High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Robert Allan Ridley Parker (born December 14, 1936) is the former director of the NASA Management Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA astronaut. Parker was born in New York City but grew up in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. He married the former Judy Woodruff of San Marino, California. He has five children and nine grandchildren. Parker was selected as a scientist-astronaut by NASA in August 1967. He was a member of the astronaut support crews for the Apollo 15 and 17 missions and served as Program Scientist for the Skylab Program Director's Office during the three manned Skylab flights.