Wednesday, March 17, 2004
William H Pickering
It was a dismal October Saturday in 1957 when the United States public learned that the Soviet Union had launched a grapefruit-sized satellite called Sputnik into orbit around the Earth, trumping U.S. efforts 10 years into the Cold War. Before that time, Pickering once said, the public had paid little attention to the nation's rudimentary space program. "The existence of the Sputnik was a great shock to the people of the United States," Pickering later recalled. "They suddenly realized that the Russians, who they thought of as peasants, had launched technology that was circling above them several times a day. That horrified people." ..."More than any other individual, Bill Pickering was responsible for America's success in exploring the planets," said former Caltech President Thomas E. Everhart. "Under his leadership and vision, the field of planetary science grew into a distinct and cohesive new discipline." ..."Dr. Pickering was one of the titans of our nation's space program," said the current JPL director, Charles Elachi. "It was his leadership that took America into space and opened up the moon and planets to the world." William H. Pickering ... died of pneumonia Monday at his home in La Caņada Flintridge.
So long and thanks for all the planets.
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