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  4/28: Ambassador of Exploration Alan Shepard award ceremony (MD)

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Author Topic:   4/28: Ambassador of Exploration Alan Shepard award ceremony (MD)
Robert Pearlman
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Posts: 48079
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 04-19-2011 04:41 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
NASA release
NASA Honors Pioneer Astronaut Alan Shepard With Moon Rock

NASA will posthumously honor Alan B. Shepard Jr., the first American astronaut in space who later walked on the moon, with an Ambassador of Exploration Award for his contributions to the U.S. space program.

Shepard's family members will accept the award on his behalf during a ceremony at 5:30 p.m. EDT on Thursday, April 28, at the U.S. Naval Academy Museum, located at 74 Greenbury Point Road in Annapolis, Md. His family will present the award to the museum for permanent display. NASA's Chief Historian Bill Barry will represent the agency at the event, which will include a video message from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

Shepard, a 1945 graduate of the Naval Academy, was one of NASA's original seven Mercury astronauts selected in April 1959. On May 5, 1961, he was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard the Freedom 7 spacecraft on a suborbital flight that carried him to an altitude of 116 miles.

Shepard made his second spaceflight as the commander of Apollo 14 from Jan. 31 to Feb. 9, 1971. He was accompanied on the third lunar landing by astronauts Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell. Maneuvering the lunar module "Antares" to a landing in the hilly upland Fra Mauro region of the moon, Shepard and Mitchell deployed and activated a number of scientific instruments and collected almost 100 pounds of lunar samples for return to Earth.

NASA is giving the Ambassador of Exploration Award to the first generation of explorers in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs for realizing America's goal of going to the moon. The award is a moon rock encased in Lucite, mounted for public display.

The rock is part of the 842 pounds of lunar samples collected during six Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972. The astronauts or family members receiving the award present it to a museum of their choice, where the moon rock is placed on public display.

Blackarrow
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Posts: 3431
From: Belfast, United Kingdom
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 04-20-2011 06:38 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Blackarrow     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
A richly deserved honour in memory of a great pilot and a true pioneer. Admiral Shepard's family can feel justifiably proud.

KSCartist
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Posts: 3014
From: Titusville, FL
Registered: Feb 2005

posted 04-20-2011 07:08 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for KSCartist   Click Here to Email KSCartist     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Agreed -

I hope the moon rock they present is from the Fra Mauro highlands.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 48079
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 05-02-2011 04:12 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
U.S. Naval Academy photographs

NASA Chief Historian Dr. Bill Barry shakes hands with Shepard's three daughters.

Alan Shepard's daughters Laura Churchley, Julie Jenkins and Alice Wackerman share stories of their father before presenting the NASA Ambassador of Exploration Award to the U.S. Naval Academy Museum.

Alan Shepard's NASA Ambassador of Exploration Award on display at the U.S. Naval Academy Museum.

All times are CT (US)

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