James W. Plummer

James W. Plummer ( born January 29, 1920 in Idaho Springs, Colorado, † January 16, 2013 in Medford, Oregon ) was an American engineer and government official. He was at the Corona project from spy satellites involved as program manager of the project at Lockheed and served from 1973 to 1976 as the fifth director of the National Reconnaissance Office of the United States.

As a project manager for Corona he was not only responsible for the overall system System Manager, but also had extensive powers in the other participating companies ( such as Itek for the camera, Eastman Kodak for the film, General Electric for the capsule, with which the films again came to the earth ). He was also temporarily Vice President of Lockheed.

1973 Plummer was appointed by President Richard Nixon, both as head of the National Reconnaissance Office and the Under Secretary of State ( Under Secretary ) in the United States Department of the Air Force, the Air Force Office in the U.S. Department of Defense, appointed. Between 24 November 1975 to 1 January 1976, he served as head of that authority.

In 2005 he was awarded the Charles Stark Draper Prize for his participation in Corona with Minoru S. Araki, Francis J. Madden, Edward A. Miller and Don H. Schoessler. In 1995 he was honored by the CIA as a Corona Pioneer and 1989 as Space and Missile Pioneer by the U.S. Airforce. He was a Fellow of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.