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Riccardo Giacconi
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Riccardo Giacconi. He wanted to name the Einstein X-ray satellite "Pequod" after the ship in Melville’s novel Moby Dick. NASA, however, declined to associate its satellite with the quest for a white whale. Comparison of Giacconi and the Pequod’s Captain Ahab, that unrelenting visionary, suggest the qualities needed to drive a large and complex scientific project to completion.

 Credit: Space Telescope Science Institute, courtesy AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives (Catalog # Giacconi Riccardo A1)
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Riccardo Giacconi?