Who is the man behind the James Webb telescope?

In 2018, the space telescope James Webb seemed to go off course. Again. The telescope’s parts and instruments were complete, but needed to be assembled and tested, according to a New York Times report.

The launch date was pushed further and further into the future and the cost, already approaching $8 billion, was rising again. Congress, which had provided several large funding “injections” over the years, was not happy that NASA was asking for even more money.

It was then that he was asked by Gregory Robinson to assume the role of program manager at Webb. At the time, Mr. Robinson was NASA’s deputy program manager, making him responsible for evaluating the performance of more than 100 science missions.

He said no! “At that time I was enjoying my work,” he himself remembers. THE Thomas ZurbuchenNASA’s deputy administrator for science, asked him again. “He had two great skills. The first is that he was seeing a lot of projects, including projects that had problems. And the second is that he inspired you with a feeling of trust».

Eventually, Mr. Robinson relented. In March 2018, he took it upon himself to get the telescope back into orbit and into space.

At NASA, 62-year-old Gregory Robinson certainly made a difference: A black man among the agency’s top managers.

“It’s definitely an inspiration for people to see me in that role,” she said, “and also recognize that they can be there.».

He was born in Danville, Virginia and was the ninth of 11 children in a large family. His parents were tobacco workers. Poor people, struggling to make ends meet. He attended an all-black elementary school until the fifth grade when the school district was permanently integrated in 1970.

He was the only one in his family to study science and math, on a football scholarship to attend Virginia Union University in Richmond. He later transferred to Howard University. He holds a BA in Mathematics from Virginia Union and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Howard. He started working at NASA in 1989, following some friends who had previously worked there.

When the telescope was named Webb in 2002, it was budgeted at $1 billion to $3.5 billion for a launch as early as 2010. When 2010 came around, the launch date was moved to 2014 and the estimated cost of the telescope increased to 5.1 billions of dollars. After analyzes found that the budget and schedule were unrealistic, in 2011 the NASA brought the program back with a much larger budget, which would not exceed $8 billion and a launch date of October 2018.”The review panel published its report, highlighting a number of issues and making 32 recommendations. NASA followed them allsaid Robinson.

When Gregory Robinson took over as director of the program, Webb’s schedule efficiency dropped by about 55 percent, according to Zurbuchen.

Dr. Zurbuchen said Webb’s team was full of smart and skilled people who had become wary of criticism. He credited Robinson with turning things around. Within months, efficiency had reached 95%, with better communication and managers more willing to share potentially bad news.

“You needed someone who could gain the trust of the team and what we needed to know was what was wrong with the teamZurbuchen said. “The speed with which it changed course was impressive».

Mr. Robinson proudly says that he is now out of a job…

View the news feed and get the latest news.