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Rothenberg Named to Head Office of Space Flight; Diaz Named Goddard Space Flight Center Director

Debra Rahn                        January 8, 1998
Headquarters, Washington, DC
(Phone:  202/358-1639)

RELEASE:  98-4

ROTHENBERG TO HEAD OFFICE OF SPACE FLIGHT; 
DIAZ NAMED GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER DIRECTOR

     Joseph H. Rothenberg, Director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight 
Center, Greenbelt, MD, has been named to head the Agency's Office 
of Space Flight, NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin announced 
today.  Rothenberg will lead the Human Exploration and Development 
of Space enterprise.

     Goldin also named Alphonso V. ("Al") Diaz to suceed 
Rothenberg as Goddard director.  Diaz is currently the deputy 
director at Goddard.

     As Associate Administrator for the Office of Space Flight, 
Rothenberg will be responsible for all NASA human space flight 
programs, as well as a variety of expendable launch vehicle 
operations and tracking and communications functions.  The 
appointment is effective Jan. 12. 

     "I am pleased that Joe Rothenberg is joining our senior 
management team at NASA Headquarters," Goldin said.  "He brings a 
wealth of experience and a fresh perspective as NASA's human space 
flight enterprise enters a new era with the construction of the 
International Space Station.  NASA Goddard has thrived under his 
leadership over the last three years, and now I have asked him to 
turn his talents to another set of challenges.  I know Goddard 
will be in capable hands with Al Diaz at the helm."

     Rothenberg began his aerospace career with Grumman Aerospace 
in 1964, where he managed the development of flight hardware, test 
and launch systems for the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 
series of spacecraft.  In 1983, he joined NASA Goddard as 
operations manager for the Hubble Space Telescope, leading the 
team which developed the orbital operations of the telescope.

     In April 1987, he was appointed Chief of the Mission 
Operations Division at Goddard.  In September 1989, he was named 
Deputy Director of Mission Operations and Data Systems, and from 
1990 to 1994 he served as Associate Director of Flight Projects 
for the Space Telescope.  Rothenberg provided the project 
leadership which resulted in the success of the first servicing 
mission to the orbiting Hubble, which corrected an optical flaw 
and restored the telescope to full scientific capacity.

     Rothenberg is a graduate of C.W. Post College of the Long 
Island University, where he earned a B.S. in engineering science 
and a Master of Science in engineering management.  He also 
received an honorary Doctorate in engineering from the Stevens 
Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ.  He is a member of the 
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and past 
president of the Long Island Section of the Instrument Society of 
America.  He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, 
including the National Aviation Association's Collier Trophy, the 
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' Goddard 
Astronautics Award, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the NASA 
Outstanding Leadership Medal, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, 
the National Space Club's Nelson P. Jackson Award and was inducted 
in the Smithsonian's Aviation Week and Space Technology Hall of Fame.

     He and his wife Fran reside in Darnestown, MD and have three 
married children.

     Diaz joined NASA as a cooperative education student at the 
Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, in 1964.  He was actively 
involved in the Viking Project from 1969 to 1977 in a variety of 
roles.  In 1979, he moved to NASA Headquarters and had a broad 
range of experience in the management of space science projects, 
including program management of the Ulysses and Galileo missions.  
Before moving to Goddard in 1996, he served as Deputy Associate 
Administrator for Space Science.

     Diaz received a bachelor's in physics from St. Joseph 
University, Philadelphia, and a master's in physics from Old 
Dominion University, Norfolk.  He also attended the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management where he 
received a M.S. in management in 1986.  He and his wife Angela 
Phillips Diaz reside in Alexandria, VA.

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