Ike Rigell is a Marine Veteran of World War II. After honorably fighting for his country at the battles of Iwo Jima, Midway, Saipan, and Tinian, Ike went on to earn a degree from one of the top engineering schools in the country, Georgia Tech. After graduation, he went to work for the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA), which was later transferred to NASA in 1960. At NASA, Ike was an original member of the launch team at Cape Canaveral, FL. He was a member of the launch team for the Free World's first satellite, Explorer I (1958), the Free World's first man in space (1961), Chief Engineer and Deputy Director for all Apollo Space Program launches (12 men walked on the surface of the moon), Skylab, the United States first laboratory in space, and Director of Launch Operations for the Apollo-Soyuz launch in 1975 (a joint U.S. and Russian rendezvous in space). After his time at NASA, he worked for ten more years in the space program for United Technologies and retired as the Vice President of USBI, Florida Operations. Ike and his wife, Kathryn, live in Titusville, FL.