Glenn Employees receive Silver Snoopy and Space Flight Awareness Team Awards
CLEVELAND–Thirteen NASA Glenn Research Center employees recently received the prestigious Silver Snoopy award for their outstanding work and professional dedication to human flight safety or mission success. In addition, four teams were honored with the Space Flight Awareness Team Award for demonstrating exemplary teamwork while accomplishing a particular task or goal in support of the human space program.
Center Director Ray Lugo and Associate Director of External Programs and astronaut Gregory “Box” Johnson presented the awards during a ceremony held in October.
NASA’s Astronaut Office awards the Silver Snoopy pin for outstanding performance to those employees who have significantly contributed to the space agency’s goals for human exploration and development of space. This coveted award has been presented to less than one percent of the NASA workforce.
Silver Snoopy recipients were:
Robert F. Comeau, Mentor, a software engineer and an employee of Zin Technologies Inc., supporting the International Space Station Human Health Office, was honored for the development, integration and test of the Telemetry Acquisition and Display System ground software. This robust software product easily allows for the display of over 4,000 unique telemetry items every second and for the transmission of over 2,000 unique payload commands.
Vicki J. Crable, Canal Fulton, an aerospace engineer of the Systems Verification and Operations Branch, was honored for her leadership and creativity in helping prepare the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Testbed flight system for its System Acceptance Review and shipment to Japan.
Dr. Paul V. Ferkul, Fairview Park, a staff scientist and an employee of the National Center for Space Exploration Research, supporting the Combustion and Reacting Systems Branch, was honored for his outstanding contributions to spacecraft fire safety and his highly successful investigation on the Burning and Suppression of Solids Experiment.
Rene Fernandez, Cleveland, an aerospace engineer of the Reliability and System Safety Engineering Branch, was honored for leading the implementation of the safety, reliability and quality assurance requirements into the Communications, Navigation and Networking reConfigurable Testbed Project.
Carol A. Ginty, Olmsted Township, a project manager of the Exploration Flight and Development Project Office, was honored for managing the construction of the Space Environmental Test facility, for the Orion crew vehicle, which is currently being considered by commercial space companies.
Robert W. Hawersaat, Middleburg Heights, a project manager of the International Space Station and Human Health Office, was honored for his leadership in devising a plan to reconfigure a control unit from scrolling numbers instead of displaying scientific units for the Structure and Liftoff in Combustion Experiment (SLICE) payload on the station. The SLICE hardware now supports the Burning and Suppression of Solids operations on the station.
Mark Hickman, South Russell, a project manager of the International Space Station and Human Health Office, was honored for developing hardware that is providing data to make spacecraft and space habitats safer from the threat of fire and to make terrestrial energy more efficient, less expensive and less polluting.
Don R. Hilderman, Bay Village, an aerospace engineer of the Quality Engineering and Assurance Branch, was honored for implementing quality engineering and assurance requirements into the Communications, Navigation and Networking reConfigurable Testbed Project, which will be an invaluable NASA experimental test platform on the International Space Station for software defined radio development.
David J. Kunath, Columbia Station, a network engineer and an employee of the Science Application International Corporation, supporting the IT Operations Office, was honored for his outstanding leadership in support of Glenn’s Network Operations Center and Plum Brook Station networks.
Dr. Beth E. Lewandowski, Lorain, a biomedical engineer, of the Bio Science and Technology Branch, was honored for significantly contributing to the understanding of the risk of rare injury to astronauts on the International Space Station, on potential long duration missions and post flight.
Ronald L. Matthews, North Royalton, lead contract specialist and an employee of the Institutional Services Branch, was honored for his dedicated efforts to support the design and construction of the largest, one-of-a-kind, vibro-acoustic research facility that replicates vibration and acoustic signatures during a launch. The world-class facility is located at Glenn Research Center’s Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio.
Dr. John K. Ramsey, Lucas, of the Applied Structural Mechanics Branch, was honored for the development of the Interstage-1 Segment of the Ares I-X Launch Vehicle, which was the most complex and difficult to design of all the Ares I-X Upper Stage Segments built at Glenn Research Center and critical to the success of the Ares I-X program.
Timothy M. Roach, Akron, a mechanical engineering technician of the Mechanical Design Branch, was honored for development of the Service Module and Crew Module assembly simulation, which aids in understanding the assembly progress and early identification of design issues.
The Space Flight Awareness Program is a NASA-managed motivational and recognition program with invited representation from NASA and contractors having major responsibilities for human spaceflight mission success.
Space Flight Awareness Teams were:
Communications, Navigation and Networking reConfigurable Testbed (CoNNeCT) Safety and Mission Assurance Team, were honored for implementing safety and mission assurance requirements into the CoNNeCT project, which will be an invaluable NASA experimental test platform on the International Space Station.
Twenty-six members of the Glenn Harness Team were honored for their contributions in support of NASA’s International Space Station Program and the Human Research Program and implementing a means of improving the efficiency and safety of humans in space.
Three members of the Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) Testbed External Interfaces Team were honored for ensuring the SCaN Testbed Flight System was shipped to Japan and turned over to the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency successfully and on schedule.
Fourteen members of the Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) Spacewire Tiger Team were honored for troubleshooting and redesigning the Spacewire system for the SCaN Testbed flight project resulting in the on-time delivery of the payload to Japan to be launched to the International Space Station.
During the awards ceremony, recipients also received a certificate and letter of commendation, personally signed by an astronaut, citing the astronauts’ appreciation of their outstanding performance.
For more information about NASA’s Space Flight Awareness Awards, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/sfa/awards.html
For more about NASA Glenn Research Center, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/glenn
