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Dick Mittauer

Program Information, NASA

Dick Mittauer was a frequent NASA Headquarters presence at Kennedy Space Center during the 1960s and early 70s, particularly in conjunction with planetary launches.

Mittauer joined NASA in 1959 and served as program information manager for many scientific spacecraft ranging from Earth observers to lunar and planetary probes. He also served as deputy information manager for many of the Apollo missions.

In 1971, he was promoted to director of public information, the position he held at his death in 1973 from Hodgkins disease.

Mittauer graduated from Northwestern University after serving two years in the U.S. Navy and earned a master’s degree from its Medill School of Journalism in 1951.

He was a broadcast journalist at WOW in Omaha, Neb., and later the American Broadcasting Company, ABC, in Chicago. He came to Washington in 1954 as a congressional intern at the American Political Science Association.

From 1955 to 1959 he was press secretary for Sen. Roman L. Hruska, R-Neb.

Mittauer was awarded NASA Exceptional Service Medal for his work on the Mariner Mars Mission in 1971.