{{Short description|American engineer (1929–2025)}} {{About|the NASA engineer|the Idaho politician|Robert E. Smylie}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox engineer | honorific_prefix = | name = Ed Smylie | honorific_suffix = | image = Ed Smylie in 2011.webp | image_size = 300px | alt = | caption = | native_name_lang = | citizenship = | birth_name = Robert Edwin Smylie | birth_date = {{Birth date|1929|12|25}} | birth_place = Lincoln County, Mississippi, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|2025|04|21|1929|12|25}} | death_place = Crossville, Tennessee, U.S. | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | education = | alma_mater = Mississippi State University | parents = | children = | discipline = | institutions = | employer = | significant_projects = | significant_design = | awards =Presidential Medal of Freedom | signature = | signature_alt = | website = }}
'''Robert Edwin Smylie''' (December 25, 1929 – April 21, 2025) was an American engineer and NASA official. In 1970, he oversaw NASA's Crew Systems Division and led the team of engineers that saved the crew of Apollo 13.<ref name="NYT Obit">{{Cite news |last=Rosenwald |first=Michael S. |date=May 16, 2025 |title=Ed Smylie, Who Saved the Apollo 13 Crew With Duct Tape, Dies at 95 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/science/space/ed-smylie-dead.html?searchResultPosition=1 |access-date=2025-05-17 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> In 2014, ''Time'' magazine called Smylie "an improvisational genius".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kluger |first=Jeffrey |date=March 15, 2014 |title=Farewell to a Cosmic Mr. Fix-It |url=https://time.com/26241/farewell-to-a-cosmic-mr-fix-it/ |access-date=2025-05-17 |work=TIME}}</ref>
==Early life== Ed Smylie was born on his grandfather’s farm in Lincoln County, Mississippi. He graduated from Mississippi State University in 1952 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, served in the Navy, and then returned to the university for a master’s degree in the same field. He worked for Douglas Aircraft on the DC-8 before joining NASA in 1962.
==NASA and Apollo 13== In April 1970, during the infamous Apollo 13 mission, when an oxygen tank exploded and disabled the main module, he and a team of engineers used duct tape as the solution to the lunar module’s scrubbing system, which was starting to lose capacity to provide breathable air for the astronauts.<ref>{{Cite web | date=April 25, 2025 | title=MSU remembers legacy of Apollo 13 legend, alumnus Ed Smylie|url=https://www.msstate.edu/newsroom/article/2025/04/msu-remembers-legacy-apollo-13-legend-alumnus-ed-smylie |website=msstate.edu}}</ref>
The mission operations team was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon, who named Smylie and his deputy, James Correale, in his remarks.<ref>{{Cite web | last=Nixon |first=Richard | date=April 18, 1970 |title=Remarks on Presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Apollo 13 Mission Operations Team in Houston. |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-presenting-the-presidential-medal-freedom-apollo-13-mission-operations-team |access-date=2025-05-17 |website=The American Presidency Project}}</ref>
Smylie later worked at NASA headquarters in Washington and served as the deputy director of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland under Robert S. Cooper from June 2, 1979 to January 31, 1980, when he was succeeded by A. Thomas Young. [[File:Apollo 13 Mailbox at Mission Control.jpg|thumb|Deke Slayton (checked jacket) shows the adapter devised by Smylie to make use of square Command Module lithium hydroxide canisters to remove excess carbon dioxide from the Apollo 13 Lunar Module cabin.]]
==Post-NASA== After retiring from the agency in 1983, he held executive positions at RCA, the Mitre Corporation, and the Grumman Corporation. He died on April 21, 2025, at the age of 95.<ref>Obituary from ‘’Washington Post’’, reprinted in ‘’The Post’’ of Wellington, New Zealand of 27 May 2025</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smylie, Ed}} Category:1929 births Category:2025 deaths Category:NASA people Category:American mechanical engineers Category:20th-century American engineers Category:People from Lincoln County, Mississippi Category:Engineers from Mississippi Category:Mississippi State University alumni Category:Deaths from dementia in Tennessee