Of Doxsey, STScI Director Matt Mountain said, "Rodger was the heart and soul of Hubble here at the Institute.... He ... knew everything about the space telescope, from the smallest anomaly to the breadth of the extraordinary science delivered by the telescope he had worked with for over 28 years."[3]
The Institute's first director, Riccardo Giacconi, hired Doxsey nine years before the HST launch in 1990, to be the mission operations scientist. During the following years he was responsible for mission science specifications and requirements, data calibration, operational planning and scheduling, as well as the actual day-to-day commanding of the observatory. Doxsey worked on the development of new, state-of-the-art instruments for HST with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, which contributed to the enormous advance made in Hubble's scientific capabilities after launch, by replacing, in the course of several Space Shuttle visits from 1993 to May 2009, the original suite of instruments which had been specified and designed on the basis of technology that was many years old by the time HST finally became operational. Doxsey was also responsible for hiring many of the STScI's staff.[2]
Awards and honors
Among Doxsey's many awards and honors, especially notable are:
1991: Awarded the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest honor the Agency can give a nongovernmental employee. The citation noted his "exceptional accomplishments and contributions to the Hubble Space Telescope", and implementation of the systems needed to accomplish those ends.[4]
Webcast of Rodger Doxsey Award - STScI Webcast of the inaugural presentation of the Rodger E. Doxsey Science Systems Engineering Achievement Award, January 7, 2011