JPL's Jon Giorgini Honored With Masursky Award

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle@jpl.nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-193 Oct. 13, 2008

JPL's Jon Giorgini Honored With Masursky Award

PASADENA, Calif. -- Jon Giorgini, an engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif., has received the prestigious Harold Masursky Award, presented by the
American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences.

The Masursky Award recognizes individuals for outstanding service to planetary science
and exploration through engineering, managerial, programmatic or public service
activities. Giorgini runs JPL's Horizons system, an online database that can generate
locations and orbits for the almost half-million known celestial bodies in our solar
system.

The award citation states in part: A specialist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Jon
developed and implemented the on-line Horizons system that is used by the international
scientific community to generate accurate ephemeris information for the 450,000
currently known objects in the solar system. This includes the sun, planets, their moons,
asteroids, comets, and many spacecraft… This system is used by observers, researchers,
and mission planners to plan observations and track the targets of space and ground-
based telescopes, as well as spacecraft. Since its inception in October 1996, the Horizons
system has responded to more than ten million requests (on average, more than 2200 per
day) received from 300,000 unique locations.

Giorgini, a senior engineer in JPL's Solar System Dynamics Group, was a navigator for
the Magellan spacecraft during its mapping of Venus (1991-1993), developing and
implementing the new navigation methodology for the first interplanetary aerobrake. He
created JPL's "On-Site Orbit Determination" system -- software used at the Goldstone
and Arecibo planetary radar sites to track and update the orbits of radar targets. He then
returned to navigation for the Mars Global Surveyor aerobrake planning and
interplanetary phases (1995-1997), followed by the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous
mission navigation and radio science teams (1997-2001). As a member of the asteroid
radar observing team (1994-present), he is responsible for orbit analysis and predictions
used to operate radar tracking systems at Goldstone and Arecibo. He has worked on more
than 290 asteroid radar targets since 1994 and is co-discoverer of 27 asteroid satellites.
He discovered the potential Earth impact hazard posed by the asteroid 1950 DA, and
developed methods to assess dynamics and impact potential over centuries. Giorgini is
author or co-author of 99 research papers and four book chapters.

Giorgini's outside activities have included climbs of Mount Kilimanjaro and Vinson
Massif, the highest mountains in Africa and Antarctica. He has practiced martial arts and
kickboxing for the last 22 years.

Giorgini's previous awards include the JPL 2007 Ed Stone Outstanding Research Paper
Award, a NASA Space Act Award and a NASA Exceptional Service Medal. The
International Astronomical Union named asteroid "6775 Giorgini" in his honor in 1996.

Giorgini has a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from Iowa State
University, Ames; and a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering, specializing
in celestial mechanics, from the University of Texas, Austin. He has worked at JPL for 17
years.

For more information on JPL, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov .

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