JAFFE, LEONARD

JAFFE, LEONARD (1926– ), U.S. space program engineer. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Jaffe served in the U.S. Navy (1944–46). He joined what later became the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as research engineer (1948), was the chief of the Data Systems Branch (1955), chief of communications satellites (1959), and director of the communication and navigation satellite programs of the Office of Space Science and Applications Satellites from 1963. When Jaffe was Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Applications, his office was responsible for all NASA Space Applications Satellite Projects. Jaffe, Leonard   In 1979 he headed the technical team of the President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island. In 1981 he joined the Computer Sciences Corp. as vice president for product management and quality assurance and later became president of their Systems Division. From 1994 to 2001 he was president and chief operating officer of the Earth Sciences Corp. He was president of the International Astronautics Federation in 1975 and 1976 and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the American Astronautical Society (AAS), and the Society of Space Professionals International (SSPI). He received numerous awards from these organizations as well as from the U.S. government. (Bracha Rager (2nd ed.)