Science Mission Directorate
The Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Oral Histories include interviews with some of the nation’s top scientists as well as those who helped to shape the Agency’s role in space exploration. The interviewees shared their memories, anecdotes, and the details of NASA’s scientific exploration of our solar system and the universe, from the Voyager I space probe to the Cassini spacecraft and Mars exploration programs.
The NASA History Office gathers first-hand experiences through oral history interviews from a variety of individuals serving in the NASA and contractor work force, eliciting details of procedures, processes, methodologies, rationale, and background of operations.
Titles listed reflect the positions that the subject held while involved with the program.
| Name | Interview Date | Positions |
|---|---|---|
| Reta Beebe | 4/25/17 4/26/17 | Astronomer, Professor Emerita, New Mexico State University; Principal Investigator, NASA Planetary Data System (PDS) Atmospheres Node; Chair, Committee on Lunar and Planetary Exploration; Member, Space Studies Board, National Research Council; Researcher, Voyager, Galileo, and Cassini spacecraft mission data and Hubble Space Telescope, Jupiter/Saturn Observing Program |
| Linda Brown | 5/10/17 | Astronomer, ATMOS (Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy); Principal Scientist |
| Bonnie P. Dalton | 4/23/02 | Ames Research Center: Deputy Director, Science Directorate; Acting Chief, Life Sciences Division; Spacelab Life Science Payload Manager; Designer of test laboratories for Earth-based studies; Designer of reusable space-based laboratory equipment; Researcher/Investigator |
| Alphonso V. Diaz | 4/12/17 6/6/17 | Technical Management, Viking Project, GAS Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer; Program Manager, International Solar-Polar Mission (now Ulysses Mission); Manager, Galileo Program; Manager, Planetary Advanced Programs; Deputy Director, Solar System Exploration Division; Director, Strategic Plan and Programs for Space Station; Assistant Associate Administrator; Deputy Associate Administrator; Office of Space Science and Applications (OSSA); Deputy Associate Administrator, Space Science; Chief Engineer Goddard Space Flight Center Deputy Director and Center Director; NASA Headquarters Associate Administrator of Science |
| James L. Green | 4/11/17 6/7/17 | NASA Headquarters Director of the Planetary Science Division; NASA Chief Scientist |
| G. Scott Hubbard | 8/22/17 8/20/18 11/13/18 | Division Staff Scientist, Space Exploration Projects Office; NASA HQ Chief, Space Instrumentation and Studies; Branch Chief, Systems Engineering and Analysis Office, Centrifuge Facility Project Office (Space Station life science facility); Deputy Chief, Space Projects Division; Chief (acting), Space Projects Division; Mars Pathfinder Project Manager; Associate Director, Space Directorate; Deputy Director, Space Directorate; Founding Director, NASA Astrobiology Institute; Manager, Lunar Prospector Mission; Associate Director, Astrobiology and Space Programs; First Mars Program Director; Deputy Director for Research; NASA Ames Research Center Director |
| Donald E. Jennings | 6/9/17 | Engineer, Area of research: planetary infrared astronomy. Developed instruments to observe infrared spectra of the Sun, planets, Earth, stars. Co-Investigator and Instrument Scientist on Cassini/CIRS; Co-I on New Horizons; Principal Investigator on the Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA); Other Flight Missions: Voyager, STS-39, STS-62, EO-1, Lewis, OSIRIS-REx, Herschel/SPIRE, Canadian ACE, RRM3/CTI |
| Theodor Kostiuk | 8/16/17 | Space Scientist, Senior Research Scientist, Planetary Systems Laboratory, Solar System Exploration Division; Principal Investigator, instrument development and planetary investigation research, NASA Sensor Working Group; Chief Scientist, Exploration, Science Directorate; Discipline Scientist/Manager, Planetary Instrument Definition and Development Program; NASA Solar System Exploration Subcommittee; NASA Keck-IRTF, Management Operations Working Group. |
| Paul R. Mahaffy | 6/7/17 | Goddard Space Flight Center Director; Solar System Exploration Division, Research interests: Planetary science, especially chemical and isotopic composition of planetary atmospheres and comets; Advanced instrument development for organic and light isotope analysis in planetary targets; Analog studies for Martian and cometary materials including both laboratory and field work. |
| John C. Mather | 6/11/13 6/8/17 | Senior Astrophysicist, Observational Cosmology Laboratory; Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, 2006 |
| Lucy A. McFadden | 6/9/17 | Goddard Space Flight Center Director of Education and Public Outreach; Deep Impact and Dawn missions Lead; Higher Education and University Programs; Member of the science team for the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission; Member of an expedition of the Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET); Member of the fourth recovery expedition for Almahata Sitta meteorite in northern Sudan; Co-Investigator, Deep Impact and its extended mission EPOXI (Deep Impact Extended Investigation); Co-Investigator, Dawn mission to the asteroid 4 Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres; Vice-Chair of the American Astronomical Society’s Division of Planetary Sciences |
| Wendell Mendell | 9/20/17 | Planetary Scientist; Assistant Director for Exploration, Astromaterials Research & Exploration Science Directorate; Chief, Office for Lunar & Planetary Exploration for Constellation; Lunar science consultant to the Constellation Program; Manager, Constellation Program |
| David D. Morrison | 5/9/17 | Chief of the Space Science Division; Director of Space; Senior Scientist; Chief Scientist, Ames Planetary Defense research team; Chair, NASA Planetary Astronomy Committee; Chair, NASA Spaceguard Working Group; Chair, NASA Astrobiology Roadmap Working Group; Founding member of the multidisciplinary science of astrobiology; Drafted Original Charter and Cooperative Agreement notice for the competitive selection of the Institute teams for the NASA Astrobiology Institute; Leading role in defining the asteroid impact hazard, including chairing the congressionally mandated NASA Spaceguard Committee in 1991-92; Founding Director of the NASA Lunar Science Institute; Senior Scientist at SSERVI, NLSI successor Institute; Galileo Program Scientist; Interdisciplinary Scientist |
| Claire L. Parkinson | 6/26/08 6/1/09 | Goddard Space Flight Center: Climate scientist; Project Scientist, Aqua Earth-Observing Satellite |
| Nancy Grace Roman | 9/15/00 | NASA’s first Chief of Astronomy and Astrophysics; Chief of Astronomy and Relativity; Astronomer |
| Donna S. Shirley | 7/17/01 | Project Engineer, Mariner 10 and Cassini Projects; Manager, Automation and Robotics; Manager, JPL’s Space Station Program; Manager, Sojourner Rover Program; Manager, NASA Mars Exploration Program |
| Steven W. Squyres | 8/22/17 9/14/17 | Research Scientist, Areas of research: Robotic exploration of planetary surfaces, History of water on Mars, Geophysics and tectonics of icy satellites, Tectonics of Venus, Planetary gamma-ray and x-ray spectroscopy; NASA Research: Co-Investigator, Comet Penetrator/Lander, Comet Rendezvous/Asteroid Flyby Mission; Guest Investigator, Magellan Mission; Member, Imaging Science Team, Cassini Mission; Co-Investigator, Mars ’96 Mission; Co-Investigator, MARDI, Mars Polar Lander mission Gamma-Ray Spectrometer; Flight Investigation Team, Mars Odyssey Mission; Principal Investigator, APEX, Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander mission; Principal Investigator, Athena Rover Investigation, Mars Exploration Rover mission; Co-Investigator, HiRISE, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission; Co-Investigator, APXS, Mars Science Laboratory mission; Co-Investigator, SAM analytical instrument suite, Mars Science Laboratory mission; Crewmember, NEEMO 15 and 16, Aquarius habitat, Florida Keys; Chairmanships: Group chair, NASA Cassini Saturn Orbiter Review Panel; Chairman, MESUR Mission Science Definition Team; US Co-chair, US/Russian Mars Environment Implementation Team; Chairman, NASA Mars Science Working Group; Chairman, NASA Campaign Strategy Working Group for Prebiotic Chemistry in the Outer Solar System; Chairman, NASA Solar System Exploration Subcommittee; Chairman, NASA Space Science Advisory Committee; Chairman, National Research Council Planetary Decadal Survey; Chairman, NASA Advisory Council |
| Richard R. Vondrak | 6/8/17 | Laboratory Chief, Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics; Deputy Director, Lunar Exploration, Solar System Exploration Division; Director, Lunar Exploration, Solar System Exploration Division; Consulting Scientist, Lunar Exploration, Solar System Exploration Division; Emeritus Scientist, Lunar Exploration, Solar System Exploration Division; Director, Robotic Lunar Exploration Program, NASA Headquarters |
| Edward J. Weiler | 10/31/07 4/4/17 | Staff Scientist; Chief, Ultraviolet/Visible and Gravitational Astrophysics Division; Chief Scientist, Hubble Space Telescope; Director, Astronomical Search for Origins Program; Associate Administrator, Space Science Enterprise; Goddard Spaceflight Center Director; NASA Headquarters Associate Administrator, Science Mission Directorate |
| Laurel Wilkening | 11/15/01 | Head, Department of Planetary Sciences/ Director Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona; Vice Chairman, National Commission on Space; Advisory Committee on the Future of the U.S. Space Program (Augustine Committee); Member, Vice President Quayle’s Space Policy Advisory Board; Vice President, The Planetary Society’s Board of Directors; Chancellor, University of California Irvine |
The transcripts available on this site are created from audio-recorded oral history interviews. To preserve the integrity of the audio record, the transcripts are presented with limited revisions and thus reflect the candid conversational style of the oral history format. Brackets and ellipses indicate where the text has been annotated or edited for clarity. Any personal opinions expressed in the interviews should not be considered the official views or opinions of NASA, the NASA History Office, NASA historians, or staff members.
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