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<\/a><\/figure>Known for his steady leadership, consensus building, and enthusiasm for engaging the public in science, Stone left a deep impact on the space community.<\/em><\/p>\n Edward C. Stone, former director of NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, and longtime project scientist of the agency\u2019s Voyager mission<\/a>, died on June 9, 2024. He was 88. He was preceded in death by his wife, Alice Stone. They are survived by their two daughters, Susan and Janet Stone, and two grandsons.<\/p>\n Stone<\/a> also served as the David Morrisroe professor of physics and vice provost for special projects at Caltech in Pasadena, California, which last year established a new faculty position, the Edward C. Stone Professorship<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cEd Stone was a trailblazer who dared mighty things in space. He was a dear friend to all who knew him, and a cherished mentor to me personally,\u201d said Nicola Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. \u201cEd took humanity on a planetary tour of our solar system and beyond, sending NASA where no spacecraft had gone before. His legacy has left a tremendous and profound impact on NASA, the scientific community, and the world. My condolences to his family and everyone who loved him. Thank you, Ed, for everything.\u201d<\/p>\n NASA\/JPL Caltech<\/p>\n Stone served on nine NASA missions as either principal investigator or a science instrument lead, and on five others as a co-investigator (a key science instrument team member). These roles primarily involved studying energetic ions from the Sun and cosmic rays from the galaxy. He was one of the few scientists involved with both the mission that has come closest to the Sun (NASA\u2019s Parker Solar Probe<\/a>) and the one that has traveled farthest from it (Voyager<\/a>).<\/p>\n \u201cEd will be remembered as an energetic leader and scientist who expanded our knowledge about the universe \u2014 from the Sun to the planets to distant stars \u2014 and sparked our collective imaginations about the mysteries and wonders of deep space,\u201d said Laurie Leshin, JPL director and Caltech vice president. \u201cEd\u2019s discoveries have fueled exploration of previously unseen corners of our solar system and will inspire future generations to reach new frontiers. He will be greatly missed and always remembered by the NASA, JPL, and Caltech communities and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n From 1972 until his retirement in 2022, Stone served as the project scientist from NASA\u2019s longest-running mission, Voyager. The two Voyager probes took advantage of a celestial alignment that occurs just once every 176 years to visit Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune<\/a>. During their journeys, the spacecraft revealed the first active volcanoes beyond Earth on Jupiter\u2019s moon Io, and an atmosphere rich with organic molecules on Saturn\u2019s moon Titan. Voyager 2 remains the only spacecraft to fly by Uranus and Neptune, revealing Uranus\u2019 unusual tipped magnetic poles, and the icy geysers erupting from Neptune\u2019s moon Triton.<\/p>\n \u201cBecoming Voyager project scientist was the best decision I made in my life,\u201d Stone said in 2018. \u201cIt opened a wonderful door of exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n During Stone\u2019s tenure as JPL\u2019s director from 1991 to 2001, the federally funded research and development facility was responsible for more than two dozen missions and science instruments. Among them was NASA\u2019s Pathfinder mission, which landed on Mars in 1996 with the first Red Planet rover, Sojourner. The next year saw the launch of the NASA-ESA (European Space Agency) Cassini\/Huygens mission.<\/p>\n JPL also developed six missions for planetary exploration, astrophysics, Earth sciences, and heliophysics under Stone\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n The eldest of two sons, Stone was born in Knoxville, Iowa, during the Great Depression and grew up in the nearby commercial center of Burlington. After high school, he studied physics at Burlington Junior College and went on to the University of Chicago for graduate school. Shortly after he was accepted there, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, and the Space Age began. Stone joined a team building instruments to launch into space.<\/p>\n \u201cSpace was a brand-new field waiting for discovery,\u201d Stone recalled in 2018.<\/p>\n In 1964, he joined Caltech as a postdoctoral fellow, running the Space Radiation Lab together with Robbie Vogt, who had been a colleague at Chicago. They worked on a number of NASA satellite missions, studying galactic cosmic rays and solar energetic particles. \u00a0<\/p>\n Depending on the mission, Stone served as a co-investigator or principal investigator for the missions\u2019 instrument teams, and Vogt could see his leadership potential. \u201cEd didn\u2019t let emotions get in the way of doing the best possible job,\u201d he said. \u201cHis personality is to solve a problem when it arises.\u201d In 1972, Vogt recommended Stone to JPL leadership to be Voyager project scientist.<\/p>\n Among Stone\u2019s many awards is the National Medal of Science from President George H.W. Bush. In 2019, he was presented with the Shaw Prize in Astronomy, with an award of $1.2 million, for his leadership in the Voyager project. Stone was also proud to have a middle school named after him in Burlington, Iowa, as an inspiration to young learners.<\/p>\n Calla Cofield 2024-081<\/p>\n
NASA\/JPL Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/figure>Journey to Space<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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