Thomas F. Rogers

From The Space Library

Thomas F. Rogers has B.Sc. and M.A. degrees in physics, was a research associate in the Harvard University Radio Research Laboratory, and worked in, formed, and headed Air Force and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) R&D laboratories. He has been engaged in military and civil space matters since the late 1940s. He was a member of the Steering Committee of the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, a Deputy Director of Research and Engineering in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the first Director of Research in the Office of the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and Vice President for Urban Affairs in the Mitre Corporation. He directed the Congressional Space Station study in its Office of Technology Assessment (OTA).

He was a senior member of the DOD-NASA Aeronautics and Astronautics Coordinating Board (AACB), the NASA Administrator's Space Program Advisory Council (SPAC), and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS)National Research Council (NRC)'s Space Application's Board (SAB). He led the group that first relayed television signals via orbiting satellite, was responsible for the basic design of the first global satellite communications system and oversaw its acquisition by Defense; conceived of, and commenced Defense R&D on, the use of orbiting satellites for precise and prompt three-dimensional navigation / position-fixing that led to the Global Positioning System (GPS).

He is Chairman of the Sophron Foundation; a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) and a member of its Transportation and Aerospace Policy Committee; a member of the Cosmos Club. He was awarded medals by both the Secretary of Defense and the NASA Administrator.