As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, WTOP presents “250 Years of America,” a multipart series examining the innovations, breakthroughs and pivotal moments that have shaped the nation since 1776.
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“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” are the words etched on the Statue of Liberty.
Little did Emma Lazarus know that her poem written to fund Lady Liberty’s stone pedestal would become an anthem for generations of those seeking a new beginning.
As we honor the many contributions that citizens have made to our nation over its 250 years, we must also celebrate the immigrants who arrived seeking the American Dream and in turn helped elevate our country to new heights.
Only seven years after Orville and Wilbur Wright piloted the first flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in New Zealand, Elizabeth Pickering gave birth to a baby on Christmas Eve that would grow up to be an instrumental person in launching America into the Space Age.
“More than any other individual, Bill Pickering was responsible for America’s success in exploring the planets — an endeavor that demanded vision, courage, dedication, expertise and the ability to inspire two generations of scientists and engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory,” Thomas Everhart, president emeritus of California Institute of Technology, once said.
Before Elton John, and President Donald Trump’s pen pal Kim Jong Un, the original Rocketman was Sir William Pickering.
In “Rocketman,” the 2004 documentary on Pickering, he tells of his mother dying before he was six years old.
“My grandparents brought me up; they lived in Havelock,” Pickering said. “It was a little village way out in the countryside of New Zealand.”
During his childhood, Pickering witnessed in real time the change the second industrial revolution brought to that little village, from electricity, telephones, and the first automobile.
Always a good student, Pickering had a passion for science. After spending a year at The University of Canterbury, his life and the history of humanity would soon never be the same.
Thanks to his uncle, who married an American, Pickering made his way in 1928 from Down Under to the United States to attend The California Institute of Technology.
By 1936, he had earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, a master’s degree, and a PhD in Physics. Half decade later, he made the decision to become a naturalized citizen of the United States of America.
During World War II, he conducted research on the absorption properties of cosmic rays with the Nobel Winning physicist Dr. Robert A. Millikan along with investigating Japanese balloon warfare techniques for the Army Air Corps.
A decade after coming on board of the Caltech-operated Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1944, he was named its Director and stayed in the position until the Nation’s bicentennial year.
“I said I would like to do the deep space program, and they gave it to me and I was delighted, ” Pickering said in “Rocketman.” “I was sitting there with a contract that said go out and explore the solar system, and that was a wonderful contract to have.”
The space race started in 1957 with the news that the Soviet Union had launched Sputnik, the first satellite into space.
83 days later, with the pride of the nation resting on his shoulders, Pickering led the effort to build Explorer I, America’s first satellite into space, which would launch only four months after Sputnik.
Later that year, JPL would be under the umbrella of the new civilian space agency, NASA.
The world got to see pictures of what Mars, Venus and the Moon really looked like, thanks to missions led by Pickering and his staff at JPL. They pioneered the electronic telemetering techniques that were a precursor to our smartphones.
Known as “Mr. JPL,” he appeared on the cover of Time Magazine twice, and while another immigrant, Wernher von Braun was known as the person who built the rockets, Pickering’s team was the brains and eyes of the missions.
“All of us who knew those early pioneers, look with great respect on anyone that we recognize, and right up there at the very top, in the scientific robotic space craft is Bill Pickering,” Buzz Aldrin said in “Rocketman.”
Before Neil Armstrong could take a giant leap for humanity, NASA had to make sure the Moon was solid enough to land on. The fear was that the Moon was covered in a layer of swallowing dust, and any craft would sink and disappear in it.
Thanks to Pickering’s Ranger and Surveyor missions, it was confirmed that the surface of the moon was solid enough to land on.
The 22 years Pickering spent leading JPL spanned the Space Race. From the beginning, overseeing the launch of Explorer I, America’s first satellite launched into space, and by the end of his tenure the U.S. had successfully landed on the moon 11 times, five robotic, (Surveyors 1, 3, 5, 6, 7,) and six manned crews, (Apollos 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17.)
As we celebrate the achievements of our great nation over the last 250 years, remember the next time you look up into space, don’t forget there is an American Flag planted into the surface on the moon, thanks in part to immigrants.
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