Casani, John R., 1932-

John R. Casani was born September 17, 1932 in Philadelphia, PA. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1955. Casani joined JPL in 1956.

Casani's career at JPL: Integration Engineer, Jupiter Radio Internal Guidance System, 1956-57; Accelerometer Development Engineer, Sergeant, 1957; Payload Engineer, Pioneer 3 and 4, 1958-59; Spacecraft System Engineer, Ranger 1 and 2, 1959-62; Spacecraft System Engineer, Mariner Mars 1964, 1962-65; Chief Engineer, Project Voyager (Mars Probe), 1965; Deputy Spacecraft System Manager, Mariner Mars 1969, 1966-69; Spacecraft System Manager, Mariner Venus-Mercury 1973, 1971-74; Manager, Guidance and Control Division, Division 34, 1974-75; Project Manager, Voyager, 1975-77; Project Manager, Galileo, 1977-88; Deputy Assistant Laboratory Director for Flight Projects, 1988-89; Assistant Laboratory Director for Flight Projects, 1989-94; Project Manager, CRAF/Cassini, 1990-91; JPL Chief Engineer, 1994-99.

The Chandra X-ray Observatory, originally named the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility, was deployed from the Space Shuttle Columbia aboard the STS-93 mission in July 1999. Chandra is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory so far built. It is designed to observe X-rays from high-energy regions of the universe, such as hot gas in the remnants of exploded stars.

There was an intense period of review activity in the preflight stages of AXAF. One cause for the reviews was the loss of the Mars Observer in August 1993. A failure review board concluded that the technical oversight process for the Mars Observer was flawed. The initial problems with the Hubble Space Telescope were also a point of trouble and a public relations nightmare for NASA, who wanted to avoid a similar situation with AXAF.

The AXAF Deployment and Pre-Ship Review focused on ensuring that no Space Shuttle safety issues existed and that the mission performance of the Observatory would be world class. The Deployment Review Team consisted of thirteen people, all with experience spanning manned and robotic space missions but none who were working in the AXAF Program. The Chair was Paul Hill, Shuttle Flight Director at Johnson Space Center. Vice Chair was John R. Casani, JPL Chief Engineer. The goal of the group was to provide assessment of the AXAF Program elements, including the ability of the AXAF to meet the Space Shutle safety requirements, the expected performance of the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) to which the observatory was connected, and the operational command and control of the spacecraft from launch throughout normal operations. Unlike the Hubble Space Telescope, AXAF would be boosted into a higher orbit with an IUS, and could not be serviced or repaired by future Shuttle missions. The AXAF Pre-Ship Review was conducted at TRW on August 4-6, 1998. The final report of the NASA Deployment Review Team was dated September 1, 1998.

In October 1998, John Casani was named Chair of a Flight Readiness Independent Assessment of AXAF. The independent assessment was called due to the many schedule delays that resulted in a new Integration and Test plan, and the importance of the mission scientifically.

The Flight Readiness Independent Assessment Review Board was made up of independent experts who were to assess the AXAF program's readiness for launch. The assessment focused on assuring that the Observatory would perform to specification and that no safety issues existed.

In December 1998, AXAF was renamed the Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) in honor of the Indian-American Nobel Laureate physicist Subraymanyan Chandrasekhar (1910-1995). "Chandra" also means "Moon" or "luminous" in Sanskrit. The successfully deployed Chandra X-ray Observatory is operated by the Marshall Space Center and the NASA Office of Space Science. TRW was the prime contractor for spacecraft integration and testing. The nominal mission is to last until 2004.