Alex McCool

Alexander A. McCool Jr. (10 December 1923 – 14 July 2020) was manager of the Space Shuttle Projects Office at the NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

After graduating from high school in Florida in 1942, he became a first class petty officer and machinist mate in the United States Navy.

He received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Southwestern Louisiana.

He earned a master's degree in fluid mechanics from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

As a charter member of the Marshall Space Flight Center, McCool was instrumental in the design of the propulsion systems for the Saturn launch vehicles that propelled Project Apollo to the Moon and directed project engineering for Skylab, the first space science laboratory.