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,...
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.
