Jack Norval James (November 22, 1920 – August 7, 2001) was a US rocket engineer who worked for over 35 years at the

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...

, Pasadena, California, USA. His work as a Project Manager for NASA's

Mariner program The Mariner program was conducted by the American space agency NASA to explore other planets. Between 1962 and late 1973, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) designed and built 10 robotic interplanetary probes named Mariner to explore the in ...

in the 1960s included the first planetary flyby (of Venus) and first photographs by a space probe of Mars. He received commendations for his work from several US Presidents, and his awards include the

NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal The NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (abbrv. ESAM) was established by NASA on September 15, 1961, when the original ESM was divided into three separate awards. Under its guidelines, the ESAM is awarded for unusually significant scien ...

(1965) and the

Stuart Ballantine Medal {{Refimprove, date=February 2018 The Stuart Ballantine Medal was a science and engineering award presented by the Franklin Institute, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It was named after the US inventor Stuart Ballantine. Laureates *1947 - Ge ...

(1967).

Early life

Jack Norval James was born on November 22, 1920, in

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, Texas, growing up in

Oak Cliff Oak Cliff is an area of Dallas, Texas, United States that was formerly a separate town in Dallas County; established in 1887 and annexed by Dallas in 1903, Oak Cliff has retained a distinct neighborhood identity as one of Dallas' older establ ...

, Dallas, where he graduated from Sunset High School in 1937.
WorldCat summary
(retrieved 27 December 2012). He studied at the

Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...

, graduating in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

in 1942. Following apprentice work at the

General Electric Company The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and Arms industry, defence electronics, communications, and engineering. It was originally founded in 1886 as G. Binswanger and Company as an e ...

, and service as a naval radar maintenance officer in World War II, he studied for a master's in electrical engineering (1949) at

Union College Union College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York, United States. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the s ...

, Schenectady, New York. During this postwar period he also worked at the

Malta Test Station Hermes A-1 Rocket test at White Sands, New Mexico. The Hermes A-1 used engines tested in Malta Malta Test Station, located in Malta, New York, is a former US Army fuel and explosives testing facility. It was established in 1945 and used to test ro ...

, and made trips to the testing grounds at the

White Sands Missile Range White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established in 1941 as the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range, where the Trinity t ...

, New Mexico. He briefly worked for

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

, before transferring in 1950 to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, where he worked for the next 36 years.

JPL career

During his early years at the JPL, James worked on the

MGM-5 Corporal The MGM-5 Corporal missile was an American short-range, nuclear-armed tactical surface-to-surface ballistic missile. It was the first guided weapon authorized by the United States to carry a nuclear warhead. A guided tactical ballistic missile, ...

and

MGM-29 Sergeant The MGM-29 Sergeant was an American short-range, solid fuel, surface-to-surface missile developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The missiles were built by Sperry Utah Company. The Sergeant was the third and last in a series of JPL rockets for ...

guided missiles. As the work at the JPL changed from military rockets to spacecraft, he worked on the

Pioneer 4 Pioneer 4 was an American spin-stabilized uncrewed spacecraft launched as part of the Pioneer program on a lunar flyby trajectory and into a heliocentric orbit making it the first probe of the United States to escape from the Earth's gravity. ...

lunar probe and other missions. In 1961, he was named Project Manager of the Mariner Venus Project that led to the success of

Mariner 2 Mariner 2 (Mariner-Venus 1962), an American space probe to Venus, was the first robotic space probe to report successfully from a planetary encounter. The first successful spacecraft in the NASA Mariner program, it was a simplified version of t ...

which carried out the first ever

planetary flyby A planetary flyby is the act of sending a space probe past a planet or a dwarf planet close enough to record scientific data. This is a subset of the overall concept of a flyby in spaceflight. The first flyby of another planet with a functionin ...

, passing

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

on December 14, 1962. James was also Project Manager for the Mariner Mars Project that led to

Mariner 4 Mariner 4 (Mariner C-3, together with Mariner 3 known as Mariner-Mars 1964) was the Mariner program, fourth in a series of spacecraft intended for planetary exploration in a flyby mode. It was designed to conduct closeup scientific observations ...

's successful flyby of

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

on July 14, 1965. These were the first successful planetary encounters, and the first missions to return data from Venus and Mars. For his work on the Mariner program, James was presented with a public service award from NASA, and received awards from Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. His awards include the

(1965). The citation for this award stated that it was:

For outstanding accomplishment in the design, development and flight operation of Mariner II and Mariner IV.

James and his JPL colleague Robert J. Parks were presented with the

(Engineering) from the

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and a center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and wikt:statesman, statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin ...

in 1967 for their: "Application of electromagnetic communication to the first successful reconnaissance of Mars by the Mariner IV". He was elected a fellow of the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office ...

, and was a member of the

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecra ...

. In 1974, James was honoured with the Distinguished Alumni Award from his alma mater, the Southern Methodist University. By the time of his retirement on January 1, 1987, James had held several positions as an assistant laboratory director (ALD) at the JPL, including leading its technical divisions from 1967 to 1972.

Later life

James died aged 80 on August 7, 2001, in Pasadena. He had been living in La Cañada, and was survived by his wife, four children and two grandchildren. His autobiographical account of his life and the history of the space programs he worked on, ''In High Regard'', was privately published posthumously in 2006. In 2011, James was included in the Southern Methodist University's list of History Makers as part of their centennial celebrations.

References

External links

The First Planetary Explorers
includes a photograph and extracts from James's memoir ''In High Regard'' (The Daily Planet)
50th Anniversary: Mariner 2, The Venus Mission
, extensive account of the mission including quotes from James (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) {{DEFAULTSORT:James, Jack Norval 1920 births 2001 deaths American aerospace engineers Fellows of the IEEE Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASA people American electrical engineers Southern Methodist University alumni People from La Cañada Flintridge, California People from Oak Cliff, Texas Engineers from California 20th-century American engineers