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Thomas O. Paine | |
|---|---|
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| 3rd Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration | |
| In office March 21, 1969 – September 15, 1970 Acting: October 6, 1968 – March 21, 1969 | |
| President | Lyndon Johnson Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | James E. Webb |
| Succeeded by | James C. Fletcher |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Thomas Otten Paine (1921-11-09)November 9, 1921 Berkeley, California, U.S. |
| Died | May 4, 1992(1992-05-04) (aged 70) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Spouse | Barbara Taunton Pearse |
| Children | 4 |
| Alma mater | Brown University (A.B.) Stanford University (M.S., PhD) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service | United States Navy |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Metallurgy |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | The effect of a molten lead-bismuth eutectic alloy on steel (1949) |
Thomas Otten Paine (November 9, 1921 – May 4, 1992) was an American engineer, scientist and advocate ofspace exploration, and was the thirdadministrator of NASA, serving from March 21, 1969, to September 15, 1970.
During his administration at NASA, the first crewedlunar landing byApollo 11 was flown as were three other Apollo missions. Paine was also deeply involved in preparing plans for the post-Apollo era at NASA.
Born inBerkeley, California, Paine attended public schools in various cities and graduated fromBrown University in 1942 with anA.B. degree in engineering. At Brown, Paine joinedDelta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. InWorld War II, he served as a submarine officer in the Pacific and in the subsequent Japanese occupation. In late 1945, Paine became the executive officer of theprize crew which sailed the Japaneseaircraft-carrying submarineI-400 from Japan toPearl Harbor.[1] He qualified as a Navy deep-sea diver and was awarded the Commendation Medal and Submarine Combat Insignia with stars. From 1946 to 1949, Paine attendedStanford University, receiving anM.S. degree in 1947 andPh.D. degree in 1949 in physical metallurgy.[2] During his career, Paine received honorarySc.D. degrees from Brown,Clarkson College of Technology,Nebraska Wesleyan University, theUniversity of New Brunswick,Oklahoma City University, and an honoraryD.Eng. degree fromWorcester Polytechnic Institute.
Paine began his career as a research associate at Stanford University from 1947 to 1949, where he made basic studies of high-temperature alloys and liquid metals in support of naval nuclear reactor programs.
Paine joined theGeneral Electric Research Laboratory inSchenectady, New York, in 1949 as a research associate, where he started research programs on magnetic and composite materials. In 1951, Paine transferred to the Meter and Instrument Department of G.E. inLynn, Massachusetts, as the manager of materials development, and later as a laboratory manager. Under Paine's management, this lab received the Award for Outstanding Contribution to Industrial Science in 1956 from theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science for its work in fine-particle magnet development. From 1958 through 1962, Paine was a research associate and manager of Engineering Applications at the Research and Development Center of theGeneral Electric Company in Schenectady, N.Y., From 1963 to 1968, Paine was manager ofTEMPO, the Center for Advanced Studies of General Electric located inSanta Barbara, California.
Paine was appointed Deputy Administrator of NASA on January 31, 1968. Upon the retirement of James E. Webb on October 8, 1968, he was named Acting Administrator of NASA. He was nominated as NASA's third Administrator on March 5, 1969, and confirmed by the Senate on March 20, 1969.[3]
Paine was recruited to succeed Webb by President Lyndon Johnson. He was tasked with the responsibility of getting the Apollo program back on track in the wake of theApollo 1 disaster, and fulfilling President John F. Kennedy's goal "before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."
During his administration at NASA, the first sevenApollo missions were flown, highlighted by the first human lunar landing byApollo 11. In all, 20 astronauts orbited Earth, 24 traveled to theMoon, and 12 walked upon its surface. Many automated scientific and applications spacecraft were also flown in U.S. and cooperative international programs.
Paine was also deeply involved in preparing plans for the post-Apollo era at NASA. Along withGeorge Mueller and others, Paine developed an ambitious plan calling for the establishment of a lunar base and a massive space station in Earth orbit before the end of the 1970s, culminating in a crewed mission to Mars as early as 1981. PresidentRichard Nixon rejected these plans, however.
He was awarded theNASA Distinguished Service Medal.[4]
Paine was instrumental in acquiring the sentiments of world leaders that became theApollo 11 Goodwill Messages which now rests on the lunar surface. He personally corresponded with the heads of what became seventy-three participating nations, and coordinated the efforts to enshrine their messages on a tiny silicon disc manufactured by the Sprague Electric Company of North Adams, Massachusetts. Paine's name is also etched onto the disc.
Paine proposed the idea of the messages to the State Department'sUnder Secretary for Political AffairsU. Alexis Johnson. A high level committee determined that a plaque declaring that "We Came in Peace for all Mankind" and the planting of a U.S. flag on the Moon were to be part of the ceremonial activities forNeil Armstrong andBuzz Aldrin on the lunar surface.
Paine resigned from NASA September 15, 1970, to return to the General Electric Co. in New York City as vice president and group executive, Power Generation Group (worldwide ship propulsion, nuclear power, and steam and gas turbine generators), and later became senior vice president for science and technology (oversight of GE's research and development).
Paine left GE in 1976 to become the president and chief operating officer ofNorthrop Corporation, where he also served as a director. Paine retired as president of Northrop in 1982.
On October 12, 1984, President Ronald Reagan issued Executive Order 12490 that commissioned a panel of experts to investigate and evaluate the future of the national space program. PresidentRonald Reagan appointed Paine to be the chairman of this investigation. Rather than naming the commission after himself, as is customary, he chose instead to name itThe National Commission on Space. Members of the 15-member commission included Dr.Luis Alvarez (a winner of theNobel Prize in Physics),Neil Armstrong (NASAastronaut and thefirst man on the Moon), Dr.Gerard K. O'Neill (American physicist and space activist), Dr.Kathryn D. Sullivan (Space Shuttle astronaut and first American woman to walk in space), Dr.Jeane Kirkpatrick (political scientist and formerUnited States Ambassador to the United Nations) andBrigadier GeneralCharles E. "Chuck" Yeager (rocket plane pilot and first man to break thesound barrier).
Since leaving NASA fifteen years earlier, Paine had been a vocal spokesman for an expansive future of Space exploration. The National Commission on Space took most of a year to prepare its report, conducting public hearings throughout the United States. The Commission report,Pioneering the Space Frontier, was published in May 1986. It espoused "a pioneering mission for 21st-century America... to lead the exploration and development of the space frontier, advancing science, technology, and enterprise, and building institutions and systems that make accessible vast new resources and support human settlements beyond Earth orbit, from the highlands of the Moon to the plains of Mars." The report also contained a "Declaration for Space" that included a rationale for exploring and settling theSolar System and outlined a long-range space program for the United States.[5][6]
In 1982, Paine established Thomas Paine Associates – High Technology Enterprises (TPA) in Westwood, CA, and relocated it in Santa Monica, CA, in 1986. TPA also housed Paine's 3400-volume Submarine Warfare Library, which was later donated to the Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy.
Paine served as a director for many corporations, including theRCA,NBC,Eastern Air Lines,Nike,Arthur D. Little, Inc.,Orbital Sciences, and Quotron Systems (a division of theCiticorp company). Paine also served as a Director of thePlanetary Society, theNational Space Institute, theInternational Academy of Astronautics, and thePacific Forum CSIS Honolulu Hawaii. The Planetary Society honored his commitment to Mars by establishing The Thomas O. Paine Award for the Advancement of Human Exploration of Mars.
Paine also served as a Trustee ofOccidental College and Brown University and was a member of theNational Academy of Engineering.
Paine was married to Barbara Helen Taunton Pearse ofPerth, Australia. They had four children: Marguerite Ada, George Thomas, Judith Janet, and Frank Taunton.[7]
Paine died of cancer at his home in theBrentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles on May 4, 1992, at the age of 70.[7]
In 1972, Paine donated his papers to the Library of Congress, where they are currently open and available in the Manuscript Division. Although there is one container of classified material, the other 183 are open and available to researchers.
In the 1966 BBC TVPanorama documentaryCalifornia 2000, Paine was interviewed and offered predictions on how technology will impact society.
In the 1995 filmApollo 13, Paine is played byJoe Spano. In the 1996 TV movieApollo 11, he is played byCarmen Argenziano. In the 1998 TV miniseriesFrom the Earth to the Moon, he is played bySam Anderson. In the 2025 short film,Beryllium, he is played by Mike Boland.
A fictionalized Thomas O. Paine is depicted in the 2019alternate history web television seriesFor All Mankind. The name of the show is inspired by the inscription on the Apollo 11 lunar plaque[8] Paine was instrumental in bringing about. In the show's setting, Paine stays on as NASA administrator until Nixon loses re-election toTed Kennedy in 1972. He is then brought back by Reagan when elected in 1976 and remains NASA administrator until killed in the 1983Korean Air Lines Flight 007 incident. In the show Paine is played by Dan Donohue.
| Government offices | ||
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| Preceded by | NASA Administrator 1969 - 1970 | Succeeded by |
