Stewart Nozette

Nozette was born in Chicago, Illinois, on May 20, 1957,[3] to Helen and Morris Nozette.[7] He grew up in Chicago’s West Rogers Park neighborhood and earned a B.S. in geosciences with honors and distinction (University of Arizona, 1979), and a Ph.D. in Planetary sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1983).[3][8] He worked a couple of summers in the 1970's as a guide-lecturer at the Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago) while he was home from the University of Arizona.

In 1983-1984 Nozette was co-director of the California Space Institute, affiliated with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. From there he went to the University of Texas as an Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering Austin, Texas.

In the early 1990s, Nozette, as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative's 'Brilliant Pebbles', conceived the idea (and then led the mission) of the Clementine spacecraft as a means to both provide a test bed for the development of lighter, more cost effective advanced space technology, as well as to obtain data for the Moon.[9]

Nozette and colleagues' bistatic radar results from Clementine claimed to support the discovery of water on the south pole of the Moon. Although the significance of the result was questioned,[10][11] measurements made by subsequent Lunar missions have supported the hypothesis that the Moon holds substantially greater reserves of water than had been thought based on Apollo program results and confirmed Nozette's original findings.[12][13][14] The engineering model of the Clementine spacecraft, which Nozette worked on, hangs in the Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC.[15]

Over the course of his career, Nozette held high level security clearances and worked on sensitive United States nuclear and satellite programs.[16] He held a Q clearance, top secret clearance, and was read into multiple special access programs.[3] He held Top Secret security clearances to study nuclear material with the United States Department of Energy, and was on the National Space Council under President George H. W. Bush.[1] From 1989 to 2006, Nozette held a security clearance as high as top secret and handled documents relating to national security.[1] He left the employ of the U.S. government in 2006.[17]

Nozette worked as a technical consultant for Israel Aerospace Industries between 1998 and 2008. After he left the government job, Nozette was heavily involved in India's extraterrestrial Moon probe, Chandrayaan-1. He was a principal investigator of the Mini-RF instrument on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and a co-investigator on Chandrayaan-1.[8]

Nozette was under investigation by the Justice Department for possible fraudulent billing on a NASA contract by a nonprofit corporation he ran, "Alliance for Competitive Technology". An unnamed NASA Inspector had allegedly been found billing to NASA for expenses including, among other things, three mortgages, nine credit cards, a Tennis club, pool cleaning, and the Mercedes-Benz Credit Corporation.[18] Documents found by the Justice Department while investigating this allegation included classified documents and an e-mail in which Nozette "threatened to take a classified program on which he worked to an unnamed foreign country or Israel." This information was passed along to the FBI.

In September 2009, Nozette began receiving phone calls from a person claiming to be an agent of Mossad. In reality this was an undercover FBI agent. Nozette expressed a willingness to exchange American intelligence for financial rewards. His first payment was received upon his answers to a list of questions regarding American satellite technology for public access GPS.[17] The information he claimed he would hand over included classified information. A folder left for this contact in a post office box contained "information classified as both top secret and secret that concerned US satellites, early warning systems, means of defense or retaliation against large-scale attack, communications intelligence information, and major elements of defense strategy."[1] The United States Department of Justice criminal complaint, however, does not charge that "the government of Israel or anyone acting on its behalf committed any offense under U.S. laws."[3][19] Nozette's contention is that this was a sting set up as the result of being forced to co-operate in a planned sting of senior political leadership responsible for NASA funding in Mississippi and Alabama. This is documented in his pardon plea.[20]

According to the criminal complaint, Nozette told his espionage contact that his parents were Jewish,[7] and therefore claimed a right to return under Israel's Law of Return. He also asked allegedly for two million dollars and a passport.[3][21]

Nozette reached a plea bargain with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to a single count of espionage, as well as pleading guilty earlier to the charges of fraud and tax evasion.[18][21] He was sentenced to thirteen years of prison. Held in custody since his arrest in [2009], Nozette received credit for the time he has already served. Nozette was released 13 November 2020.

Nozette was approved for a President Pardon in 2018 by the Management at FCI Terre Haute, who thought the case "A Political Hit Job by Obama's Anti-Israel Administration". Following this action Nozette was released from the Maximum Security Communications Management Unit in July 2018 by the Trump Administration which made him eligible for early release under the "First Step Act". Nozette had been prosecuted by Michael Atkinson, who was fired by Trump for fomenting his impeachment. Nozette was released to a Residential Reentry Center in January 2020 and currently resides in South Euclid Ohio where he is working on his Memoir "Cat's Paw" and other literary efforts, with Literary representation.<ref>https://www.justice.gov/pardon/search-clemency-case-status?case_num<ref>

• NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal 1994 for his conception and execution of the Clementine mission
• National Space Society’s Space Pioneer Award for 1994
• Rotary National Award for Space Achievement
• National Space Club Nelson P Jackson Award
• Aviation Week and Space Technology 1994 Aerospace Laurel Award for outstanding achievement in the field of Space
• 1995 Space Frontier Foundation Vision to Reality Award
• X-Prize Foundation New Spirit of St. Louis Award

• Spudis, Paul D.; Bussey, B.; Lichtenberg, C.; Marinelli, B.; Nozette, S. (2005). "mini-SAR: An Imaging Radar for the Chandrayaan 1 Mission to the Moon". Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. 26: 1153.
• Nozette, Stewart; et al. (2001). "Integration of lunar polar remote-sensing data sets: Evidence for ice at the lunar south pole". Journal of Geophysical Research. 106 (E10): 23253–23266. Bibcode:2001JGR...10623253N. doi:10.1029/2000JE001417.
• Pettengill, G.H.; Ford, P.G.; Nozette, S. (1982). "Venus: Global Surface Radar Reflectivity". Science. 217 (4560): 640–642. Bibcode:1982Sci...217..640P. doi:10.1126/science.217.4560.640. PMID 17817535. S2CID 43709174.
• Nozette, Stewart; et al. (16 December 1994). "The Clementine mission to the Moon". Science. 266 (5192): 1835–1839. Bibcode:1994Sci...266.1835N. doi:10.1126/science.266.5192.1835. PMID 17737076. S2CID 36702160.
• Nozette, Stewart; John S. Lewis (9 April 1982). "Venus: Chemical Weathering of Igneous Rocks and Buffering of Atmospheric Composition". Science. 216 (4542): 181–183. Bibcode:1982Sci...216..181N. doi:10.1126/science.216.4542.181. PMID 17736250. S2CID 35760902.
• Nozette, S.; Boynton, W.V (16 October 1981). "Superheavy Elements: An Early Solar System Upper Limit for Elements 107 to 110". Science. 214 (4518): 331–333. Bibcode:1981Sci...214..331N. doi:10.1126/science.214.4518.331. PMID 17829789. S2CID 40597320.

• Nasa Site
• The FBI Sting Video
• Nozette Indian Experience
• FBI Criminal Complaint USA v Stewart David Nozette
• Nozette Plea Agreement
• Nozette Sentencing Memo-Espionage
• Nozette Sentencing Memo-Fraud