SILVER SNOOPY!!!

Monday was an amazing day for Kev! The guys from work surprised him with a great award. The Astronauts have a special award – The Silver Snoopy – given personally to those “individuals for outstanding efforts that contribute to the success of human space flight missions”. It’s one of the highest and most prestigious honors sponsored by the Office of Space Flight. Kev was nominated for his work with the P6 4B Solar Array Wing repair during the STS-120/10A mission last Oct (see earlier blog entry). The award was presented (at our house) by the STS-120 EVA-4 crew that actually installed the repair. Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock (via telephone from Star City, Russia). Management from both NASA and Boeing and a few dozen of his colleagues were present.

The Certificate:

The Lapel Pin:
Scott presenting to Kevin:

Scott & the family - Nick, Kevin & Deneen

(Kelden is Boulder, CO visiting the CU campus):
As an added surprise, the Flight Director, Derek Hassman, and Scott presented Kevin with a piece of Scott's spacesuit (the red stripe from his leg) he wore during the EVA:

Kev was very honored for the award and was especially thankful for the opportunity to speak with Scott and hear his perspective on the EVA repair. In addition, Scott is also an avid mountaneer, so he and Kev exchanged a few climbing stories. (Scott recently returned from an Everest summit attempt).

[Interesting history on the Silver Snoopy.]

I have some more pics and a video of the presentation that I should have linked-up later this week - check back for updates.