Herbert Schaefer was born and educated in Berlin, Germany and worked in the fields of mechanical and aeronautical engineering. In 1912, his family fled to Madrid, Spain to avoid the war; only he and his mother returned to Berlin. After receiving his degree in mechanical engineering at Beuth Schule Higher Technical College, he immigrated to the United States in 1936. From 1937 to 1941, he worked as a design engineer for the Kollsman Instrument Corporation in Brooklyn, but was laid off because he was not yet a naturalized citizen. He returned to school at N.Y.U.’s Guggenheim School of Aeronautics, where he earned both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in aerospace engineering. In 1943, he rejoined the Kollsman Instrument Corp., this time as Head of the Component Department. He officially became a U.S. citizen in 1945, and married Celia Fernandez in Madrid in 1958. In 1959, he worked at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) as an aerospace engineer. He joined NASA and finalized his divorce in 1960, working on launching satellites at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), eventually becoming Chief of the Systems, Performance, and Analysis Office for the Centaur Program. From 1963 to 1965, he became the Contracting Officer Representative for the MOLAB (Mobile Laboratory) and the Mobility Test Articles (MTA) of the mobility systems of the MOLABs. In 1969, he transferred to NASA’s Headquarters, working in the Advanced Mission program and later the IUS Office, Expendable Launch Vehicles, and Upper Stages. In 1980, he retired and moved to San Diego, where he took up Chinese and Martial Arts.