Working beyond Earth’s boundaries

Robert J. Parks of Balboa Island is a pioneer in space exploration.

As a project manager for some of the most important space projects

in American history, such as the Explorer and the Surveyor -- the

reason NASA was able to put a man on the moon -- Parks saw it all, or

rather, helped make it all happen.

The 82-year-old California native earned an electrical engineering

degree from Cal Tech and received radar training from MIT and Harvard

through his service in the Army. He worked for the Jet Propulsion

Laboratory for 40 years; during that time, he was instrumental in the

NASA projects that have gotten space exploration to where it is

today.

The Daily Pilot’s Lindsay Sandham recently sat down with Parks to

hear some of his fascinating stories and learn about outer space.

How long have you lived on Balboa Island, and have you seen many

changes?

I was brought down here when I was a baby -- maybe 2 or 3 years

old. My folks were living in Glendale, but my grandparents were down

here ... My grandfather had a little shack where that fire station is

now ... I learned to swim over here on the canal by the bridge.

You grew up in Glendale, and you came down to visit a lot?

Yeah, in the early days. My dad got let go from Union Oil Company

during the Depression, and he built a gas station over where the fire

station is now. There used to be a 76 gas station there; he sold gas

-- that’s how we got through the depression.

What kinds of work have you done?

World War II started while I was in college [at Cal Tech.] I

signed up with Single Corps Reserve. They offered to let me finish

college, then take me in on active duty right after I graduated, in

February of ’44. Then I got sent by the Army to Harvard and MIT to

learn about radar, which was a brand new thing and very up and coming

and important in the war effort. Shortly after I got out of the Army,

after the war, in 1946, I was asked by some classmates of mine to

come over and work at JPL.

Let’s talk a little more about JPL, since you did some impressive

work with them.

Let me start back in the beginning. JPL is a branch of Cal Tech.

It’s always been sponsored via contract by one form or another of the

government. Initially, it was an Army ordinance department, and we

were experimenting with rockets in those days; it was something brand

new and frowned on by some people, because they thought it was

unrealistic. By the time I joined JPL in 1947, they were building a

rocket called the Corporal, and they needed someone to oversee the

guidance and control system for it. So, that’s what got me hired.

Later on, you were working on a multi-stage rocket.

While we were building this, we realized that if we put one more

stage on it, it could actually go into orbit. We tried to sell it to

the government and then politics got in the way, and they finally

gave the job to the Navy who had no real experience in it at all, and

after several failures, they came to us and said, “How long will it

take you to do it?” And we said, “Ninety days.” And that’s the

Explorer, the U.S.’s first satellite. Then they decided to start

NASA, to help us catch up. So, after the start of NASA, we got

transferred to NASA from the Army ordinance department. We asked when

we first joined them if we could be the ones to do the unmanned

exploration of lunar planets, and they agreed because they were busy

working on the manned program.

Sending a man to the moon?

Yes. It wasn’t long after that that my boss pulled me in one day,

Dr. Pickering; he called me in one day and said, “I’d like you to

initiate and carry on a planetary exploration program, to go out and

explore the planets.” Now, you don’t get opportunities like that very

often. I’ve always said I was lucky to be in the right place at the

right time with the right training. I decided to start off by going

to the closest planet, which is Venus, and we set up a program that

would go to Venus first, Mars next and then look for opportunities at

the more difficult ones.

What did you enjoy most about your work in space exploration?

It was the excitement and the opportunity -- nothing like this had

been done. We had to make it up as we went along. That was a great

challenge -- but with great rewards. We were contributing to the

learning of things for the first time in history.

Do you ever miss working?

Yes and no. There comes a time when you have to retire. I keep

abreast at what’s going on and what’s happening at JPL. I have a son

working there; he’s a project manager now too. It’s amazing to see

what’s going on and see what’s happening with what you started. It’s

a real evolutionary process.