Martin C.
Weisskopf, an American space scientist, died on May 2, 2026, at age 84. Weisskopf was an astrophysicist who, until his retirement from NASA at the end of May 2022, served as project scientist for NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and chief scientist for X-ray astronomy in the Space Sciences Department at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
He was also principal investigator for the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, or IXPE. Weisskopf earned his bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College in 1964 and his Ph.D. in physics from Brandeis University in 1969. He spent much of his career in X-ray astronomy, including years at Columbia University and later at Marshall Space Flight Center.
Martin C. Weisskopf, 84, American space scientist.