William Hayward Pickering ONZThe Order of New Zealand is the highest honour in New Zealand's honours system, created "to recognise outstanding service to the Crown and people of New Zealand in a civil or military capacity"...
KBEThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
(24 December 1910 — 15 March 2004) was a
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
born rocket scientist who headed
Pasadena, CaliforniaPasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States; and is a satellite city of Los Angeles. Famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and the Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home of many leading scientific and cultural institutions, including the...
's
Jet Propulsion LaboratoryJet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The facility is situated in the northern portion of Pasadena...
(JPL) for 22 years, retiring in 1976. He was a senior
NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
luminary and pioneered the exploration of space.
Born in
WellingtonWellington is the capital of New Zealand, at the southwestern tip of the North Island between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range. The Wellington urban area is the major population centre of the southern North Island and is New Zealand's third most populous urban area with residents. There are ...
,
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
, Pickering attended
HavelockHavelock is a coastal village in the Marlborough region of New Zealand. It sits at the head of Pelorus Sound, one of the Marlborough Sounds. The population was 486 in the 2006 Census, an increase of 12 from 2001....
School,
MarlboroughMarlborough is one of the regions of New Zealand, located in the northeast of the South Island. Marlborough is a unitary authority, both a region and a district, and its council is located at Blenheim. Marlborough is known for its dry climate, the picturesque Marlborough Sounds, and Sauvignon blanc...
, and
Wellington CollegeWellington College is a secondary school in Mount Victoria in Wellington, New Zealand.-History:It opened in 1867 as Wellington Grammar School in Woodward Street, though Sir George Grey gave the school a deed of endowment in 1853. In 1874 it opened at its present location...
. After spending one year at
Canterbury University CollegeThe University of Canterbury , New Zealand's second-oldest university, operates in the suburb of Ilam in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand...
he completed his bachelor's degree at the
California Institute of TechnologyThe California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. The Institute maintains a strong emphasis on the natural sciences and engineering, and operates and manages NASA's neighboring Jet Propulsion Laboratory...
and completed a
PhDPHD may refer to:* Parisada Hindu Dharma, an Indonesian reform organization* PHD, a track on The Crystal Method album Tweekend* PHD finger, a protein sequence* PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company...
in
physicsPhysics is a natural science; it is the study of matter and its motion through spacetime and all that derives from these, such as energy and force...
in 1936.
William Hayward Pickering ONZThe Order of New Zealand is the highest honour in New Zealand's honours system, created "to recognise outstanding service to the Crown and people of New Zealand in a civil or military capacity"...
KBEThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
(24 December 1910 — 15 March 2004) was a
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
born rocket scientist who headed
Pasadena, CaliforniaPasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States; and is a satellite city of Los Angeles. Famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and the Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home of many leading scientific and cultural institutions, including the...
's
Jet Propulsion LaboratoryJet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The facility is situated in the northern portion of Pasadena...
(JPL) for 22 years, retiring in 1976. He was a senior
NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
luminary and pioneered the exploration of space.
Early life
Born in
WellingtonWellington is the capital of New Zealand, at the southwestern tip of the North Island between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range. The Wellington urban area is the major population centre of the southern North Island and is New Zealand's third most populous urban area with residents. There are ...
,
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
, Pickering attended
HavelockHavelock is a coastal village in the Marlborough region of New Zealand. It sits at the head of Pelorus Sound, one of the Marlborough Sounds. The population was 486 in the 2006 Census, an increase of 12 from 2001....
School,
MarlboroughMarlborough is one of the regions of New Zealand, located in the northeast of the South Island. Marlborough is a unitary authority, both a region and a district, and its council is located at Blenheim. Marlborough is known for its dry climate, the picturesque Marlborough Sounds, and Sauvignon blanc...
, and
Wellington CollegeWellington College is a secondary school in Mount Victoria in Wellington, New Zealand.-History:It opened in 1867 as Wellington Grammar School in Woodward Street, though Sir George Grey gave the school a deed of endowment in 1853. In 1874 it opened at its present location...
. After spending one year at
Canterbury University CollegeThe University of Canterbury , New Zealand's second-oldest university, operates in the suburb of Ilam in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand...
he completed his bachelor's degree at the
California Institute of TechnologyThe California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. The Institute maintains a strong emphasis on the natural sciences and engineering, and operates and manages NASA's neighboring Jet Propulsion Laboratory...
and completed a
PhDPHD may refer to:* Parisada Hindu Dharma, an Indonesian reform organization* PHD, a track on The Crystal Method album Tweekend* PHD finger, a protein sequence* PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company...
in
physicsPhysics is a natural science; it is the study of matter and its motion through spacetime and all that derives from these, such as energy and force...
in 1936. His specialty was in
electrical engineeringElectrical engineering, sometimes referred to as electrical and electronic engineering, is a field of engineering that deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after...
and he concentrated on what is now
telemetryTelemetry is a technology that allows remote measurement and reporting of information. The word is derived from Greek roots tele = remote, and metron = measure. Systems that need external instructions and data to operate require the counterpart of telemetry, telecommand.Although the term commonly...
.
JPL
As the Director of JPL, from 1954, Pickering was closely involved with management of the Private and
CorporalThe American-made MGM-5 Corporal missile was the first Guided Weapon authorised by the US to carry a nuclear warhead. A surface-to-surface guided missile, the Corporal could deliver either a nuclear fission or high-explosive warhead up to a range of ....
missiles under the aegis of the U.S. Army.
His group launched
Explorer IExplorer 1 was the first Earth satellite of the United States, launched on February 1, 1958 at 03:48 UTC from LC-26 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as part of the United States program for the International Geophysical Year and in response to the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1...
on a
Jupiter-CThe Jupiter-C was a type of sounding rocket used for three sub-orbital spaceflights conducted in 1956 and 1957. It was designed by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency , and all three flights were launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station....
rocket from
Cape CanaveralCape Canaveral, from the Spanish Cabo Cañaveral, is a headland in Brevard County, Florida, United States, near the center of that state's Atlantic coast 45 minutes East of Orlando by car. Known as Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it sits due east of Merritt Island, separated from it by the Banana...
on 31 January 1958 less than four months after the Russians had launched Sputnik (much to the surprise of the Americans).
In 1958 the lab's projects were transferred to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Pickering's team concentrated on NASA's unmanned space-flight program. JPL, under Pickering's direction flew further
Explorer 3Explorer 3 was an artificial satellite of the Earth, nearly identical to the first United States artificial satellite Explorer 1 in its design and mission...
and
PioneerPioneer 4 was a spin-stabilized spacecraft launched as part of the Pioneer program on a lunar flyby trajectory and into a heliocentric orbit making it the first U.S. probe to escape from the Earth's gravity. It carried a payload similar to Pioneer 3: a lunar radiation environment experiment using a...
missions as well as the
RangerThe Ranger program was a series of unmanned space missions by the United States in the 1960s whose objective was to obtain the first close-up images of the surface of the Moon...
and
SurveyorThe Surveyor Program was a NASA program that, from 1966 through 1968, sent seven robotic spacecraft to the surface of the Moon. Its primary goal was to demonstrate the feasibility of soft landings on the Moon. The program was implemented by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to prepare for the...
missions to the moon and the several
MarinerThe Mariner program was a program conducted by the American space agency NASA that launched a series of robotic interplanetary probes designed to investigate Mars, Venus and Mercury...
flybys of Venus and Mars.
Explorer IIIExplorer 3 was an artificial satellite of the Earth, nearly identical to the first United States artificial satellite Explorer 1 in its design and mission...
discovered the radiation field round the earth that is now known as the
Van Allen radiation beltThe Van Allen radiation belt is a torus of energetic charged particles around Earth, which is held in place by Earth's magnetic field. This field is not uniformly distributed around the Earth. On the sunward side, it is compressed because of the solar wind, while on the other side it is elongated...
. Explorer 1 orbited for 10 years and was the forerunner of a number of successful JPL earth and deep-space
satelliteIn the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
s. William Hayward Pickering is not to be confused with
William Henry PickeringWilliam Henry Pickering was an American astronomer, brother of Edward Charles Pickering.-Work:...
, an
astronomerAn astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars, and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
from an earlier era.
At the time of his retirement as director, in 1976, the
VoyagerThe Voyager program is a series of U.S. unmanned space missions that consists of a pair of unmanned scientific probes, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment of the late 1970s...
missions were about to launch on tours of the outer planets and
Viking 1Viking 1 was the first of two spacecraft sent to Mars as part of NASA's Viking program. It was the first spacecraft to successfully land on Mars and perform its mission, and holds the record for the longest Mars surface mission of 6 years and 116 days .- Mission :Following launch using a...
was on its way to land on
MarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. It is also referred to as the "Red Planet" because of its reddish appearance, due to iron oxide prevalent on its surface....
.
Pickering's main attributes, beyond his scholarly achievements, were his team organisational and project management skills.
Retirement
Between 1977 and his death in 2004, Pickering also served as Patron of the New Zealand Spaceflight Association; a non-profit organisation which exists to promote an informed approach to astronautics and related sciences.
Gifford Observatory
Dr. Pickering re-opened the
Gifford ObservatoryThe Gifford Observatory is an astronomical observation facility located in Mount Victoria, Wellington, New Zealand. Operated by the Gifford Observatory Trust with the intent of making it available for use to Wellington school children, it is primarily used by secondary school students, and members...
as the guest of honour, on 25 March 2002. He had been a frequent user of the observatory during his school days in Wellington College.
Honours
- IEEE Edison Medal in 1972, For contributions to telecommunications, rocket guidance and spacecraft control, and for inspiring leadership in unmanned exploration of the solar system.
- National Medal of Science
The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and...
in 1975 awarded by President Gerald FordGerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
- Honorary (because of his American citizenship) Knight Commander in the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1975
- Japan Prize
The Japan Prize is awarded to people from all parts of the world whose "original and outstanding achievements in science and technology are recognized as having advanced the frontiers of knowledge and served the cause of peace and prosperity for mankind."- Explanation :It is presented by The...
in 1994
- 2 June 2003 he became an honorary member of the Order of New Zealand
The Order of New Zealand is the highest honour in New Zealand's honours system, created "to recognise outstanding service to the Crown and people of New Zealand in a civil or military capacity"...
.
- 1965 The Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ
The Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand is a not-for-profit professional body representing the engineering profession in New Zealand...
) Honorary Fellowship
- Mr. Pickering is one of the few non-politicians to have appeared on the cover of Time twice.
Image:191089main Mariner Kennedy full.jpg|Pickering and Kennedy with a model of the Mariner spacecraft
Image:Van_Allen_Explorer_1.jpg|Pickering, Van Allen & Von Braun at NASA news conference.
Image:GiffordObservatory04p1024.jpg|Observatory Mural showing Sir William Pickering.
External links