Jack James (rocket engineer)

Jack Norval James (November 22, 1920 – August 7, 2001) was a US rocket engineer who worked for over 35 years at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, USA.

His work as a Project Manager for NASA's Mariner program in the 1960s included the first planetary flyby (of Venus) and first photographs by a space probe of Mars.

Parks were presented with the Stuart Ballantine Medal (Engineering) from the Franklin Institute in 1967 for their: "Application of electromagnetic communication to the first successful reconnaissance of Mars by the Mariner IV".

[9] By the time of his retirement on January 1, 1987, James had held several positions as an assistant laboratory director (ALD) at the JPL, including leading its technical divisions from 1967 to 1972.

[2] His autobiographical account of his life and the history of the space programs he worked on, In High Regard, was privately published posthumously in 2006.

Jack N. James (center), JPL's Mariner 4 Project Manager, with a group in the White House presenting the spacecraft's famous picture Number 11 of Mars to US President Lyndon B. Johnson (center right) in July 1965.