NASA/GSFC Mourns the Loss of a Leader, Nelson Spencer

Nelson Spencer, former Chief of Goddard's Laboratory for Atmospheres, died on August 31st at age 84 in Bethesda, Maryland. He retired from NASA in 1986 and died of complications from Parkinson's disease.

In 1960, Spencer led Goddard's upper atmosphere research effort. He served initially as Head of the Planetary Atmospheres Branch in the Space Sciences Division, then Head of the Physics Branch in the Aeronomy and Meteorology Division, Chief of the Laboratory for Atmospheres and Biological Sciences, and finally, Chief of the Laboratory for Atmospheres.

Nelson Spencer's contributions to the nation's space program started long before NASA was formed. After returning to the University of Michigan from naval service during World War II he formed a group called The Upper Atmosphere Research Laboratory, later to be renamed the Space Physics Research Laboratory (SPRL), and became its Director. He led the laboratory in the development and launch of many rocket-borne scientific payloads to measure the physical characteristics of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. The rocket program got started in 1946 when captured German V-2 rockets became available to several university and government laboratories. The space effort at Michigan expanded during the 1950's and 1960's as other rockets, like the Aerobee-150 and Nike-Cajun became available. Spencer went on to become a Professor in the EE Department and by the time he left to work at Goddard in 1960, SPRL had become one of the nation's premier university laboratories for space research, and this legacy continues at Michigan to the present day.

Spencer was successful with his goal of pursuing the idea that a series of aeronomy missions should be included in NASA's space science program and became project scientist for Goddard's highly successful Atmosphere Explorer satellites of the 1960's and 1970's. In addition, his efforts led to establishing the Orbiting Geophysical Orbiter series known as the OGO program and he served as project scientist for OGO-6 and the Principal Investigator for the neutral mass spectrometer experiment.

As if these accomplishments were not enough, during the 1970's Spencer also organized the San Marco international satellite program. This was a cooperative effort in which the Italians built the satellites and provided some of the instruments.

Spencer's research interests in the Earth led to the 1973 approval of the Pioneer Venus project that involved a deep-diving orbiter with many in situ and remote measurements. A second spacecraft carried an array of entry probes to measure atmospheric temperature and composition all the way to the surface. Sadly, a comparable aeronomy mission to Mars has not yet been conducted, so the hoped-for comparative planetary atmosphere studies remain incomplete.

By 1975 Spencer saw need to focus more closely on the effects of civilization on global changes in the atmosphere and led the Laboratory for Atmospheres into the newly emerging field of stratospheric ozone. He established the Atmospheric Chemistry branch and began to search the nation and the world for the key people required to pursue the ozone problem successfully. He found the world-class scientists he went after and was instrumental in getting NASA approval for an Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) to obtain the required global measurement of atmospheric constituents, winds, solar flux and particles measurements. The UARS has been successful beyond Spencer's fondest dreams and is about to celebrate its 11th anniversary in orbit.

Nelson Spencer's contributions have been well acknowledged by Goddard, NASA and the University of Michigan. He has received numerous prestigious awards for exceptional performance and achievements in science. Perhaps the greatest recognition of all is now coming in from the many scientists, engineers and graduate students whose careers he so profoundly enabled and advanced. They gratefully remember his pioneering role in conceiving, selling, directing and participating in the many pioneering flight projects described above.