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PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Contact: John G. Watson
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 13, 1997
DR. FUK LI NAMED NEW MILLENNIUM PROGRAM MANAGER
Dr. Fuk Li has been named program manager of the New Millennium Program, JPL
Director for Space and Earth Science Programs Dr. Charles Elachi announced. Dr. Li,
who has served as acting program manager in recent weeks, replaces former program
manager Kane Casani, who has retired.
Dr. Li will oversee a flagship NASA venture whose goal is the development and
testing of revolutionary technologies in space flight so that they may be confidently
used in science missions of the future. Through a series of deep space and Earth-
orbiting missions, the New Millennium Program will validate the essential
technologies and capabilities required for challenging, new types of missions to be
flown in the next century. A key element of the program is the teaming of government
with industry and academia to improve America's technological infrastructure. The New
Millennium Program is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science.
Among the many New Millennium Program missions is Deep Space 1, set to launch on
July 1, validating a dozen technologies and gathering scientific observations while
flying by an asteroid, Mars and a comet. Deep Space 2, launching in 1999, will send
two probes into the Martian soil to test for water vapor. In following years, other
missions will include Deep Space 3, flying multiple, telescope-equipped spacecraft in
formation to create a huge space interferometer, designed to increase our telescope
viewing capability of objects in the universe. Deep Space 4, launching in 2003, will
deliver a lander to the surface of a comet nucleus, returning a nucleus sample to
Earth in 2010. Earth-orbiting missions include Earth Orbiter 1, launching in 1999,
testing new technologies for advanced land imaging.
Li most recently served as manager of JPL's Earth Science Program office. Born
in Hong Kong, he earned his bachelor's and doctorate in physics from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining the JPL staff in 1979, where he
has been involved in various radar remote sensing activities ever since. Li is a
recipient of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Aerospace and
Electronic System Society 1990 Radar Systems Panel Award for his contribution to the
development of active microwave remote sensing systems. Dr. Li, a resident of
Arcadia, is leading a number of Earth remote sensing experiments in such areas as
cloud-profiling radar and rainfall measurement.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a division of the California Institute of
Technology, Pasadena, California.
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11/13/97 JGW
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