Gallery: Behind the Scenes of NASA's Mind-Boggling Voyager Missions
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An exact replica of the Voyager Spacecraft, located in a presentation room of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. The 'Golden Record' is visible, on the right. Feb 2014
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The desk of Tom Weeks, Position Controller. He has turned his office into a crowded cave in which every free spot is filled with characters from Star Wars, Batman and otherwise.
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Steve Howard, Floor Systems. They call him the "Space Cowboy". This has nothing to do with the song by The Steve Miller Band. Instead, the Eagles and their song about a lonely rider, 'Desperado'. Howard, who comes to work in cowboy hat and boots, loves this song. He finds the work on the ranch, like in the song, is similar to working on the probes in space: all alone way out there and constantly needing to mend the fence.
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A view of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab at sunrise.
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Tom Weeks, Position Controller. He once came to LA to become a rock star. He wears his keys in a thick chain on his belt loop and his hair as a proud heavy metal guitarist. He left the Voyager Mission for a few years, went to film school, had kids and has now returned.
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Jet Propulsion Lab, Deep Space Control Room, Pasadena, CA, USA.
Photo: Noah Rabinowitz07Critical mission hardware.
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Ed Stone at Cal Tech. As project scientist for the unmanned Voyager spacecraft missions to the outer Solar System since 1972, and a major spokesman for the Voyager science team, he became especially well-known to the public in the 1980s. He has since been principal investigator on nine NASA spacecraft missions and coinvestigator on five more. Stone was the director of Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1991 to 2001.
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The badge of a security guard at the Voyager Mission Control.
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Larry Zottarelli, Programmer, late-70s, inspects mission data in the office of Sun Matsumoto, Risk Control. His hearing aids visible. No one can better understand the space craft. "We'll never let him retire," says Tom Weeks about Larry.
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The 'Control Room' staged and designed for tourists visiting NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, Pasadena, CA, USA.
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"None of us is allowed to go into retirement, as long as the probes are not retired," says Enrique Medina. Medina has controlled the probes for 29 years. He is 65, which is average by the standards of the team.
