NASA Mars Mission Director, Firouz Naderi, Passes Away at 77.
Firouz Naderi, a NASA official who oversaw the successful landing of two exploration rovers on Mars, died at 77. Naderi, who was trained as an electrical engineer, left his native Iran in the wake of the Islamic revolution of 1979 and was hired later that year by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. Over nearly four decades, he emerged as a linchpin of the laboratory’s missions, particularly the landing of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars in 2004, one of NASA’s most momentous achievements in recent decades.