This ''personal history'' covers the period from avout 1954 to the present, beginning with the time that I witnessed the start of the U.S. space program triggered by the launch of Sputnik, and includes my experience as Project Scientist for Pioneers 1, 2, 5, and Explorer 6, my service at NASA headquarters as Chief of Lunar and Planetary Sciences, followed by my role in organization of the NASA/Ames Space Sciences Division, and in 1973, I formed the Dept. of Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1994