Saunders Kramer passed away Monday in Washington, DC, after complications following heart surgery.

While at Lockheed Missiles and Space in the late 1950s, Kramer was among the earliest designers of crewed space stations. The patent he received for one of his designs in 1960 is thought to be the earliest such patent for a manned space outpost. At the same time he designed the first astro tug.

But Kramer’s larger legacy began after he left Lockheed many years later and became one of the most respected authorities on the Soviet space program in the unclassified world. As such, he gave more than 200 lectures on the topic, authored 24 papers and was quoted numerous times in Defense Daily, Space News and The New York Times. He was educated at Brooklyn Polytechnic, receiving a BS in physics and an MS in mathematics. He was a founding member of AAAS, a charter member of the Planetary Society and a fellow of the British Interplanetary Society.