George Edwin Mueller (/ˈmɪlər/; July 16, 1918 – October 12, 2015), was an American electrical engineer who was an associate administrator at NASA, heading the Office of Manned Space Flight from September 1963 until December 1969.

Hailed as one of NASA's "most brilliant and fearless managers",[1] he was instrumental in introducing the all-up testing philosophy for the Saturn V launch vehicle, which ensured the success of the Apollo program in landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth by the end of 1969.

[4][5] His mother, Ella Florence Bosch, a high school graduate, was from Belleville, Illinois, and had been a secretary, but she never worked after marriage.

His father, Edwin Mueller, was an electrician who began working as a boy and never went to high school, but later became superintendent of an electrical motor repair shop in St. Louis.

Mueller increasingly believed that to move up in the hierarchy of the Labs he would need a PhD, and he began working towards this goal on a part-time basis at Princeton University, getting up every morning at around 5 o'clock and driving to Princeton to take a couple of courses before driving back down to Holmdel to work all day at Bell Labs.

After returning from his sabbatical year to Ohio State, Mueller taught but was also retained as a part-time consultant to R-W.

This Laboratory soon merged with the mechanical group, and then Mueller became deputy leader of this larger research and development organization.

Encouraged by Webb, Mueller had studied the three centers, speaking with people he knew from his work at Ramo-Wooldridge.

"[8] In August 1963, Mueller invited each of his three field center directors to visit him and explained how his proposed changes would put Apollo back on schedule and solve problems with the Bureau of the Budget.

"[8] After some argument, von Braun accepted Mueller's proposals and reorganized MSFC, strengthening its capacity in running large projects.

Mueller's position was strengthened by directors at MSC, MSFC and LOC reporting directly to OMSF.

Mueller also reduced attendance at the Manned Space Flight Management Council to just himself and the Center directors.

Mueller wanted to use his "all-up testing" concept with each flight using the full number of live stages.

This approach had been used successfully on the Titan II and Minuteman programs but violated von Braun's engineering concepts.

In an interview Mueller acknowledged what would have happened if all-up testing had failed, "The whole Apollo program and my reputation would have gone down the drain".

[10] With this battle won, in November 1965, Mueller reorganized the Gemini and Apollo Program Offices, creating a five-box structure at HQ and field center.

The key part of the idea was that inside these "GEM boxes" (named from his initials), managers and engineers communicated directly with their functional counterparts in NASA HQ, bypassing the usual chain of command and bureaucracy.

Seamans (promoted in 1965 to deputy administrator) stated that Mueller "didn't sell; he dictated – and without his direction, Apollo would not have succeeded.

The presentations were nicknamed "pasteurized" as the tired managers' ability to absorb the detail was waning, and the charts were merely "past your eyes.

The Applications were extensive, involving a crewed lunar base, an Earth-orbiting space station, Apollo telescope, a Grand Tour of the Outer Solar System, and the original "Voyager program" of Mars Lander probes.

[14] Whether this is entirely true is debatable – Scott Pace propounded the view that, in such a complex system with so many stakeholders, "everyone was a Shuttle designer.

He also stated, as many others would do later, that "The shuttle ideally would be able to operate in a mode similar to that of a large commercial air transports and be compatible with the environment of major airports".

That combination—and ground support is a not insignificant part of a Shuttle cost—was a set of decisions that doomed low cost space transportation for that generation of vehicles.

The New York Times stated that 'informed sources' "alleged clashes with (Administrator) Thomas Paine over space priorities for '70s and disputes with subordinates; he has twice been passed over for deputy admr post".

After a short retirement, Mueller became the president of the International Academy of Astronautics, in addition to consulting and other volunteer work.

Yearning to return to full-time employment, he became the CEO of Kistler Aerospace in 1996 and remained with the company for a number of years.