Jastrow, Robert (1925–2008)

US physicist and writer. Involved in the theoretical aspects of space exploration and the early development of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, he was director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies 1961–81. He joined the faculty of Dartmouth College in 1973 and became chairman of California's Mr Wilson Institute, which runs an astronomical observatory, in 1992. His books include Red Giants and White Dwarfs (1963) and Journey to the Stars (1990).

He was born in New York City and studied at Columbia University, eventually earning his PhD in physics.