John R. Casani

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

John R. Casani
B.S., 1955)
OccupationEngineer
OrganizationJet Propulsion Laboratory
Awards
(1974, 1981)

John R. Casani (born September 17, 1932) is an American engineer. He worked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he managed the Voyager, Galileo, Cassini and Prometheus projects.

Casani was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1989 for pioneering systems engineering of planetary spacecraft and for leadership of spacecraft engineering and science teams.

Early life

John R. Casani was born in

liberal arts major. During his sophomore year, he decided that the employment prospects for liberal arts majors were unpromising, and decided to join the United States Air Force. When his father objected, he decided instead to major in electrical engineering like his college roommate. The roommate eventually dropped out, but Casani received his Bachelor of Science degree in the discipline in 1955.[2]

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

After graduation Casani worked at the

Jupiter missile until the Sputnik crisis resulted in a change of priorities.[2]

From 1958 to 1959, Casani was a payload engineer working on

Mariner 7, and Casani received drawing and paintings of the Ghoul.[2]

Casani served as project manager for the Voyager program from 1975 to 1977, and then the Galileo from 1977 to 1988.[3] This project was troubled by multiple delays and changes in configuration due to uncertainty as to how it should be launched on its way to Jupiter, and delays caused by the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. It was finally launched by the Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1989, and reached Jupiter by a roundabout route in 1995.[5] It remained in orbit around Jupiter until 2003.[6] He became the Deputy Assistant Laboratory Director for Flight Projects in 1988,[7] and Assistant Laboratory Director for Flight Projects from in 1989. In 1994 he became Project Manager of the Cassini project.[3] He became Chief Engineer at JPL in 1994.[8]

Casani retired in 1999, but the retirement was a brief one; he was recalled two weeks later to work with the Johnson Space Center on a problem that could have caused the loss of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. He then headed up an internal JPL investigation of the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter, Mars Polar Lander and Deep Space 2 probes, and was project manager for Project Prometheus until its termination in 2005.[2]

Awards

Over a long career at the JPL, Casani received many awards, including the

University of Rome La Sapienza in 2000 for his work on Voyager, Galileo and Cassini.[12]

Notes

  1. ^ "Records created and collected by John R. Casani 1971-2012". ArchiveGrid. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "NASA's 50 Year Men and Women". NASA. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e "John R. Casani" (PDF). NASA. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
  4. ^ "Bonus for Scientists - Meteorite near lunar recorders". The Canberra Times. Vol. 46, no. 13, 124. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. May 15, 1972. p. 7. Retrieved October 30, 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ Evans, Ben (September 21, 2003). "The Galileo trials". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved October 29, 2020.
  6. ^ Bond, Peter (September 21, 2003). "Galileo spacecraft crashes into Jupiter". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
  7. ^ "Deputy Assistant Laboratory Director of Flight Projects Appointed". NASA. February 1, 1988. Retrieved October 29, 2020.
  8. ^ "Casani Appointed Chief Engineer". NASA. April 4, 1994. Retrieved October 29, 2020.
  9. ^ "NASA Awards Historic Recipient List" (PDF). NASA. Retrieved October 29, 2020.
  10. ^ "John R. Casani". National Academy of Engineering. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
  11. ^ "JPL's John Casani Honored by Air and Space Museum". NASA. April 30, 2009. Retrieved October 29, 2020.
  12. ^ "Casani Awarded Honorary Doctorate". NASA. May 31, 200. Retrieved October 29, 2020.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_R._Casani&oldid=1110889950"