Fresh off watching NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) – the world’s first planetary defense technology demonstration – successfully impact its asteroid target earlier this week, Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, visited NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, Thursday, Sept. 29.
His visit included a talk called “Lessons in Leadership” and a stop at Langley’s newest facility, the Measurement Systems Laboratory, which opened in April. There, he learned about Langley’s research into using lidar for wind profiling and about early career activities with the future PolCube satellite instrument.
Following a lunch with early career employees, Dr. Zurbuchen traveled to Hampton University to learn about research at the Center for Atmospheric Sciences and meet with school President Gen. Darrell K. Williams.
Earlier this month, NASA Administrator Sen. Bill Nelson announced Dr. Zurbuchen will be leaving NASA at the end of 2022. Dr. Zurbuchen has been the head of science at NASA since 2016, during which time the agency landed the Perseverance rover on Mars, and successfully launched the Parker Solar Probe and James Webb Space Telescope. Dr. Zurbuchen was born in Switzerland and came to NASA from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he was a professor of space science and aerospace engineering.
