Louis Friedman


Louis Dill Friedman is an American astronautics engineer and space spokesperson. He was born in New York and raised in the Bronx. Dr. Friedman was a co-founder of The Planetary Society with Carl Sagan and Bruce C. Murray.

Education and career

In 1961, he earned his Bachelor of Science in applied mathematics and engineering physics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 1963, he graduated at Cornell University with a Masters of Science in engineering mechanics. In 1971, he graduated with a Ph.D. from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a thesis entitled, Extracting Scientific Information from Spacecraft Tracking Data.
He worked for AVCO Space Systems Division from 1963 to 1968. From 1970 through 1980, he was with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory leading the Advanced Planetary Studies and the post-Viking Mars Program. Other projects at the JPL include Mariner-Venus-Mercury, Planetary Grand Tour, Venus Orbital Imaging Radar, Halley's Comet Rendezvous-Solar Sail, and the Mars Program.

Projects, Print, and Speeches