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1908-births", "1998-deaths", "people-from-tuttlingen-(district)", "early-spaceflight-scientists", "american-technology-writers", "german-people-of-world-war-ii", "german-rocket-scientists", "german-spaceflight-pioneers", "nasa-people", "directors-of-the-marshall-space-flight-center", "people-from-the-kingdom-of-württemberg", "university-of-stuttgart-alumni", "operation-paperclip", "engineers-from-baden-württemberg", "20th-century-american-scientists", "members-of-the-american-rocket-society", "20th-century-german-engineers"] description: "German-American aerospace engineer (1908-1998)" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eberhard_Rees" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary German-American aerospace engineer (1908-1998) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox scientist"]

Field	Value
name	Dr Eberhard Rees
image	Eberhard Rees.jpg
image_size	200px
caption	March 27, 1970, photo
birth_date
birth_place	Trossingen, Germany
death_date
death_place	DeLand, Florida, United States
field	Aerospace engineering
nationality	German
alma_mater	University of Stuttgart
Dresden Institute of Technology (1934)
work_institutions	1939-1945: HVP
1945-1960: ABMA
1960-1973: NASA
footnotes	Fellow of the American Rocket Society (1959)
::

| name = Dr Eberhard Rees | image = Eberhard Rees.jpg | image_size = 200px | caption = March 27, 1970, photo | birth_date = | birth_place = Trossingen, Germany | death_date = | death_place = DeLand, Florida, United States | field = Aerospace engineering | nationality = German | alma_mater = University of Stuttgart Dresden Institute of Technology (1934) | doctoral_advisor = | work_institutions = 1939-1945: HVP 1945-1960: ABMA 1960-1973: NASA | spouse = | children = | footnotes = Fellow of the American Rocket Society (1959) Eberhard Friedrich Michael Rees (April 28, 1908 – April 2, 1998) was a German-American (by becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States) rocketry pioneer and the second director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

Biography

Rees was born in Trossingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. After studying engineering at the University of Stuttgart, and graduating from the Dresden University of Technology in 1934 with his master's degree, he worked his way to become the assistant manager of a steel mill in Leipzig, Germany. Rees arrived at the Army Research Center Peenemünde in the spring of 1939 and managed V-2 rocket fabrication and assembly. He served as Wernher von Braun's deputy from World War II through the Apollo program.

Rees was in the first group of Operation Paperclip rocket scientists brought to the United States by the Army Ordnance Corps, arriving at Logan Field on October 2, 1945, and serving first at the Army Aberdeen Proving Grounds, then at Fort Bliss, in 1946 and in 1950, at the Redstone Arsenal. In August 1957, his team developed the ablative heat shield.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/VonBraunMuellerReesSA6.jpg" caption="SA-6 launch"] ::

After serving as Deputy Director of Development Operations for the Army Ballistic Missile Agency,

On March 1, 1970, Rees was appointed as the Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, in Huntsville, Alabama, as von Braun's handpicked successor, from which he managed the Skylab space station development and construction. He retired from NASA in 1973.

On April 2, 1998, Rees died in a DeLand, Florida, hospital at the age of 89.

References

References

1. Burkhart, Ford. (1998-04-04). "Eberhard Rees, Rocketry Pioneer, Dies at 89". [[The New York Times]].
2. "Dr. Eberhard Rees". Marshall Space Flight Center History Office.
3. Braun, Wernher von. (1985). "Space Travel: A History". [[Harper & Row]].
4. (2007-02-01). "Rees, Eberhard F. M. (1909-1998)". Daviddarling.info.
5. Ordway, Frederick I. III. (1979). "The Rocket Team". Thomas Y. Crowell.
6. York, New. (1998-04-05). "Eberhard Rees - Chicago Tribune". Articles.chicagotribune.com.
7. Wright, Mike. "Eberhard Rees Was Marshall's Second Center Director". Marshall Space Flight Center History Office.
8. Storey, Angela D. (1998-04-08). "Former Marshall Director Rees Dies". MSFC Public Affairs Office.
9. (2021). "Across the Airless Wilds: The Lunar Rover and the Triumph of the Final Moon Landings". Custom House.
10. (2001-07-22). "Space Flight Center directors". The Huntsville Times.
11. Burkey, Martin. (1998-04-03). "Rees turned rocket visions into reality". The Huntsville Times.

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