Shaping NASA’s Greatest Missions

Carl Sagan played an essential role in many of NASA’s most important planetary exploration missions. He worked on the Mariner missions to Venus and Mars, the Viking missions that searched for life on Mars, and the Voyager probes that gave humanity its first close-up views of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Sagan was not only a scientist analyzing data but also a visionary who pushed for the inclusion of the Pioneer Plaque and the Voyager Golden Record—humanity’s first intentional interstellar messages. These artifacts, carrying sounds, images, and greetings from Earth, were designed to communicate the story of our planet to any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them. His work ensured that space exploration was not just about gathering data, but also about representing humanity’s curiosity and hope on a cosmic stage.