Dwight Pete G. Peterson

Dwight “Pete” G. Peterson retired as a Lieutenant Colonel from the United States Air Force (USAF) in 1986. He graduated with a Physics major from Cornell University in 1964 and entered the Air Force in 1965. Lieutenant Peterson was serving as a munitions officer in Vietnam when he was selected as one of 100 officers to serve in the USAF Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program, since canceled. He served as NASA Consumables Analyst, 1st Special Activity Squadron, NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, from 5 October 1967 to 13 August 1970. Pete defined the propellant requirements for the Apollo spacecraft service propulsion system, the lunar module descent propulsion system, and the lunar module ascent propulsion system. He used one of the first computer programming languages, Fortran IV, to program thrust, weight of vehicle, and distance traveled to yield accurate propellant budget requirements. His inciteful propellant analyses of all major propulsion systems for Project Apollo resulted in significant weight savings to the lunar module. Apollo Astronaut Colonel Frank Borman recognized his outstanding contribution to the success of Apollo 8, the first manned lunar flight orbiting the moon. In preparation for the first lunar landing, Apollo 11, he validated the calculated fuel budgets through simulations in June 1969 at Cape Canaveral with Neil Armstrong, “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins. The propellant budget had been calculated within specific probability of success and was tested when Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong took manual control of the lunar module to avoid craters on the lunar surface, consuming extra propellant. The entire Mission Control personnel breathed a sigh of relief when Neil Armstrong landed the Eagle with 24 seconds of propellant remaining. As part of the Apollo 13 Mission Operations Team, Captain Peterson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for the miraculous rescue and return to Earth of the three endangered astronauts.
After his time at NASA, Pete served on the Air Force Inspector General team in Germany and then under NATO in Turkey. He was the Minuteman Logistics Plans Program Manager at the Directorate of Special Weapons, San Antonio Air Logistics Center. A graduate of the Armed Forces Staff College, he was assigned to the Pentagon for six years on the US Air Staff and Joint Staff. Pete retired in 1986 as a Lieutenant Colonel and began working for Synergy, a defense contractor, until he retired as a principal of the company in 2000.
Pete is most proud of serving on the NASA Houston team that safely landed the first Americans on the moon. He considers it the honor of his lifetime.