Winter 1997

MacNabb was renowned space pioneer

Byron MacNabb, a Rose-Hulman alumnus who helped launch the first American astronauts to orbit earth and directed flight testing of the world's first Atlas intercontinental ballistic missle, died Aug. 25 in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

MacNabb was a member of the class of 1932 and received an honorary master's degree from Rose-Hulman in 1963.

While working as a manager for General Dynamics Corp., MacNabb headed a team of engineers responsible for the Atlas boosters used to place the Mercury manned space capsules into Earth orbit. He directed launch operations for space flights involving astronauts John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Walter Schirra and Gordon Cooper.

MacNabb also directed programs that sent the first payloads to land on the moon, and conduct explorations of Mars and Venus. He also contributed to the development of the Atomic and Hydrogen bombs.

During his illustrious 30-year career, he was involved in over 200 launchings of American spacecraft and booster rockets.

His career began in aeronautics in the 1940s during service in the United States Navy. He received a Presidential Citation for development of the first anti-aircraft weapon used to defend American warships against suicide plane attacks. He also participated in the first firing of a ballistic missle from sea.

Between 1948 and 1955, he was involved in research and development work on the A-and H-bomb programs for Sandia and Cambridge corporations respectively. MacNabb was honored by the Atomic Energy Commission for his role in the H-Bomb Program.

In 1955, he was appointed by General Dynamics to be Operations Manager at the U.S. Air Force Missile Test Center, Cape Canaveral, Fla. He was responsible for the supervision and construction of all Atlas launch facilities, the Atlas flight test programs and launchings of Atlas rockets.

He later joined General Electric and served as manager of launch operations, special military programs, and manager of test operations and advanced interplanetary programs. MacNabb retired from GE in 1975.

MacNabb's father, Walter, was a 1904 graduate of Rose-Hulman.