Peter J. Salerno, a senior electrical systems engineer for NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., for 30 years, died Jan. 6 at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Md. He was 53.

He had a heart attack and complications from diabetes, his mother-in-law, Dorothy Boerner, said.

Mr. Salerno, a resident of Calverton, Md., worked in Goddards flight microwave and telecommunications systems branch. He helped develop radio-frequency communications and was part of a team that helped service the Hubble Space Telescope in the 1990s.

Peter Joseph Salerno was born in Washington and grew up in Rockville, Md. He was a 1977 graduate of Richard Montgomery High School and received a bachelors degree in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland in 1983.

He served on design review boards at Goddard and received a 30-year service award from NASA in 2013.

Mr. Salerno enjoyed hunting and judged competitions for the Potomac Chapter of the National Association of Versatile Hunting Dogs of America and the D.C. Chapter of the Weimaraner Club of America. He was an amateur radio operator and a member of the American Radio Relay League. He also was a member of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America, a conservation group.

Survivors include his wife of 28 years, Susan Boerner Salerno of Calverton; his parents, James and Elizabeth Salerno of Rockville; two sisters, Ann Gervasio of Herndon, Va., and Joanne Salerno of Portland, Ore.; and a brother, Robert Salerno of New Windsor, N.Y.

Megan McDonough

More:

Peter J. Salerno, NASA engineer