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NASA honors Katrina heroes NASA NEWS RELEASE Posted: January 5, 2006 NASA Administrator Michael Griffin awarded the agency's Exceptional Bravery Medal on Thursday to workers who protected a key space shuttle facility from the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina.
Standing before approximately 800 workers and family members in a cavernous hall where completed fuel tanks are stored for shipment, Griffin praised the "ride-out crew" who "did nothing less than save America's space program from, quite literally, being grounded for years." While Katrina's winds howled and water surged around Michoud, the ride-out crew manned pumps and generators to hold the storm at bay, knowing that if the facility were lost, "NASA's ability to conduct future space shuttle missions and to ferry vital supplies and equipment to the International Space Station would be lost," Griffin said. "One has only to look at this area from the air, where Michoud appears as an island of green in a sea of brown mud, to understand what this place would look like if that flooding had occurred," he said. "There was no way to survive it; anyone who did not escape would be lost. So if the generators and pumps failed, more than just the facility was at risk. Those were the stakes for the folks who stayed behind here at Michoud." The medal, one of NASA's highest honors, is given to those who demonstrate exemplary handling of an emergency and prevent loss of life and government property, while disregarding personal safety. Only 36 other individuals have received the award. Many crew members lost homes and didn't know the fate of their own families until days after the storm passed. But medal recipient Stephen Turner is happy to have played a role in safeguarding Michoud, which is operated by NASA contractor Lockheed Martin. "The crew worked through many weeks of hard, recovery work under very tough conditions. I am very proud to have served with this brave team and proud of what Michoud means to this community," he said. Thanks to the crew's efforts, delays in external tank processing were kept to a minimum. This was essential not only to NASA's Space Shuttle Program, but also to the future of human space flight. Michoud's unique manufacturing facilities figure prominently in America's Vision for Space Exploration, since derivatives of the external tank are part of the design for the next generation spacecraft. Nine weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck, the assembly facility was able to return to full operations. NASA's Patrick Scheuerman, the chief operating officer at Michoud, played a critical role in that return to work effort and also in coordinating the ride-out crew's operations before and after the storm. He also was honored Thursday with an Outstanding Leadership Medal. |
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The space shuttle program was grounded for 32 months in the painful wake of the 1986 Challenger accident. Americans finally returned to space in September 1988 when shuttle Discovery safely launched for its mission to deploy a NASA communications satellite. Enjoy this post-flight presentation narrated by the astronauts as they show movies and tell the story of the STS-26 mission.
Imagine a space shuttle mission in which the astronaut crew launched two commercial and one military communications spacecraft, then conducted a pair of incredible spacewalks to recover, fix and redeploy a satellite that malfunctioned just four months earlier. The rescue mission was a success, starting with an astronaut making a catch of the spinning satellite with just his gloved-hand. Enjoy this post-flight presentation narrated by the astronauts as they tell the story of shuttle Discovery's August 1985 mission known as STS-51I.
In our continuing look back at the classic days of the space shuttle program, today we show the STS-41D post-flight presentation by the mission's astronauts. The crew narrates this film of home movies and mission highlights from space shuttle Discovery's maiden voyage in August 1984. STS-41D deployed a remarkable three communications satellites -- a new record high -- from Discovery's payload bay, extended and tested a 100-foot solar array wing and even knocked free an icicle from the shuttle's side using the robot arm.
As the title aptly describes, this movie straps you aboard the flight deck for the thunderous liftoff, the re-entry and safe landing of a space shuttle mission. The movie features the rarely heard intercom communications between the crewmembers, including pilot Jim Halsell assisting commander Bob Cabana during the landing.
On Christmas Eve in 1968, a live television broadcast from Apollo 8 offered this message of hope to the people of Earth. The famous transmission occurred as the astronauts orbited the Moon.
The International Space Station receives its 20th Russian Progress cargo ship, bringing the outpost's two-man Expedition 12 crew a delivery of fresh food, clothes, equipment and special holiday gifts just in time for Christmas.
NASA's Stardust spacecraft encountered Comet Wild 2 two years ago, gathering samples of cometary dust for return to Earth. In this Dec. 21 news conference, mission officials and scientists detail the probe's homecoming and planned landing in Utah scheduled for January 15, 2006.