OBITUARY

Ed Stone obituary: project scientist for Nasa’s epic Voyager missions

Wiry, energetic expert in cosmic rays and space probe instrumentation
The Times
The Times
Stone holding a model of a spacecraft. The Voyager 1 and 2 probes were, as Stone put it, “Earth’s ambassadors to the stars”
Stone holding a model of a spacecraft. The Voyager 1 and 2 probes were, as Stone put it, “Earth’s ambassadors to the stars”
ALAMY
The Times
The Times

The planets were aligning and Ed Stone was the man hired by Nasa to make the most of a one-in-176-year opportunity.

An intern at the American space agency calculated that a rare orientation meant a spacecraft launched in about 1977 could make a “Grand Tour” of all four giant planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — over little more than a decade by using their gravitational pulls as a slingshot.

To run the ambitious scheme, Nasa turned to Stone, a wiry, energetic and serious-minded 36-year-old expert in cosmic rays and space probe instrumentation who would prove a gifted project manager.

Stone briefs reporters during a press conference at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory during Voyager 2’s encounter with Neptune, on August 25, 1989, in Pasadena, California
Stone briefs reporters during a press conference at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory during Voyager 2’s encounter with Neptune, on August 25, 1989, in Pasadena, California
BOB RIHA JR/GETTY IMAGES

Appointed project scientist in 1972, Stone spent 50 years overseeing a mission that initially cost $865 million (the equivalent of about £3.5 billion today)