About Ray Villard : Discovery Space : Discovery Channel

Ray Villard

Blogger for "Cosmic Ray," Hubble News Director

Ray Villard

I'm a supporting cast member in the greatest show of all time: our unveiling of the evolving and living universe.

I'm a child of the Space Age. Standing alongside my father, I watched Sputnik pass overhead as space race with the Soviet Union was launched. Through high school I followed the manned Mercury and Gemini missions, all the while designing, building, and launching model rockets. In my senior year I made an award-winning special effects film about a manned mission to Mars -- with a projected launch date of 1986!

When I started graduate school at Boston University I decided to change majors from film to science communications because I was inspired by the Apollo moon landings and wanted to work for NASA.

I started out producing shows in planetariums. It was a marriage between my two passions: astronomy and film/photography. After that I was editor on Astronomy Magazine and later Star and Sky Magazine. On the heels of the exciting discoveries of the first extrasolar planet I published my first major popular book with space artist Lynette Cook: Infinite Worlds: An Illustrated Voyage to Planets beyond Our Sun.

My childhood dreams exceeded all expectations when I joined the Hubble Space Telescope project and became one of the chief architects of the Hubble news and outreach effort. A Toronto newspaper reporter said that I had "the world's best crummy job" in the early days when Hubble was seen as flawed and myopic.

Being part of Hubble's fantastic discoveries has been like standing on the deck of the Santa Maria and seeing the New World for the first time.

Go to Ray's blog -- "Cosmic Ray" -- to get the latest on the Solar System, exoplanets, astrobiology and more.

CONTENT

Ray Villard

Ray Villard

Need Space? Grab This Widget!