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Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory director Dr Charles Elachi (centre) receives an aerial photograph of Mt Pickering, near Te Anau, from Melanie Pennell-Mayer and Dave Sandkulla, both of California, who are cousins of Manapouri historian Aaron Nicholson, who proposed the name for the peak. Photo supplied. |
Sir William Hayward Pickering (1910-2004) was a
Wellington-born engineer, who headed JPL for 22 years.
During that time the laboratory built and launched the United
States' first satellite - Explorer 1 - and laid plans for
robotic missions to visit the outer planets.
In 2008, Manapouri historian Aaron Nicholson Nicholson
proposed the New Zealand Geographic Board name the 1650m
peak, 20km west of Te Anau in the Kepler Mountains, after Sir
William.
He also proposed Beatrice Muriel Hill Tinsley be recognised
in the same way, and a 1537m peak 15km west of Te Anau be
renamed after her to recognise the astronomer and
cosmologist.
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