Alan Stern
The relentless force behind the first spacecraft to visit Pluto, transforming a distant dot of light into a complex, vibrant world.
Born 1957 (age 69)·American engineer and planetary scientist·Birthday: November 22·Baby Boomers
Biography
Alan Stern is a man who operates on the scale of worlds. A planetary scientist with the drive of a startup CEO, he spent decades championing the exploration of the solar system's frontier. His defining crusade was New Horizons. As its principal investigator from inception, Stern fought for the mission through political and budgetary hurdles, assembling a team and steering a project that would take nine years just to reach its target. On July 14, 2015, that persistence paid off in a historic flyby that revealed Pluto not as a frozen, dead rock, but a geologically active world with towering mountains of water ice and vast, heart-shaped plains of nitrogen. The images and data revolutionized our understanding of the dwarf planet. Never one to rest, Stern has since pushed the mission onward to a Kuiper Belt object and advocates for a return to Pluto with an orbiter. His career embodies a new model of scientist-as-entrepreneur, also serving as chief scientist for private lunar company Moon Express and becoming a commercial astronaut himself on a Virgin Galactic flight, literally taking his passion for space to new heights.
Baby Boomers
1946–1964
The largest generation in history at the time. Shaped by postwar prosperity, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, and Watergate. They questioned every institution their parents built — then ran them.
Alan was born in 1957, placing them squarely in the Baby Boomers. The events that shaped this generation — postwar prosperity, civil rights, Vietnam, and the counterculture — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Alan Was Born
The biggest hits of 1957
#1 Movie
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Best Picture
The Bridge on the River Kwai
#1 TV Show
Gunsmoke
Alan's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1957Born
Sputnik launches the Space Age
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $10,550Min wage: $1.00/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"All Shook Up" — Elvis PresleyBest Picture: The Bridge on the River Kwai
1962Started school
Cuban Missile Crisis brings the world to the brink
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $12,800Min wage: $1.15/hrPresident: John F. Kennedy"Stranger on the Shore" — Acker BilkBest Picture: Lawrence of Arabia
1970Became a teenager
First Earth Day; The Beatles break up
Gas: $0.36/galHome: $17,000Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"Bridge over Troubled Water" — Simon & GarfunkelBest Picture: Patton
1973Could drive
US withdraws from Vietnam; Roe v. Wade decided
Gas: $0.39/galHome: $22,100Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" — Tony Orlando & DawnBest Picture: The Sting
1975Could vote
Fall of Saigon ends the Vietnam War
Gas: $0.57/galHome: $27,600Min wage: $2.10/hrPresident: Gerald Ford"Love Will Keep Us Together" — Captain & TennilleBest Picture: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1978Turned 21
First test-tube baby born
Gas: $0.63/galHome: $35,300Min wage: $2.65/hrPresident: Jimmy Carter"Shadow Dancing" — Andy GibbBest Picture: The Deer Hunter
1987Turned 30
Black Monday stock market crash
Gas: $0.90/galHome: $72,400Min wage: $3.35/hrPresident: Ronald Reagan"Walk Like an Egyptian" — The BanglesBest Picture: The Last Emperor
1997Turned 40
Princess Diana dies in Paris car crash; Harry Potter published
Gas: $1.23/galHome: $104,100Min wage: $5.15/hrPresident: Bill Clinton"Candle in the Wind 1997" — Elton JohnBest Picture: Titanic
2007Turned 50
iPhone released; Great Recession begins
Gas: $2.80/galHome: $172,600Min wage: $5.85/hrPresident: George W. Bush"Irreplaceable" — BeyonceBest Picture: No Country for Old Men
2017Turned 60
#MeToo movement; solar eclipse crosses the US
Gas: $2.42/galHome: $195,000Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Donald Trump"Shape of You" — Ed SheeranBest Picture: The Shape of Water
2026Age 69 today
Gas: $3.91/galPresident: Donald Trump
Key Achievements
- Served as the principal investigator of NASA's New Horizons mission, which executed the first flyby of Pluto in 2015.
- Led the team that discovered the first known double-ring system around an asteroid, Chariklo, in 2014.
- Has been involved in over two dozen scientific space missions, including instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope.
- Became a commercial astronaut, flying to the edge of space on Virgin Galactic's Unity 25 mission in 2023.
Did You Know?
He is a licensed commercial pilot and flight instructor.
He served as NASA's Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate for nearly a year.
He was the first person to present Pluto science from the spacecraft's data while physically aboard a commercial spaceflight.
He has an asteroid named after him: 48628 Asteroid Alanstern.
“We’re not finished exploring Pluto. Not by a long shot.”
