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Kazimir J. Patelski, Jr. (1928-2003)
Kazimir "Casey" Patelski was born in Chicago on New Years Day, 1928. Near the end of his senior year in high school he contracted polio. After spending one year in the hospital and another year in rehabilitation, he was able to walk with a full leg brace. He then attended the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and in 1952 received a BS in Aeronautical Engineering. Because of the polio attack, he chose to pursue his aeronautical engineering career with Douglas Aircraft Company in California. He began his distinguished twenty-eight year aeronautical engineering career with propulsion design for airplanes, many models of which remain familiar -- DC-8, DC-9, B-66, C-124, and C-133.
As the “Cold War” was heating up, and with the possibility that it might turn “hot”, he was promoted to Group Design Leader for the Thor rocket propellant loading system. He spent two years installing the Thor launch system at RAF bases in England. Upon his return to the USA, he became Project Engineer coordinating the Delta rocket’s role in launching communication, scientific and weather satellites.
With President Kennedy’s decision to “land men on the moon”, he joined the Saturn Apollo program as Deputy Manager of System Engineering. In this position between 1965 and 1968 he established the requirements for design of various Saturn systems and use of S-IVB Rocket Tank as an orbital workshop. This S-IVB rocket tank eventually became Skylab. Later, as the Managing Director of Rocket Flight Control Operations at Mission Control in Houston, TX, his group designed the consoles and defined the required data to assess flight performance for all three stages of the Saturn rocket. The result was a set of detailed console manuals that, while difficult and complicated to set up, provided a problem solving system to assure a successful mission and to protect the lives of the astronauts. In later engineering terminology, these console control manuals were fault-tree structures of the Saturn moon rocket system.
Casey was involved in many of the missions in the Apollo program. As many of us remember, Apollo 13, in particular, became an unintended test of men and space systems when one of the oxygen tanks exploded two days after its liftoff on April 11, 1970. This mission, which was to have been the third lunar landing mission, demonstrated the fragility of the systems carrying men to our only natural satellite-- and also the ingenuity of the engineers and astronauts in coping with unforeseen circumstances. The explosion disabled the power and support systems in the Apollo command module, and the crew had to evacuate to the attached Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), using its cramped quarters-- designed for short-term occupancy for two men-- as a 'lifeboat' for the three-man crew. One of the immediate consequences was that the carbon-dioxide removal system in the LEM had to be beefed up for the longer stay and additional occupant. Casey's team developed a “fix” that made it possible to join the square command module carbon dioxide filter to the circular lunar module filter. That fix was tested on a mock-up at the space center and then relayed to the crew. Many other teams were organized, ad hoc, for the emergency, and the crippled spacecraft was successfully directed around the moon and back to earth, where it splashed down safely on April 17, four days later. Casey's team also managed to salvage a small amount of data from the mission, which was accomplished by crash-landing the spent third stage of the Apollo 13 rocket on the moon; this permitted checking seismic instrumentation left by Apollo 11 and 12. As the seismic instrumentation recorded the impact, Captain James Lovell, Apollo 13 commander, said “Well, at least something worked on this flight”.
While Apollo 13 did not meet all of its mission goals, Mr. Patelski’s minimum goals and responsibilities for Apollo 13 were met and satisfied, including the safe return of the crew. For their accomplishments on the Apollo 13 mission, he and the other Mission Control engineers received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Nixon in 1970.
With the Apollo moon missions completed, Casey was the lead engineer to design the crew systems for Skylab. He was also the Manager of the Skylab Mini-Mission Control room at the McDonnell Douglas facility in Huntington Beach, CA. The concept for Skylab was to use surplus Saturn rocket tanks as the building modules.
Following the conclusion of the moon landings and the Skylab program, Casey began working for the Fluor Corporation as vice president of engineering for Fluor Arabia. In that position he was responsible for the engineering and construction of refineries, petrochemical plants and power stations.
Twelve years after the conclusion of the space programs, McDonnell Douglas again required his space engineering expertise for the new GPS systems. For the last four years of his professional career, Mr. Patelski guided this program and America’s first commercial satellites.
Casey retired in 1980, and passed away on November 14, 2003, in Costa Mesa, Orange County, California, at the age of 75.
Patents and Publications
Casey was not credited with any patents, and we have found no refereed papers; however, he was author or co-author of many technical reports and presentations.
Personal
In addition to his engineering accomplishments, Mr. Patelski restored a red 1969 Camaro convertable. For this effort, he received many trophies in addition to the Gold Restoration Award from the Vintage Chevrolet Club of America.
Mr. Patelski is survived by his widow, one son, and one daughter.
 Mr. Patelski's lovingly restored antique Chevrolet Camaro.
Portion of the presidential citation awarded to the teams which supported Apollo 13.
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