CLEVELAND — Four employees at NASA’s Glenn Research Center have been honored by NASA’s Space Flight Awareness Program for outstanding support of human spaceflight.
The program recognizes outstanding job performance and contributions in support of human space flight by civil service and contract employees throughout the year and focuses on excellence in quality and safety.
In recognition of their contributions, the honorees were invited to travel to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla. for a tour of the center and participate in activities prior to the launch of space shuttle Atlantis on the STS-135 mission to the International Space Station, the final mission of the shuttle program.
Vicki Crable of Canal Fulton, Ohio, an aerospace engineer, was recognized for the support she provided to the Communications Navigation and Networking Re-Configurable Testbed for its launch to the International Space Station, as well as to the Ares 1-X Upper Stage Simulator. Crable exhibits professionalism in the performance of her duties. She is an outstanding member of the Glenn workforce and is highly respect by team members, customers and other organizations.
Michael Heryak of Cleveland, Ohio, an electronics engineer, was recognized for providing outstanding project leadership and technical design to the multiphase modernization of the Glenn network infrastructure. As a result of Heryak working in partnership with NASA Headquarters, a cost avoidance of more than $4 million to the center was achieved over the life of the project. Each phase was completed on time and within budget. With the completion of the fifth and final phase, the Glenn network is now more reliable and is fully capable of supporting the mission requirements of the center.
Rodney Spence of North Ridgeville, Ohio, an aerospace systems engineer, was recognized for his role as the lead and focal point for all analyses related to wireless broadband and for conducting analyses on the impacts to NASA operations due to the potential relocation of federal agencies from 1755-1850 MHz band into a number of frequency bands used by NASA in particular, the S-band. Spence has performed numerous communication system studies and analyses and participated within national and international spectrum regulatory organizations to support and safeguard the use of frequency spectrum bands vital to NASA missions, including human spaceflight.
Christopher Sheehan, of Lakewood, Ohio, a mechanical engineer with Zin Technologies, Inc., was recognized for his outstanding contributions to the Human Research Program’s efforts to improve the safety, quality and effectiveness of the crew exercise regime on the International Space Station, as well as for future space exploration missions. These include leading the development efforts for flight qualified exercise hardware for crewmember utilization on the International Space Station (ISS), developing advanced concept exercise devices for exploration missions and spaceflight applications, overseeing qualified operations in the GRC Exercise Countermeasures Laboratory for human subjects research, and leading the Digital Astronaut Project’s exercise device kinematic modeling effort.
The Space Flight Awareness Program Honoree Award is one of the highest honors presented to employees for their dedication to quality work and flight safety. Recipients must have contributed beyond their normal work requirements toward achieving a particular human spaceflight program goal; contributed to a major cost savings; been instrumental in developing material that increases reliability, efficiency or performance; assisted in operational improvements; or been a key player in developing a beneficial process improvement.
For more about NASA Glenn Research Center, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/glenn
