In Defense of Planetary Defense – Meet the Chief Architect of NASA’s Planetary Defense Program

NASA’s Lindley Johnson is retiring head of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office.
Image credit: Leonard David

I

n case you haven’t noticed, you may be sleeping better at night.

The cosmic dream state you’re in could include mind-bending thoughts about an impending asteroid impact on Earth. That’s messy business. Moreover, that space rock intrusion here on Earth can, and already has, meant doom and destruction.

Credit: NASA/Don Davis

But where are we today in dealing with any intruder from afar in our collective air space?

Lindley Johnson has been a pioneer in blueprinting warning and response scenarios to any potential impact of Earth by an asteroid or comet. He led the establishment of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office at NASA in January 2016. Prior to NASA, he served 23 years of Air Force active duty working on a host of national security space systems.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Global response

Space.com talked with NASA’s Johnson, the space agency’s Planetary Defense Officer Emeritus, now in phased retirement mode, about his decades of work in shaping a global response and reaction to a rocky world smacking into our planet.

Go to my new Space.com story — ‘Planetary defense is knowing what’s out there and what could do harm to us.’ Meet the scientist who helped build NASA’s asteroid response plan – at:

https://www.space.com/the-universe/asteroids/planetary-defense-is-knowing-whats-out-there-and-what-could-do-harm-to-us-meet-the-scientist-who-helped-build-nasas-asteroid-response-plan

BTW: Today is actually the premiere of Planetary Defenders, NASA’s new documentary exploring the science behind protecting Earth from asteroids.

There will be an interactive YouTube premiere at 4:30 p.m. EST.

After the premiere, the documentary will continue to be freely available on both YouTube and NASA+