Overview

Jack Albert Kinzler (January 9, 1920 – March 4, 2014) was an American technician, engineer and manager who became widely known at NASA as "Mr. Fix It." Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he rose to become chief of the Technical Services Center at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he led a small industrial group that designed and fabricated mission-specific hardware, tools and repairs for crewed flight.

Early skills and background

Kinzler combined hands-on shop skills with an ability to translate operational needs into simple, robust hardware. Trained as a toolmaker and skilled at welding, metalworking and rapid prototyping, he applied practical fabrication techniques to aerospace problems. Those capabilities made him especially valuable in an organization where flight hardware sometimes required quick, dependable fixes far from the factory floor.

Career at NASA and the Technical Services Center

At the Johnson Space Center, Kinzler supervised the Technical Services Center, a unit charged with producing one-off flight items, specialized tools and custom fixtures. The group worked closely with flight crews and engineers to develop hardware that met flight safety and reliability requirements while remaining simple enough for astronauts to use in space. Kinzler emphasized testing, clear procedures and conservative design.

Skylab rescue: the sunshade solution

His best-known achievement came during the Skylab program, when the orbital workshop was damaged at launch and lost thermal protection and a solar array. Kinzler led the development of a deployable sunshade — often described as a parasol-like or umbrella sunshield — that could be installed to restore thermal control and enable power recovery. That improvised hardware, rapidly designed and fabricated by his team, is credited with preserving Skylab for subsequent missions and earning him the NASA Distinguished Service Medal.

Approach, later work and legacy

Kinzler's approach emphasized simple mechanisms, field-repairability and careful documentation so that crew members could perform procedures under constrained conditions. Beyond Skylab, his group supported Apollo-era operations and later human spaceflight activities by producing mission-unique devices, training aids and test fixtures. He is remembered for illustrating the critical role of experienced craftsmen and small fabrication shops in complex aerospace programs.

Honors, death and archival sources

  • Recipient of the NASA Distinguished Service Medal for work on Skylab.
  • Long-serving chief of the Technical Services Center at the Johnson Space Center.

Jack Kinzler died of natural causes on March 4, 2014 in Taylor Lake Village, Texas, at age 94. Further information, oral histories and archival materials about his career and the Technical Services Center are available through institutional collections and curated resources; consult official agency pages and related repositories for primary documents and exhibits at official resources.