Sigurd Arnold Sjoberg (September 2, 1919 — March 26, 2000) was the deputy director for the

Manned Spacecraft Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight in Houston, Texas (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in ...

from 1972 to 1979. Before his deputy director tenure, Sjoberg started his space career in 1942 with the

National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a United States federal agency that was founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved and its ...

. As a member of the

Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory Langley may refer to: People * Langley (surname), a common English surname, including a list of notable people with the name * Dawn Langley Simmons (1922–2000), English author and biographer * Langley Wakeman Collyer (1885–1947), one ...

until the end of the 1950s, Sjoberg worked in

aerodynamics Aerodynamics () is the study of the motion of atmosphere of Earth, air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dynamics and its subfield of gas dynamics, and is an ...

and primarily conducted research. For his flight operations career, Sjoberg joined the

Langley Research Center The Langley Research Center (LaRC or NASA Langley), located in Hampton, Virginia, near the Chesapeake Bay front of Langley Air Force Base, is the oldest of NASA's field centers. LaRC has focused primarily on aeronautical research but has also ...

and

Space Task Group The Space Task Group was a working group of NASA engineers created in 1958, tasked with managing America's human spaceflight programs. Headed by Robert Gilruth and based at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, it managed Project Me ...

in 1959. After four years at Langley, Sjoberg was the deputy director for the MSC's flight operations department throughout the remainder of the 1960s. He also was the flight operations department's director from 1969 to 1972. While at NASA, Sjoberg worked on

Project Mercury Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...

Project Gemini Project Gemini () was the second United States human spaceflight program to fly. Conducted after the first American crewed space program, Project Mercury, while the Apollo program was still in early development, Gemini was conceived in 1961 and ...

and

Project Apollo The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which Moon landing, landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo followed Project Mercury that put the first Americans in sp ...

before leaving NASA in 1979. During the 1970s, some awards that Sjoberg received include the

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, alongside the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by decision of the president of the United States to "any person recommended to the President ...

NASA Distinguished Service Medal The NASA Distinguished Service Medal is the highest award that can be bestowed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States. The medal may be presented to any member of the federal government, including both milita ...

and

Space Flight Award The Space Flight Award is an award given by the American Astronautical Society most years since 1955. It is presented to "the person whose outstanding efforts and achievements have contributed most significantly to the advancement of space flight an ...

. He also became a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

and Fellow of the

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecra ...

Early life and education

On September 2, 1919, Sjoberg was born in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. Growing up, he lived with his two siblings and Swedish parents. For his post secondary education, Sjoberg graduated with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

in 1942 and specialized in

aeronautical engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

Career

NACA

After completing his studies, Sjoberg started his career with the

in 1942 when he worked in

. As part of their

, Sjoberg focused on aircraft stabilizers during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in the Flight Research Division. In 1946, Sjoberg started a decade long position at Langley as a Research Scientist. Throughout the remainder of the 1950s, Sjoberg worked in Langley as their Airborne Analysis lead. Outside of Langley, Sjoberg briefly worked for the

Douglas Aircraft Company The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and military, defense company based in Southern California. Founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas Sr., it merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell D ...

during the mid 1940s in aerodynamics. As part of the NACA High Speed Flight Station, Sjoberg focused on several

x-planes The X-planes are a series of experimental United States aircraft and rockets, used to test and evaluate new technologies and aerodynamic concepts. They have an X designator within the United States Department of Defense aerospace vehicle desig ...

Bell Aircraft The Bell Aircraft Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer, a builder of several types of fighter aircraft for World War II but most famous for the Bell X-1, the first supersonic aircraft, and for the development and production of many i ...

and the Douglas D-558 until the end of the 1940s.

NASA

For his

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

career, Sjoberg joined the

in 1959. With the task group, Sjoberg worked on

until the early 1960s. During this time period, Sjoberg began his thirteen-year flight operations experience when he joined the

in 1959. After completing his four-year coordinator tenure at Langley, Sjoberg started out as an assistant for the

in 1962. While at the flight operations department for the MSC, Sjoberg was their deputy director from 1963 to 1969 before becoming their flight operations director at the end of 1969. During his tenure, Sjoberg was part of the operations team when the

Apollo 13 Apollo 13 (April 1117, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo program, Apollo space program and would have been the third Moon landing. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the landing was abort ...

accident occurred in 1970. By 1972, Sjoberg had worked on

and multiple spaceflights of

. That year, Sjoberg became the deputy director for the MSC and took over Christopher C. Kraft Jr.'s position. In 1973, the Manned Spacecraft Center was renamed to the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. While

Skylab Skylab was the United States' first space station, launched by NASA, occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974. It was operated by three trios of astronaut crews: Skylab 2, Skylab 3, and Skylab 4. Skylab was constructe ...

and the Apollo Soyuz Test Project were undergoing throughout the 1970s, Sjoberg continued to be part of Project Apollo. Sjoberg remained as deputy director until he ended his NASA career in 1979. That year, Sjoberg became the director of OAO Corporation for their Houston branch.

Awards and honors

President Nixon visits the Manned Spaceflight Center to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the Apollo 13 Mission Operations Team

From NASA, Sjoberg received the

NASA Exceptional Service Medal The NASA Exceptional Service Medal is an award granted to U.S. government employees for significant sustained performance characterized by unusual initiative or creative ability that clearly demonstrates substantial improvement in engineering, a ...

in 1969. He was also presented with the

in 1971. In April 1970, Sjoberg and the MSC were awarded the

. From the University of Minnesota, Sjoberg received the Outstanding Achievement Award in 1973. From the

American Astronautical Society Formed in 1954, the American Astronautical Society (AAS) is an independent scientific and technical group in the United States dedicated to the advancement of space science and space exploration. AAS supports NASA The National Aeronau ...

, Sjoberg received the

in 1976 and the William Randolph Lovelace II Award in 1977. He also became a fellow for the American Astronautical Society. Outside of the AAS, Sjoberg was named to the

in 1974. He was selected to be a Fellow of the

in 1976.

Personal life and death

Sjoberg was married and had three children. His death occurred at

Clear Lake, Texas Clear Lake is a populated place located in Collin County, Texas, United States. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had a population of 50 in 1990. It is located within the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. History A distillery was ...

during March 26, 2000.Truly 2014, p. 296

References

{{reflist 1919 births 2000 deaths Langley Research Center Johnson Space Center Project Mercury Project Gemini Apollo 13 Recipients of the NASA Distinguished Service Medal Recipients of the NASA Exceptional Service Medal Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Fellows of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering