Portal:Space exploration/Biography/Week 25 2007



Thomas Otten Paine (November 9, 1921 – May 4, 1992), American scientist, was the third Administrator of NASA, serving from March 21, 1969 to September 15, 1970.

Paine began his career as a research associate at Stanford University from 1947 to 1949, where he made basic studies of high-temperature alloys and liquid metals in support of naval nuclear reactor programs.

During his administration at NASA, the first seven Apollo manned missions were flown, in which 20 astronauts orbited Earth, 14 traveled to the Moon, and four walked upon its surface. Many automated scientific and applications spacecraft were also flown in U.S. and cooperative international programs. In 1985, the Reagan administration chose Paine as chair of a National Commission on Space to prepare a report on the future of space exploration. The Commission report, Pioneering the Space Frontier, was published in May 1986. It espoused "a pioneering mission for 21st-century America...to lead the exploration and development of the space frontier, advancing science, technology, and enterprise, and building institutions and systems that make accessible vast new resources and support human settlements beyond Earth orbit, from the highlands of the Moon to the plains of Mars."

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