MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Contact: Jane Platt
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 15, 1998
MCNAMEE CHOSEN TO HEAD NASA'S OUTER PLANETS/SOLAR PROBE PROJECTS
Dr. John McNamee, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, CA, has been appointed project manager for Outer
Planets/Solar Probe, which encompasses three planned missions--
Europa Orbiter, Pluto-Kuiper Express and Solar Probe.
McNamee will continue in his present role as project manager
of the 1998 Mars Surveyor mission, with Outer Planets/Solar Probe
as an additional role. After the launches of the Mars '98 Climate
Orbiter on December 10, 1998, and the Mars '98 Polar Lander on
January 3, 1999, McNamee will assume management of Outer
Planets/Solar Probe on a full-time basis. Robert Staehle, former
manager for the Ice and Fire Preprojects, has been named deputy
project manager for Outer Planets/Solar Probe.
"We'll travel to three completely different destinations
from the beginning to the end of the solar system," McNamee said,
"from the Sun to Jupiter's moon Europa to Pluto and the Kuiper
Disk." Europa Orbiter will look for evidence of liquid oceans on
the icy moon Europa, while Solar Probe will swoop closer to the
Sun than any previous spacecraft, and Pluto-Kuiper Express will
fly past Pluto, its moon Charon and into the distant Kuiper Disk.
McNamee has served as the 1998 Mars Surveyor project manager
since May 1995. Before that, he was manager of the Mars
Exploration Preprojects and mission design manager for the Mars
Pathfinder project. His nine-year career at JPL has also
included positions as engineering office deputy manager and
navigation team chief for the Magellan mission to Venus. His work
on Magellan earned him NASA's Exceptional Service Award.
McNamee was born in Fort Sill, OK, but spent most of his
youth in Hollywood, FL. He earned his bachelor of science degree
in economics from the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, in
1975, and went on to receive a master's degree and doctorate from
the University of Texas, Austin.
JPL manages the 1998 Mars Climate Orbiter and 1998 Mars
Polar Lander mission and the Outer Planets/Solar Probe projects
for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a
division of California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.
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4/15/97 JP
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