Four NASA Langley Researchers Take Agency Silver Snoopy Honors

Four researchers from NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, recently earned the Silver Snoopy award, an honor given to NASA employees and contractors across the agency for outstanding achievements related to human flight safety or mission success.

The award is given personally by NASA astronauts as it represents their own recognition of technical excellence. The Silver Snoopy award is one of several overseen by the Space Flight Awareness program at NASA. Less than one percent of the agency’s employees receive it annually.

“Our recipients today should be very proud,” said Langley Director Clayton Turner. “These are truly very special distinctions.”

Astronaut Barry E. “Butch” Wilmore helped present this year’s Silver Snoopy awards to the Langley recipients. He told of his time in space and how it was made possible through the contributions to safety and mission assurance from Silver Snoopy award recipients.

“We get there on the shoulders of people like you. They’re dotting every ‘I’ and crossing every ‘T,’ and they are the ones making it happen.”

– Astronaut Barry E. “Butch” Wilmore

“We’re doing some amazing things,” he said. “We get there on the shoulders of people like you. They’re dotting every ‘I’ and crossing every ‘T,’ and they are the ones making it happen.”

The award depicts Snoopy, a character from the “Peanuts” comic strip created by Charles Schulz. The award package consists of a Silver Snoopy lapel pin made of sterling silver that was flown during a NASA mission, a commendation letter stating the mission the Silver Snoopy pin was flown on and a framed Silver Snoopy certificate signed by an astronaut. The pins awarded this year flew aboard space shuttle mission STS-129.

Here are the four award recipients from Langley and their achievements:

Eric Burke: For sustained commitment to the safety of human space flight through the development of numerous nondestructive inspection techniques for both the Orion spacecraft and SLS Program. These include Terahertz inspection of the Orion spacecraft heat shield, Ultrasonic inspection of SLS friction stir welds and X-ray inspection of composite over-wrapped pressure vessels for the Commercial Crew Program.

Guillermo Gonzalez: For outstanding technical leadership in the development of the avionics system for the Orion Launch Abort System and for working to support the accelerated Ascent Abort 2 flight test.

Bruce Owens: For exceptional contributions to the characterization of dynamic stability of NASA’s manned spacecraft, ensuring the safety of future exploration crew members.

Wayne Walters: For professionalism, dedication and outstanding support as Chief Engineer for the Orion Launch Abort System and for leadership, guidance and direction in support of the accelerated Ascent Abort 2 flight test.

Eric Gillard
NASA Langley Research Center