Name Vaino Vehko Role Developer | Died August 17, 1999 | |
Vaino Jack Vehko, (1918 Detroit, Michigan – 17 August 1999 Austin, Texas) was the son of James Vehko (aka Jalmari Vehkomäki) of Kolho, Finland.
He spent his entire career with Chrysler Corporation developing aircraft engines, guided missiles and booster rockets. In 1952 he joined Chrysler Missile Division as head of engineering for the Redstone and then the Jupiter missile systems. In 1960 he became Director of Engineering on the Saturn S1 and S1B booster rocket program at Chrysler Space Division's Michoud operation in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The Saturn I was the United States' first heavy lift launch vehicle. It had ten successful flights, including four Apollo boilerplate flights and three Pegasus micrometeoroid satellites. The Saturn I-B boosters successfully launched four unmanned and five manned Apollo missions. They were the forerunners of the Saturn-V that launched the NASA Apollo moon missions. Vehko retired as General Manager of the Chrysler Space Division in 1976.
He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1940, and a M.S. degree in Automotive Engineering from Chrysler Institute of Engineering, Highland Park, Michigan in 1942. After World War II he worked with recently arrived German rocket designers led by Wernher von Braun in Huntsville, Alabama.
He married Hilda Scherer in 1941, with whom he had four children.