Robert Willard Farquhar (September 12, 1932 – October 18, 2015) was an American mission design specialist who worked for NASA.

In late 1952, Farquhar requested to be transferred to a division which was taking part in the Korean War, being deployed to the 187th Infantry Regiment stationed in Japan.

One day, after some North Korean prisoners were released, Farquhar's division was moved to Kimpo airfield for one month.

[2] His doctoral dissertation on libration points formed the groundwork of the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 satellite's orbit,[2] and he later developed a trajectory that would allow it to intercept the Giacobini–Zinner comet in 1985, a feat that resulted in a congratulatory letter from President Ronald Reagan.

[4] Whilst working at the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, Farquhar was the flight director for the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission to 433 Eros – the first launch of the Discovery program of NASA.

[6] Farquhar is also credited with being the first to develop use of halo orbits around libration points, where the gravitational pull from two celestial bodies is balanced.

Renamed the International Cometary Explorer (ICE), the spacecraft made a textbook pass through the tail of comet Giacobini-Zinner on September 11, 1985.