Charles Robert O'Dell (born 1937) is an American observational astronomer and the founding Project Scientist of the Hubble Space Telescope.

As Project Scientist with NASA from 1972 to 1983 he successfully led the advocacy for its creation, in spite of initial community pessimism,[8] and its design as a scientific observatory.

[9] He then led the formulation of policy for its scientific operation through the Space Telescope Science Institute[10] and the establishment of open access[11] to its data throughout the astronomical community.

In 1993 he used the Hubble Space Telescope to discover in the Orion Nebula a new class of objects, the proplyds, providing clear-cut proof that ordinary star formation includes disks from which planets can form.

[24] He received the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland from the Polish State (1977), the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center Medal (2012),[25] and the Benedykt Polak Prize from the Warsaw Scientific Society (2016)[26] in recognition of his work in establishing the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.