NASA Langley Engineers Receive Silver Snoopy Award

Two engineers from NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, received special recognition from the agency’s astronaut corps for their work at Langley.

Robert Parker, who graduated from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and originally from Hampton, was singled out for his exceptional contributions and technical leadership in the development of Orion flight hardware for use in the spacecraft’s first mission, Exploration Flight Test-1. Orion is NASA’s new human spacecraft that will carry astronauts to planetary destinations like an asteroid and eventually Mars.

David Roberts, from Newport News, Virginia, received an award because of his key technical expertise and leadership relative to the design, development, and manufacture of unique one-of-a-kind research hardware for scientific, aeronautical, exploration and aerospace programs.

Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson presented the awards in a ceremony at Langley earlier this month. Roberts and Parker received a Silver Snoopy lapel pin flown on board space shuttle mission STS-135, along with a letter of commendation and certificate signed by Caldwell Dyson.

The Silver Snoopy is the astronauts’ personal award and is presented to less than one percent of the total NASA workforce annually. It is given to NASA employees and contractors for outstanding achievements related to human flight safety or mission success.

Caldwell Dyson reported for NASA astronaut training in 1998. She flew on the space shuttle Endeavour during the STS-118 mission in August, 2007, where she logged almost 13 days in space. In April, 2010, Caldwell Dyson launched aboard a Soyuz TMA-18 crew capsule, which docked with the International Space Station (ISS). She lived on the ISS for almost six months. During her two flights, Caldwell Dyson logged more than 188 days in space, including more than 22 hours in three spacewalks.

For more information about Langley, please go to:

http://www.nasa.gov/langley