To Jupiter and beyond (and back)!

With Jupiter in the news — NASA’s Juno spacecraft has arrived to do what spacecraft do — it’s not hard for me to make a leap to Lonnie Johnson, subject of my newest book with Don Tate.

Before Lonnie became known as the inventor of the Super Soaker water gun, he worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the Galileo orbiter and probe. Here’s a piece of the spread where Whoosh! goes into some detail about Lonnie’s contribution to that mission:

Lonnie’s backup system had Galileo‘s back. “Much of what we know about Jupiter could have been at risk in a power failure if not for Lonnie,” explains the full text.

Sounds like we’re about to learn a lot more about Jupiter. Remember to save your files frequently, Juno!