A scientific hero
William Pickering, the director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory died Monday at his home in Pasadena. He was the director of JPL during the bulk of the space race and his work in telemetry put us on the moon and other planets. The full LA Times story is a good one.
The contributions over his career are many and NASA would not have landed their recent missions on Mars had Dr. Pickering not put us there first, 40 years ago.
So, on this St. Patrick's day, raise a toast to Dr. Pickering and to everyone out there exploring places we've never been before.