William Hayward Pickering
Encyclopedia
William Hayward Pickering ONZ
KBE
(24 December 1910 — 15 March 2004) was a New Zealand
born rocket scientist who headed Pasadena, California
's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(JPL) for 22 years, retiring in 1976. He was a senior NASA
luminary and pioneered the exploration of space.
, New Zealand
, Pickering attended Havelock
School, Marlborough
, and Wellington College
. After spending one year at Canterbury University College
he completed his bachelor's degree at the California Institute of Technology
and completed a PhD
in physics
in 1936. His specialty was in electrical engineering
and he concentrated on what is now telemetry
.
and Corporal
missiles under the aegis of the U.S. Army.
His group launched Explorer I
on a Jupiter-C
rocket from Cape Canaveral
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 3
and Pioneer
missions as well as the Ranger
and Surveyor
missions to the moon and the several Mariner
flybys of Venus and Mars.
Explorer III
discovered the radiation field round the earth that is now known as the Van Allen radiation belt
. Explorer 1 orbited for 10 years and was the forerunner of a number of successful JPL earth and deep-space satellite
s. William Hayward Pickering is not to be confused with William Henry Pickering
, an astronomer
from an earlier era.
At the time of his retirement as director, in 1976, the Voyager
missions were about to launch on tours of the outer planets and Viking 1
was on its way to land on Mars
.
Pickering's main attributes, beyond his scholarly achievements, were his team organisational and project management skills.
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.
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.
, William Hayward Pickering was selected along with cosmologist Beatrice Tinsley
to have their names bestowed on peaks in the Kepler Mountains of New Zealand's Fiordland National Park
. In December 2010 the New Zealand Geographic Board
officially gazetted Mount Pickering as an official New Zealand place name.
(RASNZ
) http://www.rasnz.org.nz/101117KeplerPeaks.htm
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.
Image:Mt Pickering Summit.jpg|Mount Pickering Summit, Kepler Mountains Fiordland National Park New Zealand.
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"...
KBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(24 December 1910 — 15 March 2004) was a New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
born rocket scientist who headed Pasadena, California
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet 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 headquartered in the city of Pasadena on the border of La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena...
(JPL) for 22 years, retiring in 1976. He was a senior NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
luminary and pioneered the exploration of space.
Early life
Born in WellingtonWellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Pickering attended Havelock
Havelock, New Zealand
Havelock 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, Marlborough
Marlborough, New Zealand
Marlborough 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 College
Wellington College (New Zealand)
Wellington College is a state secondary school for boys in Mount Victoria in Wellington, New Zealand.-History:Wellington College 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...
. After spending one year at Canterbury University College
University of Canterbury
The University of Canterbury , New Zealand's second-oldest university, operates its main campus in the suburb of Ilam in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand...
he completed his bachelor's degree at the California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
and completed a PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
in 1936. His specialty was in electrical engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
and he concentrated on what is now telemetry
Telemetry
Telemetry is a technology that allows measurements to be made at a distance, usually via radio wave transmission and reception of the information. The word is derived from Greek roots: tele = remote, and metron = measure...
.
JPL
As the Director of JPL, from 1954, Pickering was closely involved with management of the PrivatePrivate (missile)
The Private was the first U.S. step rocket, combining a Tiny Tim rocket and a 30AS-1000C JATO unit. Tsien Hsue-shen was the JPL section leader who directed research for the Private A....
and Corporal
MGM-5 Corporal
The MGM-5 Corporal missile was the first guided weapon authorized by the United States to carry a nuclear warhead.The first nuclear-authorized unguided rocket was the MGR-1 Honest John...
missiles under the aegis of the U.S. Army.
His group launched Explorer I
Explorer I
Explorer 1 was the first Earth satellite of the United States, launched as part of its participation in the International Geophysical Year...
on a Jupiter-C
Jupiter-C
The Jupiter-C was an American sounding rocket used for three sub-orbital spaceflights in 1956 and 1957 to test re-entry nosecones that were later to be deployed on the more advanced PGM-19 Jupiter mobile missile....
rocket from Cape Canaveral
Cape Canaveral
Cape Canaveral, from the Spanish Cabo Cañaveral, is a headland in Brevard County, Florida, United States, near the center of the state's Atlantic coast. Known as Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it lies east of Merritt Island, separated from it by the Banana River.It is part of a region known as the...
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 3
Explorer 3
Explorer 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 Pioneer
Pioneer 4
Pioneer 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 Ranger
Ranger program
The 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. The Ranger spacecraft were designed to take images of the lunar surface, returning those images until they were destroyed...
and Surveyor
Surveyor program
The 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...
missions to the moon and the several Mariner
Mariner program
The 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 from 1963 to 1973...
flybys of Venus and Mars.
Explorer III
Explorer 3
Explorer 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 belt
Van Allen radiation belt
The Van Allen radiation belt is a torus of energetic charged particles around Earth, which is held in place by Earth's magnetic field. It is believed that most of the particles that form the belts come from solar wind, and other particles by cosmic rays. It is named after its discoverer, James...
. Explorer 1 orbited for 10 years and was the forerunner of a number of successful JPL earth and deep-space satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. 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 Pickering
William Henry Pickering
William Henry Pickering was an American astronomer, brother of Edward Charles Pickering. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1883.-Work:...
, an astronomer
Astronomer
An 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 Voyager
Voyager program
The Voyager program is a U.S program that launched two unmanned space missions, 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 1
Viking 1
Viking 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 until May 19, 2010 held the record for the second longest Mars surface mission of 6 years and 116 days .- Mission :Following...
was on its way to land on Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
.
Pickering's main attributes, beyond his scholarly achievements, were his team organisational and project management skills.
Retirement
Bill Pickering, keen to support authentic science in his home country, was Patron of New Zealand's only school-based research group, the Nexus Research Group, from 1999 until his death in 2004.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 ObservatoryGifford Observatory
The 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.
Kepler Mountains Place Name
In 2009 to mark the International Year of AstronomyInternational Year of Astronomy
The International Year of Astronomy was a year-long celebration of astronomy that took place in 2009 to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the first recorded astronomical observations with a telescope by Galileo Galilei and the publication of Johannes Kepler's Astronomia nova in the 17th century...
, William Hayward Pickering was selected along with cosmologist Beatrice Tinsley
Beatrice Tinsley
Beatrice Muriel Hill Tinsley was a New Zealand astronomer and cosmologist whose research made fundamental contributions to the astronomical understanding of how galaxies evolve with time.-Life:...
to have their names bestowed on peaks in the Kepler Mountains of New Zealand's Fiordland National Park
Fiordland National Park
Fiordland National Park occupies the southwest corner of the South Island of New Zealand. It is the largest of the 14 national parks in New Zealand, with an area of 12,500 km², and a major part of the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage site...
. In December 2010 the New Zealand Geographic Board
New Zealand Geographic Board
The New Zealand Geographic Board is constituted under the New Zealand Geographic Board Act 2008, formerly under the New Zealand Geographic Board Act 1946. Although an independent institution, it is responsible to the Minister for Land Information...
officially gazetted Mount Pickering as an official New Zealand place name.
(RASNZ
Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand
The Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand is the New Zealand national astronomical society. It is an association of professional and amateur astronomers with the prime objective to the promotion and extension of knowledge of astronomy and related branches of science.- History :The society was...
) http://www.rasnz.org.nz/101117KeplerPeaks.htm
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 ScienceNational Medal of ScienceThe 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 FordGerald Rudolph "Jerry" 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 EmpireOrder of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1975 - Japan PrizeJapan Prizeis 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 :...
in 1994 - 2 June 2003 he became an honorary member of the Order of New ZealandOrder of New ZealandThe 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 (IPENZIPENZThe 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.
- Two roads in New Zealand have been named after Pickering. Sir William Pickering Drive in the Canterbury Technology Park in ChristchurchChristchurchChristchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
, and William Pickering Drive in AucklandAucklandThe Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
.
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.
Image:Mt Pickering Summit.jpg|Mount Pickering Summit, Kepler Mountains Fiordland National Park New Zealand.