Awards rocket toward outgoing JPL leader Dr. Charles Elachi
JPL Director Charles Elachi, at his office at JPL in La Cañada Flintridge in December 2014.
Dr. Charles Elachi, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, has been named the recipient of two prestigious industry awards, just months before his planned June 30 retirement after 15 years in his current position and 45 years with NASA.
Elachi, who also serves as vice president of Caltech, flew to Washington, D.C., last week to accept the 2016 Aviation Week Laureate Award for Lifetime Achievement in a ceremony at the National Building Museum. The award recognizes extraordinary accomplishments in aviation, aerospace and defense.
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Since joining JPL in 1970, Elachi has been a researcher and science investigator for several missions and projects and is credited with pioneering the use of radar remote sensing techniques on such missions as the Shuttle Imaging Radar series, Magellan and Cassini. Under his directorship, the facility has seen more than 25 successful missions.
“Aerospace and, in particular, space exploration have made tremendous strides during the past few decades. I’m honored, as part of the JPL team and more recently as the JPL director, to have played a role in the important stories of exploration that inspire the public,” Elachi said in a release issued after the announcement of his win.
According to Aviation Week Executive Editor Jim Asker, members of the editorial board selected the JPL leader from a short list of candidates for the honor, which happens to fall on the publication’s 100th anniversary.
“We try to recognize people who’ve done the most and made the greatest achievements in space and aerospace,” Asker said in an interview Tuesday. “Charles has led the premier organization in the world that’s done planetary exploration in the last several years. He’s done a great job and he’s inspired a lot of us who are following that (field).”
With the Lifetime Achievement Award under his belt, Elachi will travel to Houston, where on April 29 he will receive the National Space Trophy from the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement Foundation, an award given annually to an outstanding American who’s made major contributions to the nation’s space program.
The foundation’s board of advisers comprises NASA center directors, aerospace corporation presidents, members of the military, news media, academic and political leaders, as well as past trophy winners. Thomas Young, former director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, nominated Elachi for the award.
“Elachi’s distinguished leadership and sustained technical achievement have had a profound impact on the U.S. robotic exploration of space across the late 20th and early 21st centuries,” Young said in the JPL statement. “His contributions and vision have impacted space science and technology, generations of young people and professionals, and society at large.”
The JPL director said he was fortunate to be working in space exploration at such an exciting time, and thanked his colleagues for his successes.
“I am grateful for the invaluable contributions of the teams of dedicated and immensely talented men and women I’ve worked with throughout the years,” he stated in the release.
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
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