Obituary: Sir William Pickering

By ARNOLD PICKMERE

One of New Zealand's most famous sons and scientists, Sir William H. Pickering, who spent his heyday directing United States deep space projects, has died aged 93.

The quiet, mild-mannered New Zealander was the man responsible for America's first satellite, launched amid the furore that followed the Soviet Union's achievement in having the Sputnik as the first satellite in space.

A director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Pasadena in California from 1954 to 1976, Sir William also led the Americans' unmanned deep space research amid speculation, continuing even today, over which planets might show signs of life.

Under his direction the laboratory was responsible for such achievements as scientific missions to the moon and planets - including Surveyor missions to the moon and Mariner missions to Venus, Mars and Mercury.

Although he visited New Zealand quite frequently - and remained a New Zealander to the ear as well as the eye - Sir William had lived in the United States since 1929 and became an American citizen in 1941. He married his American wife Muriel (Bowler) in 1932.

William Pickering was born in Wellington on Christmas Eve 1910, the son of Albert Pickering and Elizabeth (nee Hayward).

His mother died when he was four and he was sent to live with his paternal grandparents at Havelock in the Marlborough Sounds.

This sad coincidence meant that he went to Havelock Primary School, the same school attended by the "father of nuclear physics" Ernest Rutherford three decades earlier.

At Wellington College in the 1920s Sir William became interested in radio.

He was in a group of pupils in the college radio club that built equipment able to communicate via Morse code with places as far away as America.

One of his fellow pupils, who later became a teacher at the college, recalled in 1968 that "He didn't shine at all at mathematics or science. He wasn't even in the first quarter of the class. He had the ability, he just never cared very much."

Sir William was educated at Canterbury and Victoria universities. He was looking at doing postgraduate work in either Britain or the United States when an uncle then living in California persuaded him to study at the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech) which became famous for its aeronautics before the United States had a space programme.

As Sir William described it: "This is a privately run, very select institution with the highest standard and they admitted me as a student based on my work in Christchurch."

At the institute he gained degrees in physics and electrical engineering. After gaining his doctorate with honours at the age of 25 he accepted a teaching position there - few jobs were available in the 1930s Depression.

"I had no thought that this position would develop into space projects," he told an audience of 1500 people in the Christchurch Town Hall in 2003.

"At that time no one except a few wild-eyed science fiction fans had any idea that space exploration would happen."

Later he joined a team in India that was using high-altitude balloons to collect cosmic data.

In World War II he was appointed professor in charge of training courses and electronics.

But the move that really set his career in orbit was his appointment as director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Pasadena of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

In 1965, with a staff of 4000 and a budget of $200 million, he was responsible for unmanned satellites and space probes. This work helped put astronauts into space.

When Sir William visited New Zealand in 1965 Mariner was on its way through deep space to Mars, designed to carry out observations of the planet from 32,000km. He showed an Auckland audience photographs of the moon's surface taken by Ranger 7.

Sir William believed that achievements in space were an important indication of the technological standing of a nation.

He said the success of the Russian Sputnik (October 4, 1957) had caused a worldwide reaction in favour of Russia in many fields, including medicine.

The first Sputnik was about the size of a basketball and weighed 68kg. The second, on November 3, carried a much heavier payload and included a dog called Laika that died in space.

The United States had embarked on a space programme before the launching of the Russian satellite. But the first American-planned satellite, the Vanguard 1, a project managed by the Naval Research Laboratory, had a much smaller payload than the Russians'.

When the satellite's rocket fired on December 6, 1957, it rose a metre or so in the air before falling back in a ball of fire, live on TV.

Americans feared that the Soviets' ability to launch satellites could translate into nuclear-armed ballistic missiles aimed at America.

So it fell to the Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Explorer 1 satellite to rescue some reputation.

It was launched on January 31, 1958, and was, in Sir William's words, "obviously a very important moment. We were next and we were very successful. But it had been a very tense time".

Explorer 1 was also small, only 203cm (with the rocket) and with a diameter of 15cm. But along with Explorer 3, launched in March, its instruments provided evidence that the Earth is surrounded by intense bands of radiation, called the Van Allen belts after the Iowa State University professor who led the instrumentation team.

It has been described as the first big scientific discovery of the space age.

"That [first satellite] set the Americans on the way to the moon 11 years later, although at the time I thought the landing was about 20 years away," Sir William said later.

By 1965 his opinion was that it was only in manned flight that the Soviets had done better in space than the United States.

"But when we look at the entire programme we come out ahead. The United States then was putting heavier objects into orbit than the Russians, was ahead in its lunar programme and had made greater contributions in scientific knowledge."

William Pickering was in his laboratory when he heard of Apollo 11's moon mission triumph with Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin on July 20, 1969.

"It was a very significant moment but I should point out that we had put automatic machines, the Surveyors, on the moon a few years before. The photographs taken by the Surveyors showed that a spacecraft would not sink into a deep layer of dust as was once feared. Man could walk around on the moon.

"One of the later Apollo missions landed only 100 yards away from one of our unmanned spacecraft."

Sir William retired from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1976, having been created an honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire for "outstanding services to science" the year before.

In retirement Sir William was active advising various countries in scientific and space matters.

His American honours include Nasa's Distinguished Service Medal and the United States Army's Distinguished Civilian Service Award.

He was made an honorary member of the Order of New Zealand in June 2003.

He is survived by his second wife Inez and a son and daughter from his first marriage.

Sir William: in his own words

1965


Unmanned flight versus astronauts

"There is a place for both. Man, with his intelligence, is much more versatile than instrumented devices and can adapt to new situations more readily."

Visitors from outer space

It was "highly improbable" that beings from another world were sending observation craft to Earth. He was certain that practically all reports of flying saucers had a rational explanation. But this did not rule out the possibility of visits from other intelligent life in the universe.

1966


Mars travel prospects

Predicted that by 1985 men would have travelled to Mars, at least to its vicinity if not to its surface.

Life on Mars

Believed there was some form of life on Mars but it would probably be 10 years before it could be confirmed.

On space flight himself

"I'm a mildly adventurous man, but if I was younger I wouldn't be an astronaut.

"It's an interesting thought but I would be stopped by a pretty prosaic reason - I get airsick."

Russian spies

"Relations with our Russian colleagues are very good. I haven't run into much attempted spying. Though a few times when I have met Soviet scientists, they have been accompanied by unexplained 'officials' who sit in on our conversations. But they're very obvious and you quickly learn to spot them for what they are."

The shuttle programme

With room for seven passengers and crew the shuttle was a great advance in space travel. But it had also dominated the United States space programme to the detriment of other space research.

2000

Manned Mars mission

Would not be surprised if the first manned mission to Mars and back happened in the next 20 years. The technology to get there was available.

And beyond

"Travel outside our solar system remains outside the realm of possibility because of the enormous travel times."