Jesco von Puttkamer's carreer at NASA began in 1962 following an invitation by Wernher von Braun, spanning all of NASA's efforts to put humans into space: Apollo, Space Shuttle and, most recently, the ISS.

Von Puttkamer is also the author of some books on spaceflight, and he appears, as technical advisor, on the credit screen of 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture'.

Last month he was back in Germany, giving lectures at Aachen University of Applied Sciences. He promised to come back but sadly won't be able to. He died today (12/28) aged 79 after a brief illness.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/people/features/von_puttkamer_obit.html