Pete Worden


Simon Peter "Pete" Worden was Director of NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California, until his retirement on March 31, 2015. Prior to joining NASA, he held several positions in the United States Air Force and was research professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona, Tucson. He is a recognized expert on space issues - both civil and military. Worden has authored or co-authored more than 150 scientific papers in astrophysics, space sciences, and strategic studies. He served as a scientific co-investigator for two NASA space science missions, and received the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal for the 1994 Clementine mission. He was named the 2009 Federal Laboratory Consortium Laboratory Director of the Year.
Worden announced his planned resignation from NASA in February 2015, indicating he would be pursuing "some long-held dreams in the private sector".
On July 20, 2015 at the Royal Society in London, Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking launched the Breakthrough Initiatives. At the press conference Pete Worden was introduced as the Chairman for the Breakthrough Prize Foundation. In this new role, Worden is tasked to run the .

Background

Prior to becoming Director of NASA Ames, Worden was a Research Professor of Astronomy, Optical Sciences and Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona where his primary research direction was the development of large space optics for national security and scientific purposes and near-earth asteroids. Additionally he worked on topics related to space exploration and solar-type activity in nearby stars.
In addition to his position with the University of Arizona, Worden served as a consultant to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on space-related issues. During the 2004 Congressional Session he worked as a Congressional Fellow with the Office of Senator Sam Brownback, where he served as Senator Brownback's chief advisor on NASA and space issues.
Worden retired from the United States Air Force in 2004 after 29 years of active service. His final position there was Director of Development and Transformation, Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Space Command, Los Angeles Air Force Base, CA. In this position he was responsible for developing new directions for Air Force Space Command programs and was instrumental in initiating a major Responsive Space Program designed to produce space systems and launchers capable of tailored military effects on timescales of hours.
Worden was commissioned in 1971 after receiving a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan. He entered the Air Force in 1975 after graduating from the University of Arizona with a doctorate in astronomy. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Worden served in every phase of development, international negotiations and implementation of the Strategic Defense Initiative. He twice served in the Executive Office of the President. As the staff officer for initiatives in the George Bush administration's National Space Council, Worden spearheaded efforts to revitalize U.S. civil space exploration and earth monitoring programs.
Worden commanded the 50th Space Wing that is responsible for more than 60 Department of Defense satellites and more than 6,000 people at 23 worldwide locations. He then served as Deputy Director for Requirements at Headquarters Air Force Space Command, as well as the Deputy Director for Command and Control with the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Air and Space Operations at Air Force headquarters. Prior to assuming his current position, Worden was responsible for policy and direction of five mission areas: force enhancement, space support, space control, force application and computer network defense.

Innovations

Worden was a key early innovator and proponent in the area of small satellites.
While at BMDO and its predecessor SDIO he played major roles in development of the DC-X and the Clementine mission. Clementine was a relatively small, low-cost, and rapidly developed satellite ostensibly developed to test sensor and propulsion technology for missile interceptors. Clementine mapped the Moon and travelled on towards the near-Earth asteroid 1620 Geographos. Worden also instituted and championed innovative management and engineering techniques while at BMDO, including rapid prototyping, "build a little test a little", a "badgeless" work environment, and a flat organizational structure.
More recently, after becoming NASA Ames Research Center director, he actively developed Ames' capability for rapid prototyping of small spacecraft. He also "engineered" innovative agreements between NASA Ames and a variety of private sector and public sector partners. Recognizing the critical importance of revitalizing NASA, he consistently and actively recruited and empowered younger workers, as well as workers from other agencies and other countries.

International Space University

Worden is actively involved in the International Space University, where, as of 2009, he was a guest teacher in the ISU Space Studies Program. His support led to the selection of NASA Ames as the host for the 2009 ISU SSP program in the months July and August 2009.

Support for NEO missions

Pete Worden has long been a proponent of robotic and, more recently, crewed space missions to near-Earth objects. This class of mission is thought by a growing number of space enthusiasts and professionals to have scientific, technological, political and sociological merit as an alternate to the lunar component of the vision for space exploration.

NASA criticism

While at the Air Force, Worden was one of NASA's most well-known and credible critics. In one famous essay he compared NASA to a "self-licking ice cream cone".
Later, after having worked for U.S. Sen Sam Brownback, Worden said his Capitol Hill experience demonstrated to him that NASA actually stood for "Never A Straight Answer."
Worden also has a reputation as being something of a "character." For instance, he supported and presided over "Yuri's Night Bay Area", held at NASA Ames Research Center in 2007. He is also known occasionally to costume, usually dressing as either Darth Vader, a wizard, or after arriving at Ames, as a goat herder. In April 2007, Pete Worden became the first NASA Center Director to address an audience at a space conference through the virtual world of Second Life.
His propensity for costume sparked an inquiry from Senator Chuck Grassley that led to an investigation by the NASA inspector general's office into a private project to photograph a group of Viking re-enactors calling themselves "." Although concluding that no government money had been spent on the Viking re-enactment, the investigation itself was estimated to have cost between $40,000 and $600,000.

Career timeline

Job assignments

Worden is entitled to the following awards and decorations:

Commissions

Education

  2. Worden, Col. S. P., "The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization CLEMENTINE Mission," Proceedings of the Near-Earth-Object Interception Workshop, January 14–16, 1992.
  12. Hawkes, R.I., Campbell, M.D., LeBlanc, A.G., Parker, L., Brown, P., Jones, J., Worden, S.P., Correll, R.R., Woodworth, S.C., Fisher, A.A., Gural, P., Murray, I.S., Connors, M., Montague, T., Jewell, D., and Babcock, D.D., 2002, Dust in the Solar System and Other Planetary Systems, Proceedings of the IAU Colloquium 181, Edited by S.F. Green, I.P. Williams, J.A.M. McDonnell and N. McBride, COSPAR Colloquia series, Vol 15., "The Size of Meteoroid Constituent Grains: Implications for Interstellar Meteoroids."
  14. Worden, S.P., 2002, Statement Before the House Science Committee, Space and Aeronautics SubCommittee, U.S. House of Representatives, October 3, 2002, "Near Earth Object Threat."