William H. Pickering: America's Deep Space Pioneer

Sie sind hier: Homepage > Suche

William H. Pickering: America's Deep Space Pioneer

D. J. Mudgway

William Pickering first came to the attention of the world in January 1958 when the media triumphantly announced the successful launch of Explorer 1, the American response to the Soviet deployment a few months earlier of the first Earth-orbiting satellite Sputnik. Along with Wernher von Braun and James Van Allen, William Pickering shared the limelight and the accolades. In that instant of time the Space Age was born and with it the professional reputation of William H. Pickering. Under Pickering's leadership, JPL designed, built, and dispatched NASA's first Ranger spacecraft to take close-up pictures of the surface of the Moon. Building on its Ranger experience, JPL sent the first spacecraft to Venus and, as technology improved, to Mars. The scientific data returns from each successive mission greatly increased our understanding of the composition and dynamics of the solar system and its planets. When he retired as Director in 1976, Pickering had presided over NASA-JPL's missions to the Moon, Venus, and Mars and laid the basis for the fabulous Voyager Grand Tour of all the planets that would sound the praises of NASA-JPL for the next 25 years. Not all of the missions were successful, but Pickering accepted the responsibility that devolved from his position as Director, regardless of the outcome.