Joseph H. Rothenberg

Joseph H. Rothenberg (born 1941) is an American aerospace engineer and former NASA official. He is best known for leading the recovery of the Hubble Space Telescope after the discovery of a flaw in its primary mirror. As associate director of flight projects for Hubble at Goddard Space Flight Center, he directed the project through the 1993 servicing mission that corrected the telescope's optics, work that earned the Hubble team the Collier Trophy and brought him wide recognition.

He later served as the eighth director of Goddard from 1995 to 1998 and as NASA's associate administrator for space flight from 1998 until his retirement from the agency in 2001, a period during which assembly of the International Space Station began.

Rothenberg began his career at Grumman Aerospace in 1964 and spent nearly six decades in the field, working across government, aerospace industry, and the emerging commercial space sector. After leaving NASA, he held executive and advisory roles at Universal Space Network, Skybox Imaging, and Google's Terra Bella, and served on several corporate and scientific boards.

Early life and education Rothenberg was born around 1941. Before his engineering career, he served in the United States Navy, during which he was stationed in Florida near Cape Canaveral. An admirer of the early space program, he attempted to watch John Glenn's 1962 orbital launch in person but missed the successful attempt after two scrubs.

He earned an associate degree in applied science in electrical technology from the State University of New York Agricultural and Technical Institute at Farmingdale, graduating in 1964, and credited the school with launching his career. He was later awarded an honorary doctorate in engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology in 1997 and an honorary doctorate of science from C. W. Post in 2000.

Career

Grumman and industry Rothenberg joined Grumman Aerospace in 1964, beginning a 17-year tenure during which he held project engineering and management positions in hardware development, systems engineering, and the testing and operations of spacecraft, aircraft, and submersible research vehicles. He managed the development and operation of the aerospace ground equipment for Goddard's Orbiting Astronomical Observatory series of satellites, a program under which four spacecraft were launched and which included early studies of on-orbit satellite servicing concepts that later informed the approach to maintaining Hubble. He became staff project engineer and later the director of engineering for test and operations before serving as project manager for Goddard's Solar Maximum Mission.

After the servicing mission, he again left the agency, serving from February 1994 to April 1995 as executive vice president of CTA's Space Systems Division before rejoining NASA. succeeding Klineberg. In interviews, he described his tenure as director in terms of institutional change, including a reorganization of the center, revisions to its spacecraft procurement processes, and a restructuring of the promotion system to improve the center's objectives.

Associate Administrator for Space Flight In January 1998, Rothenberg moved to NASA Headquarters as associate administrator for space flight, taking charge of NASA's human exploration and development of space. effective December 15 of that year.

He served on the board of directors of Paragon Space Development Corporation and was associated with the venture firm Deep Venture Partners; he was also recognized for executive and technical roles in the growth and sale of both Universal Space Network and Skybox Imaging. By his account his working career in aerospace spanned nearly six decades before his retirement around 2021. and a past president of the Long Island Section of the Instrument Society of America. He is a lifetime associate member of the National Academy of Sciences–National Research Council.