Charles J. Pellerin, Jr. was a long-time NASA official who began his career at the Goddard Space Flight Center as he was completing his Ph.D. in physics from the Catholic University of America in 1974. The next year he moved to NASA headquarters where he managed the development and integration of scientific instrumentation for flight on the Space Shuttle. In 1983 he was named Director of Astrophysics in NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications, and in 1992 he was appointed as Deputy Associate Administrator for Safety and Mission Quality, serving until 1994.
