Biography of William H. Pickering, 1910-2004 On the first day of February 1958, three men held aloft a model of Explorer 1, America's first Earth satellite, for the press photographers. That image of William Pickering, Wernher von Braun, and James Van Allen became an icon for America's response to the Sputnik challenge. Von Braun and Van Allen were well known, but who was Pickering? From humble beginnings in a remote country town in New Zealand, Pickering came to California in 1928 and quickly established himself as an outstanding student at the then-new California Institute of Technology (Caltech). At Caltech, Pickering worked under the famous physicist Robert Millikan on cosmic-ray experiments, at that time a relatively new field of physics. In 1944, when Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) was developing rocket propulsion systems for the U.S. Army, Pickering joined the work-force as a technical manager. He quickly established himself as an outstanding leader, and 10 years later, Caltech named him Director of JPL. And then, suddenly, the world changed. In October 1957, the Sputnik satellite startled the world with its spectacular demonstration of Soviet supremacy in space. Pickering led an intense JPL effort that joined with the von Braun and Van Allen teams to answer the Soviet challenge. Eighty-three days later, on 31 January 1958, America's first satellite roared into Earth orbit. A few months after that, Pickering's decision to affiliate JPL with the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration set the basis for his subsequent career and the future of NASA's ambitious program for the exploration of the solar system. In the early days of the space program, failure followed failure as Pickering and his JPL team slowly ascended the learning curve. Eventually, however, NASA and JPL resolve paid off. First the Moon, then Venus, and then Mars yielded their scientific mysteries to JPL spacecraft of ever-increasing sophistication. Within its first decade, JPL-built spacecraft sent back the first close-up photographs of the lunar surface, while others journeyed far beyond the Moon to examine Venus and return the first close-up views of the surface of Mars. Later, even more complex space missions made successful soft-landings on the Moon and on Mars. Pickering's sudden death in March 2004 at the age of 93 was widely reported in the U.S. and overseas. As one NASA official eulogized him, His pioneering work formed the foundation upon which the current program for exploring our solar system was built. On this, the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Space Age, it is proper to remind ourselves of the ordinary people who met the extraordinary challenge to make it happen. (most of this is from the left inside flap of the dust jacket) r

NASA SP-4113. The NASA History Series. Provides a biography of Dr. William H. Pickering. The dust jacket states: "More than any other individual Bill Pickering was responsible for America's success in exploring the planets, an endeavor that demanded vision, courage, dedication, expertise, and the ability to inspire two generations of scientists and engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory," a quote from Thomas P. Everhart.

Mars was once similar to Earth, but today there are no rivers, no lakes, no oceans. Yet multiple spacecraft are circling Mars, sweeping over Terra Sabaea, Syrtis Major, the dunes of Elysium, and Mare Sirenum-- on the brink, perhaps, of a staggering find. Johnson tells the story of how she and other researchers have scoured Mars for signs of life. She interlaces her journey as a female scientist with tales of other seekers, to offer an unlikely natural history of a place where no human has ever set foot, while providing a vivid portrait of our quest to defy our isolation in the cosmos. -- adapted from jacket

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The collection consists primarily of correspondence, although memoranda, notes, pamphlets, copies of newspaper, magazine and journal articles, transcripts of speeches, press releases and photographs are also present. The collection is arranged in its original order, organized by numerical filing number. Each category can be considered a series or sub-series. These are: Lab Visits, including Congressional visits; Special Events; General Correspondence, including invitations and requests; Awards and Commendations; JPL Correspondence, including biographies, history, minority affairs and annual reports; Foreign Travel Logs; and Outgoing Correspondence Files. Each series or sub-series has been arranged in chronological order unless otherwise noted. The date span of the collection is 1955 to 1976, with bulk dates of 1964 to 1975. The earliest document in the collection is biographical information of Pickering dated 1955.

'Catchers of the Light' is a History of Astrophotography. It tells the true stories of the 46 pioneers who did most to master the art of celestial photography, as it was known during its early days; and whose efforts have made it possible for us to see the many magnificent pictures of the Universe featured in books, magazines and on the internet. In its TWO magnificent volumes is contained an unbelievable collection of tales of adventure, adversity and ultimate triumph and tells the uplifting stories of this small band of ordinary men and women, who did such extraordinary things; overcoming obstacles as diverse as war, poverty, cholera, death, very unfriendly cannibal natives and even exploding donkeys. It has been written with a no specific audience in mind - it is a book for anybody in fact - astronomers, photographers, historians, genealogists, art dealers, students, artists, doctors, farmers, builders, teachers & many more. If you like to read about the lives of special people - those who never give up - no matter what - and who succeed in achieving the seemingly impossible - then this is the book for you. This book of 1600 or so pages, with 1800 or more photographs/illustrations and over 2000 references/notes - represents the FIRST fully detailed and professionally researched book on the subject; and tells of the incredible lives of the pioneers of Astrophotography, each with their own incredible story to tell - they were the ‘Catchers of the Light’. Catchers of the Light is divided into ten Parts (I-X), each covering a specific aspect of the subject- I: Origins of Astrophotography; II: Lunar Astrophotography; III: Solar Astrophotography; IV: Solar System Astrophography; V: Deep Space Astrophotography; VI: Photographic Astronomical Spectroscopy; VII: Photographic Sky Surveys; VIII: Astrographs; IX: Modern Digital Age; X: Appendices. The following men and women are to be found in the pages of the book; who are the 'Catchers of the Light': Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre (1787-1851); Joseph Nicephore Niepce (1765-1833); Frederick Scott Archer (1814-1857); Richard Leach Maddox (1816-1902); John William Draper (1811-1882); Maurice Loewy (1833-1907); Pierre Henri Puiseux (1855-1928); William Henry Pickering (1858-1938); Armand Hippolyte Leon Fizeau (1819-1896); Jean Bernard Leon Foucault (1819-1868); Warren De La Rue (1815-1889); Pierre Jules Cesar Janssen (1824-1907); John Adams Whipple (1822-1891); William Usherwood (1821-1915); Pierre Paul Henry (1848-1905); Mathieu Prosper Henry (1849-1903); Maximillian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf (1863-1932); William Cranch Bond (1789-1859); George Phillips Bond (1825 -1865); Benjamin Apthorp Gould (1824-1896); Henry Draper (1837-1882); Isaac Roberts (1829-1904); William Edward Wilson (1851-1908); James Edward Keeler (1857-1900); Edward Emerson Barnard (1857-1923); Williamina Paton Strevens Fleming (1857-1911); Lewis Morris Rutherfurd (1816-1892); Father Pietro Angelo Secchi (1818-1878); William Huggins (1824-1910); Margaret Lindsay Murray (1848-1915); Edward Charles Pickering (1846 - 1919); Hermann Vogel (1841-1907); Wilhelm Oswald Lohse (1845-1915); Julius Scheiner (1858-1913); Edwin Powell Hubble (1889-1953); Milton Lasell Humason (1891-1972); Amedee Ernest Barthelemy Mouchez (1821-1892); David Gill (1843-1914); William Parsons (1800-1867); Andrew Ainslie Common (1841-1903); George Willis Ritchey (1864 1945); Henri Chretien (1879-1956); Bernhard Voldemar Schmidt (1879-1935); . Eugen von Gothard (1857-1909); Alfred Rordame (1862-1931); Marcel De Kerolyr (1873-1969). If you have seen or read ‘Longitude’ the story of John Harrison, the country carpenter who built the first clock that could accurately tell the time at sea, and who also made ‘Del Boy’ a ‘millionaire’, then you will love the ‘Catchers of the Light’.