Jerry Elliott High Eagle, born in 1943 in Oklahoma City, was one of the first Native American employed at NASA. His contributions as lead retrofire officer during the Apollo 13 disaster earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Although facing racial discrimination from the professors at University of Oklahoma, he received a degree in physics, being one of the first Native Americans to achieve such an accomplishment. He joined NASA as a flight mission operations engineer in 1966. He was Program Staff Engineer during the Apollo-Soyuz Program.
He was the only Native American in mission control during Apollo 11's successful moon landing. He was lead Retrofire Officer during the Apollo 13. For his work on helping bring the astronauts home safely, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Richard Nixon.
His name "High Eagle" was given to him by tribal elders when he turned 41.
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