Obituary for Daniel Mark Rovner
Daniel Mark Rovner, age 62, passed away peacefully under hospice care on Thursday, March 17, 2022, in Colchester Vermont after a long and courageous struggle with myelofibrosis and other chronic disease conditions. Dan was born on August 28, 1959, at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as the son of David Richard Rovner and Natalie Marilyn (Bernstein) Rovner. He spent the first 12 years of his childhood in Ann Arbor, before his family moved 65 miles up the road to East Lansing, Michigan, as his college professor father matriculated from a faculty position in the medical school at the University of Michigan to a position as department chief in Michigan State University’s new school of medicine. Dan completed his public-school education in East Lansing, during which time it became clear he had extraordinary aptitude in mathematics and physical sciences. During his senior year of high school, he bought an old used MGA sports car, and his work to restore this car reinforced his burgeoning interest in automobiles and mechanical processes. Combined with his fascination for physics and astronomy, these experiences helped lay the groundwork for Dan’s stellar career in aeronautical engineering.
Beginning in September of 1977 Dan attended the California Institute of Technology (CalTech), majoring in mechanical engineering. During his undergraduate years, he also worked two summers as an intern at General Motors corporation at their testing and R&D facility in Warren Michigan, which further refined his interest in automotive function. He took an undergraduate class in Physics taught by Richard Feynman, the Nobel laureate. Following his graduation from CalTech in the spring of 1981, Dan moved to Santa Monica and worked for Biphase Energy Systems; a company that was designing a process for sea water de-salination. After two years, he began a graduate program in Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. from that institution in August of 1987.
In 1988, Dan took a job with a new startup company named Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC); thus beginning an illustrious 33-year career as an indispensable employee of that company. At that time, OSC was a relatively new startup seeking to be among the first private companies to successfully launch earth-orbiting satellites. At Orbital, and later after consolidation with other companies to form Orbital ATK then Northrop-Grumman Innovation Systems, Dan established a consistent track record as one of the hardest-working, most-gifted engineers in the company. In the words of his colleagues and his former supervisor, “Dan had a unique ability, and real passion, to solve seemingly-impossible rocket problems”. He “sought out and was assigned the most difficult problems, being the “go-to” guy when no one else knew how to proceed”. “He believed in integrity and high standards and expected the same from others”. “If we had a mission on-orbit and in trouble, Dan Rovner was called to rescue us”. His former supervisor “always valued Dan for his brilliant mind and problem solving skills, and consider(ed) him as the MVP of the GNC department” and stated that “New engineers should see him as a role model”. His most recent supervisor stated “”Legend” is not too big a word for what Dan was at Orbital Sciences and the successor companies”. David Thompson, the CEO of OSC and one of its founders added “He was one of the nicest, hardest working and totally brilliant people I ever had the honor to work with”.
On April 5, 1990, the winged Pegasus vehicle was carried aloft attached to the underside of a converted B-52 bomber, from which it detached, ignited the first of its three solid rocket-powered stages, and ultimately successfully placed a small satellite into low-earth orbit, representing essentially the first successful such launch by a private entity (previously, only NASA had performed orbital satellite launches). Dan was an essential member of the Pegasus team led by Antonio Elias which was awarded the 1991 National Medal of Technology by U.S. President George H. W. Bush. A co-worker recalled “For the Pegasus program he designed 100% of the guidance, the control, and the navigation systems, from scratch; and also developed the flight simulation; and also wrote 100% of the flight software. All this was done for a first-of-a-kind winged rocket launched beneath an airplane. A single one of these contributions would have represented a good entire career for any other engineer. But Dan wasn’t just any engineer – he did all of that, by himself, in less than two years!”. He “created modified loads for the HWIL and vehicle-level Flight Sims, and confirmed the test results. All in about 26 months…I’m not sure there’d have been a Pegasus without him---certainly not as soon”. Dave Thompson recalled that Dan’s “technical foresight, by remembering and modifying a long-forgotten software trick from the Apollo days, saved the second Pegasus mission from disaster a year later”. These first efforts to launch the winged rocket as a member of OSC represented one of the landmark achievements of Dan’s career. At the party celebrating the success of the first Pegasus launch, as remembered by a co-worker “Dan, perfectly sober but ecstatic, was called up to cut the cake and say a few words. He simply launched: "This is the BEST place to work with the BEST people...". Two sentences; nothing better to say. He barely recalled it later--it was certainly spontaneous and sincere--but I remember it 32 years later”. Dave Thompson remembered his “favorite Dan stories. Mine include his getting happily thrown in the swimming pool, along with Antonio and me, at the hotel following the first Pegasus launch”.
One of Dan’s last projects (given the acronym TESS) required the creation of an inertial instruction set for control of a “planet hunter” satellite to maintain it exquisitely stable in its earth orbit, while it serves as a platform for a telescope which searches for the shadows of these planets on their parent stars. In the words of his former supervisor, “TESS has been one of the most-demanding science missions NGIS has ever undertaken. Dan came up with a completely novel approach of pulse width modulating the wheel commands which was an exceptionally creative idea and wrote the flight software to mechanize the new control law”. The “solution has provided over 100% margin to ACS stability requirements and has far exceeded the expectations of the TESS Project team and scientists. A colleague described Dan’s work on the TESS project in this way. “If you equate a satellite with a human being, Dan took a patient with slowly failing organs and figured out how to use the other functioning organs to replace each one as it failed”. “This work allowed science satellites to continue functioning well past their contractual obligations”, and “I know he was particularly proud of the work he did on TESS”. The former supervisor summarized, “The MIT customer has been "ecstatic" at the results and are extremely appreciative of the effort by the NGIS ACS team and in particular Dan Rovner”. For these efforts, Dan’s supervisor nominated him in 2018 for the NGS Technical Achievement Award in 2018, and along with Pegasus, this accomplishment was the work of which Dan was the most proud during his superlative career.
Dan was known at work to be rather quiet, but also had a reputation for showing integrity and respect for those who worked hard like him. Another co-worker states “He was a mentor to me, and he helped me understand a lot about modeling & simulations early in my career. Over the years, whenever I needed help (or found something cool to work on), Dan would always be there for me. I really wanted Dan to be involved with all of the changes we are making with Digital Transformation, especially since he has driven transformational changes within our company for decades”. His former supervisor states “Dan was always brilliant but he had a side of him that was very honest, cordial and respectful“. Dan never had any children, but the investment he made in the spacecraft he worked on was comparable to the feelings parents have for their offspring. A colleague stated “In the last few months of his life, Dan continued to work as hard as ever, and made a point of making sure that he could hand off his work to others. He said a few weeks ago that “I don’t have kids, but these space-craft are sort of like my kids, and I want to help the work continue.” Another co-worker recalls “I remember at “bring your child to work day” all the kids were on the roundabout in front of the building 1 launching their rockets. Most people would have seen this and driven the other way, but not Dan”.
In his personal life, Dan enjoyed international travel, having the opportunity to visit, among other locations, England, Paris, France, and a number of cities in Spain. He became a dedicated guitar player, although he often complained that his numerous hours of practice had failed to improve his performance (a claim that was almost certainly exaggerated). He relished telling a story about a trip to Granada, Spain. He and a close friend were climbing the hill to the legendary Alhambra Palace, and along the way, Dan purchased a beautiful hand-crafted acoustic guitar from an artisan vendor with a shop along the way to the palace. This guitar held a reverential place among Dan’s few material possessions. The other most sacred object in Dan’s world was his beloved Lotus Elan sports car. “He designed (and installed) a fuel injection system for it, and machined many of his own custom parts and custom designed the software”.
Those who knew Dan well often noted his acerbic wit. “For a particular project, Dan was asked by (a customer) to give a satellite position in a format he judged to be particularly strange and unnecessary. The name of the variable within the software was "moronLatitude””. But he was never happier than when he was dancing. While living in the Washington DC area, he attended “swing or zydeco dances every weekend where he could be seen with a big smile on his face while dancing”. He became a superb dancer in these genres, and to those who knew him well, it was clear he derived a special joy from the dance. May his soul continue to dance – wherever it now resides.
Dan is survived by his siblings, Arthur (Lori) Rovner of South Burlington VT, Robert (Ruth) Rovner of Portland ME, and Jessica (Tim) Burkhardt of Lake Orion MI, former spouse Sophie Rovner, his stepmother, Margaret Holmes Rovner of Kennet Square PA, and his stepsisters, Amy (Carlos) Holmes-Chavez of Chamblee GA, and Susan (Rob) Glazier of Amherst, NH, as well as numerous nieces and nephews. A private family memorial service to honor Dan is planned for July. The family invites you to share your memories and condolences by visiting www.awrfh.com.
Beginning in September of 1977 Dan attended the California Institute of Technology (CalTech), majoring in mechanical engineering. During his undergraduate years, he also worked two summers as an intern at General Motors corporation at their testing and R&D facility in Warren Michigan, which further refined his interest in automotive function. He took an undergraduate class in Physics taught by Richard Feynman, the Nobel laureate. Following his graduation from CalTech in the spring of 1981, Dan moved to Santa Monica and worked for Biphase Energy Systems; a company that was designing a process for sea water de-salination. After two years, he began a graduate program in Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. from that institution in August of 1987.
In 1988, Dan took a job with a new startup company named Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC); thus beginning an illustrious 33-year career as an indispensable employee of that company. At that time, OSC was a relatively new startup seeking to be among the first private companies to successfully launch earth-orbiting satellites. At Orbital, and later after consolidation with other companies to form Orbital ATK then Northrop-Grumman Innovation Systems, Dan established a consistent track record as one of the hardest-working, most-gifted engineers in the company. In the words of his colleagues and his former supervisor, “Dan had a unique ability, and real passion, to solve seemingly-impossible rocket problems”. He “sought out and was assigned the most difficult problems, being the “go-to” guy when no one else knew how to proceed”. “He believed in integrity and high standards and expected the same from others”. “If we had a mission on-orbit and in trouble, Dan Rovner was called to rescue us”. His former supervisor “always valued Dan for his brilliant mind and problem solving skills, and consider(ed) him as the MVP of the GNC department” and stated that “New engineers should see him as a role model”. His most recent supervisor stated “”Legend” is not too big a word for what Dan was at Orbital Sciences and the successor companies”. David Thompson, the CEO of OSC and one of its founders added “He was one of the nicest, hardest working and totally brilliant people I ever had the honor to work with”.
On April 5, 1990, the winged Pegasus vehicle was carried aloft attached to the underside of a converted B-52 bomber, from which it detached, ignited the first of its three solid rocket-powered stages, and ultimately successfully placed a small satellite into low-earth orbit, representing essentially the first successful such launch by a private entity (previously, only NASA had performed orbital satellite launches). Dan was an essential member of the Pegasus team led by Antonio Elias which was awarded the 1991 National Medal of Technology by U.S. President George H. W. Bush. A co-worker recalled “For the Pegasus program he designed 100% of the guidance, the control, and the navigation systems, from scratch; and also developed the flight simulation; and also wrote 100% of the flight software. All this was done for a first-of-a-kind winged rocket launched beneath an airplane. A single one of these contributions would have represented a good entire career for any other engineer. But Dan wasn’t just any engineer – he did all of that, by himself, in less than two years!”. He “created modified loads for the HWIL and vehicle-level Flight Sims, and confirmed the test results. All in about 26 months…I’m not sure there’d have been a Pegasus without him---certainly not as soon”. Dave Thompson recalled that Dan’s “technical foresight, by remembering and modifying a long-forgotten software trick from the Apollo days, saved the second Pegasus mission from disaster a year later”. These first efforts to launch the winged rocket as a member of OSC represented one of the landmark achievements of Dan’s career. At the party celebrating the success of the first Pegasus launch, as remembered by a co-worker “Dan, perfectly sober but ecstatic, was called up to cut the cake and say a few words. He simply launched: "This is the BEST place to work with the BEST people...". Two sentences; nothing better to say. He barely recalled it later--it was certainly spontaneous and sincere--but I remember it 32 years later”. Dave Thompson remembered his “favorite Dan stories. Mine include his getting happily thrown in the swimming pool, along with Antonio and me, at the hotel following the first Pegasus launch”.
One of Dan’s last projects (given the acronym TESS) required the creation of an inertial instruction set for control of a “planet hunter” satellite to maintain it exquisitely stable in its earth orbit, while it serves as a platform for a telescope which searches for the shadows of these planets on their parent stars. In the words of his former supervisor, “TESS has been one of the most-demanding science missions NGIS has ever undertaken. Dan came up with a completely novel approach of pulse width modulating the wheel commands which was an exceptionally creative idea and wrote the flight software to mechanize the new control law”. The “solution has provided over 100% margin to ACS stability requirements and has far exceeded the expectations of the TESS Project team and scientists. A colleague described Dan’s work on the TESS project in this way. “If you equate a satellite with a human being, Dan took a patient with slowly failing organs and figured out how to use the other functioning organs to replace each one as it failed”. “This work allowed science satellites to continue functioning well past their contractual obligations”, and “I know he was particularly proud of the work he did on TESS”. The former supervisor summarized, “The MIT customer has been "ecstatic" at the results and are extremely appreciative of the effort by the NGIS ACS team and in particular Dan Rovner”. For these efforts, Dan’s supervisor nominated him in 2018 for the NGS Technical Achievement Award in 2018, and along with Pegasus, this accomplishment was the work of which Dan was the most proud during his superlative career.
Dan was known at work to be rather quiet, but also had a reputation for showing integrity and respect for those who worked hard like him. Another co-worker states “He was a mentor to me, and he helped me understand a lot about modeling & simulations early in my career. Over the years, whenever I needed help (or found something cool to work on), Dan would always be there for me. I really wanted Dan to be involved with all of the changes we are making with Digital Transformation, especially since he has driven transformational changes within our company for decades”. His former supervisor states “Dan was always brilliant but he had a side of him that was very honest, cordial and respectful“. Dan never had any children, but the investment he made in the spacecraft he worked on was comparable to the feelings parents have for their offspring. A colleague stated “In the last few months of his life, Dan continued to work as hard as ever, and made a point of making sure that he could hand off his work to others. He said a few weeks ago that “I don’t have kids, but these space-craft are sort of like my kids, and I want to help the work continue.” Another co-worker recalls “I remember at “bring your child to work day” all the kids were on the roundabout in front of the building 1 launching their rockets. Most people would have seen this and driven the other way, but not Dan”.
In his personal life, Dan enjoyed international travel, having the opportunity to visit, among other locations, England, Paris, France, and a number of cities in Spain. He became a dedicated guitar player, although he often complained that his numerous hours of practice had failed to improve his performance (a claim that was almost certainly exaggerated). He relished telling a story about a trip to Granada, Spain. He and a close friend were climbing the hill to the legendary Alhambra Palace, and along the way, Dan purchased a beautiful hand-crafted acoustic guitar from an artisan vendor with a shop along the way to the palace. This guitar held a reverential place among Dan’s few material possessions. The other most sacred object in Dan’s world was his beloved Lotus Elan sports car. “He designed (and installed) a fuel injection system for it, and machined many of his own custom parts and custom designed the software”.
Those who knew Dan well often noted his acerbic wit. “For a particular project, Dan was asked by (a customer) to give a satellite position in a format he judged to be particularly strange and unnecessary. The name of the variable within the software was "moronLatitude””. But he was never happier than when he was dancing. While living in the Washington DC area, he attended “swing or zydeco dances every weekend where he could be seen with a big smile on his face while dancing”. He became a superb dancer in these genres, and to those who knew him well, it was clear he derived a special joy from the dance. May his soul continue to dance – wherever it now resides.
Dan is survived by his siblings, Arthur (Lori) Rovner of South Burlington VT, Robert (Ruth) Rovner of Portland ME, and Jessica (Tim) Burkhardt of Lake Orion MI, former spouse Sophie Rovner, his stepmother, Margaret Holmes Rovner of Kennet Square PA, and his stepsisters, Amy (Carlos) Holmes-Chavez of Chamblee GA, and Susan (Rob) Glazier of Amherst, NH, as well as numerous nieces and nephews. A private family memorial service to honor Dan is planned for July. The family invites you to share your memories and condolences by visiting www.awrfh.com.