FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – NASA will honor the late astronaut retired Air Force Col. Donn F. Eisele with the presentation of an Ambassador of Exploration Award for his involvement in the U.S. space program. Eisele’s wife Susan Eisele-Black will accept the award at 4 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, Oct. 23 at the Broward County Library, 100 South Andrews Avenue in Fort Lauderdale. Eisele-Black chose the library as the location to display the award.
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 vision of going to the moon. NASA also is recognizing several other key individuals who played significant roles in the early space programs.
The award is a moon rock encased in Lucite and mounted for public display as inspiration to a new generation of explorers who will help us return humans to the moon and eventually on to Mars and beyond. The award is part of the 842 pounds of samples collected during the six Apollo lunar expeditions from 1969 to 1972.
In 1968, Eisele was the command module pilot for the 11-day flight of Apollo VII with fellow astronauts Walter M. Schirra, Jr., and Walter Cunningham. Cunningham is expected to attend Tuesday’s ceremony. For Eisele’s complete biography, visit:
http://www11.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/eisele-df.html
For more information about the Broward County libraries, visit:
http://www.broward.org/library/welcome.htm
For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
