, and
Ewen Whitaker examine
Ranger 7 pictures at the Flight Control Center Heacock joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1953, after receiving his Master of Science Degree in Engineering from the California Institute of Technology. Prior to joining the Voyager Project in 1972 as Spacecraft Systems Manager he had advanced through various positions of responsibility at the Laboratory. In October 1977, he was appointed Deputy Manager of the Voyager Project and became Manager in 1979. He was a member of the
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and has served as Secretary, Treasurer, Vice-President and President of the Board of Directors of the Caltech Alumni Association. Heacock is a native of Santa Ana, California and lived in La Crescenta. Since the inception of the Voyager Project in 1972, Heacock was deeply involved in guiding and shaping the successful development and operation of the sophisticated craft. The scientific data from the flight experiments carried aboard them have yielded startling new information on Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. Heacock was a leader in the design, development and flight operations of these craft as well as of their scientific instruments complement. As Spacecraft System Manager, Deputy Project Manager, and Project Manager he contributed personally to the development of various advanced design features leading to the Project's outstanding success. NASA's two robot spacecraft,
Voyager 1 and
Voyager 2, were launched in the Summer of 1977 on their journeys to Jupiter of more than 625 million miles.
Voyager 1 reached Saturn in November 1981, and then left the Solar System. Nearly 10 years later
Voyager 1 turned around to point its cameras towards Earth and took the famous
Pale Blue Dot image.
Voyager 2 reached Saturn in August 1981, then went on to
Uranus in 1986, and
Neptune in 1989. The spacecraft reached interstellar space, becoming the first probes to do so. ==James Watt International Medal==