William Readdy, NASA associate administrator for the Office of Space Flight in Washington, joined Marshall Center Director David King at Marshall's annual NASA Honor Awards ceremony to salute more than 240 employees for special accomplishments during 2003.

Among those honored were two individuals who had previously received top-level awards at a NASA Headquarters ceremony. Lott W. Brantley Jr., group lead of the Advanced Optical Systems Development Ground in the Marshall Center's Science Directorate, received NASA's Distinguished Service Medal. The award, recognizing distinguished personal service, ability or courage that has substantially contributed to NASA's mission, is the highest honor NASA can bestow on a civil servant.

At the same ceremony, Douglas A. Towne of Lockheed-Martin Space Operations in Huntsville received NASA's Distinguished Public Service Medal. The award is NASA's highest honor for a non-government individual whose accomplishments contributed substantially to the NASA mission.

Also recognized were three winners of the Presidential Rank Award a prestigious honor given to a select group of senior federal executives who have provided exceptional service to the American people over an extended period of time. Dr. Martin Weisskopf, project scientist for NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory at the Marshall Center, received a Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Senior Executives. Robert L. Sackheim, assistant center director and chief engineer for space propulsion, and Stephen Beale, director of procurement, each were honored with the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executives for service at the Marshall Center. Each was honored earlier this year at a ceremony in Washington.

Additional awards presented at the Marshall event were seven NASA
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Contact: Martin Jensen
martin.jensen@nasa.gov
256-544-0034
NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center News Center
20-Jul-2004