Milton Goldfine; JPL Research Technician

Milton Goldfine, 74, a pioneering research technician for NASA who headed the Galileo test and launch team. A native of New York City, Goldfine served in India in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and then studied physics and mathematics at Hunter College and Columbia University. He began his career as a radar instructor at Philco Corp. but in 1954 moved to Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he led research and technical teams for 36 years. He worked on the testing and launching of Corporal and Sergeant, the first ground-to-ground missiles developed by the Army. When the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was created in 1958, Goldfine ran test and launch operations for unmanned spacecraft: Ranger, which made close-up photographs of the moon; Mariner expeditions to Venus, Mars and elsewhere; and Galileo, which went into orbit around Jupiter last December. Goldfine received the prestigious Exceptional Service Medal from NASA when he retired in 1990. On June 21 in Knoxville, Tenn., of a cerebral hemorrhage.