Robert A. Parker Status: Retired 12/14/1936 – Nationality: American Type: Government Agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Robert Allan Ridley Parker is an American physicist and astronomer, former Director of the NASA Management Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and a retired NASA astronaut. He was a Mission Specialist on two Space Shuttle missions, STS-9 and STS-35. He has logged over 3,500 hours flying time in jet aircraft and 463 hours in space.